Tag Archive for VZ

| April 16, 2016
Comments Off on Hey Lobbying Tech Spender

Hey Lobbying Tech Spender

-Update 04-26-2016- As if to prove my point, Democratic Presidential candidate Bernie Sanders just named Verizon one of America’s Top Ten Tax Avoiders. VZ has a corporate tax rate of -2% for the last 6 years according to the post. Verizon has the #4 lobbying spender.

Hey Lobbying Tech SpenderJust in time for the U.S. tax deadline, the Business Insider has a report which details the amount of money the tech titans spent on bribing lobbying the politicians in DC. Thanks to one of the small bits of transparency in the gooberment, the U.S. House of Representatives requires companies to file government lobbying records. You can search their disclosures here at the Office of the Clerk of the House. (rb- Use this while you can, it’s likely to be shut down at any time by politicians with things to hide.)

Amazon was the most aggressive tech lobbyist in 2015The most aggressive tech spender on lobbying in 2015 was Amazon (AMZN) according to research by Consumer Watchdog. The company spent $9.07 million (a company record) on lobbying in 2015, an incredible 91.4% surge from its 2014 spend dedicated to influencing federal regulations last year according to BI.

Amazon lobbied Washington about

tech firms spent over $122M lobbying Washington politiciansDespite Amazon’s aggressive lobbying, Google (GOOG) topped the list of tech companies for the second year in a row. Google spent $16.6 million in 2015 vs $16.83 million in 2014. The biggest spending tech firms spent over $122M lobbying Washington politicians.

How the tech titans spent their money

  1. Google: $16.6 million in 2015 vs $16.83M in 2014.
  2. Comcast (CMCSA): $15.63 million vs $16.8M in 2014
  3. AT&T (T): $14.86 million, up from $14.56M in 2014
  4. Verizon (VZ): $11.43 million, up 1.9% from $11.22M in 2014.
  5. Facebook (FB): $9.85 million from $9.34M in 2014, a company record.
  6. Amazon (AMZB): $9.07 million up 91.4% from 2014 .
  7. Microsoft (MSFT): $8.49 million vs $8.33M in 2014.
  8. Time Warner Cable (TWC): $6.8 million in 2015, down 13.2% from 2014.
  9. T-Mobile (TMUS) $6.14 million, up 1.7% from 2014.
  10. Apple (AAPL): $4.48 million in 2015 compared to $4.11M in 2014.
  11. IBM (IBM): $4.63 million, a 6.5% decrease from $4.9M in 2014.
  12. Intel (INTC): $4.55 million in 2015, up 19.7% from $3.80M in 2014.
  13. Oracle (ORCL): $4.46 million in 2015, down 23.5% from $5.83M in 2014.
  14. Cisco (CSCO): $2.69 million compared to $2.35M in 2014.
  15. Yahoo (YHOO): $2.84 million in 2015 vs $2.94M in 2014.

Tech titans with boxes of meney for politicansBI reminds us that these may seem like big numbers, they’re a tiny part of these companies’ overall expenditures — in the third quarter of 2015, Google spent $3.47 billion on traffic acquisition costs (such as the price of its deal to stay the default search on Apple’s iPhone), and another $6.93 billion on other operating expenses.

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I haven’t written about the tech’s industry lobbying efforts since 2010. Many of the names have remained the same, ATT, Verizon, Google, IBM, Yahoo, and Intel have been bribing lobbying the gooberment for a very long time.

However, just 5 years ago, Apple and Facebook were barely in the lobbying racket.  In 2015, they both ranked at the top in lobbying spending.

 

Ralph Bach has been in IT long enough to know better and has blogged from his Bach Seat about IT, careers, and anything else that catches his attention since 2005. You can follow him on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter. Email the Bach Seat here.

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| July 7, 2015
Comments Off on T-Mobile Ordered to Turn Over Most Customer Info

T-Mobile Ordered to Turn Over Most Customer Info

T-MT-Mobile Ordered to Turn Over Most Customer Infoobile received the most government requests for subscriber data in 2014 according to a report from CNET. U.S. governments made nearly 351,940 requests for data from T-Mobile (TMUS) in 2014. The author, Roger Cheng states that the 351,940 government requests for data are the most out of any of the four national wireless carriers.

The number 4 U.S. carrier by subscriber base recently released its first transparency report. The article breaks down the government requests for T-Mobile information:

  • 177,549 criminal and civil subpoenas
  • 17,316 warrants
  • 3,000+ wiretap orders
  • Between 2,000 and 2,250 national security requests,
  • 8 requests from foreign governments.

These numbers represent an 11% increase in government demands for subscriber information over last 2013.

The article claims that Verizon and AT&T each have twice as many customers, but T-Mobile fielded more requests than its rivals.

  • Verizon (VZ) with 132 million subscribers in Q4 of 2014, saw 287,559 government requests.
  • AT&T (T), with nearly 121 million subscribers in Q4 of 2014, saw 263,755 government requests,
  • Sprint (S) with 55.5 million subscribers in Q4 of 2014, saw 308,937 government requests.
  • T-Mobile with just over 55 million subscribers in Q4 of 2014, saw 351,940 government requests.

Here is how the four wireless carriers’ government information requests compare.

CarrierSubscribersSupeanasWarrantsWireTap OrdersTotal Requests
Verizon132 million138,158`31,2141,433351,940
AT&T121 million201,75420,9852,420263,755
Sprint55.5 million308,93713,5403,772308,936
T-Mobile55 million177,43917,3163,087251,940
Totals358.5 million826,28883,05510,7121,176,571

surveillance programsTransparency reports have become increasingly popular over the past year as civil liberties groups, shareholder and consumer advocates have pressured companies to be more open about when they disclose customer information. The article claims T-Mobile was the last of the four national carriers to issue a transparency report, which comes amid continued scrutiny of surveillance programs run by U.S. three-letter agencies and friends— including the bulk collection of phone call data — that was revealed when former NSA contractor Edward Snowden leaked classified government documents.

The author notes that companies aren’t under a legal obligation to show the data in transparency reports, but have been willing to share with the hope that the reports will help repair their reputations, which have been damaged by the Snowden revelations of the past two years.

rb-

government demands for subscriber informationThis data only represents data requests where they bothered to follow U.S. laws to legally request data. How much more is there sitting in a data warehouse in the sky?  

Why is the T-Mobile number so high? Is it bad luck? Do they fight the requests the most? Are they playing ball with the TLA’s?  We may never know. VentureBeat speculates that the best way to measure how willing T-Mobile works with the government is by looking at the percentage of government requests to which T-Mobile delivered data. But T-Mobile refused to offer that information to VentureBeat.

“Regarding the additional question on breaking out the numbers further than what’s currently provided in the report, our systems were not designed to track the kind of detailed reporting that other companies engage in today,” a T-Mobile spokesperson wrote to VentureBeat.

Related articles

 

Ralph Bach has been in IT long enough to know better and has blogged from his Bach Seat about IT, careers, and anything else that catches his attention since 2005. You can follow him on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter. Email the Bach Seat here.

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| May 26, 2015
Comments Off on Mobile Malware FUD?

Mobile Malware FUD?

Mobile Malware FUD?Just last week, I wondered out loud from my Bach Seat if all the hype around mobile malware was real or just more FUD. Looks like I am not alone, TechCo recently asked a similar question, “Are We Overstating the Threats from Mobile Devices?”

mobile threatsThe author cites several recent reports that back up the claim that the actual mobile threats that mobile devices introduce into the enterprise are overstated. The data indicates that the mobile malware threat is statistically small and has even decreased since 2012.

• A McAfee report shows out of all the malware now out there, only 1.9% of it is mobile malware. The author equates the mobile threat to 4 million / 195 million McAfee knows about.
• Another report (PDF) from Verizon (VZ) shows even lower numbers, with only 0.03 percent of smartphones being infected with what is called “higher grade malicious code.”
hit by lighting• But some numbers go even lower than that. Damballa, a mobile security vendor that monitors roughly half of mobile data traffic, recently released a report that claims you have a better chance of getting hit by lightning than by mobile malware. Dramballa found only 9,688 smartphones out of more than 150 million showed signs of malware infection. If you do the math, that comes out to an infection rate of 0.0064 percent.

Even more interesting is that despite the increase in mobile devices, Damballa found the infection rate had declined by half compared to 2012.

Walled gardenThese reports may show mobile threats aren’t as big of a problem as previously thought, but the author asks, why the numbers are so low at all. After all, cybercriminals like to target new platforms and exploit security weaknesses. Why do they seem to be avoiding mobile devices?

The truth of the matter is that mobile users tend to get their apps from high-quality app stores. The stores from Google (GOOG) and Apple (AAPL) work to filter out suspicious apps. If malware is found in apps after they’ve already been on the market for a while, app stores can also execute a kill switch, which takes the app off the store and the devices where they were downloaded. This limits malware’s ability to spread.

remotely wipe devicesThe article concludes that companies that adopt BYOD should just ignore BYOD security; they just don’t have to go all-out as many businesses have done. Most mobile security experts say a mobile device management system remains a good investment to make sure mobile devices are handled appropriately. MDM systems also allow an organization to remotely wipe devices, thus keeping sensitive data safe in the event a device is lost or stolen. But malware really isn’t a factor in those cases, so the overall message from these recent reports is that getting worked up over mobile threats is not necessary. A company can still gain all the benefits of BYOD without having to worry incessantly over what they’re doing to protect every device that connects to their network.

rb-

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Related articles
  • Your BYOD implementation checklist (powermore.dell.com)

 

Ralph Bach has been in IT long enough to know better and has blogged from his Bach Seat about IT, careers, and anything else that catches his attention since 2005. You can follow him on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter. Email the Bach Seat here.

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| March 27, 2015
Comments Off on AT&T Already Profits from Net Neutrality

AT&T Already Profits from Net Neutrality

AT&T Already Profits from Net NeutralityIn further proof that no matter what – the huge corporations always win, AT&T (T), one of the most vocal opponents to net neutrality has already started to profit from it. FierceTelecom is reporting that AT&T’s new reclassification under Title II of the Communications Act as part of new net neutrality rules are working in the mega-Bell’s favor.

the huge corporations always winThe article says regulators cited Title II to justify a ruling for AT&T. The FCC ruling said AT&T should be awarded damages for being overcharged by two Michigan-based rural telcos for interstate access services. Now the FCC has to set how much money AT&T should receive from East Lansing-based Great Lakes Comnet (GLC) and Westphalia Telephone Company (WTC). The FCC wrote in its order, “We agree with AT&T.”

Initially, AT&T asked for a $12 million refund and wants to avoid paying an extra $4.3 million that Westphalia and Great Lakes claim the telco owes them. The author explains that the FCC argued that AT&T was billed unlawfully because of Section 201(b) of the Communications Act. This is the part of Title II that says: “All charges, practices, classifications, and regulations for and in connection with such communication service, shall be just and reasonable, and any such charge, practice, classification, or regulation that is unjust or unreasonable is declared to be unlawful.”

Verizon raised consumer phone rates to fund the broadband network they objected toIronically, during the run-up to the net neutrality decision,  AT&T, Verizon (VZ), Comcast (CMCSA), and other telcos claimed that regulation would hurt their profits, which seems like misinformation BS. The FierceTelecom article reports that the FCC said that it won’t set specific price caps or tell service providers what they can charge for service, consumers can complain to the FCC if their provider is overcharging them for service.

FierceTelecom also points to an Ars Technica report, that Verizon (VZ), another outspoken critic of applying Title II to broadband services, ironically used its common carrier status for POTS services to build its FiOS fiber-to-the-home (FTTH) network. Besides leveraging Title II to get access to utility poles and rights-of-way to string up fiber, Verizon raised consumer phone rates to fund the fiber build.

rb-

This could be written-off as unintended consequences or is it? Is the goobermnet in bed with the Telco’s and all the net neutrality hub-bub was just a show?

Quoting MLive, 

the leaders making our laws, writing our budgets, and setting the agenda are not widely seen as effective … there’s a serious and alarming lack of leadership …

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Ralph Bach has been in IT long enough to know better and has blogged from his Bach Seat about IT, careers, and anything else that catches his attention since 2005. You can follow him on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter. Email the Bach Seat here.

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| February 26, 2015
Comments Off on Net Neutrality – We Win

Net Neutrality – We Win

Let the lawsuits begin!

Net Neutrality - We Win

In addition to the lawyers, lining up to squash Net Neutrality, Michigan’s own Fred Upton—who holds personal investments in AT&T, Comcast, and Verizon—has introduced anti-Net Neutrality legislation that eliminates the FCC’s authority to regulate internet service providers and could crush the agency’s ruling and allow AT&T (T), Comcast (CMCSA) and Verizon (VZ) to rule the Internet at our cost to grow their profits.

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I have already seen an ad on BrightHouse cable from Broadband For America, (whose membership page is empty) claiming that the FCC ruling will force them to raise taxes. Here come more imaginary “Regulatory re-capture” profits fees.

For right now, this is a rare win for the 99% in post 9-11 ‘murica. Just follow the money.

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Ralph Bach has been in IT long enough to know better and has blogged from his Bach Seat about IT, careers, and anything else that catches his attention since 2005. You can follow him on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter. Email the Bach Seat here.

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