U.S. Trade Representative Michael Froman should prioritize dismantling “protectionist” data flow policies through Trans-Pacific Partnership, Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership, and Trade in International Services Agreement negotiations, said 18 House members in a Friday letter (http://1.usa.gov/1cxbuhJ). Some EU officials are pushing initiatives that undermine the U.S. ability to compete in the European market, such as an EU-only information sharing cloud and an EU information technology conglomerate, said the lawmakers. Protectionist EU IT policies threaten the $2.1 trillion in U.S. investment in the EU, the lawmakers said. “This mutually beneficial relationship would not be possible without constant streams of data between the EU and the U.S,” said legislators. “Halting cross-border data flows will, by many measures, simply stifle cross-border trade.” Congressional High Tech Caucus co-chairs Michael McCaul, R-Texas, and Doris Matsui, D-Calif., led the letter. The lawmakers listed issues of concern both in and out of the U.S. After issuing a decree that requires Brazilian federal government agencies use only federally provided telecom and IT services, Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff is pursuing data localization legislation, said the lawmakers. “Meanwhile, some German officials have called on the EU to review Safe Harbor, the only mechanism through which U.S. and European companies can exchange information in compliance with the laws of the nations in which they conduct business” (CD Oct 24 p10), said members of Congress. “Canada has increased the number of federal government Requests for Proposals (RFPs) invoking a ‘national security exemption’ and requiring IT vendors who bid for projects to keep all or portions of data within Canada.” U.S. Lawmakers recently introduced the Digital Trade Act of 2013 in an effort to prevent or eliminate cross-border Internet data flow restrictions by establishing negotiating principles for digital trade issues in future U.S. trade agreements.

FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler told the agency’s Consumer Advisory Committee (CAC) Monday that as a former businessman he was “horrified” by the state of FCC computer and other systems, based on what he has seen so far, including during a field trip to the FCC office in Gettysburg, Pa. Wheeler said the FCC is funded by user fees paid by industry and, ultimately, by consumers. “It all comes down to money and I'm trying,” he said. Wheeler also said the work such advisory boards do is critical. Wheeler, former chairman of the FCC’s Technological Advisory Council, noted that TAC’s work on the IP transition laid the groundwork for what is now “a major area of policy focus” at the commission. “I believe strongly in the work that you all are doing and the importance of it at the commission,” he said. CAC will have a big role to play in assessing the “series of trials” expected across the country as the FCC looks more closely at the “impact” of the IP transition, he said. Wheeler also said emphatically that the FCC will have a continuing role as deregulation moves forward. “There are some in the carrier community” who believe “the FCC should be out of the picture and it should be the FTC” that protects consumers, he said. “We disagree.” He said he’s very focused on making certain that students and the disabled benefit from broadband. “If we are not using networks to deliver 21st century abilities for our students, shame on us,” he said. New generation networks should solve long-standing problems with the Telecommunications Relay Service and Video Relay Service, which are important to the disabled, he said.

Globalstar again said adopting the rules proposed in the NPRM on allowing it to provide a terrestrial low-power broadband service would “quickly add 22 MHz to the nation’s wireless broadband spectrum inventory,” in an ex parte filing in dockets 13-213 and RM-11685 (http://bit.ly/1cMSuzh). It also would “ease the congestion that is diminishing the quality of Wi-Fi service at high-traffic 802.11 hotspots and other locations,” it said. Globalstar continued to urge the FCC to maintain its prohibition on outdoor operations in the Unlicensed National Information Infrastructure band, it said. It repeated that reassignment of Globalstar’s spectrum to Iridium “would have a disastrous effect on Globalstar’s global MSS operations and cause significant harm to public safety and the customers who rely on Globalstar’s services,” it said. The proceeding on Iridium’s petition, which seeks reallocation of Big low-earth orbit spectrum from Globalstar is still pending (CD Nov 5 p5).

The FTC filed a complaint seeking permanent injunction against Lin Miao and Andrew Bachman, and companies they own, for allegedly placing charges on wireless subscriber bills in violation of federal law. “Defendants have been engaging in a widespread scheme to place unauthorized third-party charges on consumers’ mobile phone bills, a harmful and illegal practice known as ‘cramming,'” the FTC said (http://1.usa.gov/1bLidqK). “Defendants have been operating a scam in which they have been billing consumers for text message-based subscription services even though the consumers did not authorize any purchase of the services.” Mobile subscribers targeted by the companies have been charged for celebrity gossip alerts, “fun facts,” horoscopes and “similar kinds of information,” the FTC said. Many subscribers paid their bills without noticing the charges, the agency said.

The FCC Media Bureau identified 406 mutually exclusive (MX) groups from applications filed in the low-power FM window. The applications identified in the MX groups may include applications “the bureau has determined or may at a future date determine are subject to dismissal for legal and/or technical defects,” it said in a public notice (http://bit.ly/18vuXTY). Applicants may begin filing Form 318 amendments using the Consolidated Database System, it said. Some of the groups identified include Alaska Revival Radio, Northland Baptist Ministries and Rage in Wasilla, Alaska, and the Diocese of Rapid City and Western Dakota Technical Institute in Rapid City, S.D., the bureau said (http://bit.ly/1gCbRyq). Applicants in MX groups can resolve technical conflicts through technical amendments, settlements and time-share agreements, it said.

The Senate must “push the envelope even further” on curbing abusive patent litigation than the House did when it passed the Innovation Act (HR-3309) earlier this month, said Application Developers Alliance President Jon Potter Monday during a CEA-sponsored Google Hangout session. The Senate Judiciary Committee is to begin considering the Patent Transparency and Improvements Act (S-1720) at a hearing Tuesday. The bill, introduced by committee Chairman Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., and Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, mirrors some portions of HR-3309 but draws more heavily from legislative recommendations from the White House. The bill does not include provisions on fee-shifting or changes to discovery rules for patent cases -- two items that drew criticism from some opponents during the debate in the House (CD Dec 6 p11). The Senate bill would also give the FTC the authority to take action against patent assertion entities that send deceptive demand letters. The Senate should particularly focus on stays on patent lawsuits against end-users and provisions that would improve patent quality during the review process at the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, Potter said Monday. Tuesday’s hearing will shape the Senate debate, but so will the opinions of constituents who will speak with their senators over the holidays, Potter said. Opponents of HR-3309 argued that the bill would hurt small businesses -- something Engine Advocacy co-founder Mike McGeary called “false.” The debate over possible legislation has brought together advocates “from all walks of life,” with a majority of them coming from small businesses, he said. Despite the criticism, the House passed HR-3309 with a bipartisan majority, which itself was a “clear signal to the Senate that the time for action is now,” McGeary said. “This is something that can’t wait for another election cycle.”

DirecTV, Dish Network, Hughes and EchoStar emphasized to the FCC that changes to fee categories must reflect changes in law and regulation, and “must correspond with the number of full time employees performing specified regulatory functions for particular classes of payors,” they said in an ex parte filing in dockets 13-140, 12-201 and 08-65 (http://bit.ly/1bL8AID). The cable operators’ “parity” arguments are defective “because the commission does not regulate these two industries equally,” it said. In a separate ex parte filing in those dockets, SES, Inmarsat and Telesat cautioned the FCC against requiring non-U.S.-licensed satellite operators serving the U.S. market to pay space station regulatory fees. Foreign-licensed satellites don’t obtain Title III licenses “or receive the benefits that come with grant of a U.S. space station license,” the ex parte said (http://bit.ly/1997qZT). The only commission efforts that are solely focused on foreign satellites involve processing requests for market access, “a one-time expenditure of resources that the satellite companies argued does not justify a recurring regulatory fee,” it said. The FCC’s earth station licensing database doesn’t permit determination of whether an earth station is communicating with foreign-licensed satellites, it said. During a separate meeting, Intelsat supported reassessing fees for indirect full-time employees “that rarely work on behalf of satellite operators,” it said in an ex parte filing (http://bit.ly/IQf4Mw). It also reiterated that regulatory fees should be collected from non-U.S. satellite operators with U.S. market access, it said. All the satellite companies met last week with staff from the Enforcement and International bureaus and the Office of Managing Director.

Infoblox completed USGv6 certification, becoming the first network control vendor to pass USGv6 compliance, it said in a news release Monday (http://bit.ly/1fhEhKc). USGv6 is a standards and testing infrastructure designed to aid the U.S. government’s implementation of IPv6 (http://bit.ly/1fhEhKc). “Infoblox is responding to the global shortage of IPv4 addresses with the industry’s most advanced, interoperable solutions supporting IPv6,” said Cricket Liu, the company’s chief infrastructure officer. Infoblox used the University of New Hampshire’s InterOperability Laboratory for compliance testing, it said.

The FTC should move forward with its proposed study of the business practices of patent assertion entities (PAEs), Public Knowledge said Monday in comments it filed jointly with the Electronic Frontier Foundation and Engine Advocacy. The FTC voted in late September to propose doing a study using its authority under Section 6(b) of the FTC Act (CD Sept 30 p15). Comments on the proposed study were due Monday. The proposed study would “bring many of these unseen practices to light, by requiring those entities to disclose relevant information about their business practices,” Public Knowledge said. “With this information, the FTC will take a first step in discovering and uncovering the true extent of the impact of patent assertion abuses on today’s economy.” The Software & Information Industry Association said it “strongly” supports the proposed study, which would “add significantly to the existing literature and evidence on PAE behavior.” There have been other studies on PAE activities, but they have focused on available litigation data, said SIIA. The FTC’s proposed study “has the opportunity to be much different and to provide a more complete picture of the PAE landscape and its detrimental effects due to the FTC’s unique Congressional authority to collect nonpublic information,” SIIA said. “Certain licensing agreements, patent acquisition information, and cost and revenue data that was not available to researchers in prior studies would be potentially available to the FTC” (http://1.usa.gov/1bUz6jC).

Ruckus Wireless is partnering with the city and county of San Francisco to deliver free public Wi-Fi for the city’s Market Street Corridor, said the company in a news release Monday (http://yhoo.it/1bUtENR). San Francisco’s Department of Technology and Ruckus worked in a public-private partnership to design, build and deploy the network, said Ruckus. The outdoor network will be available starting at the intersection of Market and Castro streets and continuing to the pedestrian corridor at the Embarcadero, it said. The city selected the company because it “overcomes” the physical and technical challenges of bringing wireless connectivity to outdoor environments with its high-capacity coverage requirements, Ruckus said. Ruckus Smart Wi-Fi technology is able to extend Wi-Fi signals over longer distances while adapting signals to changes to environmental conditions, said the company.