OVERNIGHT TECH: Agencies get cheers for $105M AT&T settlement

THE LEDE: Democrats and consumer interest groups had high praise for the Federal Trade Commission and the Federal Communications Commission after they announced a landmark settlement with AT&T on Wednesday.

The deal will lead to $80 million in refunds for AT&T customers who were unfairly charged for horoscopes, celebrity gossip and other messages without their request, as well as another $25 million in fees and penalties to the FCC and states throughout the country. The action “speaks volumes” about the work at the two agencies, said Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Jay Rockefeller (D-W.Va.), who has investigated the practice of “mobile cramming” before. ”Self-regulation has proved ineffective at protecting consumers against both landline and wireless cramming, and I urge the enforcement community to remain vigilant as third-party wireless billing practices continue to evolve,” he added.

{mosads}FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler on Wednesday hinted that the AT&T settlement wouldn’t be the end of regulators’ work. “Stay tuned about the other wireless providers,” he told reporters.

Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) said that the news should put other companies on notice. “This consent decree sends a strong message to wireless carriers and crammers that this insidious practice will not be tolerated,” he said in a statement after the agencies’ action. Blumenthal called for “strong federal regulations and ongoing oversight” to protect people from the charges.

For Consumers Union, the advocacy arm of Consumer Reports, the joint action should send ripples throughout the industry. “This sends a message that bad behavior is going to be punished, and consumers who got scammed are going to get some relief.” Delara Derakhshani, Consumers Union policy counsel, said in a statement. “We’re glad to see federal and state regulators taking action to curb this problem.”

Lofgren joins call for ‘combination’ net neutrality rules: Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.) wants the FCC to rely on a “combination” of legal powers for new rules on the Internet. That includes reclassifying broadband Internet so the agency can apply the same legal authority it uses to regulate telephone lines, she told the agency in a letter on Wednesday. Reclassification “should be done as narrowly — with as much restraint as possible — and solely to accomplish the goals of net neutrality,” she wrote, while urging the FCC to forbear potentially troublesome parts of the law. While action seems unlikely on Capitol Hill, “this appears to be the only option the FCC has moving forward,” she added.  

Lofgren’s California Democratic colleagues Reps. Henry Waxman and Anna Eshoo have both previously called for the FCC to take up some type of “combination” rules, though critics of reclassification have maintained their opposition. They say that reclassifying the Web could lead to outdated rules and hinder the Internet’s growth.

Online ad founder tells FCC to butt out: Any type of new FCC net neutrality rules would only slow down the Web, online ad company DoubleClick founder Kevin O’Connor wrote in an op-ed in The Hill. O’Connor, who currently is the CEO of search engine FindTheBest, wrote that federal regulation “is the exact opposite of the free and open internet that has been so successful to date. Why are we trying to fix something that isn’t broken?”

Belcher takes over Telecom group: Scott Belcher will soon become the new chief executive at the Telecommunications Industry Association (TIA), the group announced on Wednesday. Belcher comes from the Intelligent Transportation Society of America (ITS America) — a trade group advocating for “smart” transportation systems — where he served as president and CEO. ITS America Executive Vice President Thomas Kern will take over at the group temporarily, as it searches for a replacement.

The chief executive role at TIA was created for Belcher. He will be tasked with managing the group’s long-term strategy and overseeing its operations. “Scott is a tremendously successful and visionary leader who will expand our capabilities and bring valuable new perspectives to our industry,” TIA Board Chairman Tom Stanton said in a statement. Belcher starts on Nov. 9.

NSL case livestream suspended out of caution: A Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals panel on Wednesday heard a case challenging the constitutionality of the government’s national security letters, which can compel companies to turn over customer information without a court order.

The San Francisco court, which usually provides livestreams of proceedings, decided against it in this case to prevent the accidental disclosure of the unidentified telecommunications company that filed the lawsuit. The court said a recording is expected to be available on its website on Wednesday.  

Obama regularly briefed on JP Morgan hack: President Obama and his national security advisers have been receiving regular briefing on the JPMorgan Chase hacking incident, The New York Times reported Wednesday. The data breach was revealed last week to be much larger than previously thought.

The hacker’s motive behind the breach was the question Obama most wanted answered, the newspaper reported, and one officials still cannot answer. “The question kept coming back, ‘Is this plain old theft, or is Putin retaliating?’ And the answer was: We don’t know for sure,'” a senior administration official said. The Times also revealed new details of other companies that hackers attempted to target, including Citigroup, E Trade, HSBC, and a number of other unidentified banks. Information from 76 million households and 7 million small business accounts was taken from JPMorgan, including name and contact information but not account or social security numbers.

House panel still working on Communications Act update: Despite the current congressional recess, staffers on the House Energy and Commerce Committee have been hard at work reaching out to industry groups and other organizations as part of their work to update the Communications Act. Rep. Greg Walden (R-Ore.), head of the Communications and Technology subcommittee, said that the ongoing listening sessions “provide an opportunity to round out the information we’ve already received” in hearings and white papers. “October, and the remaining months of the year provide an important window to prepare as we gear up to legislate next Congress,” he added.

Credo Mobile releases transparency report: Credo Mobile released its quarterly transparency report on Wednesday, showing that it had received just a handful of government requests about its users in the previous three months. The small, left-leaning company was the first telecommunications company to disclose the number of times it gives information to the government and has pushed for reform to the nation’s surveillance laws.

Commerce Dept. names innovation council members: Commerce Secretary Penny Pritzker named 27 people to the National Advisory Council on Innovation and Entrepreneurship (NACIE) on Wednesday. The list includes academics, nonprofit leaders and executives from companies including Samsung, General Electric and JPMorgan Chase. The council will advise the Commerce Department on ways to speed up innovation and develop a more competitive workforce.

“The new NACIE members are a diverse and dynamic group of successful entrepreneurs, innovators, and investors, as well as leaders from nonprofit organizations and academia,” Pritzker said in a statement.

ON TAP:

The George Mason University School of Law kicks off a two-day conference on intellectual property starting at 8 a.m.

At 10 a.m., the Pew Research Center and the Internet Innovation Alliance release new research on “killer apps in the gigabit age.”

Top officials from Google, Microsoft, Facebook and the Department of Homeland Security will talk cybersecurity at a Bloomberg Government event at 2 p.m.

At the same time, a Commodity Futures Trading Commission advisory committee will hold a meeting to talk about the digital currency bitcoin.

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT:

AT&T has agreed to pay $105 million to settle changes that it illegally billed millions of customers for charges they never requested and didn’t want.

Organizing for Action is getting behind tech companies’ dismissal of the American Legislative Exchange Council over its stance on climate change.

The integrity of the Internet could be at risk if Congress does not act to rein in the National Security Agency, Google head Eric Schmidt warned on Wednesday.  

The conservative justices on the Supreme Court expressed clear skepticism that Amazon warehouse workers should be compensated for the time they spend waiting for screenings after their shifts.  

Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley, a potential Democratic White House contender, said in an interview published Wednesday that “Wi-Fi is a human right.”

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