December 2011

Minority Media & Telecommunications Council Names New Chair

Former FCC Commissioner, Benton Foundation General Counsel and longtime chair of the Minority Media & Telecommunications Council Henry Rivera has been named chairman emeritus.

Rivera will continue as a member of the board and of the executive committee. Julia Johnson, former chair of the Florida Public Service Commission, has been named to succeed Rivera. In addition, former FCC commissioner Deborah Taylor Tate has been named a vice chair as MMTC lines up a new leadership team starting Jan. 1. David Honig remains President of MMTC. Maurita Coley, currently vice chair, will join Honig's staff as VP and COO. Also part of that new team will be treasurer Ronald Johnson, president of Johnson Network Services. Erwin Krasnow, a co-founder, will continue as a vice chair and Ari Fitzgerald continues as secretary.

The Top 10 Ways Mobile Carriers Tried to Screw Us in 2011

[Commentary] Another year, another 12 months in which the mobile carriers did their best to screw us.

AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile and Verizon do so many bad, annoying and anti-consumer things that it's almost impossible to document it all. So below is a catalog of simply the most egregious acts the carriers perpetrated this year. Each company has its own special way of screwing its customers. But some trends emerged. All of the carriers tried to charge us more for text messaging and data. They were all keen to grab our sensitive data to sell to marketers or -- in some cases -- give to the government. And Verizon twice showed that it's willing to block apps from reaching our phones -- even when those apps come straight from the Googleplex. Above all, AT&T showed that squeezing every last penny out of us isn't enough to satisfy its bottomless need for profits, so it decided it needed to buy T-Mobile to kill wireless competition for good. Thankfully, the FCC and the Justice Department -- along with millions of Americans -- saw the light and the deal is as good as dead.

The Carriers Hold Customer Data for Years
Apple Files Patent to Block iPhone Cameras
AT&T Raises Texting Rates
Unlimited Data Plans Are Dead. Long Live Unlimited Data!
MetroPCS Fires Shot at Network Neutrality
Verizon Sues to Kill Network Neutrality
Carrier IQ and Cellphone Spying
Verizon Blocks Tethering App, Breaks Law
Verizon Blocks Google Wallet
AT&T's Failed Merger with T-Mobile

New Internet Names Feared, Loathed By All

In an unusual alliance, major corporations are walking in lockstep with the federal government and international NGO’s to stop a reviled Internet naming scheme set to be unleashed in January. Too bad they’re probably too late.

The scheme in question involves turning the current internet naming system wide-open so that it’s possible to buy websites ending in anything—.disney, .redcross, .stevejobs, etc—and host content on them. ICANN, the body responsible for internet names, says the plan will unleash a flood of new innovation and internet commerce. The problem is that no one wants or likes the plan. Brand owners are fed up with the digital debris they must manage already (including “.biz”, “.travel” and now “.xxx” sites) and don’t want more. Meanwhile, government agencies and NGO’s fear that more internet names simply mean more fraud and phishing. The new scheme is particularly vexing to companies because it’s so expensive. Starting January 12, would-be registrants of “.chanel” or “.worldvision” must plunk down $185,000 to register the names or risk someone else grabbing them first.

CWA Report: Outsourced call centers pose serious security threat

Outsourced call centers pose a serious security threat, according to a new report issued late last week from the Communications Workers of America.

The report, titled “Why Shipping Call Center Jobs Overseas Hurts Us Back Home,” cites several examples of security breaches involving outsourced call centers, which were reported by various U.S. and international media. Here are a few examples cited in the report:

Call center employees in India were caught after stealing $426,000 from American Citibank customers by coaxing them into revealing their passwords
A Bangalore, India-based call center employee was arrested after stealing $420,000 from customer accounts at HSBC
An undercover journalist reported that he bought personal details, including passwords, of 1,000 British Bank customers from a Delhi IT worker
A Pakistani woman threatened to post patient records on the Internet unless she got a raise

Smartphone Winners And Losers This Holiday Season -- And In 2012

Reuters is reporting a poll of potential purchasers of smartphones in several nations -- and top of the list sails Apple's iPhone. There's so much excitement that Reuters even feels it can tease "Apple, which lost its position as the world's largest smartphone maker to Samsung last quarter, could regain top spot as consumers rush to buy the latest iPhone after waiting 16 months since the previous model went on sale"...something we predicted a while ago. According to the numbers, the iPhone's market share in the U.K. (taken as a guide to Europe) in October was 43%, and other predictions suggest that the rising tide of iPhone fever will see 200 million sold in 2012 -- a figure that'll be boosted, no doubt, as the 4S goes on sale Dec 19 in 20 additional nations. Perfectly timed for the holidays. It's also worth noting that we've known for some time the 3GS unit, which Apple is keeping on sale as its low-price entry phone, is also selling by the million, as is the older--and thus slightly cheaper -- iPhone 4. In other words, it's beginning to look a lot like an iPhone Christmas. With other predictions the iPad will maintain its dominance of the tablet market, Apple's execs will be toasting the season. It all bodes well for 2012, especially since there are rumors the delayed redesigned iPhone 5 may arrive (possibly as soon as March), and Apple may release a 7-inch iPad.

Is Verizon Wireless illegally blocking Google Wallet? It’s time for the FCC to investigate

Two weeks ago, various news outlets reported that Verizon Wireless’s new Galaxy Nexus phone will not support Google Wallet, Google’s mobile payment application. Based on what we know from press reports, it seems that Verizon Wireless is violating the open-devices and open-applications conditions in its legal licenses for part of the 700 MHz spectrum (the so-called “C-Block”) over which the company’s LTE network operates. There is, however, great uncertainty about what exactly is going on.

I wrote a letter to the Federal Communications Commission asking the Commission to investigate the situation as quickly as possible and send a signal to the market – innovators, consumers, and licensees – that the openness conditions will be enforced. The letter explains what we know about the facts, why Verizon’s behavior violates the openness conditions, why this violation matters, and what the FCC should do.

This is an important case that will have implications not only for the mobile payments market, but also for any application or service potentially available on a mobile network:

First, Verizon’s behavior hurts Verizon customers
Second, Verizon’s behavior hurts competition in the emerging, potentially huge market for mobile payments technologies and associated services.
Third, Verizon’s actions hurt innovation, in mobile payments or even in any other mobile technology.
Finally, Verizon’s conduct undermines the FCC’s general approach towards mobile Internet openness

Want Google Wallet? No need to root your Galaxy Nexus

Early adopters with a Galaxy Nexus can now add Google Wallet software without rooting their handset.

The older method of a hacked installation on a phone with root access is no longer needed, because a Wallet installation file has surfaced on the web. The XDA-Developers site — the source I used for my own Wallet install earlier this month – has the source file, which is installed just like any other Android app.

App Internet and mobile devices to drive massive technology demands in 2012

The rise of the "app internet" – in which users' PCs, smartphones and tablets run the business applications – will drive completely different demands from technology next year.

That is the verdict of technology industry experts, who predicted fast-shifting pressures on technology from the rise in mobile application development, cloud computing and new security threats. According to Forrester analysts, having said that the web, as the dominant software architecture of the Internet, was dead, a new Internet is evolving – dominated by applications and now placing a strain on the technology supporting it.

Misunderstanding Race and the Digital Divide

[Commentary] What is to blame for digital age inequality? The digital divide behind door number one? Or the digital divide behind door number two? These seem like silly questions. That’s because they are. But no matter what the reason is, some advocates always manage to find a way to misunderstand the lifestyle choices of people of color.

On December 3rd, The New York Times published an op-Ed by Susan Crawford, a long time net neutrality advocate, professor of law at the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of law, and former special assistant to President Obama on science, technology, and innovation policy. Crawford wrote that smartphones—the devices that African-Americans and Latinos overwhelmingly prefer for accessing the internet—provide a “second class” tier of Internet service, as compared to the high-speed wired internet access that middle-class urbanites and suburbanites are able to enjoy via computers connected directly to the Internet. In a blog post in Colorlines—a blog focusing on issues affecting minorities—Colorlines News Editor Jamilah King reiterated Crawford’s thesis, then went the extra mile of calling out the NAACP and National Urban League for taking funding from telecommunications companies like AT&T and Sprint. The problem with Crawford and King’s approach is that they cast wireless broadband and smartphones in their worst possible light. High-speed broadband and wireless broadband each have a distinct set of unique advantages over the other, making neither of them superior to the other in all respects. If wireless were a substitute for high speed internet access, there would be no competition.

High-speed internet access and bandwidth are absolutely essential for supporting American innovation in Silicon Valley. But commoditizing minorities to bolster that underlying argument is patently irresponsible. There is no “new” digital divide—we are faced with the same digital divide that we have been faced with since at least 1940. Wireless broadband has helped to close part of that gap, but we still have a long way to go.

BT sues Google over Android

British Telecom is claiming billions of dollars of damages from Google in a lawsuit filed in the US which says that the Android mobile operating system infringes a number of the telecoms company's key patents.

The lawsuit, filed in the state of Delaware in the US, relates to six patents which BT says are infringed by the Google Maps, Google Music, location-based advertising and Android Market products on Android. If successful, the suit could mean that Google or mobile handset makers will have to pay BT royalties on each Android handset in use and which they produce. That could be expensive: Android is presently the most successful smartphone platform in the world, with its handsets making more than 40% of sales, equating to more than 40m produced every quarter. Google recently said that more than 500,000 Android devices are activated every day. BT's move – which could also be repeated in Europe – means that Google is now fending off lawsuits against Android from six large publicly-traded companies, according to Florian Müller, an independent expert who follows the twists and turns of international patent litigation. BT joins Apple. Oracle, Microsoft, eBay and Gemalto, a digital security company.

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