Representatives of Google and Microsoft urged the FCC to adopt technical rules permitting the use of three 801.11af channels in the 600 MHz band following the TV incentive auction, in a series of meetings with commission officials. The companies elaborated on their arguments in an ex parte filing in docket 12-268. The companies urged that the rules allow the operation of Mode 1 and 2 personal/portable unlicensed devices in the duplex gap, the lower guard band and Channel 37, the filing said (http://bit.ly/1uEzbyS). They argued that a database should be allowed to determine unlicensed device operation based on the device’s location-accuracy capabilities so devices with better accuracy can operate in appropriate locations, rather than preserving the current rule, which mandates that all devices establish location within +/- 50 meters. Unlicensed systems should be allowed to determine areas where devices can operate in the broadcast band using both the database and sensing, Google and Microsoft said.
The FCC should allow Wilkes Telephone Membership Corp. to include $147,149 owed by Halo in 2011 as part of its base period revenue for that year, NTCA said in an emergency petition (http://bit.ly/XWgnAf) posted Monday in docket 10-90 on behalf of the member company. It requests a waiver from a commission rule that requires that funds included as 2011 revenue be collected by March 31, 2012. The rural North Carolina company, which relies on Universal Service Fund support, has not been able to collect the money from Halo, which declared bankruptcy in 2012, the petition said. Not being able to count the funds “would not only create a one-time impact, but would continue to cause a financial impact to Wilkes every year” that the base period revenue is used to calculate USF support, the petition said.
MuckRock released a document it said was obtained by a member in which the FBI acknowledged the Tacoma, Washington, Police Department’s use of StingRay cellphone tracking equipment. MuckRack released the copy of a nondisclosure agreement (NDA) between Tacoma and the Justice Department Monday. StingRay devices are cell site simulators, manufactured by Harris, which “trick mobile phones into connecting to a StingRay as if it were a cell tower,” MuckRock said (http://bit.ly/1slLxiJ). “This allows police to determine the cell phone’s location, and thus its owner’s.” The document is heavily redacted, with four of six pages completely blacked out. The FBI requires state and local police to sign an NDA before it can acquire a cellphone eavesdropping and tracking technology, said the FBI letter released through a Freedom of Information Act request by MuckRock, the news site that submits FOIA requests (http://bit.ly/XUNmoG). The document comes from 2012 and shows the FBI asking the Tacoma police to agree to the NDA before acquiring the StingRay tracking technology. According to other FOIA requests made by the Electronic Privacy Information Center, the FBI has used StingRay since at least 1995 (http://bit.ly/1mqEX8f). The FBI, Harris and Tacoma police had no immediate comment.
Google will face charges if it doesn’t improve on its proposed settlement in an ongoing antitrust case with EU regulators, said EU Antitrust Commissioner Joaquin Almunia in a speech, the prepared text of which published Tuesday (http://bit.ly/1qr3xRj). The case centers on how Google presents search results related to its competitors. “Fresh evidence” from complaints filed in response Google’s proposed antitrust settlement factored heavily into Almunia’s decision to reject the proposal, he said. “I have communicated this to the company asking them to improve its proposals,” Almunia said. “We now need to see if Google can address these issues and allay our concerns.” Google competitors and consumer advocates lambasted the proposal when it was unveiled (WID Feb 6 p1).
Nielsen and Simulmedia partnered to develop a measurement solution for unmeasured cable network TV audiences. Joint research by the companies will seek to capture the sizable audience activity “that goes unmeasured today on niche cable networks to enable these networks to sell advertising based on reliable, qualified ratings systems,” Nielsen said Tuesday in a news release (http://bit.ly/1x7sHwU). The research was accumulated through the Nielsen People Meter panel and Simulmedia’s set-top box viewing data representing 50 million viewers, it said.
The Patent and Trademark Office invalidated a patent on smartphone screen rotation held by Rotatable Technologies, said Rackspace Vice President-Intellectual Property Van Lindberg in a Monday blog post (http://bit.ly/1wFYe6h). Rotatable Technologies had sued Rackspace for infringement of the patent, Lindberg said. Instead of settling, Rackspace challenged the patent in an inter partes review at the PTO, a feature recently created after the 2011 passage of the America Invents Act (WID July 31 p7). “This means that Rackspace will not pay one penny to this troll, nor will Apple, Netflix, Electronic Arts, Target, Whole Foods or any of the other companies sued by Rotatable for how they use screen rotation technology in their apps,” Lindberg said. “Without changes in the law we believe that the only way to end the plague of patent trolls is by fighting every troll that comes at us -- and we encourage all others to do the same.” Patent law revamp efforts stalled in 2013 (WID May 23 p4). Neither the PTO nor Rotatable commented.
There’s no evidence of foreign influence over Pandora and the FCC can’t find that it’s in the public interest to deny its application to acquire a KXMZ(FM) Box Elder, South Dakota, said the company in meetings with aides to all FCC members and staff from the Office of General Counsel, according to an ex parte filing posted Monday in docket 14-109 (http://bit.ly/1qqhZJh). Because it’s a widely held public company, Pandora is “unable to establish the identity, let alone the nationality of the majority of its shareholders” who have chosen to take advantage of SEC privacy rules, Pandora said. The company had asked the FCC to permit it to buy the station even if it’s up to 100 percent foreign owned (WID Sept 3 p8). The company’s leadership is almost entirely U.S. citizens, and the only shareholder that owns more than 5 percent of Pandora’s stock is a U.S. entity, the filing said. It said Pandora believes its foreign ownership is “likely in the 15-17 percent range."
House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte, R-Va., hopes if Republicans take control of the Senate following the November midterm elections “it will accelerate the agenda” for House Judiciary, he said during an episode of C-SPAN’s Newsmakers that was shown over the weekend (http://cs.pn/1riNhpm). He tallied the hundreds of bills passed by the House that have not been addressed in the Senate, “including some pretty important ones, like patent litigation reform and the [National Security Agency/Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act] Court reform,” he said. “Top on my list would be to do the patent litigation reform and the NSA FISA Court reform because those have already passed the House in a very bipartisan way. ... These are opportunities, I think, that we shouldn’t miss.”
Rovi Corp. has deployed its programming guides on more than half a million standard and high-definition digital terminal adapters (DTAs), the company said in a news release Tuesday (http://bit.ly/Zcgqti). Rovi is providing its TV programming guide “throughout the U.S. and Latin America” through deals with Armstrong, Arris, Cablevision Argentina, Evolution Digital, Pace and “more than a dozen leading cable operators,” Rovi said. DTAs convert incoming digital signals into analog signals that can be viewed on older TV sets, it noted. The devices help cable companies upgrade local systems from analog to digital and optimize bandwidth to support HD channels and high-speed data, said the company. It said Rovi’s DTA Guide “eases the digital transition and enhances the experience for consumers by offering cable subscribers an Interactive Program Guide for navigating content choices."
House and Senate bills would give the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board (PCLOB) the authority it needs to properly oversee the government’s surveillance programs, said lawmakers supporting the Strengthening Privacy, Oversight, and Transparency (SPOT) Act. The proposal would give PCLOB the ability to issue subpoenas itself, instead of relying on the Justice Department, and it would make the board jobs full-time positions, said a Tuesday news release. “This bill gives the board the teeth it needs to fulfill its mandate,” said Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., who introduced the measure with Sen. Tom Udall, D-N.M. Under the bill, PCLOB’s jurisdiction would expand to include “all foreign intelligence activities,” said Udall, who chairs the Senate Appropriations Financial Services and General Government Subcommittee, which funds PCLOB. Reps. Tulsi Gabbard, D-Hawaii, and Trey Gowdy, R-S.C., introduced the House version. “It makes little sense to charge [PCLOB] with independently monitoring the executive branch’s actions related to privacy concerns, but require the Attorney General’s approval before issuing subpoenas,” Gowdy said.