Apple amended its board’s Audit and Finance Committee charter to include taking responsibility for the company’s potential privacy and data security risks, the global media nongovernmental organization Open MIC said Sunday (http://xrl.us/boasxc). The amended charter now requires the committee to maintain oversight of the “legal and regulatory, and reputational risks” of privacy and data security issues, as well as work with management to review Apple’s “privacy and data security risk exposures; the potential impact of those exposures on the Corporation’s business, operations and reputation; the steps management has taken to monitor and mitigate such exposures; the Corporation’s information governance policies and programs; and major legislative and regulatory developments that could materially impact the Corporation’s privacy and data security risk exposure” (http://xrl.us/boasv3). Open MIC had worked with Apple shareholders Trillium Asset Management and Zevin Asset Management to draft a shareholder proposal to address the issue at Apple’s annual meeting in late February (http://xrl.us/boaswf). The shareholders withdrew it after speaking with Apple management, Open MIC said.
Atlantic Broadband and Western Pacific Broadcast continued trying to resolve the broadcaster’s must-carry complaint against the operator, and believe they can do it without FCC “intervention,” Atlantic said. It sought another one-week delay to reply to Western Pacific, which has filed several complaints seeking pay-TV carriage on systems in the Philadelphia area for WACP Atlantic City, N.J. The broadcaster didn’t object to the extra time, which would come after the agency had given the operator a one-week extension (CD Jan 9 p15), Atlantic Broadband said in a filing posted Monday to docket 12-1 (http://xrl.us/boasyo).
The U.S. government needs to build out fiber throughout the public right-of-way corridors just like it once built highways, said Rita Stull, a telecom consultant for municipalities and formerly Cincinnati’s first cable administrator, speaking Monday on a Gigabit Nation live radio show. “We have a mechanism that could serve as a way to start putting municipally owned fiber networks in the right of way,” she said. “And then we need to go one step further and bury everything.” Fiber is often too expensive for private companies to install because it lacks immediately apparent return on investment, she said. Municipalities, contrary to critics who doubt their expertise (CD Dec 11 p7), should play a role in building these networks, which makes sense when considering their already significant relationship to telecom through community anchor institutions, the 911 networks and more, she said. Governments provide a lot of services, and telecom should be no different, she said: “What is it about telecommunications that you can’t handle?” Intimidation about the technology had caused communities to cede certain control in the past, she said. Higher capacity and speeds are needed for the U.S. to stay competitive, she said, pointing to apps developers who can’t test gigabit-speed apps. Google Fiber will give one U.S. city faster broadband speeds, but the nature of the parent company’s competition for where to launch the network created “a looting of public assets as opposed to maximizing for the public interest and for business interest,” she said. Vice President Rick Whitt of Google’s Motorola Mobility cited (CD Oct 1 p8) the openness of Kansas City officials to partnership and active deregulation as leading factors in Google’s choice of the city, where it’s building a network on both the Kansas and Missouri sides of the state border. Municipalities are currently a “built-in captive audience” to incumbent companies that Stull compared to barge and ferry owners of the 19th century who resisted communities’ efforts to build bridges across the Ohio River, set up legal barriers to that potential competition and subsequently hurt the market. “We need to change the paradigm,” she said, suggesting a rallying petition for a federal initiative to establish a network of fiber and electric lines, both of which would be required to sustain a future fiber and smart grid network. She sees the challenge as educating consumers on fiber’s value.
The FCC’s Public Safety Bureau asked for comment on a waiver request by the Los Angeles Regional Interoperable Communications System (LA-RICS) Powers Authority, which wants to apply for licenses for the 700 MHz “narrowband reserve channels” and integrate the frequencies into the LA-RICS system, a proposed early wireless broadband network to be used by area first responders. LA-RICS told the FCC under its initial plans the voice part of the system would use the T-Band. However, Congress mandated that public safety move off that spectrum as part of the February spectrum law. Comments are due Feb. 11, replies Feb. 25, according to a public notice (http://xrl.us/boaetm).
Under Verizon’s implementation of the Copyright Alert System (CAS), the company will penalize repeat infringers by slowing their connection speed to 256 kbps, according to a copy of the company’s policy obtained by P2P news site TorrentFreak (http://xrl.us/boash4). The policy -- which TorrentFreak said is accessible on Verizon’s server but not searchable on Google -- outlined the notices and mitigation measures subscribers will face when they illegally access copyrighted content through P2P networks. The first and second alerts will be delivered via email and automatic voicemail, notifying subscribers that infringing content is being downloaded through their accounts, the document said: The third and fourth alerts will require subscribers to acknowledge that they have received the alerts and will provide “a short video about copyright law and the consequences of copyright infringement.” If subscribers continue to access infringing content, they will face fifth and sixth notices, including the mitigation measure of a reduced connection speed -- 256 kbps for two or three days, the document said. Subscribers can either accept the reduced speed when notified, postpone the speed reduction for 14 days or appeal the final-stage notifications through the American Arbitration Association, which requires a $35 fee, to be refunded if the appeal is successful. The Center for Copyright Information, which administers the CAS (CD Nov 29 p15), did not respond by our deadline to requests for comment. A Verizon spokesman told us the document was found on the company’s servers but is a discussion draft and not yet finalized or meant for public viewing.
The Association of Public-Safety Communications Officials questioned comments by AT&T on an FCC Public Safety Bureau public notice on the legal and statutory framework for next generation 911 services. APCO noted that AT&T recommended Congress conduct hearings to examine the current 911 structure and how it relies on 6,800 public safety answering points, or PSAPs (http://xrl.us/bn6isn). “AT&T’s suggestion that Congress review the basic PSAP structure does not take into consideration the fundamentally local nature of first responder agencies or the substantial benefits of local PSAPs,” APCO said (http://xrl.us/boasbd). “For example, local PSAPs facilitate the ability of call-takers to be familiar with local landmarks and ‘non-standard’ verbal descriptions of roadways, buildings and other locations from which callers may be reporting emergencies. In addition, PSAPs often maintain local information critical to first responders, such as which [buildings contain] hazardous materials and homes ... have residents who may have special needs or disabilities."
Google officials pledged general support during a meeting at CES last week with Commissioner Ajit Pai and Pai aide Nicholas Degani for industry sharing of federal spectrum in the 3550-3650 MHz band as proposed in a July 2012 report of the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology. “In particular,” Google officials “urged the implementation of a shared access system to allow commercial use of federal spectrum to the extent that federal spectrum is underutilized” as well as “the use of small cells in this band,” said an ex parte filing by Google (http://xrl.us/boar9q).
Deutsche Telekom and T-Mobile USA have withdrawn their objection to the Communications Workers of America’s counsel and economic consultants gaining access to an non-redacted version of the confidential information they submitted to the FCC, said Deutsche Telekom and T-Mobile counsel Eric DeSilva Thursday in a filing (http://xrl.us/boaewt). The carriers had previously asked the FCC to limit CWA’s access to the non-redacted version to information pertaining to the proposed merger of Deutsche Telekom-owned T-Mobile and MetroPCS’s “impact of synergies upon employment.” CWA had raised concerns with the FCC over whether the proposed merger would result in job losses (CD Jan 9 p3).
Correction: Harold Feld is senior vice president of Public Knowledge (CD Jan 10 p1).
The FCC Wireline Bureau seeks comment on a Frontier petition for waiver of two high-cost universal service rules, it said in a public notice Friday (http://xrl.us/boaevw). The telco seeks a waiver of the rule defining the method the FCC uses to determine if an ILEC has met the rate floor requirements. It also wants a waiver of the rule setting forth the rate compatibility reporting requirements. Comments in WC docket 10-90 are due Feb. 11, replies Feb. 26.