The initial results of the FCC’s speed test app are in, and “they are very promising,” officials from the Office of Strategic Planning and Policy Analysis said in a blog post Thursday (http://fcc.us/17zWRvB). In just the first two days after the app’s public release, there were 30,000 installations and 200 reviews averaging 4.5 stars in the Google Play store, they said. More than half of the 40,000 tests conducted were run on LTE networks, with all major carriers represented. Results came in from all 50 states, the post said. “The rapid uptake of this app will benefit the country as a whole by incentivizing better mobile broadband performance,” it said. “The app also provides a new and productive way for consumers, providers, and the FCC to interact.” Actual speed test results were not posted publicly.
A major National Security Agency bill was attached to S-1197, the National Defense Authorization Act, according to the act’s tally of amendments at the end of Thursday. Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., attached the FISA Improvements Act of 2013 as an amendment. This bill, S-1681, preserves bulk collection of phone metadata but makes several smaller changes to surveillance law. It cleared Senate Intelligence in an 11-4 vote on Oct. 31. But a Senate aide told us it’s not Feinstein’s intention to amend FISA through the defense authorization bill. The aide emphasized the shared jurisdiction between Senate Intelligence and the Senate Judiciary Committee. But other members have filed amendments updating FISA, and given those amendments, Feinstein wanted to ensure her legislation is available in case FISA legislation is brought to the floor through the defense authorization’s amendment process, the aide said. Privacy advocates have criticized this Feinstein bill and pointed to the USA Freedom Act of Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., as the stronger package limiting surveillance. Sen. Mike Enzi, R-Wyo., also filed an amendment with a surveillance provision. Enzi’s brief amendment said that to be funded, any order of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court carried out must include the following sentence: “This Order limits the collection of any tangible things (including telephone numbers dialed, telephone numbers of incoming calls, and the duration of calls) authorized to be collected pursuant to this Order to those tangible things that pertain to a person who is the subject of an investigation described in section 501” of FISA. Several other senators this week have filed amendments to the act touching on surveillance transparency and practices (CD Nov 21 p10). More than 500 amendments have now been proposed, and the Senate is in recess until Dec. 9. Senate leaders had initially hoped to pass the act before Thanksgiving.
AT&T Mobility, Sprint and T-Mobile will no longer charge customers for commercial premium short messaging services (PSMS), said Bill Sorrell, Vermont’s attorney general, in a news release Thursday (http://bit.ly/19M7Z5a). Forty-five states, led by Vermont, engaged in discussions with carriers to stop mobile cramming, said Sorrell. PSMS accounts for the majority of third-party charges on cellphone bills and for the “overwhelming majority” of cramming complaints, said Sorrell. Sorrell noted that in May he released a survey showing 60 percent of third-party charges placed on mobile phone bills of Vermonters were unauthorized, or “crammed.” AT&T and T-Mobile will continue to allow charitable donations to be billed via PSMS, said Sorrell. While Verizon is not included in the agreement, General Counsel William Petersen said the company had “previously decided to exit the premium messaging business because of these changes as well as recent allegations that third parties have engaged in improper conduct in providing premium messaging services to our customers.” Verizon will continue to support allowing text-to-donate programs for charities and political campaigns, said Petersen in a statement. “I'm glad to see AT&T, Verizon, T-Mobile, and Sprint take matters in their own hands to protect their wireless customers from cramming,” said Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va., in a statement. “The largest wireless carriers are putting customers first with this decision, and in turn, they're taking a major step forward toward eliminating this problem. I strongly urge all other carriers to follow their lead.” In June, Rockefeller introduced the Fair Telephone Billing Act of 2013, which was aimed at ending cramming on wireline telephone bills (CD June 13 p10).
NTIA should “convene industry stakeholders and privacy advocates to establish consensus-driven best practices” for facial recognition technology, Senate Privacy Subcommittee Chairman Al Franken, D-Minn., wrote Administrator Lawrence Strickling. “Our privacy laws provide no express protections for facial recognition data.” Franken said his letter was prompted by Facebook’s expansion of its facial recognition database -- the technology that enables the social networking site to recognize users in posted pictures and make tagging suggestions. The letter said Franken questioned Facebook on its facial recognition practices during a congressional hearing and a letter to the company in September, which asked how many faceprints the company had stored. Franken said he was not satisfied with Facebook’s responses and its claim that the number of faceprints stored is proprietary information. “I will be exploring legislation to protect the privacy of biometric information, particularly facial recognition technology,” Franken said: Technology developers “won’t be waiting for us,” he said, so the NTIA should “take up this subject … as quickly as possible.” NTIA acknowledged it had received the letter and plans to respond.
President Barack Obama approved the updated National Space Transportation Policy. The new policy allows commercial companies to compete for payload launch opportunities under new-entrant certification criteria, the policy says (http://1.usa.gov/18rMnio). The policy released Thursday said it’s aimed at fostering “more efficient and capable space transportation systems and approaches that can address such challenges and enable new activities and discoveries in and from space.” The policy no longer requires an exemption to be obtained for government use of foreign launch vehicles to support hosted payload arrangements on spacecraft not owned by the U.S., it said. It said it aims to support civil space programs and activities at NASA, including the implementation of partnerships with the private sector “to develop safe, reliable and cost effective commercial spaceflight capabilities for the transport of crew and cargo to and from the International Space Station and low earth orbit.” Boeing supported the “balanced approach to developing affordable commercial crew and cargo transportation in areas of proven technology,” said a news release (http://bit.ly/1c7f0jY). The development of a commercial space sector for low-earth orbit transportation “is freeing NASA to develop a heavy lift launch capability to travel,” said the company.
Congress needs to make sure FirstNet is funded adequately, TIA President Grant Seiffert told House Communications Subcommittee leaders in a Thursday letter (http://bit.ly/Ik2Qef), released Friday. The subcommittee held an oversight hearing on FirstNet Thursday. The $7 billion slated for FirstNet must become “available as planned” by law, which means “Congress should continue to urge the FCC to promptly and effectively implement the voluntary incentive auction of television broadcast spectrum, with a special focus on broadcaster outreach in the top 10 markets where the potential auction revenue from bidders is at the highest,” Seiffert wrote. Congress allocated $2 billion to FirstNet up front and as much as $5 billion from FCC spectrum auctions, assuming they earn that much.
NAB doesn’t want Congress changing advertising tax deductibility law. The association of broadcasters issued a statement Thursday night to that effect, citing proposals in the House and Senate that would change law allowing businesses to deduct advertising costs. “NAB and the thousands of local radio and television stations in our membership strongly oppose limits that would be placed on the ability of businesses to annually deduct costs for advertising,” NAB’s spokesman said in a statement. “We're optimistic that Congress will fully retain the ad tax deduction, which is an engine for economic growth and job creation in businesses and communities across America.” Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus, D-Mont., released his latest draft paper on overhauling what he called the “bloated” tax code Thursday (http://1.usa.gov/1aVyTru). “There shall be allowed as a deduction an amount equal to 50 percent of the advertising expenditures paid or incurred by the taxpayer during the taxable year,” the 144-page draft said (http://1.usa.gov/1h7yKd4). It noted that other advertising expenses not captured in that 50 percent “shall be allowed as an amortization deduction ratably over a 5-year period beginning with the taxable year in which such expenditures are paid or incurred.” Current law allows the entire costs to be deducted. Baucus is seeking comments, due Jan. 17. The National Alliance of State Broadcasters Associations sent a letter (http://bit.ly/1aCKEHN) earlier this month warning the House Ways and Means Committee against any changes to the deductibility provisions.
European Internet users remain “very concerned” about cybersecurity, the European Commission said Friday. Seventy-six percent of those polled said the risk of becoming a cybercrime victim has increased in the past year, up slightly from 2012, it said. Although 70 percent of users are confident of their ability to use the Internet for shopping and other activities, only around 50 percent actually do so, showing the negative impact of cybercrime on the digital single market, it said. The two main concerns about online activities related to misuse of personal data and security on online payments, the EC said. In addition, more EU citizens now feel well-informed about the risks of cybercrime than last year, but they don’t always draw the necessary conclusions from that information, it said. Less than half of those surveyed, for example, changed any of their passwords during the past year, it said. The survey took place in May and June and polled around 27,000 people in all EU countries, the EC said.
The U.N. should make clear that “indiscriminate surveillance is never consistent with the right to privacy” by adopting a resolution on digital privacy floated by Brazil and Germany, five major rights groups said Friday. Privacy International, Access, Amnesty International, Electronic Frontier Foundation and Human Rights Watch told U.N. General Assembly members in a Wednesday letter (http://xrl.us/bp6y79) that adopting the resolution (http://xrl.us/bp6y8f) would “crucially reiterate the importance of protecting privacy and free expression in the face of technological advancements and encroaching State power.” The draft resolution reaffirms the right to privacy while recognizing the Internet’s global and open nature and its place in driving development. It affirms that people should have the same privacy rights online as offline. It urges governments to: (1) Respect and protect privacy rights, including in digital communications. (2) End violations of those rights. (3) Review their procedures, practices and laws on communications surveillance, interception and collection of personal data, including mass spying, with a view to upholding the right to privacy. (4) Set up or maintain independent, effective oversight mechanisms to ensure transparency and accountability for government surveillance and interception. The draft also asks the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights to report on the protection and promotion of privacy rights in the context of domestic and foreign surveillance and/or interception. If approved, the resolution would be the first U.N. statement on privacy in 25 years, Privacy International said. The organizations said they are “deeply concerned” that the countries in the “Five Eyes” alliance -- the U.S., Canada, New Zealand, Australia and U.K. -- are trying to weaken the resolution.
Pandora had a 2.6 percent falloff in active listeners from September to October after the launch of iTunes Radio on Sept. 18, said Pandora CEO Brian McAndrews on the company’s earnings call after regular U.S. markets closed Thursday. He attributed the slippage to “casual” listeners experimenting with other streaming music services, “most likely iTunes Radio.” McAndrews said declines occurred during the first few weeks following the iTunes Radio launch and since then Pandora has seen active listeners “stabilize and begin to return to growth at the end of October.” Pandora’s share of total U.S. radio listening in October was 8.1, up from 6.6 percent a year ago and from 7.8 percent in September, McAndrews said. Total listener hours at Pandora grew to 4.18 billion for Q3, a 17 percent increase over the year-ago quarter and grew from 1.36 billion to 1.47 billion from September to October, he said. Year-over-year, the number of active listeners was up 20 percent to 70.9 million, he said, while advertising revenue grew to $144.3 million, up from $106.2 million in the year-ago quarter. Subscription revenue was also up, jumping to $36 million from $13.8 million in Q3 2012, the company said. Wedbush Securities maintained a “neutral” rating on Pandora, citing better-than-expected subscription and other revenue after Pandora removed its mobile listening limit, which analyst Michael Pachter said reflected “stickiness” with consumers. Wedbush had expected a subscription decline from Q2 with users reverting to Pandora’s free offering after the mobile listening limit was removed. Pandora’s $144 million Q3 ad revenue represented a slowdown in growth to 12 percent from 22 percent in Q2, said Pachter, who had expected growth of 20 percent from Q2 to Q3 due to Pandora’s efforts to build out its sales force in recent quarters. In the Q-and-A, McAndrews expressed concern about the “subscription balance” since licensing agreements favor the ad-supported, non-subscription model. While not speaking directly to a possible subscription price increase, McAndrews said subscribers “are obviously among our most loyal listeners, and it would be our job to make sure that we have the optimal pricing over time.” Pandora’s model is driven by free, ad-supported listening, he said, and “that’s where the biggest opportunity is.” Chief Financial Officer Mike Herring said, “It’s not that we discourage people to be subscribers,” but licensing agreements “disincentivize” the subscription model on a cost-per-hour basis versus the advertising model. An increase in the number Pandora’s ads per hour for the quarter did not negatively affect listener hours, Herring said.