TracFone isn’t satisfied with how Puerto Rico’s Telecommunications Regulatory Board has handled Lifeline, the company said in a Monday FCC filing (http://xrl.us/bnivrh). The carrier cited the board’s Lifeline requirement for two last names, its insistence on non-commercial addresses and its call for full Social Security numbers. That “compromise[s] legitimate security rights and expectations of consumers,” the filing said. The “thousands of Puerto Rico Lifeline customers” the board de-enrolled for six weeks in spring 2012 in a Social Security number check was a major problem requiring attention, the company said. “For those six weeks, the Board prevented qualified low-income Puerto Rico households from receiving any Lifeline service, in violation of Section 54.405(e),” the company said. “The Board has provided no explanation or justification for this most egregious violation of federal law.” These Lifeline rules are “ever-shifting,” the company said.
Comcast asked the FCC to stay its recent Tennis Channel carriage order pending judicial review, as expected (CD July 26 p5). The commission gave Comcast 45 days to begin carrying the Tennis Channel on the same tier as its own Golf Channel and Versus networks. In a petition filed at the FCC late Monday (http://xrl.us/bniv8t), the cable operator hit each of the points the commission is to consider when weighing a stay, arguing that it will probably win in the courts, that it would suffer irreparable injury absent a stay but Tennis Channel would not be harmed, and that a stay is in the public interest. The same reasons the commission identified when it granted a stay of an administrative law judge’s ruling in the case “compel the same conclusion now,” the petition said. “The order adopts the same basic reasoning as [the ALJ’s] Initial Decision, and therefore commits the same fundamental errors on the merits,” it said. “It also subjects the same irreparable constitutional injury and both Comcast and its customers to nearly all the same, severe concrete harms."
Verizon Wireless signed a consent decree agreeing to pay $1.25 million for violations of the FCC’s 700 MHz C-block open access rules, which requires C block licensees to allow customers to freely use the devices and applications of their choosing, the Enforcement Bureau said in a news release. Verizon Wireless bought the six 22 MHz regional C-block licenses covering the continental U.S. and the license for Hawaii for $9.63 billion in the 2008 auction. The FCC “launched an investigation after reports suggested that Verizon Wireless had successfully requested that a major application store operator block Verizon’s customers from accessing tethering applications from its online market,” which led to a consumer complaint, the agency said (http://xrl.us/bniv9q). “Under the terms of today’s settlement, Verizon Wireless will make a voluntary payment to the Treasury in the amount of $1.25 million, and has committed to notifying the application store operator that it no longer objects to the availability of the tethering applications to C-Block network customers in the operator’s online market.” The action “demonstrates that compliance with FCC obligations is not optional,” said Chairman Julius Genachowski. “The open device and application obligations were core conditions when Verizon purchased the C-block spectrum.” Verizon Wireless “provides our customers with the most advanced wireless broadband services available over our next-generation 4G LTE network,” the carrier said in response. “We have made clear to our customers that when using our services, they can go where they want and do what they want on the Internet, using the lawful applications and devices of their choice. Verizon Wireless has always allowed its customers to use the lawful applications of their choice on its networks, and it did not block its customers from using third-party tethering applications. This consent decree puts behind us concerns related to an employee’s communication with an app store operator about tethering applications, and allows us to focus on serving our customers."
Most set-top boxes will remain hard wired through 2017, said a new ABI Research report. The report cites the success of MoCA and HomePlug as examples of cable and satellite operators’ continued preference for wired technology solutions. However, some pay TV operators are warming to using Wi-Fi in conjunction with wired technology. But that will take time, ABI said. “Strong support for mobile devices could also convince service providers to add wireless connectivity to their STBs, particularly to support new standards like Wi-Fi Direct and Miracast; although these solutions would likely service households where wired solutions are less optimal or as a complement to wired networking,” ABI’s Michael Inouye said in a news release. “In the end with all of these technologies vying for operators’ attention, standards like IEEE 1905 might garner additional attention to better help consumers navigate the home networking marketplace” (http://xrl.us/bniv9m).
Dec. 22, 2013. In a July House Subcommittee on Commerce, Manufacturing, and Trade hearing, Chairman Mary Bono Mack, R-Calif., and FTC Deputy Director Hugh Stevenson said the act needed to be reauthorized. “Frankly, I'm concerned that e-commerce will cease to grow and flourish if consumers lose faith in their ability to be protected from online predators, jeopardizing future innovation as well as our nation’s fragile economic recovery,” Mack said at the hearing. The House Commerce Committee later also approved the reauthorization for a seven-year period. The measure will now go to the House floor for a final vote, which has not yet been scheduled.
An Alliance for Telecommunications Industry Solutions focus group is developing a comprehensive HTML5 tool suite for manufacturers and app developers. ATIS said Tuesday it hopes its new software libraries, set to debut in Q4, will make it easy for apps to use advanced network features and will make app development less expensive. “Providing the tools to access service providers’ advanced network features opens up a range of new options in terms of the services that operators can offer customers,” said President Susan Miller. The tool kit will initially be functional through HTML5 browsers, and will eventually be compatible on any HTML5-enabled device, according to ATIS. “The solution will allow HTML5-enabled web clients, such as browsers, to support a full suite of communications services by connecting these web clients to the IMS core deployed in operator’s networks,” Alcatel-Lucent’s Marcus Weldon said in a written statement Tuesday. “Essentially, any such ‘web’ app will now be able to leverage the full power of high-quality multi-party and next generation social communications that are being deployed as part of the IMS and RCS suites of applications that will power LTE broadband networks” (http://xrl.us/bnivyk).
Boeing received a $338.7 million contract modification from the Air Force “to produce and launch a tenth Wideband Global SATCOM satellite.” The modification is an addition to an existing WGS contract for 10 satellites, which will provide wideband communication capabilities for the military, a Boeing spokeswoman said. The spending authorization includes production, launch site activities, initial orbital operations and checkout, Boeing said. The entities are working on potential cost-effective upgrades “that would further increase the WGS satellites’ capacity and operational flexibility,” Boeing said. The company said it will continue to work with the Air Force “to develop WGS enhancements that can unlock additional bandwidth and capacity."
Employees’ use of their own smartphones and tablets for work opens a Pandora’s box that can include criminal exposure as well as civil liability to parties from opponents in lawsuits to accident victims and the workers themselves, a technology lawyer said Tuesday. The use of Android products raises a broad risk of violating state and federal network-security laws and regulations requiring data encryption because the passwords for that protection are the same as those for the devices themselves, said Aaron Tantleff, an attorney with Foley & Lardner. Employees put their “entire personal life” on mobile devices they own and use them for purposes they wouldn’t put company-owned hardware to, so they have a high expectation of privacy in the information on them, he said on a Celesq AttorneysEd Center webcast over the West LegalEdcenter. Company access to the devices and the data on them becomes a major issue, Tantleff said. Actions including an IT department’s “remote wipe” of a device that has been lost or hacked, or that has been used by a departed employee, go from routine with company-owned gear to possible violations of the federal Computer Fraud and Abuse Act and the counterparts passed by all the states, he said. Employers can face court sanctions for failing to turn over to lawsuit opponents information subject to evidence discovery requirements but unavailable because it’s on devices owned by others, Tantleff said. And even companies aware of legal risks like these never think about personal injuries in this connection, he said. “Employers in some cases have been found liable” for distracted driving by employees, Tantleff said.
Level 3 Communications extended its voice service coverage to Hawaii and Alaska, the company said Tuesday. Level 3 said its local telephone number service is now available in all 50 states and is accessible by 87 percent of the U.S. population. As part of the expansion, Level 3 will provide local inbound and enhanced local service, the company said in a statement. “Level 3 is responding to customer demand for advanced voice solutions in these areas and providing more opportunity for businesses to consolidate their services under a single carrier to simplify their customer experience,” said Sara Baack, senior vice president for voice and collaboration services (http://xrl.us/bnivtj).
No one opposed Time Warner Cable’s request to be let out of the last remaining FCC condition the company faced from AOL’s 2001 purchase of Time Warner Inc., which at the time owned the cable operator (CD June 13 p15). No initial comments or replies were posted in docket 00-30 as of Tuesday (http://xrl.us/bnivst). That was several days after feedback was due (http://xrl.us/bnbkgg) on Time Warner Cable’s March request to escape a commission requirement that the ISP not discriminate against customers based on which Internet provider they patronized.