The Office of Management and Budget approved the information collection requirements in the FCC’s rules to prevent and detect cramming, or unauthorized third party charges, according to a Friday notice in the Federal Register (http://xrl.us/bnv73w). The new rules, which require occasional reporting and a third party disclosure requirement, will affect 4,484 business respondents and require 2 million hours and nearly $16 million annually to fulfill, the notice said.
Research firms’ reports show Samsung is increasing its share of the mobile phone market and again shipped the most mobile phones during Q3. Worldwide shipments of mobile phones reached between 387.3 million and 444.5 million units in Q3, according to respective reports from ABI Research (http://xrl.us/bnv7eb) and International Data Corporation (IDC). Estimates of worldwide smartphone shipments varied, according to the ABI and IDC reports, as well as ones from Strategy Analytics (http://xrl.us/bnv7eq) and Juniper Research (http://xrl.us/bnv7e6). ABI found 155.5 million smartphones shipped in Q3; Juniper found 157 million, Strategy Analytics found 161.7 million and IDC found 179.7 million (http://xrl.us/bnv7fe). While the firms’ figures varied, all four said Samsung remained the leading smartphone vendor in Q3, and saw its market share increase. Samsung’s market share climbed to 31.3 percent, from 22.7 percent the same time last year, according to IDC. No. 2 vendor Apple’s market share increased to 15 percent from 13.8 percent in 2011; No. 3 Research in Motion dropped to 4.3 percent from 9.6 percent, while No. 4 vendor ZTE’s share rose to 4.2 percent from 3.3 percent, IDC said. “Samsung looks to be running away from the pack while Apple’s new product portfolio continues to eat into its decreasing gross margins,” ABI senior analyst Michael Morgan said late Thursday in a news release. “Apple will need to ship over 94 million smartphones in Q4 if it wants to match its 2011 shipment growth of 96 percent.” Samsung and Apple combined manufactured more than half of the smartphones shipped during the quarter, up from about 33 percent a year ago, according to Strategy Analytics data. Their growth was at the expense of Nokia, Strategy Analytics senior analyst Neil Shah said Thursday in a news release. “Nokia has now slipped outside the top three global smartphone rankings for the first time in history,” Shah said. “Nokia will need to ramp up sharply its Windows Phone volumes if it wants to recapture a top-three smartphone position in the next one to two quarters.” LG also did well during the quarter, with 24 percent growth from Q2 to Q3, according to Juniper Research. “LG needs to better its smartphone line-up and rebuild its position within the second-tier smartphone segment -- in order to improve profit margins and effectively to compete against players including Huawei, Motorola and HTC,” Juniper said Friday in a news release.
Correction: Gannett Senior Associate Counsel Barbara Wall criticized Newshaven, not NewsRight, the media copyright initiative she was asked about at an event and which, while her company is not a member, she said now its business model may be successful (CD Oct 26 p5).
Shared Spectrum Co. said dynamic spectrum access (DSA) should play a big role in the sharing of 4.9 GHz spectrum between public safety and other users. Their assertions came in comments filed on a June further notice of proposed rulemaking by the FCC (http://xrl.us/bnbo8p). “SSC notes that if the decision is made by the FCC to permit sharing the 4.9 GHz band between Public Safety and others such as [critical infrastructure] users, then the DSA technology developed by SSC could play a valuable role in permitting the sharing to occur on a more confident basis than if a database alone were to be deployed,” the company said (http://xrl.us/bnv7nd). “SSC believes that a ‘TV White Spaces’ database approach to sharing is only part of the answer: DSA technology allows radios to sense available channels in real space and time environments. No matter how accurate a computer database full of licensee information may be, the real-world environment adds a level of granularity that can help radio users avoid interference. Whenever a database approach is adopted, such as the TV White Spaces proceeding, SSC believes that effective sharing should include the use of DSA technology in order to provide a higher level of confidence beyond just the database approach.” DSA could have broad use in other bands as well, the filing said: “The integration of technologies including an automated geolocation database, sensing, signal beacons (which can be used in certain bands to immediately preempt Secondary Access and/or General Authorized Access users) and the band-by-band access rules established by the NTIA and FCC, should constitute a comprehensive access system to enable and manage shared access to most Federal bands."
North Dakotans should beware of a phishing scam “making the rounds again,” the state’s attorney general warned. “In the scam, a phony customer service technician claims that work on cellular telephone towers in the area may disrupt cell phone service for the consumer so the service provider is offering a credit on the bill to make up for any inconvenience,” Attorney General Wayne Stenehjem’s office said Thursday (http://xrl.us/bnv7nb). “All the consumer has to do is ‘confirm’ the billing address, the account holder’s personal information, and verify the account password, and the caller will give the consumer a confirmation number to be used to claim the credit.” The calls are ostensibly from AT&T and in the past, Verizon, the warning said. Victims’ hijacked lines can then face “hundreds of dollars of international usage fees,” according to the attorney general. The scammer “uses the apology as the hook and the promise of a credit as the bait,” he said.
European Parliament Vice President Alexander Alvaro (Liberal Party Group) welcomed a complaint filed by members of the Slovak Parliament against the European Data Retention Directive (2006/24/EG). The Slovak politicians want a check of the implementation of the directive from 2006 into national law, and asked their Constitutional Court to consider a preliminary reference to the Court of Justice of the European Union about the validity of the directive. The Slovak complaint follows complaints in several EU members states, including Ireland, Germany and Romania. Germany still has not implemented the directive and is facing a complaint filed by the commission as a result. Ireland in July filed a complaint against the directive at a European court. Alvaro in a statement criticized EU Home Affairs Commissioner Cecilia Malmstroem for not moving forward with the planned review of the Directive. Malmstroem has acknowledged problems with the directive regarding varying retention periods in the 27 member states and the scope of access to data collected by telecom and Internet providers. Alvaro said since Malmstroem was unable to present a clear time table for the review, the commission should ask the European Court of Justice itself if the directive is compatible with Europe’s charter of fundamental rights.
States are “critical partners” in developing FirstNet, Board Chairman Sam Ginn wrote in a Thursday letter to all 56 U.S. governors of states, territories and the District of Columbia. He wanted to formally introduce state leaders to FirstNet and its priorities and summarized the initial efforts of the $7-billion national public safety network, he said. The FirstNet board is creating a committee to “lead our collaboration with states, localities, tribes and other jurisdictions,” initially guided by board member Chief Jeff Johnson, Oregon’s former state interoperability executive committee chair, according to the letter. Johnson will work with board members Wellington Webb, former Denver mayor, and Teri Takai, former chief information officer of Michigan and California, to “guide our consultation efforts pending the formal appointment of members,” Ginn said. The National Association of Attorneys General sees “potential here for both tremendous benefit and significant costs to states,” NAAG Executive Director Jim McPherson said in a notice Thursday encouraging states to pay attention to FirstNet (http://xrl.us/bnv7kb). He cautioned about FirstNet’s challenges of funding, structure and implementation and noted the FirstNet board “surprisingly does not include any current state officials.” Attorneys general will start receiving FirstNet questions from governors, legislators and money-hungry telecom firms soon, he predicted. “The potential exists for states to be left with substantial costs,” he said of concerns that current FirstNet funding is “woefully inadequate” for the task. The FirstNet board will be reaching out in “the near future” to governors for “detailed understanding” of state needs, Ginn said. The letter also describes steps states can take to prepare for NTIA’s implementation grant program and the Thursday deadline for comments on current FirstNet proposals. “You will be hearing again from us soon,” Ginn told governors.
Vulcan Wireless said the FCC should reject claims by AT&T made in a paper by Jeffrey Reed and Nishith Tripathi of Reed Engineering saying band class distinctions are needed to protect 700 MHz operations from interference (http://xrl.us/bnsmqx). “Using Band 12 devices in lieu of Band 17 devices will not cause harmful interference to consumers,” Vulcan said (http://xrl.us/bnv7jn). “AT&T’s latest submission to the contrary … simply is not credible. Their analysis lacks rigor and incorporates unreliable and previously refuted data.” The AT&T paper offers no original testing, Vulcan said. “Instead, they used unreliable laboratory data that real-world engineering studies and analyses have consistently refuted,” the filing said. “In response to the exhaustive field measurements and laboratory tests that the proponents of interoperability have submitted, Reed and Tripathi offer four arguments against interoperability. None of these assertions are persuasive, several of their statements are false, and at least one of their claims actually supports restoring interoperability in the 700 MHz band.” Trey Hanbury and Chris Termini, lawyers for Vulcan, said on a Friday blog post (http://xrl.us/bnv7ko) that the AT&T arguments remind them of the University of Alabama men’s basketball team, which got psychic help from a student who became known as “The Face.” The student, “Jackson Blankenship attended Crimson Tide men’s basketball games armed with an oversized cardboard cutout of his own face holding an alarmed expression designed for one purpose: to make opposing team players miss their shots,” they wrote. “Having recently appeared on “Late Night with Jimmy Fallon” and in a video gone viral, Blankenship is now infamous for his ability to distract. This brings to mind the FCC’s proceeding to determine whether to restore interoperability in the Lower 700 MHz band, where AT&T has recruited its own Jackson Blankenship by employing two individuals -- Jeffrey Reed and Nishith Tripathi -- who serve no other purpose than to distract the FCC from what has been demonstrated time and again: Interoperable devices are at no greater risk of harmful interference from Channel 51 or Lower E block transmissions than are non-interoperable devices.” An AT&T spokesman cited Oct. 4 (http://xrl.us/bnv7pu) and Sept. 13 blog posts (http://xrl.us/bnv7pw) in response to the Vulcan filing.
More people watched the presidential debates and the vice presidential debate on broadcast networks than on cable networks, the NAB said citing Nielsen data. Nearly 66 million viewers tuned in for at least one of the debates, it said. Of them, 43.7 million watched on broadcast networks while 22.2 million watched on cable networks, it said. “Broadcast television has a legacy as the leading source of information when there’s breaking news or history transpiring,” said Dennis Wharton, executive vice president of communications at NAB. “The ratings from this year’s debate are further proof that legacy remains intact."
The FCC reduced another Vermont Class A TV station’s status to low power. SMC Communications did not respond by March 30, 2012, to an order to show cause why its W14CK Newport, Vt., station shouldn’t have it status reduced, an order released by the Media Bureau Friday said (http://xrl.us/bnv7i2). “Because SMC failed to file Children’s Television Programming reports ... for the period 2007 through 2011 and has not responded to the Video Division’s two letters regarding this failure or to the Order to Show Cause, we find it has not fulfilled its obligations as a Class A licensee,” the order said. That makes it the 17th station to have its Class A status cut this year, our tally shows (http://xrl.us/bnvugg).