September 2014

FCC Announces the Opening of a Docket for Public Comments on Mobile Device Theft Prevention and Changes in the Membership of the Mobile Device Theft Prevention Working Group

The Federal Communications Commission Office of Engineering Technology, and Consumer & Governmental Affairs and Wireless Telecommunications Bureaus announce the establishment of a new docket relating to the Technological Advisory Council (TAC) Working Group on Mobile Device Theft Prevention (MDTP). The new docket will allow industry and consumers to share information to supplement the efforts of the working group. Specifically, the FCC seeks comment and input from the public on proposals, efforts, and materials that will aid the TAC MDTP Working Group in accomplishing the goals and objectives of the Mission Statement and better serve the needs of consumers.

Spreading the Good Word about Lifeline

Most Americans take their home phone service for granted. But for families who are struggling to pay for food, clothing and shelter, phone service is a luxury that often must be put on hold for better times. Unfortunately, those better times may be elusive without the connection that basic phone service provides to jobs, support from family and friends, and emergency services. That's where the Federal Communications Commission's Lifeline program fits in.

The FCC is teaming up with our partners in the states to host Lifeline Awareness Week to get out the word about this vital program. We want to make sure that low-income consumers are aware of the program -- and understand the rules for participation. Together with the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners and the National Association of State Utility Consumer Advocates, our partners in Lifeline Awareness Week, we have posted on our web site important information about program benefits and the rules for companies and consumers alike.

The Future of FCC.GOV

In August the Federal Communications Commission launched a project to improve fcc.gov and unify all of our related subdomains. The project is focused on enhancing our website to allow the FCC to more effectively meet the needs of our site’s internal and external stakeholders.

To ensure optimal usability for fcc.gov users, the FCC has partnered with industry leaders on user experience, search and analytics. Over the next four months, the project team will conduct research, prototyping, and usability-testing to complete a data and stakeholder-driven design for fcc.gov. The first phase of the project will be completed by mid-January and will include improved search capabilities of the FCC’s current publicly available content and a working prototype of the new fcc.gov.

Phase one of the project will focus on four key areas:

Audience Research: We are conducting internal and external stakeholder interviews to gather and analyze information to define our website’s target-audiences and their typical tasks, needs, and obstacles.
Content Research: We are determining what information our target audiences are expecting, and based on their information needs, how we should group and package information.
Prototyping & Usability Testing: We will be moving the information outlined in steps one and two into a documented site structure of a visual representation of fcc.gov.
Search & Analytics: We will be making significant improvements to the search capabilities of the FCC’s current publicly available content.

A Brief History of Competition Policies and Networks

Technologies change, but the importance of competition endures.

In 1913, we were concerned about ensuring that all Americans had access to telephone service. In 2014, we are concerned about the ability of Americans to choose among competing suppliers of high-speed broadband, the kind that consumers increasingly demand. We have entered a new era, where we fervently believe that competition is better than regulation, but we carefully inquire whether competition does, or will, exist, and whether that competition is sufficient to deliver public interest benefits. Federal Communications Commission Chairman Tom Wheeler has called for the creation of an Agenda for Broadband Competition -- the ABCs of more choice. That includes the FCC, companies, and communities together. Because, as the Chairman said, “The best answer for limited competition is more competition, plain and simple.”

Alaska: Lessons Learned

I came away from a trip to Alaska with a number of valuable lessons learned that I will keep with me in my current role at the Federal Communications Commission:

Alaska is Different
Rural Health Care Technology Triage
Schools Need Connectivity Not Wi-Fi
Extensive Use of Distance Learning
Subsidies Have Distorted the Alaskan Marketplace

AT&T and Verizon finally giving customers decent Netflix quality

Months after Comcast upgraded its subscribers' Netflix performance, AT&T and Verizon have finally followed suit.

The average Netflix stream on Verizon FiOS hit 2.41Mbps in August, up from 1.61Mbps in July, Netflix said in its monthly speed test update. AT&T's U-verse service offered average Netflix performance of 2.61Mbps in August, up from 1.44Mbps in July. Netflix recommends 5Mbps for high-definition quality, but there is a lot of lower quality Netflix content that requires less throughput. The boost in the averages indicates that customers are getting high-quality streams more often. AT&T and Verizon DSL improved, too, but still lag behind. Netflix on Verizon DSL only streamed at an average of 1.31Mbps in August, compared to 0.97Mbps in July. AT&T's DSL average was 1.81Mbps in August, up from 1.11Mbps in July.

Comcast Wi-Fi serving self-promotional ads via JavaScript injection

Comcast has begun serving Comcast ads to devices connected to one of its 3.5 million publicly accessible Wi-Fi hotspots across the US.

Comcast's decision to inject data into websites raises security concerns and arguably cuts to the core of the ongoing network neutrality debate. The program began months ago. One facet of it is designed to alert consumers that they are connected to Comcast's Xfinity service. Other ads remind Web surfers to download Xfinity apps. The advertisements may appear about every seven minutes or so and they last for just seconds before trailing away. The advertising campaign only applies to Xfinity's publicly available Wi-Fi hot spots that dot the landscape. Comcast customers connected to their own Xfinity Wi-Fi routers when they're at home are not affected.

Meet the shadowy tech brokers that deliver your data to the NSA

So-called "trusted third-parties" may be the most important tech companies you've never heard of. They work as middlemen or "brokers" of customer data between ISPs and phone companies, and the US government. On a typical day, these trusted third-parties can handle anything from subpoenas to search warrants and court orders, demanding the transfer of a person's data to law enforcement. They are also cleared to work with classified and highly secretive FISA warrants. A single FISA order can be wide enough to force a company to turn over its entire store of customer data.

Sprint adds 15 new regional carriers to its LTE rural roaming program

Sprint announced roaming deals with 15 new regional carriers serving customers in 12 states. The carriers are all part of Sprint’s Rural Roaming Preferred Program, in which Sprint not only agrees to share its networks with its roaming partners but also leases them spectrum so they can build LTE networks of their own.

Sprint has also agreed to make its own phones interoperable on these carriers’ airwaves, which is key to ensuring customers can move freely between networks. In all Sprint has 27 carriers in the program. Combined, they operate in 27 states and cover a population of 38 million.

Here’s a complete list of the 15 new partners:

Bluegrass Cellular (Kentucky)
Blue Wireless (New York and Pennsylvania)
Pine Belt Wireless (Alabama)
Pioneer Cellular (Oklahoma and Kansas)
Public Service Wireless (Alabama and Georgia)
Syringa Wireless (Idaho)
STRATA Networks (Utah, Wyoming and Colorado)
Silver Star Wireless (Wyoming and Idaho)
All West Wireless Inc (Wyoming and Utah)
NNTC (Colorado)
Snake River Personal Communications Service (Oregon)
CTC Telecom (Idaho)
South Central Communications (Utah)
Custer Telephone Wireless (Idaho)
Breakaway Wireless (Utah)

WH Official: Cyber Coverage Will Be a Basic Insurance Policy by 2020

By 2020, private firms will be buying cybersecurity insurance when they sign up for product liability coverage and other basic policies, said Ari Schwartz, director for cybersecurity on the White House National Security Council. There isn't a market for cyber insurance yet — not for lack of interest, but because of the lack of data on the odds companies will be breached and the true costs of those hacks. Now, that kind of information is starting to become more transparent, what with major retailers, banks and other companies reporting breaches daily and industries finally taking inventory of their security postures.

Benton

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