Ina Fried

With several states and municipalities considering various mandatory “kill-switch” laws for mobile devices, the wireless industry announced a voluntary commitment to include new anti-theft technology on phones starting 2015.

The commitment has the backing of the five largest US cellular carriers as well as the key players in the smartphone device and operating system markets, a list that includes Apple, Google, HTC, Huawei, Motorola, Microsoft, Nokia and Samsung.

Those signing the pledge agree that devices going on sale after July 2015 will have the ability to remotely wipe data and be rendered inoperable, if the user chooses, to prevent the device from being reactivated without the owner’s permission. Lost or stolen devices could later be restored if recovered. The carriers also agreed they would facilitate these measures.

EU Commissioner Neelie Kroes gave an impassioned plea for Europe to use the Edward Snowden revelations as a wake-up call and to make offering a more secure Internet something of a competitive advantage.

She also said European regulators should find ways to guarantee more consumer protections while at the same time avoiding rules that would make Europe isolationist. Afterward, Re/code caught up with Kroes to get a few more details on how she imagines that taking shape.

“We are talking about an open Internet, and I am a great believer (in that),” Kroes said in an interview on the sidelines of the CeBit Global Conference. “We need to be absolutely certain that it is not ruled by other ones and in ways that are not fitting in our culture.” Trust, security and privacy are key European values that must be ensured, she said.

Given the vast amounts of data that will be collected by the cars of the future, strict protections are needed to prevent government intrusion, the chairman of Volkswagen Group said.

“The car must not become a data monster,” Martin Winterkorn said, at the start of the CeBit trade show in Germany. Car makers already protect drivers from hydroplaning, fatigue and traffic. They must also protect against government misuse of data, he said. “I clearly say yes to Big Data, yes to greater security and convenience, but no to paternalism and Big Brother,” Winterkorn said, according to an English translation of his prepared remarks. He called for a voluntary commitment from the car industry to protect customer data and said his company stands ready to join such an effort.

The data protection concerns voiced by Winterkorn were echoed by government and industry speakers including German Chancellor Angela Merkel and British Prime Minister David Cameron. Merkel called on international efforts to ensure data is protected.

“We are only at the beginning of that road,” she said. “National policies will not suffice.” Winterkorn reassured the car-loving German audience that drivers will retain control, but that autonomous vehicles can play a big role when driving is less than pleasurable, such as when stuck in traffic or looking for parking. Winterkorn stressed that computer giants and automakers need to work together on the technical, logistical and regulatory challenges ahead.

[March 10]

Verizon Wireless said that it will continue to strategically add a second band of spectrum, known as AWS, as it looks to keep up with demand on its LTE network.

CTO Nicola Palmer said that the carrier equipped more than 10,000 cell sites with AWS capability in 2013 and turned on the feature in more than 5,000 of the sites. The number of AWS-capable sited is likely to triple, Palmer said. The company isn’t equipping all sites in a city, instead adding the capability in areas of peak demand in all of the cities where it holds AWS spectrum licenses. The company also plans to begin routing phone calls over its LTE network. As for a talked-about mobile video service, Palmer noted the company tested the capability of broadcast video over LTE during the Super Bowl.

“We are anxious to bring that to market,” Palmer said. “The technology works. We have some other things to work out in terms of the models.” Palmer said Verizon also plans to be at the forefront of other so-called LTE advanced features such as carrier aggregation and heterogeneous networks, which bundle multiple types of spectrum for faster speeds.