The Swedish Council for Working Life and Social Research (FAS) released a report that found little cause for concern that exposure to radio frequency (RF) radiation from cellphones is a danger to the public health. The FAS was asked to prepare the report by the Swedish government. “More than 15 provocation studies (single or double blind) have been conducted on symptoms attributed to exposure to RF fields,” the report said (http://xrl.us/bnoh3w). “These studies have not been able to demonstrate that people experience symptoms or sensations more often when the fields are turned on than when they are turned off. One longitudinal study has looked at frequency of symptoms in relation to environmental exposure and this study found no association between exposure and symptoms.” There is no “absolute certainty” that cellphones don’t pose a health risk, but the risks are much better understood today than they were 10 years ago, FAS said. “Overall, the data on brain tumor and mobile telephony do not support an effect of mobile phone use on tumor risk, in particular when taken together with national cancer trend statistics throughout the world,” the report said. “Extensive research for more than a decade has not detected anything new regarding interaction mechanisms between radiofrequency fields and the human body and has found no evidence for health risks below current exposure guidelines."
The Telecommunications Industry Association said it was pleased that both the Republican and Democratic national platforms focused on telecommunications issues, in an email statement sent Wednesday. Specifically the group said it was encouraged that both parties included policy positions to expand broadband infrastructure and support for the multistakeholder model of Internet governance. Demand Progress also hailed the bipartisan commitment to Internet freedom as a “huge victory for the Internet,” in a separate statement from David Segal, the group’s executive director. “It is clear that the Internet community is coming of age politically, and we will be paying close attention to which party works harder to implement these new party planks,” he said.
The Idaho Public Utilities Commission waived the FCC’s threshold requirements for Frontier Communications Northwest in an order Wednesday. The waiver will apply to the company’s Coeur d'Alene, Idaho, rate center numbering resources, the order said. “Frontier is deploying a new VoIP switch and is requesting the issuance of a new local routing number (LRN),” the commission said (http://xrl.us/bnoiaa). “The issuance of an LRN requires that a full NXX code, comprised of 10,000 numbers, be opened in the rate center.” Frontier told the PUC it'll need only one numbers block, which translates into 1,000 numbers, and will return the rest, according to the order. The waiver “will not have any detrimental effect” on the rate center’s numbering, the commission said.
Cox Communications has ended its fight against Carroll Electric Cooperative Corporation in Arkansas and requested the state public service commission dismiss its December 2011 complaint with prejudice. The two parties “have reached a settlement and have memorialized the terms of that agreement in a separate and confidential writing, and those parties’ respective rights and obligations under that agreement shall remain in full force and effect,” Cox told the PSC Tuesday (http://xrl.us/bnoh4i). The commission then dismissed the complaint in an order the same day (http://xrl.us/bnoh4r). The initial complaint alleged the electric utility had “imposed unreasonable engineering and construction standards, adopted abusive and dilatory access processes, and has assessed excessive application, engineering, and pole access charges on Cox, in violation of the parties’ pole attachment agreements and in violation of Arkansas” code as well as “intentionally and repeatedly destroyed Cox’s facilities and has performed work on poles that creates safety violations with respect to Cox’s facilities, and puts Cox’s employees and the public at risk” (http://xrl.us/bnoh78).
Intelsat entered into several new agreements with programmers using Intelsat’s video distribution neighborhoods. The contracts provide programmers “the ability to expand their audiences for content offerings regionally and globally,” Intelsat said. The deals include contracts with RRsat Global, Discovery and Mexico’s Grupo Televisa. The company also added a point of presence in Miami “to not only enable global broadcasters to distribute content throughout Latin America, but to offer Latin American providers seamless access to new distribution markets around the world,” it said.
The European Commission approved the proposed creation of a joint mobile commerce venture by Vodafone, Telefonica and Everything Everywhere, it said Wednesday. A preliminary EC investigation signaled potential competition problems in the emerging markets of mobile payment applications supply -- “mobile wallets” -- mobile advertising and related data analytics services, prompting an in-depth antitrust inquiry in April, it said. But the probe showed that the joint venture isn’t likely to affect competition significantly in the U.K. because several alternatives already exist and many more are likely to appear in the near future to ensure adequate competitive pressure on the joint venture mobile wallet platform, it said. With regard to the proposed advertising and data analytics activities, it said, the market investigation showed there will be other players with access to comparable data to compete with the joint venture.
The Florida Public Service Commission is spotlighting Lifeline Awareness Week in a Sept. 7 workshop “to ensure that eligible Floridians get information on affordable phone service,” the commission said Wednesday (http://xrl.us/bnohwe). “Social service agencies whose clients can benefit from the federal Lifeline Assistance Program (Lifeline), state agencies facilitating Lifeline’s promotion and application process, and telecommunications companies offering Lifeline are invited.” Lifeline Awareness Week is in its fourth year, the PSC noted. Florida was “one of two states recognized by the FCC last year for leadership in identifying and eliminating program fraud,” as PSC Chairman Ronald Brisé said in a statement. Lifeline Awareness Week will be Sept. 10-14 and celebrated in various ways around the country.
The U.K. government wants industry to up its response to cyberthreats, it said Wednesday. Too few company and board chiefs “take a direct interest in protecting their businesses” from such threats, said the Department for Business, Innovation & Skills and GCHQ, one of the country’s intelligence agencies. Cyber Security Guidelines for Business, produced by GCHQ and the Centre for the Protection of National Infrastructure, aims to help the private sector cut down on risks to company assets. The guidance consists of three products: (1) High-level questions to help senior executives determine their critical information assets and ensure they have the right safeguards in place. (2) An executive companion to help organizations coordinate with the government. (3) More detailed cybersecurity information and advice for 10 critical areas. The guidance flows from the U.K. cybersecurity strategy, which calls for the public and private sectors to work closely together to make Britain one of the most secure places worldwide for online business, the agencies said.
The ITU-T study group on numbering will approve revisions to a recommendation on the presentation of information related to national numbering plans, and a new recommendation on the implementation of country code 888, which has been assigned to the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), unless sufficient objections are raised by Jan. 10, the director of the Telecommunication Standardization Bureau said in a letter to members. A formal approval process is required because of regulatory considerations. The proposed revisions deal with presentation of information on national numbering plans to all interested parties, including information on changes that influence routing, charging and accounting of international telecom traffic, a draft document said. The recommendation also helps to collect other information, such as national-only numbers related to emergency and other important services, such as child help numbers, and information on the implementation of E.164 number portability, the draft text said. E.164 numbers comprise the international public telecom numbering plan used in the public switched telephone network and some other data networks. The new recommendation asks governments to invite operators to implement the country code 888, the draft text said. The country code has been assigned to OCHA to spur the provision of an international system of naming and addressing for terminals involved in disaster relief activities in an area of a country that has been cut off from its national telecom system until normal operations can be restored, it said. The use of these numbering resources will thus be relatively short-lived and may be reused at a later date for another location, it said.
Three members of the House Judiciary Committee said in a letter sent last week they were “deeply concerned” that the departments of Homeland Security and Justice “may be failing to properly investigate and prosecute” cases under the PRO-IP Act. The letter was signed by Reps. Zoe Lofgren, D-Calif., Jared Polis, D-Colo., and Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah. The members said the departments’ seizure of domain names through the Operation In Our Sites campaign may lack sufficient due process and transparency. Specifically the departments’ seizure of Dajaz1 and other sites resulted in an “unnecessarily prolonged” censorship that severely limited the ability of the website owners to challenge the legality of the domain name seizures, the letter said. The letter was sent on the same day that the U.S. government dropped its copyright infringement case against sports-reporting websites Rojadirecta.com and Rojadirecta.org, which it seized from its Spain-based operators in February 2011. A Justice spokesman said “we aware of the letter and are reviewing it."