An August interview with the El Paso Times didn’t confirm telco cooperation with a federal surveillance program, National Intelligence Director Mike McConnell said Thursday at a House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence hearing. “The words I chose were ‘private sector,'” he said. McConnell said that he hadn’t asked the White House for the right to declassify information revealed for the first time in the Texas paper, and he didn’t need to. The president delegates declassification to the intelligence director, he said. Disclosing surveillance details to the Times “was a judgment call,” McConnell said. Committee chairman Rep. Silvestre Reyes, D-Tex., focused questions to McConnell on his rejection of HR-3356, a failed bill that would have updated the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. The committee had developed the legislation after talks with the intelligence director. On the surface, McConnell said, the bill seemed to deal with his three main needs: no warrant requirement for overseas surveillance, private sector cooperation, and a mandate for warrants when targeting American surveillance. But McConnell’s lawyers decided parts of the bill could be read as derailing its intent, he said. Much of McConnell’s testimony reprised his comments Tuesday to the House Judiciary Committee (CD Sept 19 p7). Asked whether he would accept more-explicit FISA bans on privacy abuses, McConnell largely echoed testimony Tuesday by Kenneth Wainstein, Justice Department assistant attorney general. “As long as we read it over to make sure there are no unintended consequences,” McConnell said. The American Civil Liberties Union was also on the scene Thursday, deriding McConnell’s appearances this week as “exaggeration,” “outright fibbing” and part of a “charm offensive” intended to “gut” FISA. The committee cancelled a member-witness period set for the hearing. Later that day, Committee member Rep. Jane Harman (D-Calif.) submitted what would have been her testimony. Harman belonged to the “Gang of 8” regularly briefed on the Terrorist Surveillance Program. “The law can and must accommodate” the program, she said, urging that Congress “come together” to ensure needed changes are made. “It would be truly short-sighted to give this or any future White House a blank check, and to neuter the crucial oversight roles played responsibly for almost 30 years by the Intelligence Committees and the FISA Court,” Harman said.
Adam Bender
Adam Bender, Senior Editor, is the state and local telecommunications reporter for Communications Daily, where he also has covered Congress and the Federal Communications Commission. He has won awards for his Warren Communications News reporting from the Society of Professional Journalists, Specialized Information Publishers Association and the Society for Advancing Business Editing and Writing. Bender studied print journalism at American University and is the author of dystopian science-fiction novels. You can follow Bender at WatchAdam.blog and @WatchAdam on Twitter.
The FCC “missed the train” when it put open access conditions on the 700 MHz auction, Verizon CEO Ivan Seidenberg said at the Goldman Sachs Conference, webcast from New York. It will be “very difficult to make [conditions] work” to create more competition,” he said. The FCC “didn’t need to impose government intervention to create market structure,” he said. Seidenberg discussed major wireless carriers’ interest in rurals. Majors will keep buying rurals, provided rurals want to sell, he said. SunCom’s Monday sale to T-Mobile followed a Rural Cellular sale to Verizon, Dobson Cellular sale to AT&T, and Alltel’s sale to private equity. Verizon didn’t act on Alltel’s desire to sell because the Bell has spectrum in most Alltel markets, Seidenberg said. Nor did Alltel’s size and price “fit what made sense,” he added. Verizon’s three-state wireline spinoff to FairPoint “will get done” by the end of Q1 2008 “at the latest,” he said. Verizon and FairPoint have shareholder approval and are working at getting state approvals, he said. Seidenberg said Verizon and Vodafone have a “very good operating relationship,” but the CEO declined to comment what that relationship may look like in the long term.
Amending the Protect America Act to address complaints about it would suit the U.S., said Justice Department Assistant Attorney General Kenneth Wainstein in Tuesday testimony to the House Judiciary Committee. The number of “overheard” American conversations and other details can be given in closed session, National Intelligence director Mike McConnell testified. McConnell clarified statements he made in August to the El Paso Times (CD Aug 24 p7). Judiciary was not alone is discussing the issues Tuesday; earlier, the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence also held a hearing.
A MetroPCS-Leap Wireless merger remains likely, despite Leap’s public rejection of the deal, analysts said Monday. MetroPCS probably will increase its bid, and 700 MHz spectrum considerations may prompt the companies to combine before Thanksgiving, they said. On Sunday Leap rejected MetroPCS’s “surprise” merger proposal, citing concerns with Metro’s valuation of Leap, MetroPCS’s uncertain future and the bid’s “opportunistic” timing. “While our two companies may share the same basic business model, Leap is better positioned to execute and capitalize on industry growth opportunities,” Leap CEO Douglas Hutcheson said in an open letter.
Two large online directories will merge, and there could be a ripple in mobile. InfoSpace sold SwitchBoard.com and its other online directory assets to Idearc for $225 million, the companies said Monday. Idearc publishes Superpages.com and the Verizon Yellow Pages. Idearc said it will take on Switchboard.com’s existing distribution network. The companies hope to complete the deal at year-end, after shareholders and regulators sign off, InfoSpace said.
T-Mobile joined other majors’ rural acquisition party, scooping up SunCom Wireless for $2.4 billion in cash and assumed debt. The price is largely on a par with the recent acquisitions of Dobson Cellular by AT&T and Rural Cellular by Verizon. Rural acquisitions have picked up, but analysts disagreed over whether more are on the way.
The U.S. Appeals Court for the Federal Circuit sent back to a district court a patent infringement complaint against Sprint Nextel by Alfred McZeal and his business, International Walkie Talkie. The court vacated and remanded for further proceeding an order by the U.S. District Court for southern Texas dismissing McZeal’s complaint for failure to state a claim. McZeal “met the low bar for pro se litigants to avoid dismissal,” Judge Glenn Archer wrote in the majority opinion. Judge Timothy Dyk dissented in part. Sprint didn’t comment by our deadline.
A precedent-setting court order staying the International Trade Commission Qualcomm chip ban for third parties is “very good news” for T-Mobile but a long term “concern” for the ITC and patent holders, officials told Communications Daily Thursday. Late Wednesday, the U.S. Appeals Court for the Federal Circuit ordered a partial stay of the ITC limited exclusion order against Qualcomm chips that infringe Broadcom patents. The ruling could be a “harbinger for a favorable final decision” for Qualcomm, a Stifel Nicolaus analyst said.
The top four U.S. wireless carriers just got more patent infringement lawsuits to worry about. NTP filed four separate complaints in the U.S. District Court for Eastern Virginia, suing AT&T, T-Mobile, Sprint Nextel and Verizon Wireless on allegations of infringing eight patents related to radio-frequency transfer of e-mail to mobile devices. NTP wants damages, an injunction and attorney’s fees. Last year, patent-savvy NTP won a $612.5 million settlement with BlackBerry-maker Research In Motion over five of the same patents, but a Patent & Trademark Office reexamination of NTP patents could influence the new cases.
Atheros Xspan chips infringe ArrayComm patents, ArrayComm alleged in a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for Eastern Texas. ArrayComm wants the court to award damages, an injunction and attorney’s fees for “willful” infringement of three patents related to multiantenna signal processing, it said. “ArrayComm’s intellectual property is being “knowingly, willfully, and unfairly exploited,” said ArrayComm President Stephen Sifferman. His company said it had tried to resolve the dispute “amicably.” Company representatives met in January to discuss ArrayComm’s patents, the complaint said. ArrayComm said it “specifically advised Atheros” of the three patents and “focused on particular claims of those patents.” The companies again met Aug. 20 to discuss licensing of ArrayComm patents, but Atheros asserted that there was no infringement, ArrayComm said. When ArrayComm asked for evidence, Atheros “refused to provide any explanation,” it said. Going to court was ArrayComm’s only option, the complaint said: “ArrayComm is not aware of any further practical or reasonable testing that would definitively confirm” the infringement, it said. An Atheros spokesman downplayed the suit: “Though we have not yet had adequate opportunity to fully digest the complaint, we have reviewed the claims during our previous discussions with ArrayComm and we believe those claims are totally without merit.”