Telecom Daily
Welcome to Faulkner's Telecom Daily. We publish Monday through Friday, updating top stories as events warrant.Wednesday, January 16...
FCC Chair Refuses to Attend Emergency Congressional Meeting on Data
Aggregators
Federal Communications Commission (FCC)
Chairman Ajit Pai has refused to appear at an emergency meeting requested by the
head of the Committee on Energy and Commerce, Rep. Frank Pallone,
Motherboard reported. According to
the article, the meeting was called to discuss the customer tracking scandal
that arose last week when a report surfaced describing how a bounty hunter was
able to obtain a customers location data from their carrier for a mere $300.
This led to an intense focus once again being brought down on the practice of
most mobile carriers selling customer data to data . These aggregators then sell
it to third parties, without the original customer's consent. Pallone requested
Pai's presence in a
letter, asking the Chair to weigh in on why carriers have been allowed to
continue this potentially dangerous practice. Pallone stressed his concern over
the ability for malicious parties to use this readily available information to
bring harm to wireless subscribers. However, Chairman Pai apparently decided
that the threat does not warrant his presence, pointing to the ongoing
government shutdown as a reason why he cannot attend the meeting. According to
Pallone himself, during phone conversation, the Chairman's "staff asserted that
these egregious actions are not a threat to the safety of human life or property
that the FCC will address during the Trump shutdown." However, there seems to be
little actual basis for Pai to turn down the request, as he, unlike hundreds of
thousands of other federal workers, has not been furloughed or denied pay. This
means that he is still expected to perform all necessary duties inherent to his
position. Pai's refusal is unlikely to improve the perceived image of him as an
FCC Chair that is working in the best interest of the wireless carriers instead
of the American public.
Verizon Wireless Makes Apple Music Subs a Permanent Part of
Two Unlimited Plans
Verizon Wireless announced that
two of its unlimited data plans now come with a permanent subscription to Apple
Music. The affected plans are the company's Beyond Unlimited and Above
Unlimited, both of which will begin seeing the new benefit on January 17. This
new promotional offer replaces a previous one that provided six months of
service for free. The company claims the decision to make it a permanent feature
of two of the plans was based on the positive customer feedback it saw during
the aforementioned six-month promotional period. It should be noted that the
cheapest of Verizon Wireless' current unlimited plans, Go Unlimited, will not be
getting upgraded to the permanent subscription. Instead, the plan will retain
the original six-month trial. Both new and existing customers on the
aforementioned unlimited subscriptions are eligible for this new benefit.
Additional information on signing up for the offer can be found within the
company's
press release.
Google Launches New Recommendation Program for Android EMM
Google launched its new
Android Enterprise Recommended program for Enterprise Mobility Management to
help EMM personnel make better decisions about the hardware and services being
used within their fleets of mobile devices. The initial list of partners for
this program includes BlackBerry, Google Cloud, I3 Systems, IBM, Microsoft,
MobileIron, Softbank, SOTI, and Vmware. Google said all of these companies have
demonstrated adherence to the program's guidelines, which include "experience
across multiple Android Enterprise management sets"; a proven ability to deliver
security and management; a consistent deployment experience; documentation
capable of providing best practices for Android Enterprise setup and
configuration; Google-trained personnel in the field; and a commitment to
staying updated on the latest Android Enterprise features and training
parameters. Google said it expects to bring additional partners to the program
in the future.
.... MIchael Gariffo, Faulkner Information Services
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