Around the Industry:
Verizon BroadbandAccess Routers to link multiple users
Should VoIP providers be allowed to offer service to customers to whom they cannot provide 911?
Surprise! Vonage patent woe not causing any waves in VoIP market
Mobile operators could recoup investment in unbundled DSL within 3 years
Houston one step closer to WiFi liftoff
Monitoring employees' internet and telephone use at work may contravene human rights laws: European Court of Human Rights
SecurityBits:
Security firm predicts UPnP exploit by the end of the week
FTC: Spyware distributors are vicious criminals and need to be jailed
Microsoft 'wait-and-see' on Vista BIOS hack
Researcher creates Bluetooth crack tool
TidBytes:
Wikipedia "broken beyond repair", co-founder says
My RFID-embedded car numberplate has a virus
Google getting bigger chunk of American pie
Sanyo Sees $17 Million Loss from Battery Recall
US Air Force To Bluespam At Nascar Event
More broadband bytes inside...

Around The Industry:
•Verizon BroadbandAccess Routers to link multiple users:
Verizon Wireless is expanding its highly successful high-speed data BroadbandAccess service to include router service that will enable multiple users to use the service simultaneously. The BroadbandAccess Wireless Router Service is aimed at providing wide-area network access for users seeking to link devices within offices or remotely. Brenda Boyd Raney, a company spokesperson, said Verizon Wireless expects the service to be used "primarily for backup" initially, and it is immediately available nationwide "from Maine to Hawaii." Routers are available from various suppliers. Monthly fees for user-based megabyte plans range from $39.99 for a 40-Mbyte configuration to $549 for a 4,500-Mbyte setup.
•Should VoIP providers be allowed to offer service to customers to whom they cannot provide 911?:
The IP-Enabled Voice Communications and Public Safety Act, introduced in January by Senator Bill Nelson, would fix problems out of VOIP providers' control by requiring telecom companies that control 911 facilities to connect to VOIP providers and protecting dispatch centers from legal liability. The bill would also require VOIP providers to give a clear and conspicuous notice to customers who cannot receive 911 service. Other witnesses during the Senate hearing called Congress to go farther than the Nelson bill. VOIP providers should not be allowed to offer service to customers to whom they cannot provide 911, said Wanda McCarley, president of the Association of Public-Safety Communications Officials International Inc. and a dispatch trainer in Fort Worth, Texas.
•Surprise! Vonage patent woe not causing any waves in VoIP market:
The legal trouble threatening Vonage doesn't yet appear to be rippling across the Internet phone industry, a stark contrast to last year's BlackBerry patent dispute that spooked existing and would-be users of the popular e-mail device. So far, rivals haven't been aggressively targeting Vonage customers who may be unsettled by a jury's finding last month that the company's service infringes on patents held by Verizon. And other Internet telephone providers don't seem to be worried that Verizon might be emboldened to turn its intellectual property guns on them.
•Mobile operators could recoup investment in unbundled DSL within 3 years:
The provision of fixed broadband is becoming essential for mobile operators, and they could quickly recoup the substantial investment necessary to offer their own unbundled DSL services if they achieved strong service uptake, says Analysys. "DSL services can generate nine times the ARPU earned by many mobile operators today from mobile data services. However, the challenge is to offer such services profitably'" says Dr Mark Heath, co-author of the Analysys report. "If 10% of its customers subscribed to DSL services, a large mobile operator could achieve a 16% cost saving in the provision of DSL services by investing in its own LLUB network," adds Heath.
•Houston one step closer to WiFi liftoff:
The Houston City Council moved a step closer to getting free wireless Internet access for most of the city. The council passed a motion to have Earthlink setup a wireless broadband network in Houston. The project will cost the city about $2.5 million over five years. "We don't want to be the first ones to talk about it, we want to the first ones to get it done," said a city spokesperson. "And when we do this we will be the largest wireless broadband network in North America, so we are going to set ourselves apart. All of Houston will be involved in this process." Critics argue that the city should not invest so much money in a project before first getting to see how it works.
•Monitoring employees' Internet and telephone use at work may contravene human rights laws: European Court of Human Rights:
Monitoring employees' Internet and telephone use at work may contravene human rights laws, after a landmark case in the European Court of Human Rights. The case involved a public-sector employee, who won €3,000 in damages and €6,000 in court costs and expenses, after her communications were intercepted by her employer. The ruling means that the private use of company telecoms equipment and Internet access may be protected under European human rights legislation, if the company has an acceptable personal-use policy and fails to inform the employee that their communications may be monitored. Employee communications are also covered by human rights legislation if the organization has no explicit acceptable use policy and fails to inform the employee of the monitoring of personal e-mail.
•802.11r: Wireless LAN fast roaming:
For Wi-Fi to serve as a foundation for mobile apps and voice, networks must provide secure mobility. And to achieve that, mobile devices need robust authentication and encryption, fast roaming and QoS. Enterprise IT pros should pay attention to the IEEE's 802.11r fast-roaming task group, whose standard is likely to make its way to market by late 2007 or early 2008, with broad adoption by enterprise solution providers in 2008. The arrival of 11r is timely. Voice over Wi-Fi is expected to generate increased interest as more dual-mode Wi-Fi/cellular solutions are delivered this year. Many enterprises have moved from VPNs and captive portals to WLAN security architectures built around 802.11i/WPA2. Vendors have been offering proprietary secure-mobility solutions for years, and many of the underlying foundations for 802.11r have been tested on real networks.
•Aussie ISP admits it was blocking Googlemail:
Australia's largest Telco and ISP, recently-privatized Telstra, has revealed that it’s Bigpond e-mail service has been automatically filtering out all mail from Google’s Gmail users to its customers. Telstra had slated Google for taking insufficient care in making sure that Gmail was not used for spamming. Quite how Google is supposed to do this, aside from the standard precautions it does take –- the "type the letters in the box" test -– Telstra does not make clear. Perhaps Telstra should look at fixing its own spam-fighting services, rather than pointing the finger at Google, which has a reputation for having one of the best spam filters in the business.
•No UK public funding for BT's 21st Century network:
The chief executive of UK regulator Ofcom, Ed Richards, has dismissed the idea of public money being used to fund an alternative next-generation network. Currently, 21CN, a new telecommunications infrastructure, is being rolled out across the country by BT. The idea is that the next-generation network should make it easier for third parties to roll out various bandwidth-intensive services to customers, but the scale of the project has also led some to fear that BT would end up without significant competition in this market. As the regulator that forced BT to open up access to its broadband infrastructure in 2005, Ofcom itself has hinted that some form of regulation might be needed to avoid BT creating a new monopoly through 21CN.
•Telco Systems total FTTH solution now approved for USDA's Rural Utilities Service:
Telco Systems announced its T5 Compact Ethernet switch product line has been accepted for use in FTTH and telecomms projects funded by the USDA's Rural Utilities Service. The acceptance follows the recent announcement of the Company’s RUS-approved EdgeGate gateways which provide broadband Internet access, VoIP, IPTV access and VoD to rural customers. The approval enables service providers to offer a single-source complete FTTH and FTTB end-to-end solution using Telco Systems’ family of carrier-class IP aggregation and core routing switching platforms and CLE gateways deploying community broadband networks utilizing RUS loans and grants. “The approval of the T5 Compact is a significant step in easing the design of a total end-to-end solution for RUS funded broadband networks. The switch offers the capacity of physically larger backbone switches at price points associated with workgroup switching, which makes it not only cost effective, but also the ideal solution in cramped wiring closets and racks.”
•Does anyone use mobile Internet?:
Of America’s 90+ million broadband users, 60% own at least one Internet-enabled mobile device, according to a recent survey by Media-Screen. Yet, only 5% regularly access the web while on the go. The two leading barriers to mobile Internet use are extra fees and difficulty using the web on small screens, the survey determined. Even those who use the wireless web agreed that these were significant barriers. “Clearly, online activity has yet to move beyond the traditional second screen,” Media-Screen summed up in its report on the research.
•RIAA slams Steve Jobs:
David Hughes, senior VP of technology for the RIAA, dubbed Apple leader Steve Jobs as a "hypocrite" over his attitude toward DRM on iTunes. While Steve has been banging on about the music companies dropping DRM, he has been unwilling to sell his Pixar movies through iTunes without DRM and DVDs without CSS encryption. Hughes said that when he asked about interoperability of downloads from the iTMS, Jobs said he would only think of that when Apple has less than 50% of the market share again. Hughes also thinks that Jobs posted an Open Letter on DRM to get the attention off of him and the bad press he'd been getting regarding Norway's anti-trust laws.

SecurityBits:
•Security firm predicts UPnP exploit by the end of the week:
IBM security firm ISS announced that a vulnerability in Microsoft Windows' Universal Plug and Play (UPnP) technology would be exploited by the end of the week. "We are taking this flaw very seriously and expect to see an exploit by the end of the week," said Tom Cross, X-Force researcher at IBM Internet Security Systems. He added that since the UPnP service is not universally enabled in the corporate environment, "it is unlikely that this flaw will result in a worm like Zotob." He urged organizations to download the patch from Microsoft "as soon as possible."
•FTC: Spyware distributors are vicious criminals and need to be jailed:
Federal Trade Commissioner William Kovacic told a Senate Commerce Committee hearing that most spyware distributors were “vicious organised criminals" and that the only thing that would deter them is withdrawing their freedom. While most users would welcome such a move, the FTC seems to be putting itself against the IT industry which currently favors the use of “legitimate spyware.” If the law went ahead, then Sony executives, who hatched up last year's DRM fiasco and Sir William Gates III, who allowed spyware to be installed in Vista would all be doing jail time.
•Microsoft 'wait-and-see' on Vista BIOS hack:
Microsoft has no immediate plans to tackle a reported hack to Windows Vista product activation that could allow illegal copies of Windows to be widely installed. The hack is not yet viewed as a wide-scale threat, although Microsoft indicated it may act if more hackers view breaking Windows Vista's OEM product activation as a challenge worth taking. "Our goal isn't to stop every 'mad scientist' that's on a mission to hack Windows. Our goal is to disrupt the business model of organized counterfeiters and protect users from becoming unknown victims. This means focusing on responding to hacks that are scalable and can easily be commercialized," said a Microsoft senior product manager.
•Researcher creates Bluetooth crack tool:
A security researcher has demonstrated that it's possible to put together a Bluetooth sniffer out of an inexpensive wireless dongle, raising fresh questions about the security of the wireless technology. "Bluetooth is much more vulnerable to sniffing than expected," he wrote. "This security-through-obscurity approach may have opened the gates for the black hats discovering (Bluetooth) holes before we do."

Hardware, Software, and other TidBytes:
•Wikipedia "broken beyond repair", co-founder says
•My RFID-embedded car numberplate has a virus
•Google getting bigger chunk of American pie
•Sanyo Sees $17 Million Loss from Battery Recall
•US Air Force To Bluespam At Nascar Event
•Palm developing own OS - again
•Domain name .eu in world top 10 a year after launch
•Enterprise Skype on the Horizon? Yes!
•MySpace Blocks Photobucket