Pre-texting, public safety score as Congress adjourns

WASHINGTON-The 109th Congress adjourned on a positive note for the wireless industry and the public-safety community, approving legislation that makes illegal the practice of impersonating mobile-phone subscribers to obtain their phone records, and ordering the Bush administration to award $1 billion in public-safety interoperable communications grants by Sept. 30.
The House Judiciary Committee’s bill on phone record privacy, which gained national attention in the Hewlett-Packard Co. pre-texting scandal, was approved by the House, 409-0, in April. The Senate agreed to the House version. In addition to outlawing pre-texting itself, the measure prohibits unauthorized sale or transfer of confidential phone records information, or the receipt of such information with the knowledge that it was fraudulently obtained.
The pre-texting measure passed by Congress and sent to the White House imposes a fine and/or imprisonment of up to 10 years. It also doubles fines and imposes an additional five-year prison term for violations occurring in a 12-month period involving more than $100,000 or more than 50 customers of a covered entity. Moreover, the bill imposes an additional five-year prison term for violations involving the use of confidential phone records information to commit crimes of violence, crimes of domestic violence, and crimes against law enforcement officials and the administration of justice.
“The wireless industry jealously guards their customers’ privacy,” said Steve Largent, president of cell-phone industry association CTIA. “Pre-texting is fraud-pure and simple-and I applaud Congress for moving to put a strong federal law on the books which expressly makes this form of identity theft illegal. While wireless carriers will continue to take aggressive steps to protect themselves and their customers from this illegal activity, passage of this bill will serve as a significant and meaningful deterrent.”
Congress did not act on a separate pre-texting bill penned by the House Commerce Committee. The legislation would force carriers to take additional steps to protect the privacy of detailed customer phone records. CTIA said the House Commerce Committee bill would impede cellular operators’ ability to enter into business relationships with third-parties and potentially result in increased charges for consumers as a result of a new federal mandate.
It is unclear whether the new, Democratic-controlled Congress next year will pursue the failed legislation.
A leading consumer group signaled it will push for further pre-texting protections next year.
“Consumers Union would like to see additional privacy protections such as those included in H.R. 4943, introduced by Reps. Joe Barton (R-Texas) and John Dingell (D-Mich.), which gave consumers greater control over whether phone carriers can share their private records with business partners, and required phone companies to adopt more stringent safeguards to prevent thieves from accessing consumer records,” the organization stated.
Dingell will replace Barton as chairman of the House Commerce Committee in the 110th Congress.
The mobile industry did not get the big prize it sought-expanded federal pre-emption of state regulation of wireless carriers-because Congress did not pass telecom reform legislation. A provision repealing state oversight of “other terms and conditions” of commercial wireless service was included in the Senate telecom bill, which died in the 109th Congress. With industry suffering a major legal setback on pre-emption in the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, mobile-phone carriers are looking for help from the Supreme Court.
$1B for public safety
Elsewhere, in a package of amendments attached to a congressionally approved bill aimed a lowering phone charges of overseas U.S. armed forces, was language setting a hard date of Sept. 30 for the Commerce Department’s National Telecommunications and Information Administration to award $1 billion worth of public-safety interoperable communications grants. Digital television and public-safety legislation signed into law earlier this year authorized $1 billion for public-safety interoperable communications grants.
In his Senate confirmation hearing Sept. 12, then-acting NTIA head John Kneuer was pressed by Senate Commerce Committee member Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) on how soon the grants would begin to be made. Kneuer replied he was working with various federal agencies to get the program off the ground, but could not give Boxer a specific date. A perturbed Boxer asked Kneuer to write her with an answer. In a Sept. 18 letter to Boxer, Kneuer said the law authorized funds to be borrowed from the U.S. Treasury beginning Oct. 1, but before grants could be issued NTIA needed to issue grant solicitations and process applications.
Kneuer was subsequently confirmed as NTIA director.
R&D, high-tech visas
Another bill passed before Congress adjourned-an extension of the research and development tax credit through 2007-will aid wireless innovation, said CTIA’S Largent.
The high-tech industry, whose presence in the wireless space is increasing as companies bet billions on WiMAX, offered a more subdued assessment of the lame duck Congress.
“The 109th Congress fulfilled some prerequisites for competitiveness, but ultimately it failed to make the grade,” said Phil Bond, president of the Information Technology Association of America. “A stronger research and development tax credit and improved access to markets like Vietnam mean more U.S. jobs. Unfortunately, there was no progress on crucial issues like the federal budget, business immigration and patent reform.”
Bond added: “Without a new budget, it will be very difficult for federal departments and agencies to get the technologies they need to serve American citizens and save taxpayer dollars.” The business immigration system has not kept pace with the changing economy and it is harming American companies’ ability to compete. Similarly, intellectual property should be protected in a manner consistent with the world today, not as it was decades ago.”
ITAA said it was not pleased that efforts to improve the country’s business immigration system stalled in the 109th Congress. The group said the government hit its cap of 65,000 high-tech visas in June, thereby unable to act on many other applications. “The United States continues to do an inadequate job of keeping its doors open to the world’s best and brightest scientists and technologists,” said ITAA.