House Commerce Committee Chairman Fred Upton, R-Mich., plans to release “a Cures legislative discussion draft in early January 2015,” looking to “swiftly move the legislation early in the next Congress,” he said in an opening statement at a roundtable in Kalamazoo, Michigan, Tuesday (http://1.usa.gov/1t1Bakz). He was referring to the committee’s 21st Century Cures initiative, which Upton has framed as a natural companion initiative to the overhaul of the Communications Act he also backs. Telehealth is one dimension that lawmakers involved in the 21st Century Cures initiative have examined, and groups such as the Telecommunications Industry Association have weighed in on that front as the committee considers any legislation.
ViaSat demonstrated 1 Mbps throughput over the LightSquared SkyTerra-1 satellite to a small terminal less than 8 x 5 x 2 inches. The delivery occurred in both fixed configurations and mobile applications at speeds up to 65 miles per hour, ViaSat said Tuesday in a news release. The waveform was delivered as part of the ViaSat L-band Managed Service, it said. Receiving 1 Mbps with a small mobile terminal “creates an opportunity to address unserved and underserved mobile market segments,” it said.
Net neutrality is a crucial right that requires congressional leadership, said Ro Khanna, a Democrat, Monday in a debate between candidates for the 17th congressional district seat in Silicon Valley. An attorney who was deputy assistant secretary of Commerce during President Barack Obama’s first term, Khanna is competing against Rep. Mike Honda, D-Calif., a senior member of Congress who backs net neutrality. The candidates emerged on top in an open primary earlier this year -- with Honda winning far more votes than Khanna -- and will go on to compete against one another in the November midterm elections. Khanna, who has backing from the technology industry, said Congress is “dysfunctional” and “slow-moving.” “The frustration people have, though, is nothing is getting done,” Khanna said of Honda’s tenure. “He has passed one bill in 14 years.” House Communications Subcommittee ranking member Anna Eshoo, D-Calif., has passed several bills, Khanna added. He lamented in the debate in San Jose what he called Honda’s connection to special interests and how people in Washington are “all bought and sold by lobbyists.” Khanna would seek Republican co-sponsors and meet with those who disagree with him, he said. Honda “is not bipartisan,” Khanna argued. “That is not who he is.” Honda defended his record, saying he has worked with Republicans: “I'm not burnt out. I've got a lot of gas in this tank, and I'm not even a hybrid.” Honda said he helped expand the presence of the Patent and Trademark Office in California. Both candidates criticized the Obama administration’s policies of government mass surveillance. Khanna slammed Honda for not being more outspoken on the issue and touted his own so-called Internet Bill of Rights. “First, a right to net neutrality, because we shouldn’t have people who pay special money get special access to the Internet,” Khanna said. “Every person should be free of mass surveillance.” People also have a right to know how companies use their data, he added. “Privacy of the individual is paramount,” Honda agreed, saying he believes Congress can resolve the challenge and citing his vote against the Patriot Act.
Mobile e-commerce company Curbside raised $8 million in a Series A round, said a company news release Monday. The financing round was led by Index Ventures and included Chicago Ventures and Innovation Endeavors, it said. Curbside also launched an e-commerce app that lets consumers order items remotely, it said. Curbside services are available at 10 Target stores in the San Francisco Bay area, it said, and the company expects to expand to other markets in the coming months.
An August FCC order (http://bit.ly/1piyXhm) making technical changes to agency rules for new Medical Body Area Networks (MBANs) is for the most part effective starting Nov. 5, said a notice published by the agency Monday in the Federal Register (http://1.usa.gov/1rdAukI). “In addressing petitions for reconsideration of the First Report and Order in this proceeding, the Commission provides MBAN users with additional flexibility to enable the implementation of technical standards being developed for MBAN devices, and clarify and modify portions of its rules to facilitate the coordination, deployment, and use of MBAN systems,” the FCC said. The FCC approved initial MBANs rules in May 2012. MBANs allow caregivers to monitor and log data from patients with chronic diseases, FCC officials said then. The Office of Management and Budget New must review the modified information collection requirements in the order, the FCC said.
Cox Communications said it will begin offering its “G1GABLAST” gigabit Internet service to its residential customers later this year. Cox will first offer the G1GABLAST service to customers in portions of the Phoenix metropolitan area, followed by offerings in Las Vegas and Omaha. The company said it plans to deploy the service nationwide by the end of 2016. “Cox will deliver the choice of gigabit speeds to all of our customers nationwide,” said President Pat Esser in a Monday news release. G1GABLAST will cost $69.99 per month for customers in Phoenix as part of a service bundle. Cox said it’s also doubling speeds for its High Speed Internet Preferred and High Speed Internet Premier services (http://bit.ly/Za4GGO).
Discovery Communications and Suddenlink renewed a long-term distribution agreement to deliver Discovery’s 13 U.S. networks to Suddenlink TV customers. Suddenlink customers will have continued access to the networks and VOD content, including OWN: Oprah Winfrey Network, TLC and Investigation Discovery, Discovery said Monday in a news release (http://bit.ly/1vHGd6x). The companies expect Suddenlink customers to have authenticated access to Discovery content inside and outside the home in the near future, Discovery said.
The Illinois Attorney General’s Office is investigating the cyberattack on JPMorgan Chase that exposed the personal information of 83 million customers, a spokesperson confirmed Monday. JPMorgan late last week revealed the scale of the attack through an SEC filing (http://bit.ly/1uSaYsO), which topped the bank’s previous predictions (WID Oct 6 p1). “A breach of this size and significance demands a comprehensive response from the highest level of our government,” said Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan in a statement. She chastised JPMorgan over its public messaging following the breach. The bank is “trying to diminish the extent of the breach,” she said. “That Chase only revealed the still limited details of the breach in a regulatory filing makes the situation worse,” Madigan said. “Millions of Americans trusted Chase to secure their money and personal information, but by failing to be forthcoming, they have lost their confidence in Chase.” Reuters reported Friday that the Connecticut Attorney General is also investigating the breach, which was uncovered over the summer (http://reut.rs/1yHT3Yl), but the office did not respond to requests for confirmation. JPMorgan declined to comment.
Digital asset investment manager Binary Financial launched BTC-01, a “concierge” bitcoin liquidity service for “institutional clients and high net worth individuals,” said a company news release Monday (http://bit.ly/1uRA0s3). It said Binary Financial is using bitcoin security platform BitGo as its BTC-01 provider. “The current process -- and rationale -- for buying and owning Bitcoin is similar to acquiring large amounts of physical gold,” said Harry Yeh, Binary Financial managing partner. “BTC-01 was created to give clients peace of mind when adding Bitcoin to large and diverse portfolios."
Facebook officially owns WhatsApp, said a Monday filing to the SEC(http://1.usa.gov/Za1qeJ). The social networking company revealed its $19 billion purchase of the message app in February (http://bit.ly/1ilEw9w), and the deal has since cleared regulatory hurdles at the FTC and EU (WID April 14 p10). WhatsApp CEO Jan Koum will join Facebook’s board, said the filing.