Sen. Kelly Ayotte, R-N.H., and FCC Commissioner Ajit Pai jointly questioned how FCC rules could let Dish Network buy $13.3 billion worth of AWS-3 licenses for $10 billion using bidding credits (see 1502020039). “While most bidders put their own money on the line, some of the largest companies in the auction were using billions of taxpayer dollars. How is that possible?” they asked in an op-ed piece in Thursday's Wall Street Journal. They warned that despite Dish’s alleged manipulation of the designated entity program, the FCC may further loosen DE rules. “What is astonishing about the manipulation of the bidding process is how cavalier the parties are,” they wrote. "The two Dish-related companies -- Northstar Wireless and SNR Wireless -- didn’t exist until a few months before the auction, and each reported to the FCC that it was a ‘very small business’ as neither had any gross revenues. Yet together the two companies magically managed to place bids more than seven times those of spectrum-hungry T-Mobile.” The FCC had no comment.

Security vulnerabilities in hotel Wi-Fi networks are being exploited by hackers to steal people’s passwords and other sensitive information, Carol Kando-Pineda, counsel for the FTC's Consumer & Business Education Division, wrote in a blog post Wednesday. If using a public network is necessary, Kando-Pineda recommended taking precautions such as ensuring personal information or login information is used only on websites that are fully encrypted, using a different password on different websites, logging out once leaving a website, paying attention to Web browser alerts and keeping browser and security software up to date. “If you regularly need to access online accounts through public Wi-Fi networks, you may want to use a virtual private network,” she wrote.

The Multicultural Media, Telecom and Internet Council, an advocate of more designated entity (DE) participation in FCC auctions, views the AWS-3 auction as a success, MMTC said in a written statement Tuesday. “The auction netted over $41 billion that will be used to fund the first nationwide public safety network and contribute to significant reduction of the national debt,” the group said. “The auction also increased diversity of spectrum ownership and competition in the wireless industry -- two important policy goals that MMTC has long championed.” MMTC said it would have more to say after a review of the record. Monday, FCC Commissioner Ajit Pai criticized the commission for allowing Dish Network to get DE bidding credits (see 1502020039).

The FCC issued a strong warning to hotels and businesses that they will face fines if they block Wi-Fi hot spots. The FCC said in October that Marriott International and its subsidiary, Marriott Hotel Services, had agreed to pay $600,000 to resolve an FCC investigation into whether Marriott intentionally interfered with and disabled Wi-Fi networks at a Tennessee convention center (see 1410060053). “Wi-Fi blocking violates Section 333 of the Communications Act, as amended,” said the public notice Tuesday. “The Enforcement Bureau has seen a disturbing trend in which hotels and other commercial establishments block wireless consumers from using their own personal Wi-Fi hot spots on the commercial establishment’s premises. As a result, the Bureau is protecting consumers by aggressively investigating and acting against such unlawful intentional interference.”

The FCC should hold the TV incentive auction as planned next year, T-Mobile CEO John Legere told commissioners in meetings last week, said an ex parte filing posted Monday in docket 12-269. Legere met with all five FCC members, as well as key wireless staffers, the filing said. Legere “discussed the impact T-Mobile has had on competition in the industry for the benefit of consumers” and the importance of low-band spectrum, the filing said. Delaying the incentive auction “would only benefit AT&T and Verizon, which hold approximately 73 percent of the low-band spectrum today,” he said. T-Mobile needs low-band spectrum to compete against AT&T and Verizon, Legere argued. The timing of the auction has been in question, with commissioners saying at CES that they support a pause (see 1501120046). Industry officials tell us a 2016 auction works to T-Mobile's advantage because the spectrum aggregation rules approved for the auction limit buys by AT&T and Verizon, which could be changed under another administration.

About 17 percent of U.S. broadband homes are likely to subscribe to HBO’s Go OTT service, said Parks Associates research. Nine in 10 of likely subscribers currently subscribe to a pay-TV service and half would cancel their current service after subscribing to HBO’s streaming service, Parks said. The percentage of subscribers interested in over-the-top video services is “trending upward,” and more industry players are planning to launch their own OTT services, said Brett Sappington, research director, citing Dish Network’s Sling TV OTT service announced at CES (see 1501050037), which includes sports programming from channels including ESPN, TBS and TNT. Sports programming could be a major incentive for consumers to switch to stand-alone OTT services “as sports is one of the primary reasons consumers elect to keep pay-TV services,” said Sappington. He said Rogers Communications and Shaw Communications in Canada unveiled their shomi online video service in November, while in Europe, players are bringing OTT services as a hedge against Netflix’s arrival into their markets. Sappington called 2015 “the year of OTT.”

The IEEE is launching a new group, the 802.19 Wireless Coexistence Working Group. The working group will “explore radio technology independent methods for enabling wireless networks operating in unlicensed frequency bands to coexist,” IEEE said.

Marriott International “listens to its customers” and will no longer block guests from using their personal Wi-Fi devices at any of the hotels the company manages, it said in a statement posted on its website Wednesday. “Marriott remains committed to protecting the security of Wi-Fi access in meeting and conference areas at our hotels,” the company said. “We will continue to look to the FCC to clarify appropriate security measures network operators can take to protect customer data, and will continue to work with the industry and others to find appropriate market solutions that do not involve the blocking of Wi-Fi devices.” In August, Marriott, joined by the American Hospitality and Lodging Association and Ryman Hospitality Properties, asked the agency for clarity on the extent to which companies can manage networks on their properties without violating FCC rules, and the FCC sought comment (see 1501010001). In October, Marriott agreed to pay $600,000 to resolve an FCC investigation into whether the company intentionally interfered with and disabled Wi-Fi networks at its Gaylord Opryland Hotel in Nashville (see 1410060066).

Verizon FiOS topped the list of Internet service providers in the Netflix December ISP Speed Index, Netflix said Monday in a blog post. Historically, December is the “heaviest viewing month” for Netflix, with Dec. 28 being the year’s biggest streaming day in terms of Internet traffic, it said. Despite the heavy demand, “we saw continued increases in average speeds across the largest ISPs,” with Verizon FiOS topping the list at 3.36 Mbps, Cablevision second at 3.32 Mbps and Bright House third at 3.30 Mbps, Netflix said. That’s up from November average speeds of 3.27 Mbps, 3.20 Mbps and 3.16 Mbps, respectively, it said. Time Warner Cable posted the largest gain in December, jumping three spots to sixth place with average speeds of 3.18 Mbps, up from 2.97 Mbps in November, it said. Netflix defines the index as a measure of prime time Netflix performance on a particular ISP and not a measure of overall performance for other services/data that may travel across the specific ISP network, it said. “Faster Netflix performance generally means better picture quality, quicker start times and fewer interruptions.”

Average global Internet connection speeds decreased in Q3 of 2014, while “attack traffic” increased, said the Akamai Technologies 2014 State of the Internet Report released Thursday. The report’s data was collected by Akamai’s Intelligent Platform and included responses from the company’s customers. Although global Internet connection speeds stayed above the 4 Mbps “‘broadband’ threshold,” those speeds dropped by 2.8 percent to 4.5 Mbps in Q3, said Akamai. The global broadband adoption rate of more than 4 Mbps reached 60 percent in Q3, a 1 percent increase quarter-over-quarter. Adoption rates of more than 10 Mbps decreased by 0.5 percent in Q3. The report located attack traffic from 201 unique countries or regions in Q3, up from 161 in Q2. Fifty-percent of the attacks came from China. The number of Chinese attacks were three times greater than those that came from the U.S., although China and the U.S. were the only countries that accounted for more than 10 percent of global attack traffic. Akamai customers reported 270 distributed denial of service attacks in Q3, a 4 percent decrease from Q3 in 2013. More than 790 million IPv4 addresses connected to the company’s Intelligent Platform from more than 246 countries or regions in Q3. South Korea had the fastest average mobile connection speed, growing from 15.2 Mbps in Q2 to 18.2 Mbps in Q3. Iran’s 0.9 Mbps was the lowest average mobile connection speed in Q3.