Wireless

20080616
Kevin Jeffrey Martin - Corporate - Government - Politics - Satellite - Spectrum - History - Communications - Media - Minorities - Women - Lawmakers - Md
"Radio Merger Under Fire From Black Lawmakers: Caucus, FCC [Federal Communications Commission] Chair Differ On Setting Aside XM, Sirius Channels for Minorities." ... "Senior members of the Congressional Black Caucus yesterday criticized a compromise plan for the proposed merger of the XM and Sirius satellite radio companies, saying the deal does not provide enough opportunities for minority-owned programming." ... "[Republican President Bush's] Federal Communications Commission Chairman Kevin J. Martin said over the weekend that he would support the merger after XM Satellite Radio Holdings and Sirius Satellite Radio voluntarily agreed, among a series of other concessions, to lease 4 percent of their radio spectrums, or 12 channels, for programming run by minorities and women." ... "Members of the black caucus on Capitol Hill have been arguing for the merged company to lease five times that amount of spectrum to companies owned by racial minorities." ... "[Maryland Democratic Representative Elijah E. Cummings:] "It's shocking to the conscience in this day and age, where the minority populations comprise a significant part of the satellite radio audience, that Mr. Martin would settle for what I deem to be crumbs that have fallen off the table," Cummings said." ... "If the merger is approved, it would be a major reversal of FCC rules. The agency distributed licenses to XM and Sirius in 1997 on the condition the two companies never combine." -By Jeffrey H. Birnbaum -WashingtonPost

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20080109
• Declassified - US - Government - Vietnam - Military - Intelligence - Wireless - Radio - Electronic - Communications - "Declassified study puts Vietnam events in new light: US [United States] signals intelligence [SIGINT] during the war came up short in major turning points, according to an NSA [National Security Agency] history." ... "US signals intelligence – the much-vaunted ability of American military and spy units to eavesdrop on the radio calls and other electronic communications of an adversary – failed at crucial moments during the Vietnam War, according to a just-declassified National Security Agency history of the effort." ... "The 10,000 cryptographers and other signals personnel in Southeast Asia at the time did not predict the start of the Tet offensive on Jan. 31, 1968. Prior to that, signals intelligence may have actually misled [Democratic] President Johnson and other top policymakers about the nature of the 1964 Gulf of Tonkin incident, in which a supposed North Vietnamese attack on US forces triggered a major escalation in the war." ... "US eavesdroppers had many successes during the war, according to the lengthy document, particularly in picking up the tactical communications of North Vietnamese and Viet Cong fighters in the field." ... "But when it comes to major events, signals intelligence is not magic, as the history makes clear. That is a point current policymakers would do well to remember as they struggle to interpret intelligence dealing with the complex modern problems of nuclear proliferation and Islamist extremism." ... "In both the Tet and Gulf of Tonkin cases, "critical information was mishandled, misinterpreted, lost, or ignored," writes NSA historian Robert Hanyok in the agency history. " -By Peter Grier -CSMonitor
• SEE: "Spartans in Darkness: American SIGINT and the Indochina War, 1945-1975." -Robert J. Hanyok 2002 NSA Document via FAS.org

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20071216
• Secret - Surveillance - Terrorism - Crime - Telecommunications - Companies - Government - Legislation - Politics - Intelligence - Drug - Consumer - Wireless - Technology - United States - Global - Space - Colorado - New Jersey - "Wider Spying Fuels Aid Plan for Telecom Industry." ... "For months, the [Republican President] Bush administration has waged a high-profile campaign, including personal lobbying by President Bush and closed-door briefings by top officials, to persuade Congress to pass legislation protecting companies from lawsuits for aiding the National Security Agency’s warrantless eavesdropping program." ... "But the battle is really about something much bigger. At stake is the federal government’s extensive but uneasy partnership with industry to conduct a wide range of secret surveillance operations in fighting terrorism and crime." ... "The N.S.A.’s reliance on telecommunications companies is broader and deeper than ever before, according to government and industry officials, yet that alliance is strained by legal worries and the fear of public exposure." ... "To detect narcotics trafficking, for example, the government has been collecting the phone records of thousands of Americans and others inside the United States who call people in Latin America, according to several government officials who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the program remains classified. But in 2004, one major phone carrier balked at turning over its customers’ records. Worried about possible privacy violations or public relations problems, company executives declined to help the operation, which has not been previously disclosed." ... "In a separate N.S.A. [National Security Agency] project, executives at a Denver [Colorado] phone carrier, Qwest, refused in early 2001 to give the agency access to their most localized communications switches, which primarily carry domestic calls, according to people aware of the request, which has not been previously reported. They say the arrangement could have permitted neighborhood-by-neighborhood surveillance of phone traffic without a court order, which alarmed them." ... "The federal government’s reliance on private industry has been driven by changes in technology. Two decades ago, telephone calls and other communications traveled mostly through the air, relayed along microwave towers or bounced off satellites. The N.S.A. could vacuum up phone, fax and data traffic merely by erecting its own satellite dishes. But the fiber optics revolution has sent more and more international communications by land and undersea cable, forcing the agency to seek company cooperation to get access." ... "[An ATT engineer is claiming in a lawsuit that as early as February 2001,] “What he saw,” said Bruce Afran, a New Jersey lawyer representing the plaintiffs along with Carl Mayer, “was decisive evidence that within two weeks of taking office, the [Republican] Bush administration was planning a comprehensive effort of spying on Americans’ phone usage.”" (1, 2) -By Eric Lichtblau, James Risen, and Scott Shane -NYTimes

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20070813
• Wireless - Communications - Market - Emergency - Radio -  -  - Technology - "FCC Rules Allow One Bidder To Buy More Than Half of Spectrum." ... "A single company could bid for more than half the lucrative spectrum to be auctioned off by the Federal Communications Commission after the final rules for the sale failed to include a provision prohibiting this from occurring." ... "There had been pressure on FCC policymakers to include such a rule to ensure that an incumbent wireless carrier such as Verizon Wireless or AT&T Inc. wouldn't be able to take the lion's share of the spectrum being sold." ... "Potential new entrants to the market, such as Google Inc., as well as a handful of public interest groups had been pushing the FCC to include the rule." ... "Two sections make up 32 megahertz of the 62 megahertz of prized airwaves being sold off. They include one 22-megahertz swath with so-called open-access requirements attached -- which is actually six separate pieces that can be added together, and another 10-megahertz chunk that will be used to provide wireless broadband service to the emergency services community, with any spare capacity able to be used for commercial purposes." ... "The remaining 30 megahertz has been broken up into several hundred licenses." -By Corey Boles -WSJ.com 

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20070801
• Noteworthy - Wireless - Radio - History - Electronic - Tech - Human - Animals - WalMart - Business - Consumer - Civil Liberties - Politics - "Microchips in humans: High-tech helpers or Big Brother surveillance?" ... "City Watcher.com, a provider of surveillance equipment, attracted little notice itself -- until a year ago, when two of its employees had glass-encapsulated microchips with miniature antennas embedded in their forearms." ... "The "chipping" of two workers with RFIDs -- radio frequency identification tags as long as two grains of rice, as thick as a toothpick -- was merely a way of restricting access to vaults that held sensitive data and images for police departments, a layer of security beyond key cards and clearance codes, the company said." ... "But the news that Americans had, for the first time, been injected with electronic identifiers to perform their jobs fired up a debate over the proliferation of ever-more-precise tracking technologies and their ability to erode privacy in the digital age." ... "Thirty years ago, the first electronic tags were fixed to the ears of cattle, to permit ranchers to track a herd's reproductive and eating habits. In the 1990s, millions of chips were implanted in livestock, fish, pets, even racehorses." ... "Microchips are now fixed to car windshields as toll-paying devices, on "contactless" payment cards (Chase's "Blink," or MasterCard's "PayPass"). They're embedded in Michelin tires, library books, passports and, unbeknownst to many consumers, on a host of individual items at Wal-Mart and Best Buy." ... ""We're really on the verge of creating a surveillance society in America, where every movement, every action -- some would even claim, our very thoughts -- will be tracked, monitored, recorded and correlated," says Barry Steinhardt, director of the Technology and Liberty Program at the American Civil Liberties Union in Washington D.C." -AP via -CNN

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20051215
• IP - Microsoft - Wireless - EMail - Computer - Net - Business - Texas - "Microsoft Sued Over Mobile E-Mail Patents: Mobile E-mail vendor Visto has sued Microsoft, claiming Windows Mobile violates its patents. Visto also teamed with NTL, which sued RIM." ... "Mobile e-mail technology vendor Visto Thursday claimed that Microsoft's Windows Mobile 5.0 platform violates its patents and has signed a licensing agreement with NTP, which has sued Research In Motion for alleged patent violations." ... "In addition, NTP has acquired an equity stake in Visto, the company said in a statement." ... "Visto said in a statement that it has filed a patent infringement lawsuit against Microsoft in U.S. District Court in Texas that covers three specific patents owned by Visto. The complaint asks the court to prohibit Microsoft from improperly using Visto's intellectual property and asks for compensation." -MobilePipeline.com via -InformationWeek

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20051212
• Wireless - Telecommunications - Business - Law - "Cellphone rulings could mean billions in tax refunds." ... "Phone customers are due $9 billion in tax refunds and a 3% cut in wireless phone and long-distance bills, according to a series of federal court decisions." ... "But the federal government continues to collect the tax and requires so much paperwork for refunds that only big corporations are likely to benefit." ... "The Bush administration has not said whether it will appeal to the Supreme Court." -By Dennis Cauchon -USATODAY

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20051210
• Secret - Government - Wireless - Telecommunications - Technology - Law Enforcement - Law - New York - Texas - Maryland - Noteworthy - "Live Tracking of Mobile Phones Prompts Court Fights on Privacy." ... "Most Americans carry cellphones, but many may not know that government agencies can track their movements through the signals emanating from the handset." ... "In recent years, law enforcement officials have turned to cellular technology as a tool for easily and secretly monitoring the movements of suspects as they occur. But this kind of surveillance - which investigators have been able to conduct with easily obtained court orders - has now come under tougher legal scrutiny." ... "In the last four months, three federal judges have denied prosecutors the right to get cellphone tracking information from wireless companies without first showing "probable cause" to believe that a crime has been or is being committed. That is the same standard applied to requests for search warrants." ... "The rulings, issued by magistrate judges in New York, Texas and Maryland, underscore the growing debate over privacy rights and government surveillance in the digital age." (1, 2) -By Matt Richtel -NYTimes 

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20050412
• -  - Wireless - Telecom - "Minneapolis envisions citywide Wi-Fi." ... "Minneapolis [Minnesota] is about to become an unwired city, creating a universal wireless Internet access network available to every citizen, visitor, business and municipal facility within city limits." ... "On Wednesday, the city will unveil a request for a proposal for a privately owned, $15 million to $20 million citywide wireless and fiber-optic network. It is likely to use the Wi-Fi (wireless fidelity) technology that has created several hundred Internet access "hot spots" for laptop computer users in metro coffee shops, bookstores, airports and hotels." ... "Consumers would be able to buy broadband access of 1 million to 3 million bits per second for $18 to $24 a month --a bit slower than wired cable modem service but about half the price." (1, 2) -By Steve Alexander -StarTribune.com

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