BENTON'S COMMUNICATIONS-RELATED HEADLINES for TUESDAY, DECEMBER 1, 2015
Today’s events https://www.benton.org/calendar/2015-12-01
SURVEILLANCE/PRIVACY
NSA Ends Sept 11-Era Surveillance Program
A redcoat solution to government surveillance - op-ed
Internet Provider Gagged for Decade Reveals What FBI Wanted Without Warrant
The government often doesn’t need a warrant to get your e-mails. But most think it should.
E-mail privacy bill gets long-awaited hearing
Toymakers are tracking more data about kids -- leaving them exposed to hackers
Decrypting the Encryption Debate - op-ed [links to Benton summary]
INTERNET/TELECOMMUNICATIONS
FCC Could Ease Telecom Unbundling Requirements
Sen Angus King presses FCC to police FairPoint’s broadband project [links to Benton summary]
Don’t Forget About High-Speed Broadband - Nicol Turner-Lee op-ed
California Broadband Workshop Shows Work Still Needed to Close Digital Divide - NTIA
The Internet Isn't Available in Most Languages
Why you’re paying sales tax on that Cyber Monday deal, but others aren’t [links to Benton summary]
Cable broadband penetration and pricing both set to rise, bullish analyst says [links to Benton summary]
Verizon blasts CWA copper network claims, calling them a labor negotiation tactic [links to Benton summary]
Finding Dark Fiber in a Desert Ghost Town [links to Benton summary]
WIRELESS
AT&T will raise cost of old unlimited data plans by $5 in February [links to Verge, The]
ELECTION 2016
Trump would ‘err on side of security’ in NSA debate [links to Benton summary]
New Yorker’s Auletta: Media will prostrate itself to get Donald Trump on air [links to Washington Post]
CONTENT
WhatsApp is blocking links to a competing messenger app
Dropbox proactively scans user uploads against a database of known illegal imagery [links to Ars Technica]
Chromecast leads global digital media streamer market for fifth straight quarter [links to Strategy Analytics]
Kids These Days: They Might Just Pay for Digital Content - op-ed [links to Benton summary]
LABOR
What these photos of Facebook’s new headquarters say about the future of work [links to Washington Post]
Commentary: The Hollywood diversity debate is stalled. Here’s how to fix it. [links to Washington Post]
HEALTH
Your Doctor Doesn’t Want to Hear About Your Fitness-Tracker Data [links to Technology Review]
Bret Swanson: The FCC threat to healthcare innovation [links to American Enterprise Institute]
JOURNALISM
How Roger Ailes Built Fox News Into a Media Powerhouse [links to Benton summary]
Politico’s Mike Allen Apologizes for Proposing Softball Chelsea Clinton Interview [links to Wrap, The]
Jeff Schmalz, the man who transformed how The New York Times covers the gay community [links to Columbia Journalism Review]
Rupert Murdoch’s British Tabloids Clean Up Their Acts [links to New York Times]
CYBERSECURITY
Following US indictments, Chinese military scaled back hacks on American industry
Cybersecurity start-ups are proliferating, but sorting out what works and what doesn't is tricky [links to Los Angeles Times]
Corporate America keeps huge hacks secret [links to CNN Money]
2015 IN REVIEW
Tech Year In Review: Compromise Wins the Day - analysis
STORIES FROM ABROAD
ITU releases annual global ICT data and ICT Development Index country rankings - press release
World Radiocommunication Conference allocates spectrum for future innovation - ITU press release
Stuart Brotman: Challenges of reforming international mobile roaming rates [links to Brookings]
M-Paper, the app that is changing the way Tanzania reads the news [links to Quartz]
Rupert Murdoch’s British Tabloids Clean Up Their Acts [links to New York Times]
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SURVEILLANCE/PRIVACY
NSA ENDS SEPT 11-ERA SURVEILLANCE PROGRAM
[SOURCE: National Public Radio, AUTHOR: Eyder Peralta]
The United States National Security Agency has stopped the bulk collection of the metadata from Americans' phone calls. The bulk collection program was undertaken by the NSA after the attacks ofSeptember 11th. The surveillance program was thrust into the spotlight in the summer of 2013, after former NSA contractor Edward Snowden leaked classified information with details of the program. One of the key documents leaked by Snowden was an order by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court requiring Verizon to hand over all those records. His revelations sparked a heated congressional debate, which ultimately resulted in the USA Freedom Act. The law still gives the US government access to the information. Except, the massive database of call records now remains with service providers and the government can seek court orders to access specific records. Sen Ron Wyden (D-OR), who led the charge to end the program, hailed its demise, saying, “This is a victory for everyone who believes in protecting both American security and Americans’ constitutional rights. Today the NSA is shutting down a mass surveillance program that needlessly violated the privacy of millions of Americans every day, without making our country any safer. This program’s very existence was concealed from the American public for over a decade. Across two administrations, senior officials from US intelligence agencies and the Justice Department repeatedly made false and misleading statements that concealed the truth about what they were doing....I am grateful to every American who stood up and made his or her voice count on this issue, and to all of my colleagues who listened to them."
benton.org/headlines/nsa-ends-sept-11-era-surveillance-program | National Public Radio | Sen Wyden Statement
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A REDCOAT SOLUTION TO GOVERNMENT SURVEILLANCE
[SOURCE: Los Angeles Times, AUTHOR: State Rep Mike Gatto (D-Los Angeles)]
[Commentary] Efforts to halt the government's mass surveillance of ordinary citizens have taken two forms: urging Congress to do the right thing (something it rarely does anymore) or suing spy agencies under the 4th Amendment (which prohibits most warrantless searches and seizures). Neither strategy has been particularly effective. Perhaps another route is available, using an amendment so rarely cited that the American Bar Assn. called it the "runt piglet" of our Constitution. It's the 3rd Amendment, which prohibits the federal government from lodging military personnel in your home. The National Security Agency is part of the Department of Defense and therefore of our nation's military. By law, the NSA director must be a commissioned military officer, and per its mission statement, the NSA gathers information for military purposes. That's strong evidence that NSA personnel would qualify as soldiers under the 3rd Amendment. And why did the framers prohibit the government lodging soldiers in private homes? Besides a general distaste for standing armies, quartering was costly for homeowners; it was also an annoyance that completely extinguished a family's sense of privacy and made them feel violated. Sound familiar? I'm not alone in seeing the ever-expanding federal government's military-run surveillance as a modern form of quartering troops in our homes. Several mainstream but inventive constitutional law professors have argued that the 3rd Amendment applies to surveillance. Like me, they see that the ubiquitous incorporeal presence of a military agency in our household systems is as significant to us as the physical presence of redcoats was in the 1700s. Let's dust off the 3rd Amendment to make this point, and soon.
[State Rep Mike Gatto is a lawyer and the assemblyman from California's 43rd District in Los Angeles County]
benton.org/headlines/redcoat-solution-government-surveillance | Los Angeles Times | ars technica
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INTERNET PROVIDER GAGGED FOR DECADE REVEALS WHAT FBI WANTED WITHOUT WARRANT
[SOURCE: US News and World Report, AUTHOR: Steve Nelson]
For years after receiving a national security letter from the FBI, he was an anonymous litigant and unnamed op-ed writer, barred by a gag order from revealing that he had received a warrantless demand for customer information. Now, Nicholas Merrill’s gag order has been lifted in full, and -- apparently for the first time -- an NSL recipient can speak openly without fear of punishment. Merrill, owner of now-defunct Calyx Internet Access, provided Internet service to about 200 customers when he received the order in February 2004. He refused to turn over the records of the targeted customer and went to court with American Civil Liberties Union representation. Merrill won the right to identify himself in 2010, but could not say what the ultimately withdrawn letter said. In August, a federal judge ordered the associated gag order lifted, with a 90-day pause to allow the Justice Department time to appeal, which it chose not to do. Victory in hand, Merrill said that the NSL he received demanded his customer’s full Internet browsing history, records of online purchases, a list of Internet Protocol addresses for the target's contacts and location information. The FBI issued more than 400,000 national security letters between 2003 and 2011, between 30,000 and more than 55,000 each year, according to a report issued in 2014 by the Justice Department’s inspector general.
benton.org/headlines/internet-provider-gagged-decade-reveals-what-fbi-wanted-without-warrant | US News and World Report | Reuters
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THE GOVERNMENT OFTEN DOESN'T NEED A WARRANT TO GET YOUR E-MAILS.
[SOURCE: Washington Post, AUTHOR: Andrea Peterson]
Your e-mails have fewer legal protections than you probably think. Thanks to a 1980s-era law known as the Electronic Communications Privacy Act, or ECPA, the government generally doesn't need a warrant to get its hands on e-mails stored in your inbox for more than six months. The law dates back to long before storing everything in "the cloud" became the norm: When it was passed, it seemed crazy that digital storage could become so cheap that companies like Google would offer archive all of your e-mails (and much of the rest of our life) online. But even though how people use e-mail has changed dramatically since then, the law has not, despite bipartisan pushes to update it in recent years. Now new polling suggests Americans are ready for the law to change. Some 77 percent of more than 1,000 registered voters surveyed by pollsters at Vox Populi in Nov said they believe a warrant should be required to access "emails, photos and other private communications stored online." When the voters had the basics of ECPA explained to them, 86 percent said it should be updated, and 53 percent said they'd be more likely to support a candidate who favored "strengthening online privacy" through reforming the law.
benton.org/headlines/government-often-doesnt-need-warrant-get-your-e-mails-most-think-it-should | Washington Post
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E-MAIL PRIVACY BILL GETS LONG-AWAITED HEARING
[SOURCE: The Hill, AUTHOR: Mario Trujillo]
An e-mail privacy bill with more than 300 cosponsors will get a hearing in the lower chamber on Dec 1, but plans for a markup or vote on the legislation are still unclear. The House Judiciary Committee appears poised to cover much of the same ground as its Senate counterpart did during a hearing in September, when many of the same witnesses testified. The E-mail Privacy Act -- led by Reps Kevin Yoder (R-KS) and Jared Polis (D-CO) -- has failed to move in the past two and a half years despite having support from a supermajority of the chamber. Supporters have opted against attempting to force a vote through a discharge petition. The legislation would close a loophole in the 1986 Electronic Communications Privacy Act (ECPA) that lets the government use a subpoena, rather than a warrant, to force companies such as Google and other service providers to hand over customers' electronic communications if they are more than 180 days old. The provision is a holdover from an era in which it would have been largely impractical for an e-mail service provider to store e-mails for more than six months and cloud storage was not yet available.
benton.org/headlines/e-mail-privacy-bill-gets-long-awaited-hearing | Hill, The
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TOYMAKERS ARE TRACKING MORE DATA ABOUT KIDS -- LEAVING THEM EXPOSED TO HACKERS
[SOURCE: Washington Post, AUTHOR: Andrea Peterson]
As toys go high-tech, hackers are zeroing in on a particularly vulnerable target -- children. VTech, a Hong Kong-based company that sells baby monitors and digital learning toys such as children's tablets, announced that the data for 5 million "customer accounts and related kids profiles worldwide" were compromised as part of a cyberattack. The stolen data included names and birth dates of kids, mailing addresses and e-mail addresses, as well as what e-books, learning games and other software were downloaded to toys, the company said. Credit card information and Social Security numbers were not breached. Privacy advocates warn that the VTech incident may be one of many online breaches that will involve children. Companies are increasingly producing and marketing high-tech toys that link dolls and games to the Internet -- as well as information about the kids playing with them. But the V-tech breach shows this data isn't always being guarded well.
benton.org/headlines/toymakers-are-tracking-more-data-about-kids-leaving-them-exposed-hackers | Washington Post
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INTERNET/TELECOMMUNICATIONS
FCC COULD EASE TELECOM UNBUNDLING REQUIREMENTS
[SOURCE: telecompetitor, AUTHOR: Joan Engebretson]
Apparently, the Federal Communications Commission is considering eliminating certain network unbundling requirements for the nation’s largest telecommunication service providers. Senior FCC officials say former Bell companies would not have to unbundle voice-grade channels on fiber links, according to an item circulating within the FCC and scheduled for a vote in December. The former Bells also would no longer have certain wholesale unbundling requirements that previously were eliminated for most local exchange carriers. The move comes into response to a petition filed by USTelecom in October 2014 that requested the FCC forbear from imposing certain rules which, according to the association, are outmoded and hamper investment in modern communications technology. Despite the relaxing of unbundling requirements, however, companies that resell local exchange services provided by the former Bell companies may still be able to do so. The officials noted that resellers should be able to draw upon other regulations in order to retain their ability to purchase services on a wholesale basis from the local exchange carriers (LECs). This could be important for a company like Granite Telecommunications that focuses on reselling service from multiple LECs and providing customers a single bill.
benton.org/headlines/fcc-could-ease-telecom-unbundling-requirements | telecompetitor
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DON'T FORGET ABOUT HIGH-SPEED BROADBAND
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Nicol Turner-Lee]
[Commentary] More than 80 percent of American adults use the Internet, a number that will continue to increase alongside consumer demand for broadband-enabled devices and applications. Given this trend, the US should expand its current definition of physical infrastructure beyond local and national water mains, electrical grids, roads, bridges and highways to include high-speed broadband. And, it’s imperative that broadband is widely available to every citizen, regardless of who they are and where they live. Generally, the private sector has been critical in scaling and sustaining broadband networks, making government incentives only part of the solution. Regulatory certainty is of equal importance as industry works toward adequate returns on their investments. Despite years of fluid investment in broadband infrastructure, some economists argue that the Federal Communications Commission’s recent reclassification of broadband Internet as a Title II service will see a corollary decline in the building and enhancing of networks, despite increased government incentives. President Barack Obama has outlined aggressive goals for wireless infrastructure, prompting immediate actions to alleviate the current strains on this platform. Yet, without sound legislation and public policies that incentivize the continued development of robust broadband and the repurposing of federal spectrum from government to commercial uses, wireless infrastructure will not evolve into a more sustainable and reliable asset. Going forward, we must support policies and investments that encourage, not limit, broadband infrastructure investments.
[Nicol Turner-Lee is the vice president and chief research and policy officer at the Multicultural Media, Telecom and Internet Council]
benton.org/headlines/dont-forget-about-high-speed-broadband | New York Times
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CALIFORNIA BROADBAND WORKSHOP SHOWS WORK STILL NEEDED TO CLOSE DIGITAL DIVIDE
[SOURCE: National Telecommunications and Information Administration, AUTHOR: Press release]
The National Telecommunications & Information Administration hosted a broadband workshop at the Computer History Museum in the heart of California’s Silicon Valley. And the take-away was this: the state that gave us semiconductor chips, Internet search engines and smartphones faces the same digital divide challenges as the rest of the nation. The workshop brought together more than 100 local, state and federal leaders, industry representatives, community activists and other stakeholders to explore broadband challenges and opportunities across California. The workshop showcased innovative digital inclusion programs such as the Youth Policy Institute, which offers Internet access and training in Broadband Technology Opportunities Program (BTOP)-funded public computer centers in low-income Los Angeles (CA) neighborhoods, and the Stride Center, a BTOP subgrantee that provides technical training for the chronically unemployed and operates a call center to help people get online. Despite the success stories, State Rep Jim Wood (D-Eureka) stressed that there is still more to be done.
benton.org/headlines/california-broadband-workshop-shows-work-still-needed-close-digital-divide | National Telecommunications and Information Administration
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THE INTERNET ISN'T AVAILABLE IN MOST LANGUAGES
[SOURCE: The Atlantic, AUTHOR: Katharine Schwab]
Indigenous and under-resourced cultures face a number of obstacles when establishing their languages on the Internet. English, along with a few other languages like Spanish and French, dominates the web. People who speak these languages often take for granted access to social-media sites with agreed-upon vocabularies, built-in translation services, and basic grammar and spell-checkers. For Gaelic, a minority language spoken by only two to three percent of the Irish population, it can be difficult to access these digital services. And even languages with millions of speakers can lack the resources needed to make the Internet relevant to daily life. At the moment, the Internet only has webpages in about five percent of the world's languages. Even national languages like Hindi and Swahili are used on only .01 percent of the 10 million most popular websites. The majority of the world’s languages lack an online presence that is actually useful. Despite its reputation as the so-called information superhighway, the Internet is only legible to speakers of a few languages; this limit to the web’s accessibility proves that it can be as just as insular and discriminative as the modern world at large.
benton.org/headlines/internet-isnt-available-most-languages | Atlantic, The
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CONTENT
WHATSAPP IS BLOCKING LINKS TO A COMPETING MESSENGER APP
[SOURCE: The Verge, AUTHOR: Russel Brandom]
On Nov 30, Telegram users on WhatsApp noticed something strange. The chat app was blocking any links to Telegram.me, a rival chat app that grew popular in the wake of earlier WhatsApp outages. The URLs still appeared as messages, but they did not register as hyperlinks and users were blocked from copying them to paste into another app -- effectively treating them like malware or spam. The behavior wasn't exhibited on every device but it was consistent within devices, blocking both usernames and links to individual messages or chat rooms. Telegram confirmed the activity, which seems to have begun with a silent update pushed earlier on Nov 30. The update has the same version number as a previously deployed update, but a Telegram volunteer confirmed that a new 367 update was deployed Nov 30. That update likely hasn't reached every device using WhatsApp, which may explain why the block is not consistent across different devices. Testing revealed that the block also includes Telegram.com, an unrelated URL owned by a newspaper in Worcester (MA).
benton.org/headlines/whatsapp-blocking-links-competing-messenger-app | Verge, The
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CYBERSECURITY
FOLLOWING US INDICTMENTS, CHINESE MILITARY SCALED BACK HACKS ON AMERICAN INDUSTRY
[SOURCE: Washington Post, AUTHOR: Ellen Nakashima]
The Chinese military scaled back its cybertheft of American commercial secrets in the wake of Justice Department indictments of five officers, and the surprising drawdown shows that the law enforcement action had a more significant impact than is commonly assumed, current and former US officials said. The People’s Liberation Army (PLA) has not substantially reengaged in commercial cyberespionage since then-Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. announced charges against the officers in May 2014, the officials said. “The big picture is that from 2014 on, the Administration pursued a much more direct and coercive approach with China, and it has produced results over time,” said Evan Medeiros, a former senior director for Asian affairs on the National Security Council. In September, during a state visit, China President Xi Jinping pledged to President Barack Obama that China would not conduct economic spying in cyberspace to benefit its own companies. “China strongly opposes and combats the theft of commercial secrets and other kinds of hacking attacks,” he said. It is still unclear whether President Xi will be able to deliver on that promise. As the United States and China prepare for high-level cyber-talks in Washington Dec 1, some officials and private-sector analysts say there is evidence that China’s civilian spy agency, the Ministry of State Security, continues to conduct significant commercial espionage operations
benton.org/headlines/following-us-indictments-chinese-military-scaled-back-hacks-american-industry | Washington Post
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2015 IN REVIEW
TECH YEAR IN REVIEW: COMPROMISE WINS THE DAY
[SOURCE: Morning Consult, AUTHOR: Amir Nasr]
[Commentary] Here we look aback at the recent year of accomplishments, or lack thereof, of the GOP-controlled Congress in tech. Republican leaders saw their tech policy success hinge on compromise with Democrats. Their projects lived or died based on bipartisan cooperation. On the plus side of the ledger, the Senate passed a long-debated cybersecurity bill after significant pushback from Democrats (and some Republicans). The bill’s supporters got to yes when they listened to the naysaysers’ concerns and responded to them. It is now on track to be conferenced with the House and sent to the President’s desk before the end of this Congress. On the other side, Republicans in the Senate and House Commerce Committees didn’t even get off the ground in their attempts to overhaul of the 1934 Communications Act. The Federal Communications Commission dashed Republicans’ hopes at an Internet-era rewrite when it published “net neutrality” rules that would regulate broadband connections like telephone services. With a Democratic majority at the agency, and a president who supports that kind of rule, any bipartisan movement on communications law was halted.
benton.org/headlines/tech-year-review-compromise-wins-day | Morning Consult
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STORIES FROM ABROAD
ITU RELEASES ANNUAL GLOBAL ICT DATA AND ICT DEVELOPMENT INDEX COUNTRY RANKINGS
[SOURCE: International Telecommunication Union, AUTHOR: Press Release]
The International Telecommunication Union released its flagship annual Measuring the Information Society Report reveals that 3.2 billion people are now online, representing 43.4 percent of the global population, while mobile-cellular subscriptions have reached almost 7.1 billion worldwide, with over 95 percent of the global population now covered by a mobile-cellular signal. The report also notes that all 167 economies included in the ITU’s ICT Development Index (IDI) improved their IDI values between 2010 and 2015 -- meaning that levels of information and communication technology (ICT) access, use and skills continue to improve all around the world.
More people online than ever before; but growth slows: Latest data show that growth in Internet use has slowed down, however, posting 6.9 percent global growth in 2015, after 7.4 percent growth in 2014. Nonetheless, the number of Internet users in developing countries has almost doubled in the past five years (2010-2015), with two thirds of all people online now living in the developing world.
Mobile-network coverage and reaching the last half billion: Over 95 percent of the global population is now covered by mobile-cellular services, meaning that there are still an estimated 350 million people worldwide who live in places which are still out of reach of a mobile network -- a figure that has dropped from 450 million a year ago. But while 89 percent of the world’s urban population is now covered by a 3G network, only 29 percent of the world’s 3.4 billion people living in rural areas benefit from 3G coverage.
In 2015, the Republic of Korea is ranked at the top of ITU’s ICT Development Index (IDI), a composite measurement that ranks 167 countries according to their level of ICT access, use and skills. Republic of Korea is closely followed by Denmark and Iceland, in second and third place. The IDI top 30 ranking includes countries from Europe and high-income nations from other regions including Australia, Bahrain, Barbados, Canada, Hong Kong (China), Japan, Macao (China), New Zealand, Singapore and the United States. Almost all countries surveyed improved their IDI ranking in 2015.
benton.org/headlines/itu-releases-annual-global-ict-data-and-ict-development-index-country-rankings | International Telecommunication Union | ITU
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WORLD RADIOCOMMUNICATION CONFERENCE ALLOCATES SPECTRUM FOR FUTURE INNOVATION
[SOURCE: International Telecommunication Union, AUTHOR: Press release]
The World Radiocommunication Conference 2015 (WRC-15) has concluded its deliberations as delegates sign the Final Acts that revise the Radio Regulations, the international treaty governing the use of radio-frequency spectrum and satellite orbits. WRC-15 addressed over 40 topics related to frequency allocation and frequency sharing for the efficient use of spectrum and orbital resources. The outcomes ensure high quality radiocommunication services for mobile and satellite communications, maritime and aeronautical transport, air and road safety as well as for scientific purposes related to the environment, meteorology and climatology, disaster prediction, mitigation and relief. The ITU Radiocommunication Sector has been set an ambitious studies programme for the next four years covering a wide range of services from amateur radio to broadcasting, mobile broadband, mobile satellite, fixed satellite, earth stations on mobile platforms, and space exploration services. WRC-15 adopted a revised version of Resolution 12 on Assistance and Support to Palestine, which resolves to continue assistance to Palestine and to enable Palestine to obtain and manage the spectrum required to operate telecommunications networks and wireless services. This followed an Israeli-Palestinian agreement to facilitate cellular phone operations and the establishment of a modern and reliable telecommunication network in Palestine.
benton.org/headlines/world-radiocommunication-conference-allocates-spectrum-future-innovation | International Telecommunication Union
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