The Obama administration launched a smart cities initiative that includes a $160 million investment in federal research for more than 25 technology collaborations, a White House news release said Monday. Researchers will use the new funding to create test beds for IoT applications and to develop multisector collaborative models for the technology, it said. The initiative also will focus on intercity collaborations and harnessing information technology to tackle local problems, as well as building off of sensor networks, cybersecurity and broadband infrastructure research, it said. The National Science Foundation will invest more than $35 million in smart city research and grants, including a $3 million award for the University of Chicago to create the array of things -- a network infrastructure to support the development of and deployment of sensors, embedded systems and communications systems, it said. The Department of Homeland Security plans to invest $50 million through five years to develop emergency response systems and technologies for smart cities, the White House said. DHS joins the Department of Transportation, the Department of Energy, the Department of Commerce, the Environmental Protection Agency and the U.S. Census Bureau in smart cities investment. To coincide with the launch of the initiative, the White House hosted a Smart Cities Forum Monday, where representatives of government agencies and the private sector discussed the impact smart cities could have on urban life and touted various programs currently in the works.

The American Civil Liberties Union of Maryland and the Electronic Frontier Foundation filed amicus briefs with the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in U.S. v. Saboonchi. The ACLU and EFF will urge the 4th Circuit to rule government agents must obtain a warrant before searching cellphones, computers and other personal electronic devices at the border. In the case, an Iranian-American U.S. citizen returning from vacation at Niagara Falls, Ontario, had his cellphones and a flash drive taken by law enforcement and searched. Law enforcement charged Saboonchi with violating export control laws after reviewing information on his devices. But the groups argued law enforcement should never have had access to that information. “Because forensic and forensic-like searches of smartphones, laptops, and other mobile electronic devices seized at the border infringe deeply on privacy interests, such searches should only be permitted pursuant to a warrant, or at a minimum upon a determination of probable cause or reasonable suspicion,” the ACLU of Maryland said in its amicus brief. “Information stored on these devices can be deeply sensitive and private, including personal correspondence, family photos, medical records, intimate relationship details, proprietary business information, and more.” The 4th Circuit should “clarify the Fourth Amendment standards governing such searches in order to provide guidance to the government and the traveling public,” the group said. EFF Staff Attorney Sophia Cope said that many individuals traveling either back into or to the U.S. for vacation or business trips can have their emails, texts, photos, videos and voicemails “rifled through and retained, without a warrant or any suspicion that a crime has been committed.” Pointing to the Supreme Court’s decision in Riley v. California last year, which found that police need a warrant to search devices they find on people they arrest, Cope said the “same standard should apply when border agents want to search devices we carry with us while traveling.” There is an exception to Fourth Amendment protections at the border to allow for U.S. border patrol agents to enforce immigration and customs laws, EFF said. Agents can check a traveler’s passport and immigration documents, and search luggage for physical contraband like drugs or other items subject to import duties, EFF said. But the border search exception shouldn't be used as a loophole by law enforcement to “obtain troves of personal information without a warrant,” said EFF Senior Staff Attorney Hanni Fakhoury.

Corrections: Deere attorney Kenneth Schacter of Morgan Lewis said in court that a pact between the agriculture company and LightSquared is not imminent (see 1509090013) ... It was the Phoenix Center that held a teleforum featuring lawyers criticizing the FCC net neutrality order (see 1509100070).

The FCC renewed the charter of the North American Numbering Council (NANC) through Sept. 18, 2017, the commission said in a public notice released Friday. Applications for membership must be submitted by Sept. 25, the FCC said. Members will be appointed as representatives of the telecommunications industry or as telecommunications consumer representatives, and not as "special government employees," the commission said.

The FCC Disability Advisory Committee meets Oct. 8 from 9 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. in the Commission Meeting Room, an agency public notice said Thursday. The committee will receive reports and recommendations from various subcommittees.

Hollywood is backing broadcaster efforts to keep FCC syndicated exclusivity rules. Since "anachronistic" compulsory copyright license rules inherently mean content can't be distributed in a free market governed by contractual agreements, the network non-duplication and syndicated exclusivity rules need to stand, the MPAA said in a filing posted Thursday in docket 10-71. It cited a litany of arguments for keeping the rules Chairman Tom Wheeler has indicated he wants to revoke (see 1508120051). Broadcasters have descended recently on the agency seeking to keep the rules (see 1509100049). Axing those rules "would remove an essential counterbalance" to compulsory licenses, "jeopardizing the ability of program suppliers to provide viewers with robust and diverse programming," MPAA said. It said the rules mitigate some of the market impact of compulsory licenses "by returning to broadcast programming suppliers some of the discretion over distribution of their content that the statutory licenses take away." Ending those rules also would fly in the face of Congress' determination in the Satellite Television and Localism Act Reauthorization that GAO should study possible effects of phasing out compulsory licenses, with a June 4, deadline on that report, MPAA said. Without exclusivity rules, stations will lose ad revenue and end up "far less likely to invest in high-value content or take a risk on anything other than mass appeal programming," MPAA said. That ends up eroding the ability of content producers "to justify the significant upfront investment in the development and production of content," it said. The FCC's own history of eliminating the syndicated exclusivity rules in 1980 -- only to reinstate them eight years later -- should illustrate the harms, since the agency itself said the revenue lost by broadcasters and program suppliers, and thus the program diversity lost by viewers, was worse than expected, MPAA said.

First National Bank and Lyft were issued citations by the FCC Enforcement Bureau, putting the companies on notice of violations of rules to protect consumers against unwanted autodialed text messages, a commission release said Friday. "First National Bank requires its online banking and Apple Pay customers to agree to receive autodialed telemarketing texts in order to use its services," the release said. "Lyft purports to allow consumers who sign up for its ride-sharing service to opt out of receiving autodialed or prerecorded telemarketing calls and texts, but does not allow users to access the service if they do exercise their right to opt out of marketing calls and texts. Both of these companies' practices violate the Commission’s rules implementing the Telephone Consumer Protection Act." In its citations/orders (here and here), the bureau directed First National Bank (also known as F.N.B. Corp.) and Lyft to take immediate steps to comply with the rules or possibly be liable for significant penalties. First National Bank emailed a response: "Our policies generally allow all customers to opt out of marketing information; however, we are unfamiliar with the details since we were just made aware of the issue and have not yet received any formal communication from the FCC. We will immediately investigate the issue and are fully committed to ensuring that we continue to comply with the consumer rights laws and regulations." Lyft emailed: "This is the first we are seeing of the order and are in the process of reviewing it. We look forward to working with the FCC to resolve this issue." Commissioner Mike O'Rielly issued a statement that said the enforcement action "showcases once again the Commission’s complete cluelessness when it comes to the tech economy, missing the point about how these free, popular, and entirely optional services actually work. The Bureau is targeting two innovators who are putting power in consumers’ hands to pay for their groceries or locate a safe ride directly from their mobile phones, for communicating with their customers on mobile phones. These citations are sure to be just the first of many harmful real-life effects of the Commission’s march to drastically expand the scope of the TCPA. No one likes unwanted robocalls, but tech-savvy Americans are in for an unpleasant shock when they find the Commission’s action is slowly but surely eviscerating innovations they have come to rely on, and stopping future mobile breakthroughs in their tracks."

The FCC should accept a compromise proposal on when the new wireless owners of 600 MHz spectrum are considered to have commenced operations on their new spectrum, said CTIA and representatives of AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile, Verizon and U.S. Cellular in a meeting Sept. 2 with staff from the Wireless Bureau, Incentive Auction Task Force, Media Bureau, Office of General Counsel and the Office of Engineering and Technology, according to an ex parte filing posted Thursday in docket 12-268. The FCC proposal to limit the "commence operations" definition to areas where a 600 MHz licensee has begun site activation, and commissioning tests using permanent equipment and antennas, “would unnecessarily preclude rapid deployment of the spectrum,” the wireless interests said. Under the CTIA compromise, low-power TV and unlicensed users would still be able to use the 600 MHZ spectrum until the wireless users started substantially using it, but the wireless licensees would have the right to do “market testing” of their new spectrum. The tests would take place “in only a fraction of the areas where full commercial launch would occur,” CTIA said. “LPTV stations and other secondary users could continue to utilize the mobile wireless band in the vast majority of areas beyond this stage.” By beginning market testing, the wireless company would have officially commenced operations, under the compromise proposal, CTIA said. Where market testing isn’t required, the definition of commencing operations would be as the FCC has proposed. “Inhibiting market testing in any fashion, and particularly in the limited window available after full power broadcast television stations are relocated, will greatly jeopardize wireless providers’ ability to meet the six-year interim build-out requirement,” CTIA said. “Under the compromise proposal, secondary services will not be impacted in the vast majority of markets and geography.”

The Department of Justice and FTC signed an antitrust memorandum of understanding with the Korea Fair Trade Commission (KFTC) Tuesday, an FTC news release said. The MOU was signed by FTC Chairwoman Edith Ramirez, Assistant Attorney General Bill Baer and KFTC Chairman Jeong Jae-Chan in Washington, and took effect immediately. The MOU with the Korea is the third antitrust cooperation agreement U.S. antitrust agencies have in East Asia, following an agreement with Japan signed in 1999 and one with China in 2011, the release said. It said the commission voted unanimously in favor of authorizing Ramirez to sign the Korea agreement.

A delay in the completion of the planned IT upgrades means many FCC systems are expected to remain offline until Thursday morning, two days later than expected, the commission said in a blog post and accompanying public notice Tuesday morning. The Electronic Document Management System and the Electronic Comment Filing System (ECFS) are the only two systems that went back online Tuesday. About 50 filings were posted in ECFS by Tuesday afternoon. “With a massive server move of this scale -- even with detailed planning, independent verification, and backup plans -- the opportunity always exists for surprises,” said FCC Chief Information Officer David Bray. The delay was caused by “the need for some additional cabling to be done by our commercial partners that took longer than expected,” Bray said. “This delayed completion of all of the system upgrades -- even with the FCC team working around the clock throughout the holiday weekend.” Systems that won’t be available until 8 a.m. Thursday include the Universal Licensing System, Equipment Authorization System, Consolidated Database System and the Commission Registration System. FCBA also sent to its members a notice Tuesday announcing the continuing outage.