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New Android malware that spreads via text can steal victims' credit card details from other apps

Rob Price
August 18, 2017

frankieleon/Flickr (CC)

It's wise not to enter your credit card details into shady-looking apps and websites if you don't want your details stolen.

But sometimes, not even the apps you know and trust are safe.

A piece of malware detailed in a blog post from security firm Kaspersky is able to quietly steal victims' details when they enter them into apps, as well as spy on their texts and phone calls.

It's called Fakedtoken, and has been evolving over the last year — growing increasingly sophisticated.

It began as a banking trojan that intercepted texts to steal two-factor authentication codes. Today, Kaspersky's researchers say they suspect it spreads via bulk SMS text message to potential victims, asking them to download some pictures.

If they do — well, things don't go well for them. Once installed it hides its icon and places a covert overlay over "several banking and miscellaneous applications, such as Android Pay, Google Play Store, and apps for paying for traffic tickets and booking flights, hotel rooms, and taxis."

If the victim then enters their card details into any of those apps, they fall into the hands of the malware's unidentified operators — opening them up to the risk of fraud and identify theft.

The malware can even intercept SMS messages, meaning it can get around the two-factor authentication required by some banks to authorise payments and transfers.

The threat of Fakedtoken appears (for now) to be largely limited to Russian and ex-Soviet countries, the researchers wrote: "To this day we still have not registered a large number of attacks with the Faketoken sample, and we are inclined to believe that this is one of its test versions. According to the list of attacked applications, the Russian UI of the overlays, and the Russian language in the code, Faketoken.q is focused on attacking users from Russia and CIS countries."

(Kaspersky was alerted to the latest version "thanks to our colleagues from a large Russian bank.")

But it is nonetheless an example of the crafty and evolving threats facing smartphone users trying to keep their data safe.

Security experts recommend that Android smartphone users should not install apps from third-party sources or download unknown files. By default, Android phones only allow users to install apps from the official Google Play Store.

[source]

Now on to more news and views.

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The pros and cons of a cellular Apple Watch

Do we really need an Apple Watch with LTE? We address the rumors with a pros and cons list.

Apple

By Dan Moren, Contributor, Macworld
AUG 18, 2017 3:00 AM PT

As summer wends on, so too do the rumors of upcoming Apple products. This time it’s the Apple Watch that has gotten the spotlight, with word that the next version of the wearable might include cellular connectivity.

That’s been held up as a missing piece of functionality by those competitors that do include LTE support in their own smartwatches, but it’s hardly been an unequivocal demand amongst current owners of the Apple Watch. Is this a natural evolution for the product, or a case of trying to find some additional features to drive sales?

The case for cellular

The benefits of cellular connectivity on an Apple Watch are pretty clear-cut. Rather than having to carry both your Watch and your iPhone around with you, you could leave the house with simply your Apple Watch. There’s already some functionality that works without your phone being present—Apple Pay, for example, or fitness tracking—but this expands that roster even further.

Martyn Williams/IDG

There’s a particular benefit to fitness users: runners can, for example, stream music from Apple Music or another service, rather than fussing with syncing music to the Watch’s local storage. They can also continue to get notifications while they work out, including, presumably, iMessages and emails—though whether that’s a benefit or a distraction will probably differ from person to person.

More recent reports suggest that the Watch won’t be able to make phone calls on its own, though VoIP apps may be a possibility. I’d assume that FaceTime Audio calls would be perfectly fine, and that may cover the bulk of eventualities; add Skype into the mix, and it’s about as good as having a normal phone.

From a strict sales perspective, it’s also possible that some customers have held off buying an Apple Watch until it does include cellular connectivity, so the addition of that major piece of functionality could spur sales. (Presumably there was a similar intent from adding GPS to the Apple Watch in Series 2, though it’s unclear whether or not that truly did buoy sales of the Watch.)

The case against cellular

But here’s the biggest question for me: does the Apple Watch as it is currently really call out for cellular connectivity? Ask most current owners of an Apple Watch how much they really use it for, and I guarantee that the answers are far more limited than the full capabilities of the Watch. But little of that has to do with the lack of cellular connectivity on the Apple Watch—I don’t think most Apple Watch users are annoyed that they can’t get their notifications when their phone isn’t nearby, because most of the time their phone is nearby.

That’s before we even add in actual engineering challenges. Cellular radios are a substantial drain on battery life—while I’m sure Apple will attempt to make that as efficient as possible, the Watch’s longevity is probably still going to take a hit. And adding another chip to the Watch seems likely to make it at least somewhat bulkier, though it’s impossible to rule out Apple finding a way to somehow shoehorn it into the existing design.

But here’s the biggest question for me: does the Apple Watch as it is currently really call out for cellular connectivity?

Finally, there’s also the financial question. Not only would I expect a cellular-enabled model to be more expensive than current offerings, but no cellular provider is going to give away data for free, so there’s likely to be an additional monthly data cost as well. Many providers let you add a tablet to your plan for $10 per month; I can’t see it being any less than a $5 monthly charge for the Apple Watch.

It’s not so much that the cost is outrageous compared to what tech customers are use to spending, but there’s a strong question of whether all of those tradeoffs are worth the seemingly meager bonus from adding cellular connectivity to the Apple Watch.

More models

My gut tells me that if the Apple Watch Series 3 is announced this fall, it will follow the pattern of the iPad: there will be a base level Watch that includes Wi-Fi-only—perhaps a revamped version of the Series 2, if Apple follows its previous pattern—and then cellular connectivity as an additional add-on. Then again, the Apple Watch has had a surprising amount of variability in its product line in the not quite two-and-a-half years since its release, so perhaps Apple will change the dynamic once again.

But all the rumors swirling around this particular topic have gotten me wondering if perhaps they’re drowning out other potential additions to the next version of the Apple Watch. GPS was the marquee feature of the Series 2 Apple Watch, but it also came with better waterproofing and a faster processor. It seems likely that if a brand-new model of the Apple Watch is incorporating a feature as significant as cellular connectivity that Apple might have yet more surprises for the Watch up its sleeve. As it were.

Canadian firm acquires Voxpro in €150m deal

Thursday, August 17, 2017
By Padraig Hoare

One of Cork’s biggest employers, outsourcing company Voxpro, has been taken over by Canadian IT giant Telus International in a deal estimated to be worth around €150m.

Founded almost 20 years ago by husband and wife team Dan and Linda Kiely, Voxpro employs 2,700 in Cork, Dublin, Europe, and the US. It provides customer contact services, call centre services, 24/7 call answering, and technical support services in more than a dozen different languages.

Clients include Google, Airbnb, and Stripe.

It began life with six employees working above a pub on Marlboro St in Cork City as a paging company.

While the terms of the deal have not been disclosed, the Kielys had been open about seeking tens of millions in private investment in recent years in order to ramp up its Irish, US, and Asia operations. The deal will lead to more growth for the company, a spokesman said.

The 2,700 Voxpro staff join more than 25,000 Telus employees around the world.

Mr Kiely said: “It’s an extremely special day for us and for all of our partners, team members, and indeed, everyone in the Voxpro community.”

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Irish company Voxpro acquired by Telus for estimated €150m

Telus is a global business process and IT outsourcing firm with over 25,000 staff

Wed, Aug 16, 2017, 16:32
Updated: Wed, Aug 16, 2017, 17:13
By: Charlie Taylor

Linda and Dan Kiely of Voxpro: the couple founded the company in Cork more than two decades ago. Photograph: Miki Barlok

Dan and Linda Kiely, the founders of Cork-based business process outsourcing firm Voxpro, are in for a bumper pay day after the company they established more than two decades ago was yesterday snapped up by Canadian company Telus International.

While no financial details of the deal were disclosed, industry insiders estimate the deal was worth close to €150 million and with the Kielys having largely self-financed the company outside of a small stake owned by Enterprise Ireland, the couple are due a windfall.

Voxpro, which started out with six people working above a pub on Marlboro Street in Cork city in 2002, offers customer experience, technical support and sales operations solutions to international customers. Still headquartered in Cork, the company now has offices in Dublin, San Francisco and Folsom, both in California, Athens, Georgia, Bucharest, Romania and Manila in the Philippines.

Last November it announced plans to create 400 jobs in Ireland to bring headcount to more than 2,000 locally.

Globally the company currently employs about 2,700 people.

Voxpro has grown fivefold over the past three years, fueled by growth in its partners, which include Nest, Google and Airbnb, and after gaining a number of new clients in the internet of things and fintech sectors.

The latest accounts available for the company show it recorded a 78 per cent rise in turnover to €33.4 million in 2015 as earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortisation (ebitda) jumped 168 per cent to €3 million from €1.1 million a year earlier.

Voxpro’s co-founder and chief executive Dan Kiely will join the Telus International board senior team following completion of the deal, which took many people outside the company by surprise.

Mr Kiely had previously mooted the possibility of an initial public offering once revenues reached €100 million. However, in an interview with The Irish Times published in January, he stressed that the couple had no plans to let the business go to a larger corporation and was intent on “seeing the journey through”.

Telus is a global business process and IT outsourcing giant with more than 25,000 employees around the world.

It has revenues of over $10 billion and 12.8 million subscribers.

“It’s an extremely special day for us and for all of our partners, team members, and indeed, everyone in the Voxpro community,” said Mr Kiely.

“We couldn’t be more proud to find a fabulous partner like Telus International — a company that shares our entrepreneurial spirit and relentless desire to redefine and disrupt the outsourcing industry when it comes to serving the customer experience needs of such important brands,” he added.

Enterprise Ireland, a long-time backer of the company, welcomed the news, saying the acquisition would further support Voxpro’s continued international growth.

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Extreme Networks, Inc. Smashed Every Target in This Report

The enterprise networking specialist's fourth-quarter results left both its own guidance and Wall Street's forecasts far behind.

Anders Bylund ( TMFZahrim )
Aug 15, 2017 at 11:05AM

Networking equipment and management systems expert Extreme Networks ( NASDAQ:EXTR ) reported fourth-quarter earnings on Monday night. The company crushed both its own and Wall Street's expectations, and management followed up with strong guidance for the next quarter. Thanks to this stellar report, Extreme's shares opened 10.6% higher on Tuesday.

Extreme Networks' fourth-quarter results:The raw numbers

DATA SOURCE: EXTREME NETWORKS.

In adjusted terms, earnings rose 70% year over year to $0.17 per share. Analysts would have settled for non-GAAP earnings of $0.15 per share on sales near $172 million, so this was a solid outperformance when measured against Wall Street's expectations.

Extreme also landed above the top end of its own guidance ranges for top-line revenues, GAAP earnings, gross margins, and more.

What happened with Extreme Networks this quarter?

• Extreme closed the acquisition of Avaya's networking operations near the end of July -- three weeks after closing the books for the fourth quarter. That deal is expected to add $200 million of annual sales, but the deal added nothing to the fourth quarter's results.
• Gross margins expanded thanks to Extreme's limited use of discounted prices, which in turn was made possible by the company's rising brand strength.
• CEO Ed Meyercord claimed that his company is taking market share from larger rivals including Cisco Systems ( NASDAQ:CSCO ) and Juniper Networks ( NYSE:JNPR ), and Extreme's strong sales growth support that bold statement. Keep in mind that Cisco's recent fourth-quarter report came with a downright gloomy market outlook while Extreme is setting its sights high, and there's another solid point of evidence. Keep these split forecasts in mind when Juniper reports earnings later this week.

Speaking of guidance, Extreme's management set up the following guidance ranges for the first quarter of fiscal year 2018:

• Revenues should land between $200 million and $210 million, up from $123 million in the year-ago quarter and including nearly a full quarter of contributions from the Avaya acquisition.
• GAAP earnings per share are expected to stop between a $0.01 loss and a $0.05 profit, compared to a $0.02 loss per share in the first quarter of 2017. The Avaya deal will weigh on Extreme's profit margins due to acquisition costs and Avaya's habit of discount-based sales tactics. It will take a few quarters to work the new asset's poor pricing discipline out of the system.
• Adjusted earnings per share, which exclude stock-based compensation expenses, acquisition-related costs, and other one-time items, stopped at $0.07 a year earlier. This time, that figure should arrive between $0.11 and $0.17.
• The Street's consensus estimates currently call for adjusted first-quarter earnings of roughly $0.07 per share on sales of approximately $149 million.
  IMAGE SOURCE: EXTREME NETWORKS.

What management had to say

The company is still looking ahead to closing its next big acquisition. Extreme expects to pick up the data center networking assets of Brocade ( NASDAQ:BRCD ) in a $55 million all-cash deal when the rest of Brocade merges with Broadcom ( NASDAQ:AVGO ). That is now expected to happen in Extreme's second quarter, and Ed Meyercord sees this as a game changer:

“At the close of our Brocade asset purchase, we will cement our position as the #3 player in the enterprise market for end-to-end, wired and wireless networking solutions," he said in a conference call with analysts. "This gives us more advanced and brand recognition, and the new Extreme will have the important distinction of being the only pure-play enterprise networking provider in the industry.”

Looking ahead

Extreme's acquisition hunger has provided plenty of growth fuel for the company, and investors are already enjoying the benefits of this strategy. When the acquisition dust has settled, we'll be looking at a networking specialist with annual sales above the $1 billion mark, which currently is a club with just two members — Cisco and Juniper.

This company is doing a lot of things absolutely right these days, and Extreme's shareholders have enjoyed a 160% gain over the last 52 weeks. Juniper and Cisco better look out, because Extreme Networks is starting to look like a credible challenger to their enterprise networking operations.

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Despite new silicon, 802.11ax isn't coming to the enterprise for a while

The release of 802.11ax chipsets by Broadcom, Qualcomm and others doesn't mean that standardized gear will be ready for everyday use soon, experts say

By Jon Gold
SENIOR WRITER, NETWORK WORLD
AUG 16, 2017 3:00 AM PT

The next great leap forward in Wi-Fi got a little closer to reality Tuesday with Broadcom’s announcement of a new family of chips designed to comply with the not-yet-finalized 802.11ax standard, but you might not need to game-plan for the arrival of 802.11ax products in the enterprise for quite awhile.

However, thanks to several factors, including an unusual adoption cycle, the capabilities of existing Wi-Fi hardware and the standards process itself, 802.11ax is unlikely to take enterprise wireless customers by storm before late 2018, according to experts.

802.11ax will be the next major overhaul of the Wi-Fi systems that we use in the traditional 2.4 and 5GHz frequency bands. It will add a technology called orthogonal frequency division multiplexing to the multi-user MIMO technology introduced in the second wave of the existing 802.11ac standard, reaching potential throughput of around 10Gbit/sec and more easily handling dense, complex network topologies that feature many different types of devices, including IoT.

The 802.11ax standard is a work in progress

The IEEE, which codifies the standards used in commercial Wi-Fi, hasn’t finalized 802.11ax yet, and Broadcom’s new chips — along with those from Qualcomm and Quantenna, announced earlier this year — are pre-standard hardware.

Craig Mathias, a Network World contributor and principal at the Farpoint Group, said that you can’t claim compliance with something that doesn’t yet exist, but pointed out that pre-standard Wi-Fi hardware generally winds up conforming to the eventual standard.

“I think it’s important that the chips get out there with the understanding that things can change,” he said. “So far we haven’t seen any instances where chips have been produced that had to be tossed.”

Enterprise 802.11ax will come later than consumer

Pre-standard hardware generally gets released on the consumer side, since it’s lower-cost gear, and you’re generally speaking in terms of individual devices, not a big campus-wide network of access points — it’s sort of like a beta release, before the stricter requirements of the enterprise come into play.

“I don’t know if it’s intentional, but it certainly seems to play out that way,” said Zeus Kerravala, principal at ZK Research and a regular Network World contributor.

Vendors are more hesitant to offer pre-standard gear to enterprise customers. Kerravala estimates that such hardware will be months behind the consumer-grade equipment.

802.11ac wave 2 wireless is already very good

The multi-user MIMO technology in place in 802.11ac wave 2 is a big step forward for Wi-Fi, adding the ability for multiple antennas to service multiple devices from a single access point. It’s a much more efficient use of frequency than previous-generation technology, and a badly-needed overhaul for wireless networks dealing with greater and greater levels of density and demand.

“There’s not a network in the world that’s shrinking, I’m sure,” said Mathias.

And while the technology has been around for some time, mu-MIMO is only recently getting to market. It requires both endpoint and AP to be 802.11ac wave 2-capable, but there are very few compliant smartphone and laptop endpoints on the market.

Typically, a lack of compatible endpoints is a bigger brake on the adoption of a new wireless standard than a lack of access points, according to Kerravala.

“Once the chip’s released it’s a long cycle from there – it’s usually a few months before we see the first consumer products,” he said. “After that it’s a few months before we see the first enterprise ones, and then it’s maybe even six more months to a year before we start seeing client devices.”

Mathias said that 802.11ax is going to be a successful technology, but it’s just not going to happen overnight.

“All I’m saying is it’s going to take longer than it has in the past for that standard to really become well-established in the marketplace,” he said.

This story, "Despite new silicon, 802.11ax isn't coming to the enterprise for a while" was originally published by Network World.

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Solar Eclipse QSO Party Will Facilitate Real Science

The ARRL Letter for August 17, 2017

Amateur Radio will be in the service of science on Monday, August 21, as a total solar eclipse causes the shadow of the Moon to traverse the US from Oregon to South Carolina in a little more than 90 minutes, obscuring the sun completely for a few minutes at any given location along the way. The sudden absence of sunlight — and especially of solar ultra-violet and x-rays — is expected to briefly change the properties of the upper atmosphere.

A few hundred radio amateurs already have registered as participants in the Solar Eclipse QSO Party (SEQP), a special operating event organized by the Ham Radio Science Citizen Investigation (HamSCI), which will contribute to the study of the eclipse's impact on the ionosphere. HamSCI's Nathaniel Frissell, W2NAF, said those taking part in the SEQP do not have to be in the path of totality to contribute to the research.

"It is very important for people outside of eclipse totality to participate, because one of the questions we have is how large is the effect on the ionosphere," Frissell told ARRL. "So, we actually need people well outside of where totality is occurring to identify those boundaries."

Nathaniel Frissell, W2NAF.

Frissell, an assistant research professor at the New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT), said it's easy to be a citizen-scientist. Just getting on the air during the SEQP is a first step. Systems such as the Reverse Beacon Network (RBN), WSPRNet, and PSKReporter will automatically hear digital and CW transmissions and report back to their respective databases.

Despite more than 60 years of research, "open questions remain regarding eclipse-induced ionospheric impacts," Frissell explained in a paper, "HamSCI and the 2017 Total Solar Eclipse," that he'll deliver at the ARRL-TAPR Digital Communications Conference this year. He feels that radio amateurs' advanced technical skills and inherent interest in ionospheric science make them "ideal for contributing to — and participating — in large-scale ionospheric sounding experiments."

Actually, three HamSci-coordinated Amateur Radio experiments have been designed to study the 2017 solar eclipse. In addition to the SEQP are the HF Wideband Recording Experiment and the Eclipse Frequency Measurement Test (FMT).

The difference in electron density, as modeled for August 21 at 1815 UTC, between the eclipsed and uneclipsed ionosphere at an altitude of 302 kilometers. A large electron density depletion caused by the eclipse shadow is visible over the US. [Graphic courtesy of Joe Huba]

The HamSCI Wideband Recording Experiment will aim to capture all Amateur Radio HF spectrum from locations across North America during the SEQP. The recordings, according to Frissell's paper, "will allow for the study of eclipse-induced propagation changes use signals generated by the SEQP, as well as examine changes in noise floor measurements throughout the time of the eclipse." The experiment was developed with input from the TAPR community.

The FMT experiment will provide information as to how much and how fast the ionosphere changes in height along a particular path. According to research cited in the paper authored by Frissell and others, rapid changes in ionospheric electron density caused by the motion of an eclipse shadow "cause Doppler shifts on HF ray paths propagating through the eclipsed region."

"Joe Huba and Doug Drob at the Naval Research Laboratory have calculated a prediction of what the ionosphere will look like using their physics-based SAMI3 model," Frissell pointed out.

ARRL Contributing Editor Ward Silver, N0AX — a contributor to "HamSCI and the 2017 Total Solar Eclipse" — said the SEQP is simply a great way to experience the magic of radio.

By mid-week, more than 600 hams had registered their intention to participate in the SEQP. Registration is not required to participate.

"If you're a longtime HFer, you will hear the day-night cycle compressed and accelerated into a few hours, plus maybe some subtle things you've never heard before," Silver said. "If you are new to HF, you can clearly experience the bands changing, opening, closing very quickly. You can literally hear the world turning during this eclipse. All you have to do is turn on the radio and make contacts. Listening or operating, it will be a thrill that you can only get through ham radio."

It is not necessary to register for the SEQP in order to participate, Silver pointed out, and many more stations than those who have signed up are likely to be on the air on August 21. Multiple Amateur Radio special events also will be on the air along the path of totality on August 21.

Friday, August 18, 2017	Volume 5 | Issue 162

City Wins, AT&T Loses, in Kentucky Pole Attachment Dispute

A federal court has sided with a Kentucky municipality and against AT&T in a case concerning access to utility poles. No state or federal law prevents Louisville, KY from requiring a “one-touch make-ready” ordinance outlining new procedures for installing communications infrastructure on utility poles in the city, a U.S. District Court for the Western District of Kentucky ruled Thursday.

Make-ready work generally consists of moving or rearranging existing wires and attachments on utility poles to make space for new attachments. One-touch make-ready policies seek to avoid delays by having all make-ready work performed at the same time by a single crew.

AT&T subsidiary BellSouth Telecommunications fought Louisville’s right to allow new users to rearrange existing pole attachments. AT&T asked the court to declare the ordinance unlawful, while the city said it has the authority to manage its public rights-of-way. AT&T told the court it invested “millions of dollars” to build and maintain a communications network in Louisville. AT&T owns most of the poles it uses in Louisville and contracts with Louisville Gas & Electric for others.

The ordinance in dispute states an “attacher may relocate or alter the attachments” of any pre-existing user in order to accommodate the new attachment “using pole owner approved contractors,” according to the court decision signed by U.S. District Court Judge David Hale and examined by Inside Towers. The “attacher” can do this without notifying the existing pole user ahead of time but must notify them within 30 days after performing the work. The existing pole user and the pole owner then have 14 days to inspect the third-party’s work at the attacher’s expense.

The way AT&T sees it, the ordinance allows an attacher to “seize AT&T’s property, and to alter or relocate AT&T’s property, without AT&T’s consent and, in most circumstances, without prior notice to AT&T,” it says in the document. That means, according to the carrier, it can’t assess the potential for network disruption or oversee the work to ensure any network damage “is minimized.”

AT&T wanted the court to declare that only the Kentucky Public Service Commission can regulate pole attachments, that Louisville’s ordinance exceeds its authority and FCC regulations pre-empt Louisville’s authority. But Louisville Metro argued, and the FCC agreed, the agency’s pole-attachment regulations do not apply in Kentucky. The Commission explained it “retains jurisdiction over pole attachments only in states” that have not certified that they regulate poles.

Louisville Metro told the court the city has an important interest in managing its public rights-of-way to maximize efficiency and enhance public safety. It asserts the ordinance is valid under Kentucky law because it falls within the city’s police power to manage public rights-of-way, and the court agreed.

Wireless Communication Solutions

USB Paging Encoder

• Single channel up to eight zones
• Connects to Linux computer via USB
• Programmable timeouts and batch sizes
• Supports 2-tone, 5/6-tone, POCSAG 512/1200/2400, GOLAY
• Supports Tone Only, Voice, Numeric, and Alphanumeric
• PURC or direct connect
• Pictured version mounts in 5.25" drive bay
• Other mounting options available
• Available as a daughter board for our embedded Internet Paging Terminal (IPT)

Paging Data Receiver (PDR)

• Frequency agile—only one receiver to stock
• USB or RS-232 interface
• Two contact closures
• End-user programmable w/o requiring special hardware
• 16 capcodes
• POCSAG
• Eight contact closure version also available
• Product customization available

Other products

Please see our web site for other products including Internet Messaging Gateways, Unified Messaging Servers, test equipment, and Paging Terminals.

Contact

Hark Technologies 717 Old Trolley Rd Ste 6 #163 Summerville, SC 29485

Tel: 843-821-6888

Fax: 843-821-6894

E-mail: sales@harktech.com CLICK

Web: http://www.harktech.com CLICK

A Problem

The Motorola Nucleus II Paging Base Station is a great paging transmitter. The Nucleus I, however, had some problems.

One of the best features of this product was its modular construction. Most of the Nucleus' component parts were in plug-in modules that were field replaceable making maintenance much easier.

One issue was (and still is) that two of the modules had to always be kept together. They are called the “matched pair.”

Motorola used some tricks to keep people in the field from trying to match unmatched pairs, and force them to send SCM and Exciter modules back to the factory for calibrating them with precision laboratory equipment.

The serial numbers have to match in the Nucleus programing software or you can't transmit [in simulcast mode] . Specifically the 4-level alignment ID parameter contained in the SCM has to match the Exciter ID parameter.

Even if someone could modify the programing software to “fudge” these parameters, that would not let them use unmatched modules effectively without recalibrating them to exact factory specifications.

So now that there is no longer a Motorola factory laboratory to send them to, what do we do?

I hope someone can help us resolve this serious problem for users of the Nucleus paging transmitter.

Please let me know if you can help. [ click here ]

[Thanks to Tom Harger Chief Engineer at Contact Wireless for the correction above in red. ]

Selected portions [sometimes more — sometimes less] of the BloostonLaw Telecom Update and/or the BloostonLaw Private Users Update — newsletters from the Law Offices of Blooston, Mordkofsky, Dickens, Duffy & Prendergast, LLP — are reproduced in this section of The Wireless Messaging News with the firm’s permission. Contact information is included at the end of the newsletter.

MVPDs That Have Not Submitted Form 399 Must Do So By August 25

On August 11, the FCC announced that the technical issues affecting the Media Bureau’s Licensing and Management System (LMS) have been resolved. Accordingly, MVPDs that have not yet submitted their Form 399 must do so no later than 11:59 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time on Friday, August 25, 2017. According to the Public Notice, as long as a Form 399 is received by that date, the information submitted in the MVPD’s Form 399 will be considered in the initial allocation of reimbursement funds.

Carriers seeking assistance in filing should contact the firm for more information.
BloostonLaw Contacts: John Prendergast and Richard Rubino.

Headlines

FCC Seeks Comment on RoR Overlap Map

On August 11, the FCC’s Wireline Competition Bureau published a list of rate-of-return (RoR) study areas potentially subject to the 100 percent overlap rule. Comment is sought on whether the competitors in the study areas codes (SACs) listed are in fact offering voice and broadband to 100 percent of locations in the relevant census blocks. Comments are due September 11, and reply comments are due October 10.

Using updated Form 477 data from June 30, 2016, and the methodology used in 2015 for the competitive overlap process, the FCC has identified 13 RoR study areas as potentially 100 percent overlapped by an unsubsidized competitor or combination of unsubsidized competitors:

In order to qualify as an overlapping service, a provider must offer (1) fixed voice service at rates at or below the 2017 reasonable comparability benchmark of $49.51, and (2) fixed broadband service at actual downstream speed of at least 10/1 Mbps; with latency suitable for real time applications, including Voice over Internet Protocol; with usage capacity that is reasonably comparable to offerings in urban areas (160 GB); and at rates that are reasonably comparable to those in urban areas.

BloostonLaw Contacts: Ben Dickens, Gerry Duffy, Mary Sisak, and Sal Taillefer.

FCC Announces Availability of 911 Reliability Certification System for Oct. 16 Deadline

On August 9, the FCC’s Public Safety and Homeland Security Bureau (Bureau) announced that 911 Reliability Certification System is open for filing of annual reliability certifications, which are due on October 16, 2017. Covered 911 Service Providers should file certifications using the Commission’s online portal at https://apps2.fcc.gov/rcs911/ .

Under section 12.4(c) of the Commission’s rules, entities that “[p]rovide[] 911, E911, or NG911 capabilities such as call routing, automatic location information (ALI), automatic number identification (ANI), or the functional equivalent of those capabilities, directly to a public safety answering point (PSAP), statewide default answering point, or appropriate local emergency authority,” or that “[o]perate[] one or more central offices that directly serve a PSAP (“Covered Service Providers”) are required to take reasonable measures to provide reliable 911 service with respect to three substantive certification requirements: (i) 911 circuit diversity; (ii) central office backup power; and (iii) diverse network monitoring. They must also annually certify compliance with each of the three substantive certification requirements or alternative measures.

Covered 911 Service Providers may register new users on the login page at https://apps2.fcc.gov/rcs911/. As with the Commission’s Network Outage Reporting System (NORS), there are two types of users for the 911 Reliability Certification System: inputters and coordinators. Inputters only have access to information that they submit, while coordinators have access to all information submitted by their company. Users responsible for limited portions of a company’s certification (e.g., particular service areas or topics such as circuit diversity, backup power, or network monitoring) should register as inputters, while users responsible for overseeing each company’s certification as a whole should send a request to receive coordinator status.

BloostonLaw Contacts: Ben Dickens, John Prendergast, and Sal Taillefer.

Law & Regulation

FCC Reminds EAS Participants of Upcoming Deadlines

On August 14, the FCC’s Public Safety and Homeland Security Bureau issued a Public Notice reminding all Emergency Alert System (EAS) Participants that they are required to participate in a nationwide test of the EAS that is scheduled for September 27 at 2:20 p.m. EDT. All EAS Participants must:

• register with the EAS Test Reporting System (ETRS) and file Form One on or before August 28;
• file ETRS Form Two at or before 11:59 p.m. EDT on September 27; and
• file ETRS Form Three on or before November 13.

EAS participants with questions about the test should contact the firm without delay. We have assisted clients with the filing process for prior deadlines.

BloostonLaw Contact: Cary Mitchell.

Comments on Net Neutrality Extended to August 30

On August 11, the FCC released an Order extending the deadline to file reply comments in the Restoring Internet Freedom Notice of Proposed Rulemaking proceeding, better known as Net Neutrality, for two weeks. Reply comments are now due August 30.

BloostonLaw Contacts: Ben Dickens, Gerry Duffy, Mary Sisak, and Sal Taillefer.

Comments on USF Contribution Forbearance Petition Due September 13

On August 14, the FCC released a Public Notice announcing that the pleading cycle for the Petition for Forbearance filed by NTCA — The Rural Broadband Association (NTCA) and the United States Telecom Association (USTelecom), in which the Associations request temporary forbearance from application of universal service fund (USF) contribution requirements with respect to broadband Internet access transmission services provided by RLECs, whether tariffed or offered on a de-tariffed basis. Comments or oppositions are due on September 13, and reply comments are due on September 28.

The Associations filed their joint petition on June 14, seeking forbearance from 47 U.S.C. § 254(d) and 47 C.F.R. §§ 54.706 — i.e., the USF contribution requirement — “until such a time as the Commission reaches a decision on whether any and all broadband services . . . should be required to contribute to support of federal USF programs or completes some other form of contributions reform.” Currently, only providers that elected to offer broadband Internet access service (BIAS) on a common carrier basis back in 2005 are the only providers that contribute to USF based on BIAS revenue. When the FCC classified BIAS as a Title II service, it forbore from applying the USF contribution rules — even though they applied to BIAS providers who made the common carrier election in 2005. According to the Petition for Forbearance, this disparate treatment “puts rural providers on an uneven playing field,” and is “anti-competitive, in that it imposes upon a subset of RLECs and their customers a unique and discriminatory obligation to contribute to USF on broadband Internet access services.

Rural carriers that contribute to USF based upon their BIAS revenue should contact the firm for more information about supporting the joint petition.

BloostonLaw Contacts: Ben Dickens, Gerry Duffy, and John Prendergast.

Comments on Slamming NPRM Due September 13

On August 14, the FCC published in the Federal Register its Notice of Proposed Rulemaking on “strengthen[ing] the Commission’s ability to take action against slammers and crammers, and deter carriers from slamming and cramming in the first place, without impeding competition or impairing the ability of consumers to switch providers.” Comments are due September 13, and reply comments are due October 13.

As we reported in a previous edition of the BloostonLaw Telecom Update, the FCC adopted an NPRM at its July Open Meeting in which it seeks to strengthen protection for consumers from slamming and cramming. Specific proposals include:

• a new Section 64.1120(a)(1)(i)(A) banning misrepresentations on the sales calls and stating that any misrepresentation or deception would invalidate any subsequent verification of a carrier change, even where the submitting carrier purports to have evidence of consumer authorization (e.g., a Third Party Verification (TPV) recording).
• a new Section 64.2401(g) that codifies the existing prohibition against cramming that the FCC has enforced under Section 201(b) of the Act.
• making PIC freezes the default so that consumers are automatically afforded additional protection against slamming, rather than requiring them to take extra steps to do so.
  • requiring wireline carriers to block third-party charges for local and long-distance service—a frequent source of slamming-related cramming—by default, and only bill such charges if a consumer opts in.
• require the executing carrier to confirm or “double-check” whether the consumer wants to switch providers before making the change.
• whether submitting carriers that rely on TPVs should be required to record the entire sales call that precedes a switch
• whether TPVs are an effective means of providing evidence that a consumer wishes to switch carriers.

Carriers interested in submitting comments in this proceeding should contact the firm for more information.

BloostonLaw Contacts: Ben Dickens, Gerry Duffy, and Mary Sisak.

Industry

FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr Announces Staff

On August 14, newly-confirmed FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr announced the appointment of four individuals that will serve in his office in acting capacities:

Nirali Patel, Acting Legal Advisor for Media, Consumer Protection, and Enforcement . Ms. Patel will advise Commissioner Carr on media, consumer protection, and enforcement matters. Ms. Patel is on detail from the FCC’s Wireline Competition Bureau, where she serves as a Deputy Chief of the Competition Policy Division. Before joining the Commission, Ms. Patel served as Counsel in the Technology, Media, and Telecommunications practice of Hogan Lovells US LLP. Prior to that, she practiced communications law at Willkie Farr & Gallagher LLP and Sidley Austin LLP. Ms. Patel graduated summa cum laude from the American University Washington College of Law and received her undergraduate degree from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Kevin Holmes, Acting Legal Advisor for Wireless and Public Safety. Mr. Holmes will advise Commissioner Carr on wireless and public safety issues. Mr. Holmes joins the office from the FCC’s Office of Legislative Affairs, where he worked on spectrum, mobile broadband, and public safety issues. Previously, Mr. Holmes worked in the Wireless Telecommunications Bureau, both as an interim Legal Advisor in the Office of the Bureau Chief and as an Attorney Advisor in the Broadband Division. Earlier in his career, Mr. Holmes was a legislative aide to Senator Spencer Abraham. Mr. Holmes holds an LL.M. in Law and Government from the American University Washington College of Law, a J.D. from the DePaul University College of Law, and a B.A. from Kalamazoo College.

Nathan Eagan, Acting Wireline Legal Advisor. Mr. Eagan will advise Commissioner Carr on wireline issues. Mr. Eagan joins the office from the FCC’s Wireline Competition Bureau, where he most recently served as a Legal Advisor in the Telecommunications Access Policy Division. He came to the Commission through the agency’s Attorney Honors Program, and he has worked on a variety of issues, including universal service and broadband deployment. Mr. Eagan received his J.D. from The George Washington University Law School, where he was a George Washington Scholar and an Articles Editor for the Federal Communications Bar Journal. He received his undergraduate degree from Clark University, in Worcester, Massachusetts.

Natalie Martinez, Acting Confidential Assistant. For the past three years, Ms. Martinez has served as the Confidential Assistant to three successive General Counsels of the FCC. Before that, she served as the Confidential Assistant to the Chief of the Enforcement Bureau for four years. She began her career at the FCC in 2001 as an Office Automation Clerk in the International Bureau.

BloostonLaw Contacts: Ben Dickens, Gerry Duffy, and John Prendergast.

Deadlines

AUGUST 29: COPYRIGHT STATEMENT OF ACCOUNTS. The Copyright Statement of Accounts form plus royalty payment for the first half of calendar year 2014 is due to be filed August 29 at the Library of Congress’ Copyright Office by cable TV service providers.

BloostonLaw Contact: Gerry Duffy.

SEPTEMBER 1: FCC FORM 477, LOCAL COMPETITION AND BROADBAND REPORTING FORM. Three types of entities must file this form. (1) Facilities-based Providers of Broadband Connections to End User Locations: Entities that are facilities-based providers of broadband connections — which are wired “lines” or wireless “channels” that enable the end user to receive information from and/or send information to the Internet at information transfer rates exceeding 200 kbps in at least one direction — must complete and file the applicable portions of this form for each state in which the entity provides one or more such connections to end user locations. For the purposes of Form 477, an entity is a “facilities-based” provider of broadband connections to end user locations if it owns the portion of the physical facility that terminates at the end user location, if it obtains unbundled network elements (UNEs), special access lines, or other leased facilities that terminate at the end user location and provisions/equips them as broadband, or if it provisions/equips a broadband wireless channel to the end user location over licensed or unlicensed spectrum. Such entities include incumbent and competitive local exchange carriers (LECs), cable system operators, fixed wireless service providers (including “wireless ISPs”), terrestrial and satellite mobile wireless service providers, MMDS providers, electric utilities, municipalities, and other entities. (Such entities do not include equipment suppliers unless the equipment supplier uses the equipment to provision a broadband connection that it offers to the public for sale. Such entities also do not include providers of fixed wireless services ( e.g., “Wi-Fi” and other wireless ethernet, or wireless local area network, applications) that only enable local distribution and sharing of a premises broadband facility.) (2) Providers of Wired or Fixed Wireless Local Telephone Services: Incumbent and competitive LECs must complete and file the applicable portions of the form for each state in which they provide local exchange service to one or more end user customers (which may include “dial-up” ISPs). (3) Providers of Interconnected Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) Service: Interconnected VoIP service is a service that enables real-time, two-way voice communications; requires a broadband connection from the user’s location; requires Internet-protocol compatible customer premises equipment; and permits users generally to receive calls that originate on the public switched telephone network and to terminate calls to the public switched telephone network. Interconnected VoIP providers must complete and file the applicable portions of the form for each state in which they provide interconnected VoIP service to one or more subscribers, with the state determined for reporting purposes by the location of the subscriber’s broadband connection or the subscriber’s “Registered Location” as of the data-collection date. “Registered Location” is the most recent information obtained by an interconnected VoIP service provider that identifies the physical location of an end user. (4) Providers of Mobile Telephony Services: Facilities-based providers of mobile telephony services must complete and file the applicable portions of this form for each state in which they serve one or more mobile telephony subscribers. A mobile telephony service is a real-time, two-way switched voice service that is interconnected with the public switched network using an in-network switching facility that enables the provider to reuse frequencies and accomplish seamless handoff of subscriber calls. A mobile telephony service provider is considered “facilities-based” if it serves a subscriber using spectrum for which the entity holds a license that it manages, or for which it has obtained the right to use via lease or other arrangement with a Band Manager.

BloostonLaw contacts: Ben Dickens and Gerry Duffy.

SEPTEMBER 30: FCC FORM 396-C, MVPD EEO PROGRAM REPORTING FORM. Each year on September 30, multi-channel video program distributors (“MVPDs”) must file with the FCC an FCC Form 396-C, Multi-Channel Video Programming Distributor EEO Program Annual Report, for employment units with six or more full-time employees. Users must access the FCC’s electronic filing system via the Internet in order to submit the form; it will not be accepted if filed on paper unless accompanied by an appropriate request for waiver of the electronic filing requirement. Certain MVPDs also will be required to complete portions of the Supplemental Investigation Sheet (“SIS”) located at the end of the Form. These MVPDs are specifically identified in a Public Notice each year by the FCC.

BloostonLaw Contacts: Gerry Duffy and Sal Taillefer.

OCTOBER 16: 911 RELIABILITY CERTIFICATION. Covered 911 Service Providers, which are defined as entities that “[p]rovide[] 911, E911, or NG911 capabilities such as call routing, automatic location information (ALI), automatic number identification (ANI), or the functional equivalent of those capabilities, directly to a public safety answering point (PSAP), statewide default answering point, or appropriate local emergency authority,” or that “[o]perate[] one or more central offices that directly serve a PSAP,” are required certify that they have taken reasonable measures to provide reliable 911 service with respect to three substantive requirements: (i) 911 circuit diversity; (ii) central office backup power; and (iii) diverse network monitoring by October 15. Certifications must be made through the FCC’s portal.

BloostonLaw Contacts: Mary Sisak and Sal Taillefer.

NOVEMBER 1: FCC FORM 499-Q, TELECOMMUNICATIONS REPORTING WORKSHEET. All telecommunications common carriers that expect to contribute more than $10,000 to federal Universal Service Fund (USF) support mechanisms must file this quarterly form. The FCC has modified this form in light of its decision to establish interim measures for USF contribution assessments. The form contains revenue information from the prior quarter plus projections for the next quarter. Form 499-Q relates only to USF contributions. It does not relate to the cost recovery mechanisms for the Telecommunications Relay Service (TRS) Fund, the North American Numbering Plan Administration (NANPA), and the shared costs of local number portability (LNP), which are covered in the annual Form 499-A that is due April 1.

BloostonLaw Contacts: Gerry Duffy and Sal Taillefer.

Calendar At-A-Glance

August
Aug. 25 – Form 399 is due for filers that did not previously file due to technical issues.
Aug. 28 – Deadline for EAS participants to register with ETRS and file Form One.
Aug. 28 – Comments are due on Rural Call Completion NPRM.
Aug. 29 – Copyright Statement of Accounts is due.
Aug. 30 – Reply comments are due on Broadband Title I Reclassification NPRM.

September
Sep. 1 – FCC Form 477 due (Local Competition and Broadband Report).
Sep. 7 – Comments are due on Section 706 NOI.
Sep. 11 – Comments are due on RoR Overlap Map.
Sep. 13 – Comments are due on USF Contribution Forbearance Petition.
Sep. 13 – Comments are due on Slamming NPRM.
Sep. 18 – Comments are due on Connect America Phase II auction procedures.
Sep. 22 – Reply comments are due on Section 706 NOI.
Sep. 25 – Reply comments are due on Rural Call Completion NPRM.
Sep. 27 – Nationwide EAS test; deadline for participants to file ETRS Form Two.
Sep. 28 – Reply comments are due on USF Contribution Forbearance Petition.
Sep. 30 – FCC Form 396-C (MVPD EEO Program Annual Report).

October
Oct. 3 – Comments are due on Mid-Band Spectrum NOI.
Oct. 13 – Reply comments are due on Slamming NPRM.
Oct. 16 – 911 Reliability Certification
Oct. 18 – Reply comments are due on Connect America Phase II auction procedures.

November
Nov. 1 – FCC Form 499-Q (Quarterly Telecommunications Reporting Worksheet) is due.
Nov. 1 – Reply comments are due on Mid-Band Spectrum NOI.
Nov. 13 – Deadline for EAS test participants to file ETRS Form Three.

Aircraft Tracking Hobby

In the July 21, 2017 issue , I included an article from QST ^® Magazine—August 2017 pp. 41-43, “Aircraft Tracking, FlightAware, and How You Can Be of Service.”

After reading this article, I decided to build one of these flight tracking installations, and here are some photos of the results of this project. It has been a lot of fun to see the airplanes move around on a map on my computer screen and to listen to the pilots talk on their radios.

Antennas —the scanner antenna is for an iCom IC-R8500 general-coverage receiver that I use to listen to the pilots talking to the air traffic controllers on 121.xxx MHz AM.

Simple hardware. No monitor, keyboard or mouse is required to make it work. I added a monitor just to see what the Raspberry computer was doing. The coax is AIR802^® CA240 and is equivalent to Times Microwave LMR-240^{® —} loss is 7.6 dB/100 foot at 900 MHz so 25 feet at 1090 MHz would be around 2 dB. Antenna is rated at 5 dB gain so it at least it makes up for the loss in the coax cable.

Typical tracking result from my location (the black dot in the middle). This is approximately a 250 mile radius. Columbia, Missouri on the west, Cincinnati, Ohio on the east, Chicago, Illinois on the north, and Memphis, Tennessee on the south.

Brad Dye, Ron Mercer, Allan Angus, Vic Jackson, and Ira Wiesenfeld are friends and colleagues who work both together and independently, on wireline and wireless communications projects.

Click here for a summary of their qualifications and experience. Each one has unique abilities. We would be happy to help you with a project, and maybe save you some time and money.

Note: We do not like Patent Trolls, i.e. “a person or company who enforces patent rights against accused infringers in an attempt to collect licensing fees, but does not manufacture products or supply services based upon the patents in question.” We have helped some prominent law firms defend their clients against this annoyance, and would be happy to do some more of this same kind of work.

Some people use the title “consultant” when they don't have a real job. We actually do consulting work, and help others based on our many years of experience.

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“If you would know the road ahead, ask someone who has traveled it.”
— Chinese Proverb

Wireless Network Planners
Wireless Specialists

R.H. (Ron) Mercer Consultant 217 First Street East Northport, NY 11731
Telephone: 631-786-9359
www.wirelessplanners.com
wirelessplannerron@gmail.com

“The clock is running. Make the most of today. Time waits for no man. Yesterday is history. Tomorrow is a mystery. Today is a gift. That's why it is called the present.”

― Alice Morse Earle

Biko • Playing For Change Band • Live in New York

Uploaded on Aug 16, 2017
“You can blow out a candle but you can't blow out a fire, once the flames begin to catch the wind will blow it higher.” This summarizes the Playing For Change movement in which individuals can and will create a better world together. Enjoy this moving performance from the PFC Band recorded live at their recent show at the Highline Ballroom in New York City. This is a tribute to all the forgotten heroes of the past who stood for peace and the enlightenment of the human spirit. “The eyes of the world are watching now.”