China’s drive to become a global IoT leader “poses sobering challenges to U.S. economic and security interests,” said a report prepared for the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission. China’s “robust participation in international standards committees has given Beijing greater opportunities to dictate the rules of the road,” it said. “Its research into IoT security vulnerabilities and its growing civil-military cooperation raise concerns about gaining unauthorized access to IoT devices and sensitive data. Its authorized access to the IoT data of U.S. consumers will only grow as Chinese IoT companies leverage their advantages in production and cost to gain market share in the United States.” That China is “still behind leading international levels in many IoT technologies” means American companies and the U.S. government “still have time to maintain a technological edge and influence future IoT development, standards, and roll-out,” said the report.

IT managers deploying IoT should closely monitor devices that collect vast amounts of data, as it creates a trust concern, the National Institute of Standards and Technology announced Wednesday. The white paper draft outlines 17 “technical trust-related issues that may negatively impact the adoption of IoT products and services.” Comments are due Nov. 16.

House Digital Commerce Subcommittee Chairman Bob Latta, R-Ohio, and Rep. Jerry McNerney, D-Calif., formed the Congressional Wi-Fi Caucus Thursday in a bid to improve lawmakers' education about Wi-Fi legislative issues. Focuses will include 5G, cybersecurity, infrastructure, IoT and spectrum optimization, the lawmakers' offices said. “While there is hardly a corner of the tech sector that Wi-Fi doesn’t touch, we haven’t had a dedicated caucus in Congress to focus on the policy issues facing this essential technology,” Latta said. “Wi-Fi plays a crucial role in our ability to expand access, and it is paramount that we understand how Wi-Fi intersects with other key policy areas, such as cybersecurity, transportation, telehealth, energy, and agriculture,” McNerney said. Wi-Fi Alliance and WifiForward lauded the caucus' launch.

Consumers who store music or movie content on the hard drive of a network-attached storage box shouldn't sit the device on top of a speaker or put it anywhere near a heat source, warned James Morse, engineering manager for hard-drive vendor Seagate, at a trade seminar Tuesday that storage specialist Synology stages annually in London. “Vibration from the speaker will slow disc performance and can lead to drive failure,” and heat is “as bad for hard drives as vibration,” said Morse. “People forget just how sophisticated hard drives now are,” so much so that “it’s remarkable” they work at all, he told us. Seagate’s new 14-terabyte IronWolf drive has eight discs inside with a read/write head on each side, making a total of 16 heads, he said. These are skimming over the disc surface with a gap of between six and 10 nanometers, Morse said. The casing is filled with helium gas to reduce friction, he said. Any external vibration makes it harder for the disc servo system to align the heads with the very narrow tracks, he said. “Worst case” is when a bit of the disc surface material dislodges and sticks to the head, he said. “The head then scores the surface and the disc fails.” Seagate is the only hard drive vendor with an in-house team able to retrieve data from failed or damaged drives, said Morse. Seagate’s recovery service comes free for two years with the purchase of IronWolf Pro drives, he said.

By 2027, machine-to-machine and IoT applications will likely represent 37 percent of all satcom terminals, Northern Sky Research said Tuesday. A variety of small satellite constellations -- Astrocast, Hiber and Kepler Communications among them -- will target those applications, leading to new connectivity demands, it said. Low average revenue per user will mean "modest" opportunities, but smallsat constellations targeting M2M/IoT are more viable than low earth orbit telecom constellations due to lower capital costs, NSR said. Most connected IoT devices will rely on terrestrial connectivity, but low-cost satcom services have a niche opportunity with devices operating outside terrestrial network footprints or moving in and out of terrestrial networks, it said.

Dutch IoT satellite startup Magnitude Space wants to put up a 24-satellite low earth orbit mobile satellite system constellation. In an FCC International Bureau petition for U.S. market access Monday, Magnitude's Hiber said the first two satellites are scheduled for launch in October and November, with the constellation to reach full size over five years. It said a third satellite is under construction, and beyond that the company is exploring the use of smaller satellites for its buildout. It said the constellation will be part of a low-power global area network, Hiberband, providing global connectivity and IoT devices. It said the constellation -- orbiting at roughly 600 km -- will be tied to earth stations around the globe and to ground stations in Norway and the Netherlands. The company plans to use service links in the 399.9-400.05 MHz band for uplinks 400.15-401 MHz band for downlinks and feeder links in the 2200-2290 MHz band when satellites are directly over the ground stations, and not in or near the U.S. Hiber told the bureau that while Orbcomm is authorized to operate on a primary basis in parts of the 400.15-401 MHz band, sharing shouldn't be a problem because Hiber satellites only transmit to earth stations in short bursts when the satellite is directly overhead. Orbcomm didn't comment Tuesday.

Critics of Ligado's plans are taking their arguments to the Commerce Department. In a letter dated Sept. 4 to Secretary Wilbur Ross, National Space Council Executive Secretary Scott Pace and White House Deputy U.S. Chief Technology Officer Michael Kratsios and copied to the FCC chief, the satellite, aviation and weather data interests argued that U.S. space leadership relies on stable spectrum for satellites and consistent interference protection, and that Ligado's plans run contrary to those needs. They said satellite users of the L-band rely on spectrum allocation protection and on harmonization with international allocations, and Ligado's plan to use 40 MHz of L-band for mobile broadband/IoT terrestrial service "runs afoul" of those principles. It would "fundamentally change" the nature of the band and cause harmful interference to adjacent satellite services, they said. They said it would hamper efforts to protect domestic satellite companies "from ill-conceived international interference-causing proposals," especially as Ligado "surely" seeks to get similar approvals from other nations. Signatories include the Aerospace Industries Association, American Meteorological Society, American Weather and Climate Industry Association, General Aviation Manufacturers Association, Iridium and National Weather Association. Ligado emailed Wednesday that the letter "presents again the false choice that policy makers should choose either satellite or mobile broadband services to support the Internet of Things. Ligado, which for twenty years has been in the satellite business, realizes as others in the industry and policymakers do that limited spectrum can and must support a number of national priorities -- critical IoT applications, satellite services, broadband and more. The expert spectrum agencies at NTIA and the FCC understand these complexities and are working tirelessly to make timely and balanced decisions that advance all sectors of the U.S. economy.”

Sprint and Ericsson plan to jointly build a distributed and virtualized IoT core network and an IoT operating system, they said Tuesday. They said the operating system capabilities would include managing configurations and updates for each device.

Sourcenext announced a portable, artificial intelligence-powered instant voice translation device with 74-language capability set to launch at IFA. The $249 Pocketalk uses Wi-Fi, mobile data or a personal hot spot to connect to the internet. The $299 version includes a global SIM card with two years of mobile data included. Users can talk the way they normally do, and the translation is read through a speaker without users having to hand over their phone, said the company. Availability is October, it said.

Three Phase Electric, a lighting and electrical service provider to homeowner associations in Southern California, announced an IoT-based smart community program using Persistent Systems software to automate and streamline electrical management. The program, dubbed Common Sense Smart Community, monitors lighting, irrigation, swimming pool water quality and temperature, with an eye toward improving efficiency, said Three Phase. The software is able to detect if a high-powered light bulb is used in an area where it isn’t needed and to shut off water if a leak or broken pipe is detected -- and then issue appropriate alerts, said the provider. Residents can see the status of the community facilities and repairs, such as whether a repair is underway or the water temperature at the community pool, it said.