FCC Technological Advisory Council Reports Mobile Device Thefts Declining After FCC Push
Recent reports show handset device thefts are down and progress is being made, said Brian Daly of AT&T, co-chairman of an FCC Technological Advisory Council (TAC) working group on the subject, at a quarterly meeting of the TAC Wednesday at FCC headquarters. FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler spoke at TAC’s December meeting on the importance of curbing mobile device theft (see 1412040049), which he asked the council to make one of its top priorities.
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“Progress has been made on mobile device theft prevention,​” Daly said. “We do see industry recognition … and solutions are being implemented. We do have voluntary commitments both from carriers and manufacturers to implement solutions.” Recent data suggests device thefts are down 40 percent in London, 22 percent in San Francisco and 16 percent in New York City, Daly said. Daly is director-core & government/regulatory standards at AT&T Labs.
The TAC working group is looking at a national template for protecting devices, including password protection, Daly said. “The goal is to reduce complexity and significantly increase consumer reporting of theft,” he said. The working group also is studying specifications for an effective database of stolen devices offering data on a national and regional basis, he said. The U.K.-based GSM Association now offers the main database, he said. The group also is examining device identifier hardening, Daly said. TAC released a report in December on mobile device theft, which made several recommendations.
A new TAC working group is exploring the future of unlicensed services, examining congestion in current unlicensed bands, plus bands that could be opened for Wi-Fi and other unlicensed use. The FCC is scheduled to vote at its April meeting on the future use of the 3.5 GHz band for unlicensed and other uses (see 1503270052).
The growth of unlicensed spectrum use has moved from garage door openers to mobile phones, where it became an extension of Internet transport, said Mark Bayliss, president of Visual Link Internet, co-chair of the new working group. That “really changed the whole metrics of unlicensed spectrum,” Bayliss said. “It has enabled almost an unfathomable amount of new devices and technology.”
The group will also focus on the IoT and on how to accommodate video and other technologies that use significant amounts of bandwidth, Bayliss said. The group plans to talk to companies that offer unlicensed products, wireless Internet providers, large-scale deployers of unlicensed services and new adopters of unlicensed services, he said.
The FCC already is exploring new bands that could be opened for unlicensed use, said Julius Knapp, chief of the FCC Office of Engineering and Technology. “We have some things in play right now, but really there’s a gap,” Knapp said. Right now, 5 GHz has been set aside for unlicensed, but the next band up is 57 GHz. “Where are the places we might look at additional capacity that we haven’t looked at so far?” Knapp asked. He asked the working group to look at that issue, with a focus on bands that haven’t been explored yet.
Knapp also suggested the working group look at electromagnetic compatibility (EMC) limits. “It’s been a long time since we really looked at the limits,” he said, noting the FCC established the EMC baseline a long time ago. “Some would argue it has worked, it’s fine,” he said. “Some would argue that because of this change in the landscape of services and operating with weaker signals and so forth that they should be tightened.”
A second new TAC working group is looking at new-generation Internet services. Working group Co-chair Russ Gyurek, in the office of the Chief Technology Officer at Cisco, said the group is looking at a range of issues. The Internet is “messy,” he said. “You’ve got all these disparate players that connect.” It's also becoming “more and more critical,” he said. Anytime it goes down it has big impacts financially and for public safety.
The group will look at everything from quality of service (QoS) to cybersecurity to the “death” of the public switched telephone network, Gyurek said. The working group will look at how to define both QoS and quality of experience, Gyurek said. Likely topics include 5G, the progression of video to 16K and beyond, the impact of caching on the network, end-to-end encryption, the IoT and potential “game changing” technologies, he said. “This is not your father’s Internet,” he said. But “we need to be realistic on what we can really bite off.” Knapp encouraged the working group to think ahead. If latency gets reduced “and starts opening up the door to other kinds of applications, where does that take us?” he asked.
A third new working group will look at game-changing technologies, everything from Wi-Fi multiple-input and multiple-output to 5G wireless and beyond. Co-chair Adam Drobot, chairman of OpenTechWorks, said the group will examine a broad number of changes in technology and the implications for regulators. The group will look at what changes will have the most impact in the five- to seven-year time frame, he said.
TAC will next meet June 11. There’s a lot of work ahead and not much time to do it, said TAC Chairman Dennis Roberson, a professor at the Illinois Institute of Technology. Wheeler chaired TAC before he chaired the FCC. “Some of these topics are tough,” Knapp said. “I think if the chairman were here he’d say, ‘OK, let’s march ahead and get this work done.’”