April 2013

AT&T Sales Miss Estimates Amid Decline in Landline Business

AT&T, the largest U.S. phone company, posted first-quarter sales that missed estimates, dragged down by a lingering slump at its landline business.

Sales dropped 1.5 percent to $31.4 billion. Analysts had projected $31.7 billion on average. Earnings climbed to 64 cents a share, excluding some items, matching the average estimate. AT&T’s landline revenue declined 1.8 percent to $14.7 billion, hurt by sluggish demand for traditional phone connections -- especially among business customers. The company’s wireless carrier, meanwhile, attracted more new subscribers than expected. AT&T added 296,000 contract customers.

As iPhone Growth Slows, Apple’s iPad Sales Surge

After weeks of negative speculation on the Street, Apple hit its numbers in its second-quarter earnings. The stand-out product this time around, however, wasn’t the iPhone — usually the darling of consumer tech sales estimates. It was the iPad. Apple sold 19.5 million iPads during the second quarter, 7.7 million more devices compared to the same period a year ago. That’s a healthy boost, especially when contrasted against the relatively modest gains in iPhone sales; Apple sold 37.4 million iPhones in Q2, just 2.3 million more devices than the company sold in the year-ago quarter.

Germany’s Complicated Relationship With Google Street View

Germany is one of the most privacy-sensitive countries in the world. So when Google started taking pictures of buildings and homes for its Street View maps, some people were outraged, even though it was legal. Then, when Johannes Caspar, the data protection supervisor in Hamburg, Germany, discovered that Google was also illegally collecting personal online data from unencrypted Wi-Fi networks, the outrage overflowed. Caspar’s discovery, and his prodding of Google to turn over more information about what it was collecting, led to investigations in at least a dozen countries.

Despite Caspar’s persistence in trying to find out what Google was doing — and his dismay at discovering it was collecting private information — when his agency concluded its investigation, it fined Google $189,225, the amount of money Google made every two minutes last year. Mr. Caspar called on lawmakers to raise the amount that regulators could fine companies. Yet even he did not fine Google the maximum amount that he could have, which would have been $195,000. Why? Caspar said he had given Google the discount because the company gave him a copy of the German data it had collected and, he said, finally cooperated at the end of the investigation.

Britain proposes airwaves shake-up to meet broadband demand

Britain's telecoms regulator is proposing to change the way it will allocate the next batch of airwaves to be made available to mobile operators facing burgeoning demand for mobile data.

Telecoms operators have previously paid billions of pounds to secure long leases on the best chunks of airwaves, known as the real estate of the mobile industry, most recently in the 4G auction. But Ofcom Chief Executive Ed Richards said the industry would have to become more flexible on the terms of spectrum ownership to solve problems such as interference and the changing dynamics of the industry. That means operators could own specific parts of spectrum for shorter lengths of time as newer demands emerge, he said. But the flip side for consumers is that, with spectrum changing hands more often, products such as handsets and tablets would need to be updated and retuned, and could become obsolete faster.

Privacy groups urge FTC to reject delay in children's privacy rules

Privacy advocates urged the Federal Trade Commission to reject a proposed delay in rules aimed at protecting the privacy of children online.

In a letter to FTC Chairman Edith Ramirez, the groups argued that delaying the rules, as app-makers have requested, would be "unwarranted," "harmful to children" and "undermine the goals of both Congress and the FTC." The letter was signed by the Benton Foundation, Consumers Union, the Center for Digital Democracy, the Electronic Privacy Information Center and others. App developers have asked the FTC to delay the implementation of the rules until Jan. 1, 2014, saying they need more time to ensure their products are in compliance. But the privacy groups argue that companies have had plenty of time to adjust their privacy policies since the FTC announced the new rules in December. Although the FTC has yet to issue a "Frequently Asked Questions" document, it has already provided an advisory and other guidance to businesses on how to comply with the rules, the groups said.

As Internet gets faster, Hong Kong and South Korea lead the broadband speed derby

The Internet saw its average peak connection speed jump almost 35 percent at the end of last year, even as more and more people started accessing vital (and trivial) Internet services through their mobile devices, according to the latest edition of Akamai’s State of the Internet report for the three months ending December 31, 2012. Akamai calculates the speeds and other data included in the report based on activity on the Akamai network.

South Korea had an average speed of 14 Mbps while Japan came in second with 10.8 Mbps and the U.S. came in the eighth spot with 7.4 Mbps.
Hong Kong came in first with peak speed of 57.5 Mbps while South Korea came in at 49.3 Mbps. The United States came in 13th at 31.5 Mbps.
Global broadband adoption rates are closer to 42 percent while high broadband (higher than 10 Mbps) adoption rates are at 11 percent. In South Korea, nearly 49 percent of connections qualify as high-broadband, followed by Japan with 39 percent and the U.S. at 19 percent. South Korea has 86 percent broadband penetration, while the U.S. stands at 64 percent.
The average connection speeds on surveyed mobile networks ranged from just over 8.0 Mbps to 345 kbps.

Study: Voice-activated texting while driving no safer than typing

It had appeared that technology might have solved a problem of its own creation when voice-activated texting came along so that drivers could keep their eyes on the road. Not so, says the first major study of the subject. It’s every bit as dangerous to speak into a mobile device that translates words into a text message as it is to type one. “We aren’t surprised,” said Jonathan Adkins, deputy executive director of the Governors Highway Safety Association. “Anything that takes the driver’s concentration away from driving is a potential distraction. Our message to drivers is to hold off on sending a text until the car is parked.”

FCC Outlines Band Plan Workshop

The Federal Communications Commission released more details about a planned May 3 workshop on the band plan for its upcoming incentive auctions. Broadcasters and wireless companies have been critical of that plan, so look for both to be well represented at the workshop. The FCC describes it as a day-long roundtable discussion with those stakeholders on how best to achieve the FCC's five goals of "utility, certainty, interchangeability, quantity and interoperability." The FCC says it will evaluate technical tradeoffs in its plan, alternative band plans (the National Association of Broadcasters has teamed with wireless folks on one of those), and "other proposals" by commenters.

How Could FirstNet Have Helped in the Boston Marathon Bombing?

During the FirstNet board meeting held April 23, the Boston Marathon bombing was raised and how this future public safety broadband network might have helped in this type of terrorist bombing situation.

FirstNet Board Chairman Sam Ginn felt that “Congress got it right” because FirstNet will build state-of-the-art LTE infrastructure that will allow downloads of video transmission, uploading of camera images, and photos of persons to be swiftly disseminated to law enforcement across jurisdictions. Board member Charles “Chuck” Dowd, deputy chief, New York City Policy Department, gave a further example of bomb squads from various jurisdictions pooling their expertise and working together using real-time, high definition video to help the local bomb squad deal with a particular device.

Cybercrime's easiest prey: Small businesses

A data breach investigations report from Verizon showed that small businesses continue to be the most victimized of all companies. Of the 621 confirmed data breach incidents Verizon recorded in 2012, close to half occurred at companies with fewer than 1,000 employees, including 193 incidents at entities with fewer than 100 workers. A separate report from cybersecurity firm Symantec confirmed that trend. It found cyberattacks on small businesses with fewer than 250 employees increased 31% in 2012, after growing by 18% in the prior year.

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