Hundreds of inmates have sent letters to Federal Communications Commission Chairman Julius Genachowski, urging him to cap the high rates that they pay to talk to their friends and family on the phone. The inmates said that paying $10 or more for a brief phone call is unaffordable.
Senate Intelligence Chairwoman Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) urged President Barack Obama to issue an executive order "or take other appropriate action" that would boost the cybersecurity of the nation's critical infrastructure.
In a letter sent to the President, Sen Feinstein voiced skepticism that Congress would pass cybersecurity legislation this year after a sweeping bill she co-sponsored with Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-CT) was blocked by Republicans earlier this month. Without a compromise on legislation in sight, Sen Feinstein urged President Obama to use his authority to issue an executive order that would establish cybersecurity standards and incentives for critical infrastructure operators to better secure their computer systems and networks.
Isis -- the mobile-payment joint venture backed by AT&T, Verizon Wireless and T-Mobile -- is on track for a debut in September, following months of delays and a change in strategy last year. VeriFone Systems, a maker of payment terminals that is working on the project, is preparing for an introduction in Salt Lake City and Austin, Texas, next month, Chief Executive Officer Doug Bergeron said. Isis, which will let users pay for items at stores using their mobile phones, had previously planned to roll out the service in the first half of 2012. The joint venture tweaked its strategy last year, opting to use credit-card companies to handle transactions rather than the carriers themselves, and it’s taken time to ensure that payments can be made securely.
At the second privacy multistakeholder meeting regarding mobile application transparency held August 22, stakeholders made substantial progress on procedural issues to move this process forward.
Poll results from the meeting are available. NTIA grouped the poll results into three categories: “general support,” “mixed views,” and “general opposition.” These categories are our rough groupings, and are certainly not binding. However, we think that they are helpful in identifying stakeholders’ initial priorities moving forward. Stakeholders are welcome to propose concrete suggestions on procedural topics from any category.
On Aug 29, stakeholders will meet again, with two main goals. First, stakeholders will develop an initial priority list for substantive elements that might be included in a code of conduct for mobile application transparency. Second, stakeholders will propose concrete procedural steps that the group can take to implement the top priority substantive elements. In an effort to support stakeholders, NTIA has organized the substantive elements previously raised by the group into four categories. We hope that these rough categories will assist in stakeholders’ review of their previous work and streamline the discussion of substantive elements at the August 29 meeting. Stakeholders are, of course, encouraged to propose changes to the categories if they believe a different structure would be superior.
Google may be distancing itself from Motorola Mobility's previous claims that standards-essential 3G wireless patents are lethal "bullets" it can aim in the direction of its competitors. In particular, Motorola Mobility—now a Google-owned subsidiary—has admitted through court filings in US District Court that it has agreed to license its 3G-related patents to Apple in Germany, avoiding antitrust claims in a German Higher Regional Court. Apple and Google (by dint of its ownership of Motorola Mobility) have been locked in an increasingly escalating dispute over the use of standards-essential 3G wireless patents in an attempt to gain injunctions against competitors' products. Companies that participate in setting standards like 3G wireless networking agree to license any patented technology on fair, reasonable, and non-discriminatory ("FRAND") terms. Apple has accused Motorola of asking for unreasonably high rates, in violation of its FRAND promise. Apple has raised FRAND defenses against many of Motorola's lawsuits, including an ongoing dispute in the US. However, German case law requires certain conditions to be met before a FRAND defense is valid. Namely, a company must have made an offer to license the patents in question on FRAND terms and posted a bond for expected future royalties. Only if a patent holder then refuses the offer and sues can the FRAND defense be used.
Time Warner Cable announced a $25 million investment to expand its fiber broadband network to businesses in New York City.
The new fiber network will be built in Brooklyn as well as to parts of Manhattan such as the Financial and Flatiron districts. Last year, Time Warner and the city of New York reached a franchise agreement in which Time Warner said it would expand its fiber network to areas that don't currently have access. The new service will offer speeds up to 1 gigabit per second, the company said. The company will target companies that have high data needs, such as design firms and technology companies.
So what should Hollywood do to fight piracy? One easy fix would be to license more content to Netflix and its competitors, and put up fewer restrictions on accessing this type of content. However, in the U.S., the industry is actually moving into the opposite direction: Last fall, Fox began delaying access to its TV shows on Fox.com and Hulu.com for people who can’t authenticate themselves as subscribers of affiliated pay TV providers or Hulu Plus. It’s too early to tell whether the industry’s love affair with TV Everywhere is driving viewers back to piracy – but on a global level, the message seems clear: Instead of forcing countries to adopt ever stricter copyright laws, Hollywood would be well-advised to help services like Netflix and Hulu with their international expansion.
What does the Apple-Samsung decision mean for Motorola Mobility?
Much of Apple's court victory had to do with design patents. Of all the me-too products that followed Apple's cellphone success, Samsung most blatantly mimicked the iPhone. Libertyville-based Motorola already is incorporating clipped corners on some phones, such as the new Photon, which presumably would steer clear of Apple's protected designs with rounded corners and bezel.
As for the software features, such as pinch-to-zoom or the bounce-back that stops a swipe of the finger from becoming the scroll to nowhere, phone makers either can come up with their own features or license them from Apple, if Steve Jobs' successor, Tim Cook, is willing to play that game. But longtime tech analyst Roger Kay doesn't see it happening. If Apple is willing to play along, at a minimum it means the cost of the phones goes up — or you learn to live without pinch-to-zoom.
Some critics argue that the Samsung verdict demonstrates the limits of Motorola's patent portfolio. But Apple's victory over Samsung underscores the importance of Google buying Motorola, analyst Colin Sebastian of Milwaukee-based Robert W. Baird & Co. told clients. In a world full of tough competitors and deep pockets, Google needs to have intellectual property to defend itself on many fronts.
[Commentary] Why did Verizon Wireless just get regulator OK to acquire wireless spectrum from cable television companies, whereas AT&T got turned down in its attempt to acquire T-Mobile for the same reason? And why is it still important for regulators to solve the growing wireless data spectrum crunch?
The truth is, we are running out of available wireless data spectrum. The sudden explosion of smartphones and so many apps is changing the wireless industry. On one hand this is an amazing growth opportunity even as we outrun the wireless data spectrum we have. On the other hand, this shortage will have a negative impact on every carrier and every customer who uses apps on smartphones. The Federal Communications Commission and the Department of Justice said no to the AT&T/T-Mobile merger because it was more than just a spectrum deal. It would also take one major competitor off the playing field. At this point in the wireless industry, after years of acquisitions and mergers, there are few wireless carriers left. We must start acting on what's good for the entire industry before it's too late. If we want to keep all the wireless carriers in business and competing in this new wireless data world, they must have access to spectrum. Every competitor, large and small, national and regional, has to have access to wireless data spectrum. Either that or over the next few years all that will be available is just AT&T and Verizon. Now, if you are an executive from either of those companies, that sounds great. But if you want a large and healthy industry with many competitors to keep pricing low, innovation high and customer service good, that is a disaster. So while AT&T and Verizon struggle to get as much wireless data spectrum to meet their rapidly growing needs, we should also pull the camera back, look at the entire industry, and develop solutions that will benefit every carrier and every customer.
[Kagan is a tech analyst and consultant]
Two weeks remain for dozens of neighborhoods to sign up enough potential customers to qualify for Google’s service before a Sept. 9 deadline. But many neighborhoods — chiefly the least prosperous pockets of the metro area — remain far behind the pace needed to hit the Google-established thresholds of customer penetration.
That means many of the free connections Google agreed to make to public buildings, library branches and community centers won’t happen. Google insists it’s too early to write off any of what it calls “fiberhoods.” It has begun to fix problems that have complicated apartment dwellers’ efforts to sign up for its service. And, most critically, the company points out that it has every incentive to round up as many customers as possible — and to expand to more neighborhoods rather than fewer. Yet the Google Fiber rollout is driven by very real logistic and economic factors that make it impractical to offer the service where few people show an interest in buying service, even if that means a neighborhood school won’t get wired to tomorrow’s Internet. Meanwhile, community efforts strive to help Google find would-be customers. Some are even paying the $10 fee needed to cast a vote of interest in the service. That in turn creates a problem for Google. Are people who didn’t pay their own registration fee likely to buy the company’s state-of-the-art Internet and TV service for $120 a month for two years? Would they purchase super-fast Internet-only packages for $70 a month for a year? Or pay $25 a month for one year for installation of a 5-megabits-per-second Internet connection that would carry no other cost for seven years? “We’re thrilled that some local organizations want to encourage widespread Internet access by helping with the Google Fiber pre-registration process,” Google spokeswoman Jenna Wandres said. “That being said, people should only pre-register if they intend to get Google Fiber service.”
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