Ms. Buyer is a regular columnist for the THE BULLETIN of the Bar Association of Erie County and is a contributor to No Jitter. Previously, she has written numerous commentaries on telecommunications law for other legal and telecommunications publications including, among others, The Daily Record, Communications Convergence and Computer Telephony. Her articles cover a broad range of topics highlighting current telecommunications issues including federal and state telecommunications policy, litigation, wireless technologies, spectrum policy, FCC initiatives, and industry consolidation. Martha Buyer has also contributed to the ABA Journal Report.
About a month ago, I purchased a new iPhone 6. I was eligible for a new phone and my iPhone 5 was about out of juice. So I opted to make the move and upgrade technology. I went to my local provider and met with the sales rep. I was told about which plan would be best for me and, as we all do, I signed on the dotted line. That’s when the trouble started.
As the volume of information about absolutely everything we do becomes increasingly large, and as the number of recent data security breaches continues to climb, enterprise consumers of telecommunications services have become increasingly vigilant about staying current on the latest and greatest techniques for managing potential breaches. We’re all familiar with horror stories of the recent major data breaches that have hit the headlines in a big way. Target and Anthem come to mind immediately, but there are legions of others. Now consider the fact that these major corporations use current relatively state-of-the-art detection and monitoring systems, and even they’ve been infiltrated with current malware.
It’s time for the annual assessment of 911 law and policy both in the U.S. and here in Erie County. You’ve heard of spoiler alerts? Don’t let this be a snooze alert. Knowledge about how 911 works could save your life or the life of someone you love. There have been some significant developments in the past 12 months, mostly related to location identification. While we’re a still a long way from an optimal state, slowly but surely, the laws and rules that govern American wireless carriers and the (mostly) municipally-owned Public Safety Access Points (PSAP) that are the bones of the network infrastructure that ultimately connect the caller to the first responder, are evolving all the time. Maybe someday, the laws will match the technology. But we’re not there yet. Not anywhere close.
In late December when President Obama announced that he would seek to “normalize” relations with Cuba, he laid out a plan to begin the thawing of a long-frosty relationship. While cigar aficionados and others have had stars in their eyes ever since the announcement, the fact remains that one of the areas where Cuba is most deficient is in its communications—both in terms of enterprise communications and the infrastructure necessary to support large and small scale communications.
Net Neutrality has been back in the news over the past few days. The truth is that not much has changed since we last considered the issue in this space other than a decision from the Federal Communications Commission about whether or not broadband services should be classified as a regulated telecommunications service or a largely unregulated service may happen before year end. Over the summer, the FCC solicited comments from the public on the issue.
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