SAN FRANCISCO -- The Department of Justice needs wiretapping authority concerning intellectual property infringements to keep up its vigorous enforcement, the head of the department’s criminal division said Thursday. Justice has broadened its use of tapping in general under the Obama administration, and the expansion into copyright and trademark cases is needed so the department can use the technique “as an effective tool in the future,” Assistant Attorney General Lanny Breuer said in a keynote to the International Anti-Counterfeiting Coalition conference.

LECs and bill aggregators must do more to protect consumers’ phone bills from containing unwanted charges from third parties, or bill cramming, panelists said Wednesday at an FTC forum. “The verification process alone is not sufficient,” said John McGlamery, Nevada’s deputy attorney general. “Scammers already know how to get around it.” Aggregators and LECs are well-positioned to do more, said Laura Kim, FTC assistant director of the marketing practices division. The aggregator is “the gatekeeper charged with the responsibility for screening out the bad actors,” she said. Aggregators have direct contact with the vendor and they “receive complaints from all sources about their vendors” from consumers, LECs and regulatory authorities, she said. Aggregators should be looking at the trends in complaints from all across the country from all of these sources, she added.

"Four competitors are better than three,” Senate Judiciary Antitrust Subcommittee Chairman Herb Kohl, D-Wis., said Wednesday at a hearing on AT&T’s proposed T-Mobile purchase. The number could soon fall to two if the deal is approved, he said. Subcommittee members from both parties raised concerns about the deal, though Republicans appeared more open to AT&T and T-Mobile’s argument that the deal would improve wireless service for consumers. But CEOs from competitors Sprint Nextel and Cellular South raised the specter of a resurrected “Ma Bell."

Eligible Telecommunications Carriers should have their Lifeline customers re-certify their own eligibility for the program, TracFone said in comments posted to dockets 11-42, 96-45 and 03-109. But mandating minimum monthly charges for Lifeline customers “would do nothing to prevent waste, fraud and abuse” and only “make Lifeline service unaffordable to millions of low-income households who are intended to benefit from the program.” TracFone has heavy Lifeline customers and has been singled out as one of the wireless companies that are driving pay phone companies out of business (CD Jan 20 p9), especially in states like Florida. The company reiterated its argument that the Lifeline fund shouldn’t be capped. It also convened a meeting with Chairman Julius Genachowski and aide Zac Katz late last week to press TracFone’s case, according to an ex parte notice released Wednesday.

Meredith Baker’s departure will leave the FCC with a single GOP member starting June 3, her last day on the job, she confirmed Wednesday afternoon. That could push Senate Republicans to quickly seek a replacement and also back a Democratic nominee whose appointment would be on the same track as Baker’s successor, industry officials said. The FCC will be split 3-1 when Baker leaves, making Robert McDowell the only Republican commissioner. A 2-1 commission is possible next year if the Senate doesn’t act.

LightSquared’s recent discussion with the FCC about a technical working group is raising real concerns for the co-chair of the group, the U.S. GPS Industry Council. USGIC Executive Director Michael Swiek voiced worries that the LightSquared meeting, which was only between LightSquared representatives and FCC staff (CD May 10 p14), could “mislead or cause confusions with respect to the status of Working Group activities,” it said in an FCC filing. LightSquared and the USGIC are heading an FCC-required working group that’s investigating potential interference issues between LightSquared’s planned terrestrial service and GPS service operating in neighboring spectrum. A final report is due to the FCC by June 15.

Microsoft would be drawn further into the telecom/Internet regulatory world with its $8.5 billion acquisition of Skype, experts said. But they divided over the deal’s potential implications on VoIP treatment going forward. The deal, the largest in Microsoft’s history, is expected to get regulatory approvals. Meanwhile, Media Access Project urged Microsoft to support network neutrality and other open Internet policies.

Opposition to AT&T’s buy of T-Mobile is continuing to build and the lines will be seen more clearly Wednesday during a hearing by the Senate Antitrust Subcommittee, merger opponents said Tuesday during a media briefing. With three weeks to go before initial comments are due at the FCC, opponents launched a website, www.mergerthreat.com.

Federal policy makers can help accelerate broadband adoption by the elderly -- but the hardest work has to be done by health officials, not the FCC, health IT consultant Jim Bialick said Tuesday. Medicare and Medicaid will receive $27 billion in federal funds this year, but “you're looking at a population that is not using technology for its healthcare,” Bialick said on a panel at a conference in Washington. One of the things preventing better use of technology in medicine for instance, is Medicare’s refusal to reimburse the expense of video conferencing in big cities, Bialick said. “That’s a monster barrier there. You're looking at people who are essentially not going to interact with the way the system is evolving,” he said. He also urged Washington policy makers to focus on “usable” technology, like Skype or Facebook. “There are significant policy barriers to implementing that,” Bialick said.

The FCC and the Federal Emergency Management Agency said Tuesday they're working with major carriers on an early version of a system that will send emergency alerts to wireless devices. The Personal Localized Alerting Network (PLAN) will premier in New York and Washington by the end of the year, with deployment to follow elsewhere in mid-2012.