October 2013

Obamacare Data Hub Apparently Works Well, Mitigating Security Fears

For all the problems with HealthCare.gov, one very big, very important piece of Obamacare technology seems to be working well.

It's called the "data services hub" -- and it's not nearly as boring as it sounds. When the law's critics raise fears of security breaches, they're talking about the data hub. The hub transmits massive amounts of information about people seeking health insurance, drawing from several federal agencies and communicating with every state's insurance marketplace. It was initially seen as one of the most likely places for problems to arise in the enrollment process. So far, though, the reviews are positive. "It's working well for us," said Chris Clark, the technology program manager for Kentucky's insurance exchange.

Front-End Healthcare.Gov Problems May Be Masking Bigger Back-End Problems

Quickly fixing Obamacare's most visible problems could be a disaster for the health care law. By now, pretty much everyone knows that HealthCare.gov, the main portal to access the law's new insurance exchanges, doesn't work. When the site first launched, hardly anyone could create an account to begin shopping for coverage. And though the registration problems have gotten better, enrollment is still an uphill climb. The site's disastrous front end has overshadowed another set of serious problems on the back end. Insurance companies say they're seeing widespread errors in the trickle of applications they do receive through the exchanges. And until those errors can be fixed, it might be best to leave enrollment at a trickle. "Is CMS stupid enough to fix the front end of this thing before they fix the back end?" asked Bob Laszewski, a health care consultant who works closely with insurers.

White House faces tall order in fixing ObamaCare site

Tech experts say the Obama administration faces a daunting challenge in trying to fix the troubled ObamaCare enrollment website by the end of November.

Trying to fix a complex website once it’s already online is like liking trying to repair a car while it's driving 50 miles per hour, one observer said. “You can probably make corrections in the code, but if they needed months to test the process before, I don't see how you can say that you're going to be able to have it up and running in a couple weeks,” said Jon Wu, an analyst and co-founder of consumer finance site Value Penguin. The Administration said it would have the site fixed by Nov. 30.

This Obamacare contractor doesn’t take security seriously. That needs to change.

[Commentary] The congressional hearing on Obamacare's faulty Web site gave CGI and the other federal contractors a chance to explain themselves. Instead, we saw a lot of finger-pointing and blame-shifting.

One particularly egregious moment had QSSI Executive Vice President Andy Slavitt downplaying his company's responsibility for securing the information in his system. "Our systems don't hold data," he quibbled. "They just transport data through it." "You don't have to hold it to protect it," Rep. Mike Rogers (R-MI) fired back. In Slavitt's defense, data security may not have been an explicit feature of QSSI's federal contract. But the fact that he thought this dodge would fly says a lot about executives who work with some of the nation's most sensitive digital infrastructure. They just aren't equipped to understand the weaknesses that make their systems vulnerable to cyberattacks.

AT&T’s Plan Revamp Signals the End of Voice Minutes

The days of worrying about minutes ticking away on your cell phone plan are nearly gone.

AT&T is dropping the availability of its old plans for new smartphone subscribers, and all of the remaining plans include unlimited calling and texting with the exception of one. The three other major U.S. carriers -- Verizon, Sprint and T-Mobile -- now only offer unlimited voice and messaging to new customers. Now, new customers with smartphones have no option to get limited minutes other than a plan from AT&T that offers 450 monthly minutes for about $40, with texts and data costing extra. (Verizon Wireless does offer a plan with 200 voice minutes for people over 65 years old.) The carriers aren’t making this change because they think customers should just have unlimited calls for free. It is because voice traffic is falling and data use is skyrocketing. Focusing on data and giving everything else away seemingly as a freebie actually centers the companies on their main source of revenue growth.

App to assist deaf mobile-phone users hits FCC roadblock

It has been nearly two years since Miracom sought Federal Communications Commission approval for an app designed to help the deaf use mobile phones.

The app, known as InnoCaption, allows deaf users to “hear” a person talking on the end of a call with the help of a stenographer who transcribes the conversation. But Miracom needs FCC approval to gain access to a government fund that would allow deaf customers to use the app for free. The FCC, troubled that the $700 million fund has become riddled with fraud, is refusing to grant any new companies access to the fund. The fund stands to become heavily burdened as aging baby boomers join the 48 million Americans who have some form of hearing loss. Fraud, therefore, is something agency officials say that they can’t afford.

Dish’s Airwaves Play Needs US Buy-in to Pay $5 Billion

Dish Network is on its way to creating $5 billion or more in added value from a series of airwaves gambits that position the satellite-TV provider as a force in mobile broadband. It just needs a little help from US regulators.

Dish paid $2.78 billion in 2012 for two satellite companies’ airwaves that it’s readying for use by ground-based smartphone networks, and pledged to bid $2.2 billion at an auction for bankrupt LightSquared Inc.’s mobile frequencies. Now Dish is offering the Federal Communication Commission a deal: It will ensure the success of a U.S. airwaves auction in January, by setting a price floor of $1.56 billion, if it’s allowed to alter uses for airwaves it already has, which would make them more valuable. “It’s elegant,” said Paul Gallant, Washington-based managing director for Guggenheim Securities. “It aligns most of the politics needed to push through the proposal, and improves the company’s spectrum position.”

FCC Continues EEO Audits (Oct 2013)

The Federal Communications Commission annually audits the Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO) programs of randomly selected broadcast licensees and multi-channel video programming distributors (MVPDs). On October 23, 2013, the FCC mailed the third set of its EEO audit letters for 2013. Each year, approximately five percent of all broadcast stations and MVPDs are selected for these random EEO audits.

FirstNet Asks Commerce IG to Look Into Contractors, Ethics Issues

FirstNet board Chairman Sam Ginn has asked the Commerce Department's Office of the Inspector General to help with the investigation into concerns about how FirstNet's board was operating and how it was dealing with contractors.

The board established a review committee to look into allegations by Board Member Sherriff Paul Fitzgerald, which reported back that the board's decisionmaking was open and transparent. But as to ethics and procurement issues, which FirstNet said would be the subject of a second report, Ginn told the board this week he had asked the Commerce IG to take over given that the issues are "complicated."

FirstNet Board Names Northern Virginia as Headquarters

The First Responder Network Authority (FirstNet) voted to establish Northern Virginia as its corporate headquarters and the Boulder, Colorado area as its technical, engineering and network design headquarters.

Northern Virginia was selected for a number of factors including its close proximity to a high concentration of wireless, technical and public safety expertise. The Northern Virginia location is also close to the U.S. Commerce Department and public safety stakeholders and associations located in the Washington metropolitan area. Boulder is home of the Commerce Department’s laboratories, including the Public Safety Communications Research program (PSCR). The PSCR has been a primary technical advisor to public safety on communications issues for 20 years and operates a unique, multi-vendor Long Term Evolution (LTE) network in the Boulder area. The Board also said it would establish one regional office in each of the ten Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) regions. FirstNet office locations will be established on competitive terms and specific locations will be determined as we move forward.

Separately, the FirstNet Board voted to extend spectrum lease negotiations with the Executive Office of the State of Mississippi and Motorola Solutions, Inc. (With the Bay Area Regional Interoperable Communications Systems Authority (Bay-RICS) ) until Nov. 15, 2013. The Board also agreed to reopen discussions with Adams County Communications Center (ADCOM), in Adams County, Colo. and the state of New Jersey. Those negotiations will also conclude by Nov. 15, 2013.

Benton

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