press release

New America appointed Alan Davidson Vice President for Technology Policy and Strategy, and Director of the Open Technology Institute.

OTI Founder Sascha Meinrath will assume leadership of a new venture focused on tech innovation at New America, the X-Lab. Currently a Visiting Scholar at MIT, Davidson is one of the pioneers of Internet policy, starting with his work in the field in 1995 at the Center for Democracy and Technology, where he promoted civil liberties and human rights in the new digital space. Davidson then founded Google’s Washington, DC policy shop in 2005, and is the co-founder of the new MIT Information Policy Project. His start date at OTI and New America will be March 31.

Chairman John D. (Jay) Rockefeller (D-WV) issued a subpoena to Mobile Messenger, a telephone “billing aggregator”, that has failed to provide information to the Commerce Committee related to wireless “cramming”, a practice where unauthorized third-party chargers are placed on consumers’ telephone bills.

Chairman Rockefeller initially wrote Mobile Messenger in March 2013 and again in November 2013, but noted in a new letter yesterday that “major gaps” remain in the company’s response. This action continues the Committee’s investigation into how consumers have been affected by wireless cramming, and whether the wireless industry’s voluntary procedures and practices adequately protect consumers from this practice.

“I am deeply disappointed that, nearly one full year after my initial request, Mobile Messenger has failed to produce key responsive information,” said Chairman Rockefeller. “It is also troubling that the company for many months has refused to provide information the Committee requested concerning the cramming scheme alleged by the Texas Attorney General in a November 2013 action against the company.”

Online surveillance is a growing danger for journalists, bloggers, citizen-journalists and human rights defenders.

The Spyfiles that WikiLeaks released in 2012 showed the extent of the surveillance market, its worth (more than 5 billion dollars) and the sophistication of its products. The “Enemies of the Internet” report is focusing on surveillance -- all the monitoring and spying that is carried out in order to control dissidents and prevent the dissemination of sensitive information, activities designed to shore up governments and head off potential destabilization.

On 12 March, 2014, World Day Against Cyber-Censorship, we are publishing two lists. One is a list of five “State Enemies of the Internet,” five countries whose governments are involved in active, intrusive surveillance of news providers, resulting in grave violations of freedom of information and human rights.

The five state enemies are Syria, China, Iran, Bahrain and Vietnam. The other is a list of five “Corporate Enemies of the Internet,” five private-sector companies that are “digital era mercenaries.” The five companies chosen are Gamma, Trovicor, Hacking Team, Amesys and Blue Coat, but the list is not exhaustive and will be expanded in the coming months. They all sell products that are liable to be used by governments to violate human rights and freedom of information.

Research by Bloomberg, the Wall Street Journal and the University of Toronto’s Citizen Lab has established that surveillance technology used against dissidents and human rights defenders in such countries as Egypt, Bahrain and Libya came from western companies.

Reporters Without Borders calls for the introduction of controls on the export of surveillance software and hardware to countries that flout fundamental rights. The private sector cannot be expected to police itself. Legislators must intervene. The European Union and the United States have already banned the export of surveillance technology to Iran and Syria. This praiseworthy initiative should not be an isolated one. European governments need to take a harmonized approach to controlling the export of surveillance technology. The Obama Administration should also adopt legislation of this kind, legislation such as the proposed Global Online Freedom Act (GOFA).

Over the past year, T-Mobile US has abolished a litany of consumer pain points through a series of revolutionary new programs and services -- and Americans have responded by making T-Mobile the fastest growing wireless company in the US today, the un-carrier announced it is continuing its relentless pace of industry innovation by launching a major new program to expand what has already become the fastest LTE deployment in the US.

Less than one year since launch, T-Mobile's 4G LTE network already reaches 210 million people in 273 metro areas nationwide. Building on the unprecedented pace of its LTE rollout, T-Mobile is now kicking off a major new program to upgrade its 2G/EDGE network with 4G LTE. The company plans to complete 50 percent of the work in 2014 alone, and expects the program to be substantially complete by the middle of 2015. The upgrade will provide customers who currently experience 2G/EDGE coverage new access to 4G LTE, and many already covered by 4G LTE will enjoy access to 4G LTE in even more places.

In addition, T-Mobile plans to begin deploying 4G LTE in the new 700 MHz A-Block spectrum the company is in the process of acquiring. In a span of just six months, T-Mobile deployed its 4G LTE network coast to coast and at a pace unprecedented in the US wireless industry -- going from zero to nationwide coverage between March and September 2013.

The House Subcommittee on Communications and Technology, chaired by Rep Greg Walden (R-OR), held a legislative hearing to examine draft legislation aimed at reauthorizing the Satellite Television Extension and Localism Act.

The draft legislation would reauthorize the law for five years and address a number of discrete issues raised over the course of the subcommittee’s year-long review of STELA. Reauthorizing STELA would ensure continued operation of satellite television services for 1.5 million American households. In addition to reauthorizing the law for five years, the draft legislation includes limitations on joint retransmission consent negotiations in conjunction with limitations on FCC action on broadcaster shared services arrangements, the elimination of the “sweeps” week prohibition on signal change, and the elimination of the set-top box integration ban.

Members today heard from representatives of the satellite, broadcast, cable, set-top-box, and public interest communities who discussed the provisions included in the draft legislation.

Federal Communications Commission Chairman Tom Wheeler announced that the following items will be on the tentative agenda for the next open meeting scheduled for Monday, March 31, 2014:

• Amendment of the Commission’s Rules Related to Retransmission Consent: The Commission will consider an Order making certain rule revisions and clarifications to facilitate the fair and effective completion of retransmission consent negotiations, and a Further Notice of Proposed Rulemaking seeking commen on whether to eliminate the network non-duplication and syndicated exclusivity rules.
• Broadcast Ownership Rules Quadrennial Regulatory Review: The Commission will consider a Further Notice of Proposed Rulemaking that initiates the 2014 Quadrennial Review of broadcast ownership rules, addresses issues referred to the Commission by the Third Circuit’s remand of the 2008 Diversity Order, and a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking to define and require the disclosure of a category of sharing agreements between broadcast television stations. The accompanying Report and Order determines that certain television joint sales agreements are attributable.
• Increasing Utility of Unlicensed Spectrum in the 5 GHz Band: The Commission will consider a First Report and Order that would revise rules to make 100 megahertz of 5 GHz UNII-1 band unlicensed spectrum more useful for consumers and businesses, and reduce the potential for harmful interference to certain incumbent operations.
• Meeting the Nation’s Demand for Licensed Spectrum: The Commission will consider a Report and Order that would adopt allocation, licensing, service, and technical rules to make available for auction 65 megahertz of AWS-3 spectrum for flexible use services, including mobile broadband.

Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) spoke on the Senate floor regarding the committee’s study on the CIA Detention and Interrogation Program:

“Over the past week, there have been numerous press articles written about the Intelligence Committee’s oversight review of the Detention and Interrogation Program of the CIA, specifically press attention has focused on the CIA’s intrusion and search of the Senate Select Committee’s computers as well as the committee’s acquisition of a certain internal CIA document known as the Panetta Review. I rise today to set the record straight and to provide a full accounting of the facts and history. The origin of this study: The CIA’s detention and interrogation program began operations in 2002, though it was not until September 2006, that Members of the Intelligence Committee, other than the Chairman and Vice Chairman, were briefed. In fact, we were briefed by then-CIA Director Hayden only hours before President Bush disclosed the program to the public.

The resulting staff report was chilling. The interrogations and the conditions of confinement at the CIA detention sites were far different and far harsher than the way the CIA had described them to us. As result of the staff’s initial report, I proposed, and then-Vice Chairman Bond agreed, and the committee overwhelmingly approved, that the committee conduct an expansive and full review of CIA’s detention and interrogation program.

In 2009, then-Vice Chairman Bond, then-Director Panetta, and I agreed in an exchange of letters that the CIA was to provide a ‘stand-alone computer system’ with a ‘network drive’ ‘segregated from CIA networks’ for the committee that would only be accessed by information technology personnel at the CIA -- who would ‘not be permitted to’ ‘share information from the system with other [CIA] personnel, except as otherwise authorized by the committee.’ It was this computer network that, notwithstanding our agreement with Director Panetta, was searched by the CIA this past January.”

[March 11]

The House of Representatives approved HR 3675, the Federal Communications Commission Process Reform Act, by voice vote.

Authored by Communications and Technology Subcommittee Chairman Greg Walden (R-OR), this bipartisan legislation aims to increase transparency, predictability, and accountability to the commission. “The communications sector is one of the most innovative, competitive, and robust sectors of our economy. But, for innovation and investment to continue in communications, we must not weigh industry down with needless red tape and delay,” said Chairman Walden.

“The communications industry represents a promising sector of our economy that has fostered widespread investment, innovation, job creation, and greater consumer choice,” added subcommittee Vice Chairman Bob Latta (R-OH). “As members of Congress, we have to ensure that businesses and entrepreneurs are equipped with the opportunity and flexibility to continue making that sustained progress. The FCC Process Reform Act should facilitate this effort.”

The FCC Process Reform Act now heads to the Senate where it will join the FCC Consolidated Reporting Act, which was approved by the full House in September by a vote of 415-0, in waiting for consideration. Senator Dean Heller (R-NV) has introduced Senate companion legislation to both bills.

[March 11]

Many parties, including Verizon and Sprint, have been arguing that the Federal Communications Commission must update the spectrum screen to reflect current wireless marketplace realities.

Now, on the eve of the FCC adopting rules that will govern two spectrum auctions, Sprint has proposed a new, allegedly “easy to implement,” spectrum screen that continues to ignore the biggest defect in the Commission’s application of the spectrum screen: the exclusion of 138 MHz of 2.5 GHz spectrum, which is available and used for mobile broadband.

Instead, Sprint proposes to apply complicated calculations to various spectrum bands on an urban, suburban, and rural basis to create a “weighted” spectrum screen that, unsurprisingly, decreases the weight of Sprint’s 147 MHz of 2.5 GHz spectrum holdings to 11.1 MHz, at most. Our latest ex parte filing makes the case that the FCC should reject Sprint’s self-serving and short-sighted proposal and instead fix the spectrum screen by updating it to include all spectrum that is suitable and available for commercial mobile use.

[March 10]

In another industry first, T-Mobile US announced the company is offering customers more 4G LTE data and tethering and unlimited international texting -- at no extra charge. The updates reflect the latest stage in the evolution of T-Mobile's flagship Simple Choice plan, which launched the company's Un-carrier consumer movement last spring.

All Simple Choice customers will automatically enjoy the added benefits of these updates without taking any action whatsoever - in another Un-carrier departure from industry norms. First, in a move to stay out front of Americans' fast-growing demand for mobile data, the company announced it is sweetening the deal for Simple Choice customers already enjoying unlimited data, talk, and text on America's wicked-fast network - now doubling the amount of high-speed 4G LTE data and tethering to 1GB included in the $50 Simple Choice service plan.

"In the mobile age, wireless data caps and overage fees are just this side of extortion," said John Legere, president and CEO of T-Mobile. "Take the basic plans from the Big Two with ridiculously low data limits that hit you with fat overages each month. It's like getting your data from the neighborhood loan shark and paying 100 percent interest when the bill comes due. It's the classic shakedown."

The expansion of Simple Choice to include more of T-Mobile's fastest data and tethering comes as wireless data usage -- and tethering laptops and tablets to the web via connected devices -- continues to surge. T-Mobile customers use nearly 50 percent more data now than they did in 2013 when Simple Choice first launched, outpacing the industry's growth rate in mobile data usage. And monthly usage on unlimited 4G LTE plans has nearly doubled to over 5GB.

[March 7]