Oregon fiber providers will soon be servicing the state’s “only purpose-built, ground-up wholesale data center,” said Atlanta-based T5 Data Centers (http://xrl.us/bnte2p). Construction is set for spring 2013 and initial operations by the following fall, T5 said. It’s “optimized to take into account the cool climate, thereby reducing the amount of power and water used to operate the facility,” it said. The 200,000 square-foot, LEED-certified center will be on 15-acre parcel of land in Hillsboro, according to T5.
The Arkansas tax division declared victory by default against Halo Wireless before the Arkansas Public Service Commission Tuesday (http://xrl.us/bnteyp). Halo had challenged its tax assessments in Arkansas this summer before the company was liquidated in a controversy over unpaid access charges. The PSC continued the proceeding and asked both parties to file their arguments by early October. The tax division refused and said Halo bore the burden to prove its case. After the liquidated Halo failed to file anything, the tax division said, “It is clear that Petitioner failed to meet their burden, and summary judgment should be for the Tax Division.” Summary judgment “may only be granted when there are no genuine issues of material fact to be litigated,” the division said.
The U.S. GPS Industry Council wants the FCC to ensure limitations on out-of-band emissions (OOBE) for AWS-4 systems, to avoid interference to GPS activity. All GPS parties in proceedings around using AWS spectrum for a terrestrial service have a common understanding with Dish Network on “the appropriate OOBE limits for AWS-4 systems with regard to GPS,” USGIC said in an ex parte filing in docket 12-70 (http://xrl.us/bntevb). Those agreed-upon OOBE values should be included in the forthcoming order, and the resulting AWS-4 authorizations “need to reflect that AWS-4 operations will be subject to OOBE limits” in its agreement with Dish, USGIC said. The USGIC reiterated the agreement that it reached with the DBS company ensures conditions that are sufficient to alleviate concerns with OOBE from the 2000-2020 MHz and 2180-2200 MHz bands into radionavigation satellite service systems (http://xrl.us/bntevu). Dish is vying for use of wireless spectrum for a terrestrial network. A similar network proposed by LightSquared has been stalled due to interference issues raised by USGIC and other GPS entities, prompting the FCC to propose to end a temporary waiver to that company that would have allowed the network to be built out.
Most Americans lack information about online privacy but prefer strict protections, including a Do Not Track (DNT) feature, said a new study (http://xrl.us/bntez6) by researchers at the Center for Law and Technology at the University of California at Berkeley and funded “as part of an unrestricted research gift” by Nokia, which produces Microsoft Windows smartphones among others. The same researchers -- Chris Hoofnagle, Jennifer Urban and Su Li -- earlier this year did a similar privacy survey on mobile payments, also funded by Nokia (CD April 26 p6). Microsoft recently began including DNT by default in Internet Explorer 10 as a part of the “Express Settings” options in Windows 8. The new study, which consisted of surveying 1,203 adult Internet users, found that 60 percent of respondents prefer a DNT option that prevents websites from collecting any information about its users, and 20 percent prefer a DNT option that blocks advertisements from appearing on websites. For websites that offer content and services for free, the study found, 40 percent of respondents knew that websites can sell information collected from users; 25 percent of respondents thought free websites had to obey a user’s request to delete data about that user, and 42 percent didn’t know. Based on the desire for increased privacy and the lack of benefit derived from online ads -- the study found 30 percent of respondents said they sometimes or often find ads useful, and 14 percent sometimes or often click on the ads -- “most consumers want Do Not Track to mean exactly that: do not collect information that allows companies to track them across the Internet,” the study said. At the same time, the study said, “the advertising industry has argued for systematically weakening what ‘Do Not Track’ means, and has retreated from earlier, stronger promises to limit tracking.” These two attitudes put consumers and advertisers “at an impasse on privacy,” the study’s authors wrote, and the business model of collecting ad revenue through targeted ads that require online tracking “threatens to prompt a strong consumer backlash.” To solve this, the study said, advertisers should consider “alternative models that would allow highly targeted ads without creating dossiers of Internet behavior held by third parties,” and “regulators could put into place consumer-protective rules that could be implemented through some of these models.”
Work on a do-not-track (DNT) standard is running aground, EU Digital Agenda Commissioner Neelie Kroes is to say Thursday in a speech to the Center for European Policy Studies. Standardization isn’t going according to plan, and Kroes is “increasingly concerned” about the delay and about the turn that discussions have taken in the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), she is to say. There, the standard is apparently being watered down by the online advertising industry. Rachel Thomas, representing the Direct Marketing Association, proposed changing provisions on tracking definitions and compliance to allow marketing to be added to the list of “permitted uses for third parties and service providers” (http://xrl.us/bnteov), adding in a later post (http://xrl.us/bnteo5) that “Marketing fuels the world” and is “as American as apple pie.” DNT “should permit it as one of the most important values of civil society,” she wrote. Marketing as a permitted use would allow use of the data to send relevant offers to consumers, and the data could not be used for other purposes, she said. She urged the panel to use a “harm consideration” approach, saying ads and offers are just offers that consumers don’t have to respond to. Her proposal led Adobe Systems Principal Scientist Roy Fielding to write (http://xrl.us/bntepw) that “raising issues that you know quite well will not be adopted is not an effective way to contribute to this process.” The point of DNT is to express a user preference not to be tracked, he said. Losing targeted, but not contextual, marketing is a “trade-off that is best chosen by the user,” presuming DNT reflects an actual choice, he said. It’s not a permitted use because it’s the collection of data for the sake of targeted marketing that the user is trying to turn off, he said. The harm is “clearly demonstrated by anyone looking over the shoulder (or monitoring the traffic) of a user in a context different from when that targeting data was collected,” he said. In May, Microsoft Chief Privacy Officer Brendon Lynch said Internet Explorer 10 in Windows 8 will have DNT by default. On Tuesday, however, the Digital Advertising Alliance said it “does not require companies to honor DNT signals fixed by the browser manufacturers and set by them in browsers” (CD Oct 10 p15). Kroes will say she has specific concerns about where the discussion is headed in the W3C in several areas: (1) How users are told about default settings in their software and devices. (2) Ensuring that the DNT standard doesn’t let websites second-guess or disregard user choices. (3) Limiting what can be done without consent. To those taking part in the talks, she plans to say, “You need to find a good consensus -- and fast.”
Wireless carriers are at risk of losing their dominance in providing value-added services for emerging markets, according to research firm Ovum. The threat stems from changing consumption patterns around mobile content and apps, which may sideline operators as faster networks and new channels for content and apps become available, Ovum said in a report released Wednesday. The best way for operators to avoid this fate is to leverage assets and collaborate with developers and original equipment manufacturers (OEMs), according to Ovum. Operators are trying to combat the threat by investing in their own app stores and building their own developer communities -- but they would be better served by collaborating with developers and manufacturers in particular segments like mobile entertainment services, Ovum said. “The high costs involved in the purchase of PCs, fixed broadband, and gaming consoles will drive less affluent consumers in emerging markets to opt for the mobile device as the primary screen for entertainment, creating an opportunity for telcos to grow their subscriber base with the lure of new content services,” said Shiv Putcha, principal analyst for emerging markets at Ovum, in a news release. Operators may encounter trouble with such services in emerging markets because of price and piracy, but it will still be the best way to harness growing consumption of mobile entertainment, Putcha said. Mobile utilities may be a viable alternative in some markets, Ovum said (http://xrl.us/bnteqn).
Gogo, a provider of in-flight broadband Internet service, requested special temporary authority for 180 days concerning operations of Ku-band earth stations. Beginning Dec. 10, Gogo would like to operate 30 technically identical Ku-band transmit/receive earth stations “for the provision of Aeronautical Mobile Satellite Service (AMSS) on domestic and international flights,” the company said in its application with the FCC International Bureau (http://xrl.us/bntepj). The company also seeks authority “to perform continued ground-based testing of four AMSS terminals,” it said.
A new white paper from CTIA argues that industry cooperation is critical to take on a growing mobile cybersecurity threat. “Delivering advanced cybersecurity in mobile communications may sound simple, but the reality is a complex, constantly evolving undertaking,” the paper said (http://bit.ly/VBm9lZ). “The cyberthreat landscape changes literally by the hour and requires constant vigilance and innovation throughout the entire U.S. mobile industry -- an industry that provides 3.8 million direct and indirect jobs across the nation. It is a constant risk to be managed, where opposing forces must constantly adapt their strategies and tactics to keep the advantage.” Cybersecurity “is only as good as the weakest link,” the paper said. “Cybersecurity depends on the awareness and daily security practices of consumers and end users across business and government enterprises. Policymakers also play a vital role in working collaboratively with the industry to encourage and maintain a flexible framework that balances the needs of stakeholders while preserving the industry’s ability to stay ahead of cybercriminals and hackers.” CTIA released the paper at its MobileCON show in San Diego.
AT&T Mobility and AT&T Mobility Puerto Rico sought FCC permission to buy three 700 MHz B-block licenses from Peregrine Spectrum. The Wireless Bureau established a pleading cycle. “The Applicants state that the additional spectrum will enable AT&T to increase its system capacity to enhance existing services, better accommodate its overall growth, and facilitate the provision of additional products and services to the public in three Cellular Market Areas in Florida, Minnesota, and Puerto Rico,” said a notice from the bureau (http://xrl.us/bnteg4). Petitions to deny are due Oct. 23, oppositions Nov. 2 and replies Nov. 9.
The FCC Wireless Bureau denied a request by T-Mobile for extra time to demonstrate compliance with the substantial service requirements for 16 Local Multipoint Distribution Service licenses. T-Mobile had already gotten a four-year extension and the revised deadline was June 1. “Given our denial of these requests, these licenses automatically terminated, by operation of Commission rule, as of June 1,” the order said (http://xrl.us/bnteim). The order noted that would have been the second extension T-Mobile received. “To be eligible for an extension of time to construct, T-Mobile must show that its ‘failure to meet the construction deadline is due to involuntary loss of site or other causes beyond its control. We conclude that T-Mobile has not met this threshold,” the bureau said. The order notes that T-Mobile contended it “did not pursue developing its LMDS spectrum while it was pursuing its proposed merger with AT&T,” in seeking the extension. “The Commission has consistently found that a licensee’s own business decisions are not circumstances beyond the licensee’s control and are therefore not an appropriate basis for regulatory relief,” the order said.