The FCC Media Bureau granted Charter Communications’ request for a two-year waiver of FCC CableCARD rules to further “the development of an industry wide downloadable separate security standard,” said an order (http://bit.ly/11LKkk0). Thursday’s decision, which was expected (CD April 8 p7), disagreed with opposition to the company’s request from CEA and other groups. Signed by the bureau chief, it includes requirements for Charter to partner with a consumer electronics manufacturer to create a retail device using the new security system and to continue supporting CableCARDs. It includes extra broadband deployment, and the company said faster broadband speeds and better video services are among the benefits Charter subscribers will see.

People are developing an “intimate” relationship with their smartphones that’s “changing the fundamentals” of the entire communications industry, said George Rittenhouse, president of Bell Labs at Alcatel-Lucent, during a keynote Friday at the Competitive Carriers Association conference. Other speakers featured on the panel from the New Orleans event agreed that the new generation of “iconic” smartphones means major changes for the wireless industry.

Public-private partnerships are important to improving cybersecurity within the global information and communications technology (ICT) supply chain, said Joe Jarzombek, director-software assurance in the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) Office of Cybersecurity & Communications. Such partnerships, including DHS’s Software Assurance program, are critical when “you realize that those running our critical infrastructure have the same needs we have,” he said Thursday at a Brookings Institution event. The federal government has a responsibility to help critical infrastructure operators and owners address ICT vulnerabilities, but there needs to be “public will” to make it happen, Jarzombek said. DHS is working with the National Institute of Standards and Technology to foster an industry-led effort to develop the Cybersecurity Framework, a voluntary set of cybersecurity standards and best practices to protect critical infrastructure, as laid out in President Barack Obama’s February cybersecurity order (CD Feb 14 p1).

Data security is “one of the most important and timely issues before the FTC today,” Commissioner Maureen Ohlhausen said during a Google event Wednesday night. She outlined the three ways the agency combats data security issues, and Google Director of Security Engineering Mayank Upadhyay discussed ways in which the company is trying to increase data security.

The FCC Media Bureau granted 150 applications for new FM translator construction permits that were held up by the 2005 freeze placed on those applications from Auction 83 to allow the commission to figure out how to expand low-power FM service. The action put an end to the freeze, which was formally ended in last year’s fifth order on reconsideration, a bureau spokesperson said. Applicants who took advantage of the 2003 window for the translators have waited about 10 years for a decision on those applications. The bureau released a public notice Wednesday identifying almost 40 new translator stations that were granted (http://bit.ly/176n3vw).

The numbering system is “becoming an anachronism,” said Commissioner Ajit Pai. “It assumes the dominance of old-school carriers interconnecting over time division multiplexed -- or TDM -- circuits, using copper lines and the out-of-band Signaling System No. 7. But that’s not how modern, IP-based networks work.” The notice will take a “fresh look” at the commission’s numbering rules, including those regarding number portability and numbering cost allocation, he said.

The House passed an amended version of the Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act (CISPA) by a 288 to 127 vote Thursday. The revised CISPA aims to increase cyberthreat information sharing between the public and private sectors, something which cybersecurity experts say is needed to protect U.S. networks from attacks. HR-624 is a modified version of the information sharing legislation that passed by the House last year (HR-3523) but failed to achieve a vote in the Senate. Ninety-two Democrats voted for the bill Thursday, 50 more than voted for the CISPA bill that passed the House in the last Congress.

Verizon will field its first voice-over-LTE (VoLTE) smartphones by year-end, with a commercial launch slated for early 2014 as it moves to gradually wean customers off its CDMA-based service, Verizon Chief Financial Officer Fran Shammo told analysts Thursday in a conference call.

The FCC should “issue the maximum possible forfeiture against Amazon,” which isn’t captioning every TV program on its Instant Video service even after seven groups representing the hearing impaired made an informal complaint, the groups said. They said the company’s explanation of why 47 previously recorded programs weren’t captioned when the groups did a spot check late last year (CD Dec 21 p2) doesn’t mean it’s in compliance with the Internet Protocol captioning order. The order required prerecorded programs to be captioned when delivered in IP starting Sept. 30. A Consumer and Governmental Affairs Bureau official said it’s looking at the situation.

Sprint Nextel CEO Dan Hesse went on the attack against his two biggest competitors, Verizon Wireless and AT&T, during a keynote Thursday at the Competitive Carriers Association’s spring show. Hesse said the FCC needs to protect competition as the IP transition moves forward and called on the FCC to wrap up its spectrum aggregation rulemaking before the incentive auction.