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Verizon Communications denies it's looking to partner with AT&T to buy Vodafone, the British cellphone company that owns 45% of Verizon's wireless business.
Verizon owns the 55% of Verizon Wireless that Vodafone doesn't own and has been openly interested for years in buying out Vodafone. But tax and pricing issues have gotten in the way. In a April 2 statement, Verizon said it's still interested in buying out Vodafone's stake in Verizon Wireless. "It does not, however, currently have any intention to merge with or make an offer for Vodafone, whether alone or in conjunction with others," Verizon said. AT&T had no comment.
Verizon denies bid with AT&T for Vodafone
Fiber deployments aren’t just good for the consumers — for small to medium-sized telcos they are also good for the bottom line, resulting in an average operating savings of 20 percent.
The data, which came from a Fiber to the Home Council survey, also noted that the number of homes that can access fiber-to-the-home (FTTH) networks increased by 17.6 percent over a year ago to 22.7 million. Most of the cost savings associated with FTTH deployments came from an end to costly maintenance and down time on telco networks, which one would expect if you are going from an aging DSL network to a newer network. However, offering fiber also enabled these smaller and mid-sized telcos to offer TV offerings as well as faster speeds, which enables them to compete against cable or satellite providers.
Who knew? Fiber is also good for a telco’s health
It may seem odd, but in the European Union citizens have a near-blanket right to compel companies to release personal data held about them. The concept is sometimes referred to in its Latin shorthand: habeas data. It’s the principle through which an Austrian law student has become a thorn in the side of Facebook, trying to compel the social network to disclose the vast amount of data that it holds about him. Here in the United States, we generally don’t have this right. But after lobbying by the Electronic Frontier Foundation and the American Civil Liberties Union of Northern California, California Assembly Member Bonnie Lowenthal (who represents parts of the Los Angeles area) recently introduced a bill that could extend that concept to the Golden State for the first time. The "Right to Know Act of 2013" (AB 1291) was re-read and amended a second time on April 1.
California lawmaker introduces unprecedented personal data disclosure bill
The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) issued a report that says companies can announce key information on Facebook, Twitter and other social media sites as long as they notify investors about where to find the information first.
Existing law prevents companies from sharing information with a select group of shareholders that would give them a leg up on trading before the information is made available to the public. For this reason, the agency said companies need to alert investors about which social media networks they plan to use when publishing an announcement. “One set of shareholders should not be able to get a jump on other shareholders just because the company is selectively disclosing important information,” George Canellos, acting director of the SEC’s division of enforcement, said in a statement. “Most social media are perfectly suitable methods for communicating with investors, but not if the access is restricted or if investors don’t know that’s where they need to turn to get the latest news.”
SEC gives OK for companies to publish announcements on Facebook, Twitter
Six European data protection authorities will conduct formal investigations of Google's privacy policy after the company repeatedly rejected their requests that it reverse changes it made to the policy last March.
Data protection authorities in France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain, and the U.K. have resolved to conduct investigations or inspections of Google's privacy policy, following an initial investigation by the French data protection authority. The precise nature of the actions will depend on how the European Data Protection Directive has been transposed in their respective national laws. A Google spokeswoman offered the same response the company has made since the beginning of the investigation: "Our privacy policy respects European law and allows us to create simpler, more effective services. We have engaged fully with the DPAs involved throughout this process, and we'll continue to do so going forward." The six data protection authorities working on the case are all members of the Article 29 Working Party (A29WP), which brings together data protection authorities from across the European Union. Last year it mandated the French National Commission on Computing and Liberty to begin an investigation on its behalf, after the company repeatedly refused to answer questions about its plans to introduce a new privacy policy.
Six European countries launch formal investigations into Google's privacy policy EU Wants Google to Stop Ignoring Its Privacy Policy Complaints (WSJ) European regulators blast Google for continued EU privacy violations (ars technica) Google faces wrath of European regulators over unified privacy policy (GigaOm)
Verizon Communications and New York City agreed to test a method to more quickly install fiber-optic cables under sidewalks, potentially enabling the company to offer faster connections in more neighborhoods. The pilot program allows Verizon to use “micro-trenching” or “saw cutting,” in which narrow, shallow grooves are carved out of the ground, opening space for cables, the city said in a statement.
The trial will start with 12 sites across the five boroughs, after which the government and the company will assess whether it can be adopted citywide. The plan would help Verizon, the nation’s second-largest phone company, sell higher Internet speeds and television service in more parts of the city, competing with Time Warner Cable and RCN. Verizon is counting on those offerings to help keep its phone customers from switching to cable. While Verizon has been offering its fiber-optic service, called FiOS, in parts of New York City since 2008, it still hasn’t reached every neighborhood. The program could also help the carrier provide service to areas affected by Superstorm Sandy last year, the city said.
Verizon, New York City to Test Way to Spread Fiber Network
The Senate Commerce Committee’s Communications Subcommittee announced the witness list for an April 9 hearing on rural communications and the "challenges facing companies serving rural consumers" and the list include smaller cable operators and telecom providers intimately familiar with the issue. Among those challenges, according to cable operators are not being overbuilt by government broadband stimulus money, and continuing to get subsidies as the FCC migrates the Universal Service Fund from phone to broadband. Scheduled to testify are Steven Davis from CenturyLink, John Strode of Ritter Communications, Patricia Jo Boyers of BOYCOM Cablevision Inc., and Leroy Carlson Jr. of Telephone & Data Systems.
Senate to Hear From Telecoms on Rural Communications
Today the world’s citizens are benefitting from the growth and innovation of the Internet. The Internet has flourished because of the approach taken from its infancy to resolve technical and policy questions. Known as the multistakeholder process, it involves the full involvement of all stakeholders, consensus-based decision-making and operating in an open, transparent and accountable manner. The multistakeholder model has promoted freedom of expression, both online and off. It has ensured the Internet is a robust, open platform for innovation, investment, economic growth and the creation of wealth throughout the world, including in developing countries.
For these reasons, the United States Government is committed to the multistakeholder model as the appropriate process for addressing Internet policy and governance issues. We believe that the Internet’s decentralized, multistakeholder processes enable us all to benefit from the engagement of all interested parties. By encouraging the participation of industry, civil society, technical and academic experts, and governments from around the globe, multistakeholder processes result in broader and more creative problem solving than traditional governmental approaches.
Moving Together Beyond Dubai
To make an HD voice call, you need to meet all of the following stipulations.
- Your phone needs to be HD-capable. Not just HD capable, but support the HD-Voice codec used by your carrier. In the case of T-Mobile, that means the iPhone, the Samsung Galaxy S 3, the HTC One S and probably most newer generation smartphones. For Sprint, that does not include the iPhone because Apple isn’t supporting the CDMA HD-Voice codec, but it does include the HTC Evo 4G.
- The phone you’re calling needs to HD-capable. Not only does the recipient need an HD device, it needs to be running on another HD-compatible network using the same HD technology as your device. Even if a Sprint and a T-Mobile customers both have the right phones, they can’t make HD calls to one another. If either customer called any other carrier or any wireline number, those voice connections also would revert to “standard-definition.”
- Both phones need to be connected to an HD-capable base station. Just because a carrier supports HD-voice doesn’t mean it supports it in all places. Sprint, for instance is enabling it as it upgrades its CDMA systems as part of its Network Vision overhaul (basically everywhere it offers LTE). When Verizon and AT&T launch their voice-over-LTE (VoLTE) services, both caller and recipient will have to be on LTE networks for the conversation to transmit in HD. T-Mobile, however, appears to upgraded its entire network to support HD.
The road to HD Voice on mobile phones is a bumpy one
A report released by the Congressional Research Service on March 22 assessed how members of the 112th Congress use Facebook and Twitter. The CRS said that social media technology has “arguably served to enhance” the ability of lawmakers to represent their constituents, and looked to see how exactly the technologies were being used. The study analyzed data on both services from August 2011 to October 2011, along with the service adoption rates as of January 2012. Some of the report’s highlights:
- Approximately 84 percent of the 112th Congress was registered on Twitter, and 90 percent had a registered account on Facebook.
- House Republicans had the highest adoption rates on Facebook and Twitter as of January 2012 -- 94.7 percent and 87.3 percent for both services, respectively. Senate Democrats had the lowest adoption rates -- 78 percent for Facebook and 77 percent for Twitter.
- Senate Republicans were the most active on Twitter and Facebook. They had 1.53 Tweets per day and .84 posts on Facebook. House Democrats were the least active on both services, with approximately 1 Tweet per day, and .49 posts on Facebook per day, according to the report.
Lawmakers to the Public: Follow Me Social Networking and Constituent Communications: Members’ Use of Twitter and Facebook During a Two-Month Period in the 112th Congress (read the report)