Hill, The

Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg, Dropbox’s Drew Houston, Netflix’s Reed Hastings and HP’s Meg Whitman are among the tech CEOs urging the Federal Communications Commission to provide billions for Wi-Fi in schools and libraries.

The FCC is voting at its upcoming monthly meeting on a plan from Chairman Tom Wheeler to boost Wi-Fi in schools and libraries.

“The message from America is clear, if our schools do not have the broadband they need, our students will not be able to compete in the global economy,” the CEOs told FCC commissioners.

Signatories also included current and former CEOs of YouTube, eBay, Adobe, Airbnb, Dell, Intuit, OpenTable, Salesforce.com, Xerox and prominent venture capital firms.

Chairman Wheeler’s plan would put $5 billion toward providing and upgrading Wi-Fi services and equipment over the next five years on top of the agency’s $2.4 billion annual budget for the E-Rate program, which works to connect schools and libraries to the Internet. The agency has already set aside the first $2 billion and plans to provide the following $3 billion through eliminating inefficiencies in the program and phasing out non-Internet access services, including pagers.

A coalition of education groups is backing a proposal at the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) that would funnel billions of dollars into wireless Internet for schools and libraries.

The proposal “is a necessary first step toward providing students with the educational infrastructure they need to excel,” ten education groups said in a letter to FCC commissioners sent.

Signatories include the Consortium for School Networking, the National Association of State Boards of Education and the State Educational Technology Directors Association.

The letter comes as the agency prepares to vote on the new proposal from Chairman Tom Wheeler to expand the FCC’s E-Rate funding. Opposition to Chairman Wheeler’s plan could put the vote in jeopardy.

It’s crunch time for reining in the National Security Agency. If lawmakers are going to finalize the USA Freedom Act to reform government surveillance in 2014, privacy advocates warn they need to pick up the pace.

“I think there’s a lot of pressure on the Judiciary Committee to act on USA Freedom before the August recess,” said Greg Nojeim, senior counsel at the Center for Democracy and Technology. “Everyone knows that bills that aren’t yet out of committee by the end of July are really hard to get done because appropriations occupy so much time and attention,” he added. “I wouldn’t want to be a Judiciary Committee staffer responsible for this issue and have Fourth of July vacation plans.”

The Senate will return after the July Fourth holiday weekend for four straight weeks of work in Washington before the month-long August recess. After that, government funding and the November elections are likely to take center stage, clouding the outlook for any controversial measures on Capitol Hill.

Educators are threatening to derail the Obama Administration’s proposals to boost wireless Internet in schools over fears districts could be left with inadequate funds or cuts to other services.

A new plan from Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Chairman Tom Wheeler would funnel $5 billion for Wi-Fi over the next five years through the agency’s E-Rate program.

The FCC is set to vote on the plan at its monthly meeting on July 11, but sources now say it’s unclear if it has the votes to pass. Democratic Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel and Republican Commissioner Ajit Pai have advocated for reforms to the E-Rate program, but it's unclear if either will support Wheeler's proposal as currently written.

Sources said the plan’s specifics are in flux as Chairman Wheeler works to rally support from other commissioners and advocacy groups ahead of the vote. “There are still some Commissioners who are listening to educators in the field, and we hope their voices ring loudly in next week’s meeting,” said an education advocate opposed to the proposal.

Rep Anna Eshoo (D-CA) doesn't think websites should be paired with .wine. In a letter to the head of the international group deciding new website endings, such as .com or .net, the top Democrat on the House’s Technology subcommittee said she was "deeply concerned" about certain generic top-level domain names (gLTDs).

“Specifically, it’s my understanding that the .wine and .vin gLTDs have been met with fierce opposition from the wine industry, both here in the US and around the world,” Rep Eshoo added. “Given those concerns ... I urge you to advocate for the .wine and .vin gTLDs to be permanently withdrawn from consideration.”

The nonprofit Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, which manages online domain names, is in the process of creating hundreds of new extensions to expand the confines of the Web. As well as adding new letters after the "dot," extensions are also being rolled out in other characters like Chinese and Arabic, and industries are trying to capitalize on the move. Nike and McDonald’s have looked to get on board, as has the Republican Party.

Rep Alan Grayson (D-FL) wants the head of the Federal Communications Commission to do something to protect people’s phone calls. Rep Grayson said he was "disturbed" about devices that can cost as little as $1,800 and secretly pick up calls and text messages.

“Americans have a reasonable expectation of privacy in their communications, and in information about where they go and with whom they communicate,” he wrote to FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler. “It is extremely troubling to learn that cellular communications are so poorly secured, and that it is so easy to intercept calls and track people’s phones.”

The relatively simple technology known as ISMI catchers operate like a cellphone tower to pick up unique signals from people’s phones to listen in on their conversations and text message chats and nab any emails or contact data on the phones.

Aside from criminals and snooping neighbors, spies or terrorists could also use the devices, critics have worried. Even worse, Rep Grayson said, the FCC may have long been aware of how the devices pick up personal cellphone data.

Days after the streaming TV service Aereo announced it was suspending its operations, one company is offering subscribers a free antenna to watch their favorite NBC, CBS and other broadcast shows.

“We have a solution to the Supreme Court ruling that resulted in the loss of your local broadcast television: A free antenna from Antennas Direct,” the Missouri-based retailer said.

The company is giving away antennas, coaxial cable and mounting to the first 1,000 Aereo subscribers who respond. “To receive your free antenna, simply upload your Aereo billion statement and pay $10.00 for shipping,” the company said.

Federal and state courts allowed more than 3,500 wiretaps in 2013, the highest number in recent years. Federal judges authorized 1,476 wiretaps, and state judges authorized 2,100 in 2013 -- up 9 percent and 3 percent, respectively, from 2012 -- according to the US court system’s annual Wiretap Report.

The vast majority of the wiretaps -- 97 percent -- were for “portable devices,” such as cellphones. While 41 of the more than 3,500 wiretaps intercepted encrypted communications in 2013, law enforcement agencies were able to decipher all but nine, the report said. Wiretaps lasted on average 40 days in 2013, one day longer than the average in 2012, according to the report.

Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-VT) said that a plan to allow some companies to pay for "fast lanes" on the Internet "runs contrary to every principle I believe the Internet was based on."

Sen Leahy made the comments as part of a field hearing in Burlington (VT), with Rep Peter Welch (D-VT). The two ripped the Federal Communications Commission plans for "fast lanes," and called for tougher FCC regulations to ensure Internet service providers can't give special treatment to some online content. The two argued the fast lanes could lead to a slower Internet for their constituents.

“We’re not going to have an economy in Vermont if we don’t have an accessible Internet,” said Rep Welch, who serves on the House Energy and Commerce Committee and its subcommittee on Communications. “I see this as absolutely essential to the future of Vermont's economy as well as rural America," he added. "We’ve got folks here on the front lines whose access to the Internet is crucial to the jobs that they created, the good jobs that we have in Vermont.”

Sen Leahy said his constituents had "spoken very clearly” on the issue.

Treasury Secretary Jack Lew said that he will continue to press China toward changing it cybersecurity policies to better protect US companies from intellectual property theft.

Secretary Lew said he hoped to make more progress on closing the gap between the views held by Washington and Beijing over the role governments play in protecting trade secrets during the next round of the US-China Strategic & Economic Dialogue.

"We do not view it as an acceptable practice for governmental entities to participate in the process of securing trade secrets for the economic benefits of firms in their country," Sec Lew said. “We’ve made clear how unacceptable it is for those practices to go on,” he said. “It’s just a difference between how we do business. We just don’t engage in activity like that. We don’t condone it.”

Sec Lew said it is important to continue the cyber discussion, which developed as part of dialogue in 2013. "I'm optimistic that we are going to be able to make some progress again this year," Sec Lew said.