May 2015

Republican leaders in the Senate may attempt to offer a short-term extension to the expiring surveillance authorities of the Patriot Act, even as they again vow not to take up the issue before first passing legislation on Iran nuclear negotiations and an international trade deal. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said his chamber would not address government spying reform or highway infrastructure funding, despite fast-approaching deadlines for both looming at the end of May, until it cleared the deck on Iran and trade. But Majority Leader McConnell's top deputy, Majority Whip John Cornyn, said a shorter reauthorization to the Patriot Act authorities could be in the works. "That's one of the possibilities, because we're going to run into some real time constraints," Majority Whip Cornyn said when asked specifically about a short extension.

Majority Leader McConnell in April introduced a fast-track bill that would extend until 2020 the three provisions of the Patriot Act due to expire June 1, including the controversial Section 215, which the National Security Agency uses to justify its bulk collection of US phone records. It is unclear how long a shorter extension might be, though it would likely be far shorter than the five and a half years favored by Majority Leader McConnell so far. Multiple sources said an extension ranging from four to six months was one option being considered. But any clean reauthorization still puts the Senate squarely at odds with the House, which is expected to easily pass a comprehensive surveillance-reform bill when it returns from recess. That package, the USA Freedom Act, would effectively end the NSA's call-data dragnet. Majority Leader McConnell, though, suggested that he was not inclined to take up the House's Freedom Act as a starting point for Senate negotiations but that his bill would instead be open to amendments.

As Benjamin Shayne settled into his back yard to listen to the Orioles game on the radio the night of May 2nd, he noticed a small plane looping low and tight over West Baltimore (MD) -- almost exactly above where rioting had erupted several days earlier, in the aftermath of the death of a black man, Freddie Gray, in police custody. What Shayne’s online rumination helped unveil was a previously secret, multi-day campaign of overhead surveillance by city and federal authorities during a period of historic political protest and unrest. Discovery of the flights -- which involved at least two airplanes and the assistance of the FBI -- has prompted the American Civil Liberties Union to demand answers about the legal authority for the operations and the reach of the technology used. Planes armed with the latest surveillance systems can monitor larger areas than police helicopters and stay overhead longer, raising novel civil liberties issues that have so far gotten little scrutiny from courts.

Civil libertarians have particular concern about surveillance technology that can quietly gather images across dozens of city blocks -- in some cases even square miles at a time -- inevitably capturing the movements of people under no suspicion of criminal activity into a government dragnet. The ACLU plans to file information requests with federal agencies on May 6th, officials said. "We have the right to demand to know what’s happening,” said Jennifer Lynch, a senior staff attorney with the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a civil liberties group based in San Francisco (CA). “Whether the government will respond to that, that’s the question.”

Comcast is going to pay you $20 if its technicians are even just one minute late to your home for a service call. Comcast Cable President Neil Smit said that starting in the third quarter, if a company technician shows up a minute late to a service appointment, $20 will be automatically deposited into the customer’s account. The company said it has set a goal that by the third quarter, its technicians will no longer show up late to customers’ homes. Comcast has worked hard to transform its low-rated customer experience after some embarrassing episodes of poor customer interactions went viral around the Internet in recent months.

In 2014, the company tapped a product executive, Charlie Herrin, to spearhead a move to “productize” the customer experience. “It is unacceptable some of the individual instances that have been well-documented,” Comcast Chief Executive Brian Roberts said. “It was a rallying cry inside the company.” Comcast said it has budgeted more than $300 million for its new customer-service efforts. Among Comcast’s new initiatives: allowing customers to follow technicians on an Uber-like app that will show them where en route their technician is. The app also allows customers to rate each technician’s service call. The company said the app will be rolled out in all of its service areas by the end of 2015. It also is releasing an app that will remotely diagnose problems with your set-top box.

Broadband provider Montana Opticom now offers gigabit service to both residential and business customers in Belgrade (MT). The company has offered gigabit service in the business market for about two years, but “it wasn’t a residential price point,” said Montana Opticom President Jim Dolan. The deployment is interesting not only because it is in a smaller market but also because the company is not the incumbent service provider there. Montana Opticom began offering service in parts of Montana using fiber-to-the-home infrastructure in 2005, later buying some copper-based networks and converting those networks to fiber. The company also won a broadband stimulus award that helped cover the cost of some of its FTTH deployments.