Four senators called for new surveillance principles, at a news conference at the Capitol Wednesday on legislation to end the U.S.’s phone metadata collection and make other changes. The bill pulls together elements of several different proposals introduced in Congress, the four said. The Senate has questioned how to update U.S. intelligence agency law since leaks emerged in June from then-National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden.
The FCC’s order to discontinue three copper-based special access services in areas affected by Superstorm Sandy does not set a precedent for Verizon’s petition to replace landline service with its wireless Voice Link service on Fire Island, N.Y., said public advocates. The Wireline Bureau is granting Verizon’s application to discontinue its metallic, program audio and telegraph grade services in certain parts of New Jersey and New York since only seven customers use the metallic services and the agency did not receive comments specifically about discontinuing this service (http://bit.ly/1eHyKiB). Other Verizon ILECs recently filed a joint application to eventually discontinue metallic services in other portions of Verizon’s service territory, so the FCC said it made its order “without prejudice to our consideration of the Fire Island Discontinuance."
ORLANDO -- It might take some time for investors in telecom infrastructure to see a payoff, but when they do, it can be substantial, said speakers at a Comptel panel on mergers and acquisitions in the communications market. “The story here really is about organic growth,” said Gillis Cashman, managing partner at M/C Partners, a private equity firm focused on venture capital investments in early-stage communications and information technology companies. The industry is in year five of a 15-20 year upgrade on legacy infrastructure, Cashman said, citing a good potential for growth as most communities aren’t connected to fiber.
ORLANDO, Fla. -- The circulating FCC draft order on rural call completion (CD Sept 18 p1) won’t solve the problem of dropped calls to rural areas, but it might give the agency the tool it needs to pursue real enforcement of rules requiring call completion, panelists said Wednesday at the Comptel convention. Some questioned whether the rules might be more helpful in tracking down the problem if intermediate carriers were required to collect and report data as well.
DirecTV’s wireless broadband strategy hinges on the satellite company finding enough spectrum and lowering deployment costs, CEO Michael White said Wednesday at the Goldman Sachs investor conference in New York. While DirecTV tested a fixed-line LTE service with Verizon in 2011 through a small number of homes in Pennsylvania, it “isn’t clear yet” that wireless broadband technology is ready for wholesale distribution in the U.S., White said. The Pennsylvania homes used a device that attached to a satellite dish to receive a 4G signal from a cellular tower. Dish Network, meanwhile, has invested heavily in wireless spectrum, having purchased wireless spectrum in the 2 GHz band with the acquisitions of TerreStar and DBSD.
ORLANDO, Fla. -- Cyberattacks are increasingly being directed at specific individuals, security experts said at the CompTel convention on Tuesday. Individuals with specific access rights -- such as network operation center technicians with privileges to configure the network -- “are probably our most active target,” said Level 3 Chief Technology Officer Jack Waters. “They don’t attack our salespeople, they attack our technical folks.”
ORLANDO, Fla. -- FCC General Counsel Sean Lev shed light on how the agency’s Technology Transitions Policy Task Force operates between its public workshops. At the CompTel convention, the task force chairman discussed the weekly meetings of bureau chiefs, the FCC chief economist, the head of the Office of Engineering and Technology and others. “We're using it as a forum to make sure everyone has a hopefully significant body of knowledge” before making recommendations, Lev said Tuesday: It’s “intended to break down any potential silos” that different bureaus might have jurisdiction over, so everyone knows what’s going on.
The FCC is getting ready to shut down most of its operations if there’s an overall government shutdown, acting Chairwoman Mignon Clyburn told reporters Tuesday after a lunch address to the FCBA. Clyburn spoke for about 20 minutes, touching on the big issues she has addressed at the helm of the agency, including 700 MHz interoperability and prison calling reform.
The FCC Public Safety Bureau is seeking comment on the time of release code, audio accessibility and other technical issues identified after the 2011 nationwide test of the Emergency Alert System (EAS). The public notice follows a Public Safety bureau report that said the EAS distribution architecture is basically sound, but the test revealed equipment problems and problems with the emergency action notification (EAN) (CD April 16 p5).
House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte, R-Va., wants to move quickly on a patent overhaul and could introduce and pass a bill out of the committee as early as fall. That’s according to lobbyists on both sides of the patent issue, who spoke to us following Monday’s release (CD Sept 24 p15) of a second discussion draft on the topic from his office. Goodlatte has yet to decide on any formal timeline for hearings on the subject, and will continue to cast “a very wide net” in seeking input on the draft from patent experts on both sides of the debate, said a Judiciary aide.