Ars Technica reports that Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai wants to stop U.S. companies and organizations that receive broadband funding from the FCC from buying from Chinese technology vendors Huawei and ZTE. A 2012 Congressional report encouraged American companies to "consider the long-term security risks associated with doing business with either ZTE or Huawei for equipment or services" and to seek other sources, and a December 2017 letter to the FCC from 18 lawmakers objected to Huawei smartphones being sold by AT&T or other carriers. Both companies have ties to the Chinese government. The implication seems to be that a smartphone, or other Internet-connected device, could be set up as a spying device for the Chinese government. "Hidden ‘back doors’ to our networks in routers, switches—and virtually any other type of telecommunications equipment—can provide an avenue for hostile governments to inject viruses, launch denial-of-service attacks, steal data, and more," Pai said. The Wall Street Journal reports that many, "regional American providers of wireless, TV, and Internet services have flocked to Huawei, attracted by what they say are Huawei’s cheaper prices, quality products and attentive customer service." The FBI's Director Christopher Wray told the Senate Intelligence Committee last month that they are "deeply concerned about the risks of allowing any company or entity that is beholden to foreign governments that don’t share our values to gain positions of power inside our telecommunications networks." Huawei and ZTE deny their products are used for spying, and the U.S. has yet to present hard evidence. The FCC can't ban the Chinese products, but can stop companies receiving money from the Universal Service Fund from working with Huawei and ZTE.

Ars Technica reports that lawyers for AT&T, Verizon, and other internet providers plan to sue states that create their own net neutrality rules. "Broadband providers have worked hard over the past 20 years to deploy ever more sophisticated, faster and higher-capacity networks, and uphold net neutrality protections for all," USTelecom CEO Jonathan Spalter wrote. "To continue this important work, there is no question we will aggressively challenge state or municipal attempts to fracture the federal regulatory structure that made all this progress possible." He was writing on a blog for USTelecom, a lobby group with a board of directors including members from AT&T, Verizon, Frontier, CenturyLink, Windstream, and other telcos. When the Federal Communications Commission voted in December to rollback the net neutrality rules, and allow fast and slow lanes on the Internet, they specifically barred individual states from passing their own net neutrality rules. But the FCC also rolled back the classification of Internet service providers as common carriers under Title II of the Telecommunications Act, which experts says does allow states to create their own rules, as the FCC ceded jurisdiction. USTelecom has a history of suing over net neutrality, taking the FCC to court when they passed the rules. Washington state and Oregon are passing their own net neutrality laws, saying the FCC lacks authority to preempt them, and there is net neutrality legislation in more than half of the states in the country. Governors of five states have issued executive orders saying the states can only do business with internet companies that follow the FCC's old rules. And many states are suing the FCC because they overturned the rules last year.

Forbes reports that now that iHeartMedia and Cumulus have declared bankruptcy, expect a sell-off of commercial radio stations around the country. In the past five months the two largest radio conglomerates in the United States have filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. iHeart has 850 stations and Cumulus has 450 stations, and the bankruptcy proceedings will force them to sell many of those stations, flooding the market. It is not that radio is dying -- actually 93 percent of Americans listen to radio, more than have a TV (89 percent), a computer (50 percent), or a smart phone (83 percent). Instead, the giant radio conglomerates are dying. iHeartMedia used to be called Clear Channel, and after the horrendous 1996 Telecommunications Act was signed by President Bill Clinton, it began buying up as many stations as it could under that bill's deregulation. That led to cookie-cutter stations, programmed and staffed from afar, that listeners no longer care for. Instead, local stations with interesting content and actual human beings at the controls, are doing better with listeners. Gene Ely writes in Forbes, "The new-old model is local, local, local—stations deeply involved in their communities with local on-air talent that shows up at events and plays the music local listeners want. The DJs read the news. They talk about last Friday night’s high school football game. It’s the only way traditional radio can compete with digital." After the 1996 Telecommunications Act local stations were contacting pirate radio operators for tips, saying they were being forced to sell their mom-and-pop stations because of economics of scale. Similar market forces are now aligning for independent operators to buy commercial radio stations on the cheap later this year.

John Timmer at Ars Technica explains what his website does when faced with yet another so-called scientific study that claims to prove a link between cell phones and cancer. This study involves the The Environmental Health Trust, in a journal called Environmental Research, from Italy's Instituto Ramazzini. Timmer estimates that those sources have solid reputations, at least meaning the research is worthy of consideration. The bad news comes when looking closely at this particular study. This study of long-term exposure of rats to cell phone signals finds three increases in the incidence of cancer in animals exposed to cellphone radiation, but two weren't statistically significant. " If we're going to allow non-significant changes into the conclusions, then the data would just as easily support reporting that cellphones reduce the risk of cancer in some of the experimental groups," Timmer writes. The one significant result is only found in male rats. "These numbers suggest that the one statistical effect seen in this study is caused by the unusually low tumor incidence in the control group, rather than a specific effect of cellphone radiation," Timmer concludes. Of course, if cell phone radiation did cause cancer, just about everyone would be consulting oncologists by now.

Kelcee Griffis at Law360.com reports that many environmental and historic reviews won't be needed to approve the many cell phone antennae that must be hung to create the nation's 5G cell network, after a March 22 vote by the Federal Communications Commission. The Republicans on the FCC, who outnumber the Democrats 3-2, voted to eliminate the need for National Historic Preservation Act and the National Environmental Policy Act reviews for the 5G cell fixtures. The 5G technology should give consumers much faster service, but it also means cell phone antennae will 500 feet apart, instead of several miles. So there could be transmitters on telephone or electric poles, municipal buildings, and all sorts of other structures. Already, many states are passing laws limiting the rental limits for each cell signaling device a carrier puts on a tower or pole. The FCC vote declared the act of deploying small cells does not constitute a “federal undertaking” or a “major federal action,” so no reviews under the National Historic Preservation Act and the National Environmental Policy Act. Native American tribes and environmental advocates were especially mad about the vote, with one protester interrupting the FCC's meeting. Democrat Jessica Rosenworcel dissented, saying, “A solution to this infrastructure challenge is long overdue — and while today’s decision purports to be one — it misses the mark. It runs roughshod over the rights of our tribal communities and gives short shrift to our most basic environmental and historic preservation values.” Republican Michael O’Rielly disagreed, saying, “For too long, we've allowed a small subset of tribes to unnecessarily slow communications buildout and bring a bad name to the rest of the American tribes that really try to do good faith efforts to work with wireless providers on behalf of consumers.”

Radio World reports that some in Congress are writing up a bill with more harsh penalties for pirate radio operators. Leonard Lance, a Republican from New Jersey, and Paul Tonko, a Democrat from New York, are writing the Preventing Illegal Radio Abuse Through Enforcement Act for their House Subcommittee on Communications and Technology. The PIRATE Act proposes to change Title V of the Communications Act of 1934 to increase fines for pirate radio operations. The bill's proposed draft language is just ridiculous, upping the current $10,000 fines to $100,000 each day of broadcasting, with a maximum fine of $2 million. Many of the current $10,000 fines are dismissed on a hardship basis now, and the Federal Communications Commission shouldn't expect to fill its coffers with millions from pirate radio operators. Radio World says, "The draft legislation also calls on the FCC’s Enforcement Bureau to conduct enforcement sweeps across the nation’s top five radio markets to identify and terminate illegal broadcasts," which is hilarious as Congress has repeatedly cut the FCC's budget, shrinking the enforcement bureau's workforce. And the act would allow state and local governments to add more fines on top of the $2 million figures, an admission that the current state laws against pirate radio are indeed unconstitutional. The fines, under this proposal, are also meant to go to anyone who "facilitates" the pirate broadcasts, which means landlords, and maybe interviewed guests, could be fined.

Gizmodo reports that while the British switched their television signals from analog to digital in 2012, the BBC is keeping analog FM Radio around "for the foreseeable future." Previously, the government said once 50 percent of consumers had digital radios and 90 percent of the population could receive digital signals, they would switch to DAB. Now, though, the BBC's director of radio and music Bob Shennan thinks ending analog radio would be "premature." He recently said, "We need to do more in the UK before we consider a switchover and for that to be genuinely led by the audience. We are fully committed to digital and we believe we should review the landscape again in a few years' time." Norway is the only country to have gone completely digital, even with 66 percent of Norwegians opposed to the move when it began. In England, many new cars can receive digital signals, but most household FM radios cannot.

Jon Brodkin reports for Ars Technica that a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit struck down part of an anti-robocall rule March 16. The judges ruled that an unwanted call from a smartphone shouldn't violate anti-robocall rules if the user hasn't downloaded an autodialing app. The FCC won't appeal the decision to strike down part of the the Telephone Consumer Protection Act, because Republican FCC Chairman Ajit Pai opposed the rule change in 2015, when he was in the minority on the commission. With or without this part of the law, the scourge of robocalls has not slowed, even with consumers signing up on "Do Not Call" lists. The FCC has proposed a fine of $120 million for someone who allegedly made 96 million spoofed robocalls in a three-month period. "One thing is clear in the wake of today's court decision: robocalls will continue to increase unless the FCC does something about it," Democratic FCC Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel said. "That means that the same agency that had the audacity to take away your net neutrality rights is now on the hook for protecting you from the invasion of annoying robocalls. It's past time for the American public to get a serious response from the FCC—and a reprieve from the unrelenting nuisance these calls have become for so many of us." Pai claims he will work hard to stop the robocalls. "We will continue to pursue consumer-friendly policies on this issue, from reducing robocalls to reassigned numbers to call authentication to blocking illegal robocalls," he said. "And we'll maintain our strong approach to enforcement against spoofers and scammers, including the over $200 million in fines that we proposed last year."

Anyone who has been following the Cambridge Analytica story this week might want to consider their use of Facebook, specifically using apps that let users login through their Facebook accounts. Over 50 million Facebook users had their profile information harvested by the Trump-connected data analytics firm which used a personality test to gather information about users for its exploitation. Special counsel, Robert Mueller, has demanded the emails of Cambridge Analytica employees who worked for the Trump team as part of his investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election. Cambridge Analytica took the information about Facebook users, and weaponized it to sway mass opinion in the United States. How did they get the information? Another psychology trick. They got Facebook users to take one of those viral tests that tells you which character on a TV show one most closely resembles and then harvested that data to build a targeted Facebook strategy based on what it learned about those individuals and their friends. So, maybe consider not taking those online tests, or quitting Facebook. If you don't want to go that far, you can login to Facebook's settings and delete the ability for other apps to let you login through your Facebook account. Because, this Cambridge Analytica story makes clear, hackers are using that method to harvest private information about your Facebook use.

TechDirt reports that when the Federal Communications Commission voted in December to rollback the net neutrality rules, and allow fast and slow lanes on the Internet, they specifically barred individual states from passing their own net neutrality rules. But the FCC also rolled back the classification of Internet service providers as common carriers under Title II of the Telecommunications Act. That means the FCC ceded jurisdiction over Internet service. Barbara van Schewick, Professor of Law at Stanford Law School, and the Director of Stanford Law School’s Center for Internet and Society, has noticed that, and says it means that the FCC can't stop states from passing their own rules. She writes about California's proposed law, "The bill is on firm legal ground. While the FCC’s 2017 Order explicitly bans states from adopting their own net neutrality laws, that preemption is invalid. According to case law, an agency that does not have the power to regulate does not have the power to preempt. That means the FCC can only prevent the states from adopting net neutrality protections if the FCC has authority to adopt net neutrality protections itself. But by re-classifying ISPs as information services under Title I of the Communications Act and re-interpreting Section 706 of the Telecommunications Act as a mission statement rather than an independent grant of authority, the FCC has deliberately removed all of its sources of authority that would allow it to adopt net neutrality protections. The FCC’s Order is explicit on this point. Since the FCC’s 2017 Order removed the agency’s authority to adopt net neutrality protections, it doesn’t have authority to prevent the states from doing so, either." California, Washington, and other states are all now working on passing their own net neutrality laws.

Ars Technica reports that the Raspberry Pi Foundation has a new version of its modular computer platform with a lot of new features and the same low $35 price. The Raspberry Pi 3 Model B+ will be even more popular for folks who make their own computer-using gizmos or products. It is the same size as earlier model, so it can be swapped in for more robust use. This year's model runs on a quad core 64-bit Cortex-A53 processor at 1.4GHz, up from 1.2GHz. It also has dual band 2.4/5GHz 802.11b/g/n/ac Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 4.2, up from 2.4GHz and Bluetooth 4.1. And the Ethernet port is up from 100Mb/s to a gigabit. Ars Technica guesses that with "5GHz becoming more common in Internet-of-Things devices... 2.4GHz networks will increasingly become legacy relics."

IEEE Spectrum reports that on Jan. 12 the Indian space agency ISRO launched four “two-way satellite communications and data relay” devices from a Silicon Valley startup called Swarm Technologies, which seem to be pirate satellites. The four satellites -- SpaceBee-1, 2, 3, and 4 -- are technology demonstrators for a new space-based Internet of Things communications network. They are pirate satellites because the Federal Communications Commission dismissed Swarm’s application for its experimental satellites in December, because of safety reasons. IEEE Spectrum says, "If confirmed, this would be the first ever unauthorized launch of commercial satellites." On March 7, the FCC sent Swarm a letter revoking its authorization to launch four more satellites next month. Swarm wants to build a network that collects data from IoT devices using Bluetooth, LoRa, or Wi-Fi, and then beam that into space using VHF (very high frequency) radio, and then back down to users. Obviously, there are many applications for this network. The company's satellites are tiny, just 10 centimeters by 10 cm x 2.8 cm. But Marcus Holzinger, an aerospace professor at the Georgia Institute of Technology and expert on orbital safety says, “If there’s a software glitch, the satellite is going to become a passive piece of debris." Swarm and the FCC would not comment, but it appears the company has sent its four tiny satellites into space without authorization.

Ars Technica reports that the 12 lawsuits -- 33 if you count each state individually -- filed against the Federal Communications Commission's rollback of net neutrality have been combined into one on March 8. They will be heard in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, which was randomly chosen, and also the court that President Donald Trump complains about the most for overturning his executive orders. Other groups can still file lawsuits, and The Internet Association, a lobby group for Amazon, Google, Facebook, Netflix, and other Web companies already announced plans to support the lawsuit against the FCC. The court does not have a timeline for a decision, but it should take more than a year. Currently, the old net neutrality rules -- which prohibit Internet service providers from blocking, throttling, and paid prioritization on the web -- are technically still on the books until the U.S. Office of Management and Budget approves the modified information collection requirements.

Asian Correspondent.com interviews Kim Hyeong Soo, who defected from North Korea in 2009. He explained that radio was virtually the only way he and others in North Korea knew anything about the outside world. "I was able to have access to a radio and have access to the outside world. The most popular channels are all from America, especially Radio Free Asia and Voice of America. Had I not had the radio, I would not have known anything about the outside world, so those are the two biggest things that motivated me.... Radios are important, but so are other methods. With the recent technological advances in North Korea, people now have limited access to phones and laptops, so there could be USB sticks containing important information going into the country. Paper flyers are also important. People have also mentioned sending information through a satellite. There are a lot of methods, both hardware and software. We need to research which is the most effective."

Brian Stelter reports for CNN that Sinclair Broadcasting continues to infect the local news programs of its stations with its conservative bent. Sinclair already owns the most local stations around the country -- more if a merger with Tribune Media is allowed -- including a CBS and CW station in Albany, New York. Sinclair is now forcing local news anchors to record the following promotional text: "The sharing of biased and false news has become all too common on social media," the script says. "More alarming, national media outlets are publishing these same fake stories without checking facts first. Unfortunately, some members of the national media are using their platforms to push their own personal bias and agenda to control 'exactly what people think' ... This is extremely dangerous to our democracy." Sinclair stations are already forced to cut their local news time to air pro-Trump commentaries by former Trump aide Boris Epshteyn, and these promotional ads are also supposed to cut into time set aside for news, not commercials. CNN quotes one local anchor about the promos. "At my station, everyone was uncomfortable doing it," the local anchor said insistin on anonymity. The CNN story also says, "The FCC is currently reviewing the Tribune deal. Sinclair critics -- Democratic lawmakers and some of the company's Republican rivals -- have alleged that the FCC has given Sinclair preferential treatment." Scott Livingston, the company's senior vice president of news, told CNN, "This promo addresses the troubling trend of false stories on social media [Livingston's emphasis], and distinguishes our trusted local stations as news destinations where we are committed to honest and accurate reporting. This promo reminds our viewers of this mission."

Ars Technica reports Republicans in both houses of Congress have now introduced their fix for the Federal Communications Commission's rollback of net neutrality, the Open Internet Preservation Act. But the bills do pretty much what the FCC's rollback did. They allow paid prioritization or "fast lanes" for Internet service providers to charge more for online services for Internet users. So instead of paying extra to use YouTube without advertising, consumers would pay extra for YouTube at faster speeds, instead of everyone having access to YouTube at the same speed. The bills, sponsored by Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.) and Representative Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.), would also preempt state net neutrality laws. And states are currently passing laws to do whatever they can to bring back the old net neutrality rules in their borders. "This legislation would be disastrous for net neutrality, opening the door for large Internet providers to create fast and slow lanes online, which would destroy innovation and stifle free expression," the net neutrality advocacy group Demand Progress said in a statement.

Ars Technica reports that on March 6, U.S. Senator Ron Wyden, a Democrat from Oregon, sent a letter to one of the country's largest voting machine manufacturers, Election Systems & Software, asking how secure their machines really are. Recent reporting in The New York Times Magazine, and by freelance reporter Kim Zetter, show the remote-access application called pcAnywhere on some of the company's voting machines. That's common software that allows users to log in to computers from remote locations. ES&S officials denied that employees knew about company machines being sold with remote-access software. But the reporting shows at least a few cases where ES&S employees made sure the voting equipment came pre-installed with the software. "The American public has been repeatedly assured that voting machines are not connected to the Internet and, thus, cannot be remotely compromised by hackers," Wyden wrote. "However, according to a recent article in The New York Times Magazine, election systems sold by your company frequently include pre-installed remote-access software, which exposed elections systems to remote attack and compromise." Election Systems & Software officials have yet to comment.

Ars Technica reports Federal Communications Commission chairman Ajit Pai now has a policy proposal that both conservatives and liberals don't like, one that corporations and activists are against. In December, Pai's Republican majority voted 3-2 to create a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking change Lifeline, a federal program that gives folks of lesser means a $9.25 monthly household subsidy to pay for Internet and/or phone service. While more than 70 percent of the people using the Lifeline subsidy buy plans from resellers, companies that buy capacity from network operators and then resell it directly to consumers, Pai wants to force Lifeline customers to only use "facilities-based broadband" providers. Forcing poor people to use their subsidy with companies that operate their own networks, is even opposed by those companies. AT&T, Verizon, T-Mobile USA, and Sprint operate their own networks. In comments to the FCC proposal Sprint said, "Resellers have played an important and legitimate role in providing competitive broadband and voice service to low-income consumers, and their elimination could have a significant impact on participation in the Lifeline program." Verizon made similar comments. "The proposed exclusion of resellers from the Lifeline program would be highly disruptive to existing Lifeline beneficiaries and is at odds with the Commission's goal of supporting affordable voice telephony and high-speed broadband for low-income households," Verizon wrote. T-Mobile and AT&T did not submit comments on issue, but it is difficult to find anyone in favor of the measure. The deadline for filing comments was on February 21, although reply comments can be made through March 23. After that, the full commission may vote on it making it policy.

There is now a resolution of disapproval introduced in both houses of Congress, which would rollback the rollback of the Federal Communications Commission’s net neutrality rules. The Congressional Review Act lets Congress reverse recent decisions made by federal agencies via an expedited legislative process. In December, the FCC rolled back the net neutrality rules that make the internet an even playing field. Ed Markey of Massachusetts is leading the Senate version, with 50 senators, just one shy of the number needed to pass the chamber, already signed on. Maine's Susan Collins is the only Republican signed on in the Senate. In the U.S. House of Representatives, Michael Doyle of Pennsylvania introduced an identical version with 150 co-sponsors so far. With too few Democrats to pass the resolution alone, it needs help from moderate Republicans such as Rep. John Faso of New York, who has not signed on at this point. There are also several lawsuits from states and activists groups attempting to overrule the FCC rollback of net neutrality. Markey says sometime this spring Democrats will force a vote in the Senate on the resolution.