Lost calls on long train journeys will become a thing of the past under UK government plans to use Network Rail’s infrastructure to boost telecoms services. Proposals are being discussed to run UK-wide telecoms networks along train lines that would allow mobile operators to provide a seamless service for passengers, according to Ed Vaizey, minister for culture, communications and creative industries.
Beginning on Wednesday, April 10, and continuing on Thursday, April 11, the House Commerce Committee’s Subcommittee on Communications and Technology will begin a markup of legislation making it the policy of the United States to promote a global Internet free from government control.
The bill contains the same language that unanimously passed the House and Senate last year, elevating it to official U.S policy rather than merely a sense of the Congress in light of continued international efforts to regulate the Internet. The bill says that given the Administration's "strong commitment" to the multistakeholder model of Internet governance, and given that there have been and likely will be further attempts to alter that model, "it is the policy of the United States to promote a global Internet free from government control and to preserve and advance the successful multistakeholder model that governs the Internet."
The White House came out against a new law restricting government purchases of Chinese technology systems. The restriction was part of a temporary government funding measure that President Barack Obama signed.
"The undefined terms of this provision will make implementation challenging," White House spokeswoman Caitlin Hayden said. "It could prove highly disruptive without significantly enhancing the affected agencies’ cybersecurity. While the Administration has raised concerns about the cyber threats emanating from China, resolving this issue requires open dialogue between the U.S. and China," she added. Hayden said the administration plans to work with Congress to revise the provision as part of the 2014 appropriations process.
Major US business groups are pushing back against a new law that restricts government purchases of Chinese technology equipment.
In a letter sent on April 4 to congressional leadership, the industry groups warned that the law could lead to retaliation and limit federal agencies' access to cutting edge technologies. The letter was signed by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, TechAmerica, BSA-the Software Alliance, the Information Technology Industry Council, the Software & Information Industry Association and others. The restriction on Chinese products was part of a U.S. funding bill that President Barack Obama signed last week. The law bars select federal agencies from buying information technology (IT) that has been "produced, manufactured or assembled" by a company with ties to the Chinese government unless the FBI or a similar agency first determines the purchase would be in the national interest.
[Commentary] Sharing password information to Internet streaming sites and services appears increasingly prevalent among Web-savvy people who don’t own televisions or subscribe to cable.
It’s hard to know exactly how common it is: traditional analytics firms like Nielsen and comScore can’t track it, and cultural research organizations like Pew haven’t done extensive surveying about it. An informal BuzzFeed survey, which was a partial inspiration for this column, found that several dozen people in its office used someone else’s account information for HBO Go. And based on countless anecdotes, conversations, tweets and text messages, such behavior seems to be on the rise. “It also seems like a pretty serious problem,” wrote John Herrman, a senior editor at BuzzFeed and author of the polling report. “While our office is fairly young and not representative of HBO’s broader customer base, it is representative of a rising generation of people who 1) like watching HBO shows and 2) cannot fathom paying for them.” Do the companies, particularly HBO, view this as especially problematic? I hesitated before asking, worried that any inquiries would prompt a crackdown, with the result that I’d become the most-hated person on the Internet. But to the collective relief of nearly everyone I know, the companies with whom I spoke seemed to have little to no interest in curbing our sharing behavior — in part because they can’t. They have little ability to track and curtail their customers who are sharing account information, according to Jeff Cusson, senior vice president for corporate affairs at HBO. And, he said, the network doesn’t view the sharing “as a pervasive problem at this time.”
It seems like an epidemic: Drivers talking and texting. Now federal regulators have put a number to the dangerous habit. At any given time, about 660,000 drivers are texting, tweeting, talking or otherwise preoccupied with their cellphones while speeding along the freeways or crawling through downtowns and suburban neighborhoods. That's more people than live in Baltimore.
Perhaps the most disturbing aspect about the poll, which surveyed 6,000 people age 16 and older, was that laws meant to curb cellphone use don't seem to be working. California and 38 other states have tried to prohibit the practice, but there is little evidence that distracted driving has decreased since 2010, according to a National Highway Traffic Safety Administration survey from that year. That indicates that getting drivers' attention about the dangers of distraction may be more difficult than, for instance, getting them to wear seatbelts, said Jeff Larson, president of Safe Roads Alliance in Boston.
It’s well known that it’s not okay to text while driving, and presumably the same should apply to tweeting, checking email or most other cellphone interactions. But what about checking driving directions or looking at a map? After all, lots of cars have built-in navigation systems, and plenty of those are touch-controlled. It’s still not allowed, at least not in the Golden State, according to a California appeals court. The court ruled that hands-on use of a cellphone is against state law — even to check one’s maps.
A hedge fund with ties to satellite mogul Charlie Ergen is headed for a bankruptcy-court showdown with Wall Street financier Philip Falcone over the fate of his LightSquared wireless venture, opening up yet another front in the battle for ownership of the airwaves needed to launch future mobile networks.
Sound Point Capital Management LP, a hedge-fund firm run by one of Ergen's former bankers, has been buying up LightSquared debt and now holds more than $600 million of the wireless company's roughly $1.7 billion bank loan, said people familiar with the trades. The position gives Sound Point, which holds roughly $1.8 billion in assets, greater influence over LightSquared's bankruptcy proceedings and the potential to try to wrest control of the case from Falcone, the company's main backer through his hedge-fund firm, Harbinger Capital Partners. The trades, some occurring as recently as last week, have piqued the interest of those involved with Falcone's efforts to rework LightSquared's finances, as they try to determine Sound Point's motives.
The photo-sharing site Instagram has become wildly popular as a way to trade pictures of pets and friends. But a new trend on the site is making parents cringe: beauty pageants, in which thousands of young girls — many appearing no older than 12 or 13 — submit photographs of themselves for others to judge.
Any of Instagram’s 30 million users can vote on the appearance of the girls in a comments section of the post. Once a girl’s photo receives a certain number of negative remarks, the pageant host, who can remain anonymous, can update it with a big red X or the word “OUT” scratched across her face. “U.G.L.Y,” wrote one user about a girl, who submitted her photo to one of the pageants identified on Instagram by the keyword “#beautycontest.” The phenomenon has sparked concern among parents and child safety advocates who fear that young girls are making themselves vulnerable to adult strangers and participating in often cruel social interactions at a sensitive period of development. But the contests are the latest example of how technology is pervading the lives of children in ways that parents and teachers struggle to understand or monitor.
[Commentary] Jessell offers suggestions for National Association of Broadcasters’ Joint Board Chairman Paul Karpowicz’s interview of outgoing Federal Communications Commission Chairman Julius Genachowski at the upcoming NAB convention:
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