What Can Be Done to Protect Endangered Government Data?
FTC’s Data-Speed Lawsuit Against AT&T Can Proceed, Appeals Court Says
A federal appeals court ruled the Federal Trade Commission can move forward with its lawsuit alleging AT&T misled wireless subscribers by reducing data speeds for several million customers who thought they had purchased unlimited plans. The ruling by the Ninth US Circuit Court of Appeals is a notable win for the FTC because it restores the agency’s regulatory authority over large internet service providers. In 2016, a three-judge panel on the Ninth Circuit had thrown out the FTC’s case, ruling the commission didn’t have the authority to bring a case against AT&T because of the company’s status as a common carrier. But the appeals court withdrew that opinion and, with a larger roster of judges participating, issued a new decision that sided with the government. The court agreed with the FTC’s argument that the lawsuit was valid because the commission was challenging AT&T for providing mobile data services that were not part of its status as a common carrier of traditional phone services.
Report Reveals Surprising Data About Mobile Broadband Usage in Schools
A recent Mobile Beacon report analyzing mobile broadband usage by non-profit organizations, including schools, finds that schools utilizing Mobile Beacon’s 4G LTE internet service indicate that the ability to supplement and/or extend existing school networks is the greatest benefit of the service. While schools reported that the two main drivers for acquiring Mobile Beacon’s mobile broadband services are the desire for mobile connectivity (41%) and to save money on internet access (28%), they reported that the main benefits of using the services were 1) the ability to supplement/extend an existing network in their building (42%) and 2) having unlimited data access (22%). [Susan Bearden is the Digital Equity Project Director for the Consortium for School Networking.]
Rep Khanna Introduces Bipartisan Legislation to Study Effects of Broadband on the Economy
[Press release] Reps Ro Khanna (D-CA), Brian Fitzpatrick (R-PA), Anna Eshoo (D-CA), and Ryan Costello (R-PA) introduced a bipartisan bill, the Measuring the Economic Impact of Broadband Act, to require the Bureau of Economic Analysis to conduct a study of the effects of broadband deployment and adoption on the US economy. The legislation empowers policymakers to make more informed decisions about broadband, connecting underserved communities and keeping America competitive in a digital world. “Broadband connectivity is no longer a privilege, it is a fundamental necessity in society, and Congress needs to ensure that all communities, from Appalachia to Cupertino, have reliable access to the internet, regardless of geography or income,” said Rep Khanna, who represents Silicon Valley. “In order to do this, policymakers must have data that tells us just how broadband impacts our economy. The Measuring the Economic Impact of Broadband Act ensures that we are informed so the internet can be improved for American consumers and businesses.”
Reddit, Tumblr, and Others will fight for net neutrality with protests Feb 27
Along with organizations Fight for the Future, Demand Progress, and Free Press Action Fund, companies including Reddit, Tumblr, Etsy, and Medium are participating in a day of online and offline protests on February 27th. The protest — called Operation: #OneMoreVote — will call upon businesses, web users, and more to “flood lawmakers with phone calls and emails from constituents.” “There are fifty US Senators who have a decision to make: are they going to listen to lobbyists who are paid to lie to them, or are they going to listen to their constituents and small businesses in their district?” says Evan Greer, campaign director of Fight for the Future. “Make no mistake: every member of Congress who fails to publicly support the CRA is casting their vote against net neutrality, and will be seen by voters as an enemy of Internet freedom come election time."
The Los Angeles Community Broadband Project
In late 2013, Los Angeles City Council began a push for a citywide Wi-Fi network at no cost to citizens. It would bring internet access to the estimated 30 percent of Angelenos lacking reliable high-speed internet connection, giving many low-income residents a boost up in the economy. But the project, called CityLinkLA, never materialized. Josh Shapiro, a 29-year old 3D modeling producer, has a plan to help upset the status quo. He’s building the Los Angeles Community Broadband Project (LACBP), a wireless internet service provider that would beam affordable high-speed internet from Culver City to the Hollywood Hills. Building fiber infrastructure is expensive and time-consuming—but advances in radio communications tech is making it easier to bypass much of the construction and bureaucracy involved in connecting the masses. LACBP also hopes to safeguard net neutrality for users and undermine the corporate stranglehold major Internet service providers have on the market.
Chairman Pai Remarks at Mobile World Congress
[Speech] What is America’s strategy for seizing the 5G future? Make no mistake about it: I want the United States to be the best country for innovating and investing in 5G networks. I want American entrepreneurs to push the boundaries of the possible and American consumers to benefit from next-generation technologies. To accomplish this—and consistent with our market-based philosophy—the Federal Communications Commission is pursuing a wireless strategy built on three pillars: (1) spectrum, (2) infrastructure, and (3) light-touch network regulation. I’m excited to announce that it is my intention for the United States to hold an auction beginning this November of spectrum in the 28 GHz band, followed immediately thereafter by an auction of spectrum in the 24 GHz band. To set the foundation for these auctions, the FCC will ask for public input this spring on the right procedures for these auctions. In order for us to start an auction in November, we need the US Congress to pass legislation by May 13 addressing the handling of upfront payments. Until now, this technical issue hasn’t impeded the FCC’s work because we’ve been busy getting spectrum we’ve already allocated ready to be auctioned. But we’re now ready to move forward with a major spectrum auction, and if we don’t get the problem fixed by May 13, our efforts to realize America’s 5G future will be delayed. I’m pleased that Congress is making bipartisan progress on this issue and am hopeful that we’ll be able to kick off a major spectrum auction in November.
Chairmen Walden, Blackburn on FCC’s Proposed Spectrum Auctions
[Press release] The race to 5G is a sprint, not a marathon, and the proposed spectrum auctions will help ensure the United States remains at the forefront of this emerging technology. Today’s announcement from Chairman Pai is yet another reason to enact the bipartisan RAY BAUM’S Act, which includes the necessary fix to the upfront spectrum deposit payments. We are continuing to work with all parties to get this important legislation to the finish line.
NTIA Identifies 3450-3550 MHz for Study as Potential Band for Wireless Broadband Use
[Press release] The National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA), in coordination with the Department of Defense (DOD) and other federal agencies, has identified 100 megahertz of spectrum for potential repurposing to spur commercial wireless innovation. This spectrum, the 3450-3550 MHz band, is in the mid-frequency range and could be a key asset in our nation's broadband spectrum inventory. In the United States, military radar systems currently operate in the 3450-3550 MHz band. DOD plans to submit a proposal under the Spectrum Pipeline Act to carry out a comprehensive radio-frequency engineering study to determine the potential for introducing advanced wireless services in this band without harming critical government operations. We hope the result of this hard work will be a "win-win," enabling the continuing growth of the US wireless industry while protecting radars that are vital for national security. The Federal Communications Commission, in coordination with NTIA and DOD, has already approved rules for the adjacent 3550-3700 MHz band for its planned Citizens Broadband Radio Service (CBRS). And the United States is joined by regulators in Europe and elsewhere in looking to include mid-frequency spectrum for commercial use. The potential for international spectrum harmonization could lead to the creation of a global market for equipment that includes the 3450-3550 MHz band, and could help bring services to market quicker, and at lower prices for consumers.
What the Galaxy S9 says about US operators’ network strategies
While much of the attention on Samsung’s latest device focuses on its features and functions—display, camera, speakers and that kind of thing—just as important to the nation’s network operators is what kind of network technology is in the S9. That’s because Samsung often leads the way in terms of implementing new wireless network technology. Samsung often builds iterations of its gadgets specific to individual operators in order to accommodate their specific technologies and spectrum bands. Thus, it’s worth looking more closely at the wireless network technologies built into the Galaxy S9 in order to see what kinds of wireless network technologies the nation’s carriers are focusing on. In announcing their plans to sell the S9, each of the nation’s top wireless carriers sought to highlight slightly different network elements.
Nokia, Facebook Team Up on High-Speed Fixed Wireless
Nokia will combine its worldwide delivery capabilities and wireless passive optical network (WPON) with Facebook’s Terragraph technology to launch global gigabit broadband trials in 2018 with select customers. The Nokia, Facebook project is an attempt to accelerate the adoption of 60 GHz fixed wireless access technologies to deliver gigabit services and connect more people. The 60 GHz band is well suited to supporting high-speed broadband connectivity in urban or suburban areas, complementing existing fiber. Combining WPON with Terragraph’s mesh-routing and multi-hop capabilities allows broadband providers to wirelessly deliver gigabit services over wider areas with high reliability and meet growing demands for ultra-broadband access, the companies said.
Remarks of FCC Commissioner Clyburn at Consumer Advisory Committee
[Speech] My approach when it comes to public safety issues, has been shaped by three, key guiding principles: people with accessibility and access challenges must benefit; we should do all we can to educate every consumer about these safety benefits; and collaboration among all stakeholders works better than litigation. Since Hurricane Katrina struck in 2007, the Federal Communications Commission has been studying ways to improve the resiliency of commercial wireless networks. In 2016, we opted to monitor a voluntary CTIA led initiative which sought to improve coordination among wireless carriers, state and local governments, and consumers, in preparation for outages that result from natural disasters. I believe it is now time for the agency to revisit this issue and a great place to start would be with the Consumer Advisory Committee working with the agency’s Hurricane Task Force on lessons learned from the outages we saw during Hurricanes Maria, Irma, and Harvey.
How President Trump Conquered Facebook -- Without Russian Ads
[Commentary] No matter how you look at them, Russia’s Facebook ads were almost certainly less consequential than the Trump campaign’s mastery of two critical parts of the Facebook advertising infrastructure: The ads auction, and a benign-sounding but actually Orwellian product called Custom Audiences (and its diabolical little brother, Lookalike Audiences). Both of which sound incredibly dull, until you realize that the fate of our 242-year-old experiment in democracy once depended on them, and surely will again. We’ve all contributed to this political balkanization by self-sorting (or being sorted by Facebook) into online tribes that get morphed into filter bubbles, which are then studiously colonized by commercial memes planted and spread there by a combination of Custom and Lookalike Audiences. [Antonio García Martínez founded his own startup (acquired by Twitter in 2011) and joined Facebook’s early monetization team, where he headed the company's targeting efforts.]
Chairman Pai, at CPAC, Pans 'All-Knowing Vortex' of Government
At a panel session at the Conservative Political Action Conference, Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai talked up the "entrepreneurial spirit of markets" over the "all-knowing vortex of government." Chairman Pai said it was that spirit that would get broadband to rural areas and entrepreneurs from the drawing table to the board, as well as promote advancements in healthcare and education. He said his FCC recognizes the power of citizens rather than that of a few unelected bureaucrats.
Ajit Pai Is Regulating You Right Now
The decision to end network neutrality has to withstand a court challenge, and Democrats in Congress will do their utmost to overturn it. Regardless of the outcome, the fight marks Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai as a brawler in bureaucrat’s guise. Says Kevin Werbach, a former FCC staffer who teaches at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School: “He’s going through, pretty systematically, to reverse rules put in place during the Obama administration.”
Former WH ethics attorney Shaub presses FCC Chairman Pai over possible ethics violation with NRA gift
Former White House ethics attorney Walter Shaub questioned whether a gun that Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai received from the National Rifle Association (NRA) violates the FCC’s ethics rules. In a number of tweets on Feb 23, Shaub expressed his confusion as to why accepting the gift didn’t go against the standards of conduct for federal employees that bar employees from receiving gifts from lobbyists, such as the NRA. “Anyone care to explain to me why the FCC thinks that the ethics rules allow Ajit Pai to accept the gift of an expensive handmade gun from the NRA, an entity whose interests he can affect (and has affected) by the performance of his official duties? Am I missing something?” Shaub tweeted. Shaub argued that a federal employee can only receive a gift if it won’t affect the interest of the giver. But because the NRA waged a campaign on net neutrality, it’s likely the NRA thinks Pai can “affect its interests.” “And the exception applies ONLY when the award is a bona fide public service award. This goofy ‘Courage Award’ would not seem to qualify,” Shuab went on to tweet. “They don't even give it on a regular schedule.” Schaub also asked for the written analysis the FCC is required to issue for gifts worth more than $200.
Benton (www.benton.org) provides the only free, reliable, and non-partisan daily digest that curates and distributes news related to universal broadband, while connecting communications, democracy, and public interest issues. Posted Monday through Friday, this service provides updates on important industry developments, policy issues, and other related news events. While the summaries are factually accurate, their sometimes informal tone may not always represent the tone of the original articles. Headlines are compiled by Kevin Taglang (headlines AT benton DOT org) and Robbie McBeath (rmcbeath AT benton DOT org) -- we welcome your comments.
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