December 2011

Ryan Seacrest's potential move to 'Today' puts NBC on alert

As the gap between pop culture and the culture writ large seems to narrow with each passing day, the possible ascendancy of Ryan Seacrest to a plum network news assignment marks another notable watershed.

Can a purveyor of Top 40 radio and the next singing sensation (not to mention another round of Coke) on "American Idol" command the television stage in a national crisis? That's just one of the questions making the rounds inside NBC headquarters at Rockefeller Center in New York, where executives are said to be discussing whether to make Seacrest the next host of the "Today" show. The talks have been kept under tight wraps but NBC Broadcasting Chairman Ted Harbert has made it clear that he thinks the versatile Seacrest is capable of making the switch to what was once known as a news show, sources said.

Consumer protections lagging for mobile payments, report says

Most cellphone and tablet users can purchase digital goods and charge them to their monthly bill or prepaid phone account, but buyers may not get the protections they need if something goes wrong with the transaction, a new report says.

According to an analysis by Consumers Union, the protections that consumers receive vary depending on their wireless carrier's policies and what's in their cellphone contract. "We found that consumer rights can vary widely between wireless carriers, and the protections carriers claim to provide are often nowhere to be found in consumer contracts," said Michelle Jun, senior attorney for Consumers Union, the nonprofit advocacy branch of Consumer Reports. Jun said consumers using mobile payments should get the same "strong protections" that they receive when making purchases with a credit or debit card. AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile and Verizon Wireless said that they provided ample protections for consumers, but Consumers Union "found that the protections these carriers provide fall short" of what consumers get when they use credit cards and debit cards or when California consumers report a disputed charge on their phone accounts. In addition, Consumers Union said, many of the protections that wireless carrier representatives described are not disclosed in customer contracts, making it difficult to know whether consumers can count on these safeguards when problems arise.

Sen. Rand Paul launches petition to kill online piracy bills

Tea Party favorite Sen Rand Paul (R-KY) has launched an online petition urging Congress to kill two online piracy bills.

"America has had enough of Washington’s Big Government meddling and over-regulation. Yet some in Congress are pushing two dangerous and unconstitutional bills to regulate the one sector of our economy that’s creating jobs: the Internet," the petition states under a picture of Sen Paul. He had previously voiced opposition to the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) in the House and Protect IP in the Senate, both of which would allow the government or copyright holders to demand search engines and other Web firms delete links to foreign websites deemed to be dedicated to piracy.

House Democrats introduce public safety broadband bill

Reps Eddie Bernice Johnson (D-TX) and Rep. Donna Edwards (D-MD), members of the House Science, Space and Technology Committee, introduced a bill that would provide $300 million to research the creation of a national public safety broadband network.

The Public Safety Broadband Network Enabling Act would fund the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) for research, development and standards activities to enable the creation of the public safety network. NIST would be authorized to research and help develop technologies that would improve the safety of the public safety network, document the operational requirements and help develop national, voluntary standards addressing those requirements.

House GOP challenge President on taxpayer-funded campaign financing

House GOP members have issued a challenge to President Barack Obama to either join them in eliminating "wasteful" taxpayer financing of presidential campaigns or to opt into the system himself. In a letter to President Obama, 84 House Republicans — including Reps. Dan Lungren (R-CA) and Gregg Harper (R-MI), members of the Committee on House Administration — wrote that the President should either opt into the system that he “vigorously defends despite his own refusal to participate,” or join the GOP members in doing away with it.

President Obama doesn’t let daughters on Facebook

President and First Lady Obama told People magazine that they don’t allow their daughters on Facebook. “Why would we want to have a whole bunch of people who we don’t know knowing our business? That doesn’t make much sense,” they said. Because of regulations under the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act, Facebook bans children younger than 13 from using its site.

Verizon and Leap Apply for Approval of Spectrum Deal

Verizon Wireless and Leap Wireless have filed a series of applications at the Federal Communications Commission seeking approval to assign spectrum licenses.

The Applicants request consent to assign the 700 MHz Lower Band Block A license for the Chicago BEA from Verizon Wireless to Leap Wireless. In addition, Leap Wireless will assign to Verizon Wireless 23 PCS licenses and 13 AWS-1 licenses in full; disaggregated portions of one PCS license and one AWS-1 license; and partitioned portions of three AWS-1 licenses.

The Applicants state that the assignment of licenses will enable Verizon Wireless to add spectrum capacity in some markets that will help address the rapidly growing demand of its customers for broadband wireless services. The Applicants also state that Leap Wireless is in need of the additional spectrum in the Chicago area to expand its service offerings and to deploy LTE network technology, which will allow it to offer improved broadband data services and to continue to compete with other carriers in that market. Finally, the Applicants explain that the proposed transactions involve the sale of excess spectrum in the subject markets, and the transactions will not affect the existing operations of either carrier or involve any customer transition issues.

Preliminary review of the applications indicates that the proposed transfer of licenses would result in Verizon Wireless acquiring between 10-30 megahertz of spectrum in 204 CMAs. Leap Wireless would acquire 12 megahertz of spectrum in 13 CMAs.

Petitions to Deny the transaction are due December 28; Oppositions to those petitions are due January 9, 2012; Replies are due January 17, 2012.

FCC Releases Telephone Subscribership Report

As of July 2011…

The telephone subscribership penetration rate in the U.S. was 95.6%, a decrease of 0.4% over the rate from July 2010. This decrease is not considered statistically significant.
The telephone penetration rate for households in income categories below $20,000 was at or below 94.7%, while the rate for households in income categories over $75,000 was at least 98.9%.
Among the states, the penetration rates ranged from a low of 91.4% to a high of 98.5%.
Penetration rates ranged from 93.8% for households headed by a person under 25 to at least 95.9% for households headed by a person over 55.
Households with one person had a penetration rate of 93.5%, compared to a rate of 96.5% for households with four or five persons.
The penetration rate for unemployed adults was 95.1%, while the rate for employed adults was 96.7%.

Verizon’s LTE network covering two-thirds of country

Verizon’s LTE rollout has passed the 200-million-pops-coverage mark, extending the new ultra-fast mobile broadband network’s umbrella to nearly two out of every three Americans. Verizon plans to launch the 4G service in seven new markets, bringing its total to 190 cities and towns. Verizon has now exceeded its 2011 target by 15 million, giving it an LTE network three times larger than at of arch rival AT&T.

The new Verizon LTE markets are:
Dover, Delaware; Lafayette (IN); Fitchburg/Leominster (MA); Duluth, The Rochester Area and St. Cloud (MN); Manchester/Nashua (NH); Poughkeepsie (NY); Findlay/Tiffin and Youngstown/Warren (OH); Indiana (PA)

Infographic: Inside Carrier IQ’s smartphone agent

As more and more information comes out about Carrier IQ’s phone monitoring software, it’s becoming more difficult to sort out exactly what data its IQ Agent collects, records and ultimately sends the its operator customers. The Electronic Frontier Foundation, however, has prepared a handy infographic to help the more coding-challenged of us grasp IQ Agent’s complexity. Carrier IQ released detailed information about what IQ Agent can and cannot do, revealing its software can track information ranging from URLs to the frequency of application and SMS use, depending on how far down Agent is implemented in the OS. In its most embedded form, IQ Agent can even monitor radio-signaling data. Carrier IQ, however, vehemently denies that IQ Agent tracks keystrokes, contrary to the original findings of whistleblower Trevor Eckhart. This infographic, designed by the EFF’s Parker Higgins, shows keystrokes actually being logged in some devices with IQ Agent installed.

Benton

Search