Tag: fcc

美國正在立法禁用大疆的產品

在「DJI ban passes the House and moves on to the Senate (dronedj.com)」這邊看到的，原文在「DJI ban passes the House and moves on to the Senate」這邊。

目前眾議院已經過過了，裡面提到 H.R.2864 (Countering CCP Drones Act)：

One of these sections, H.R. 2864, or the Countering CCP Drones Act, was added to the bill and can be found under Section 1722. For those who are just hearing about this for the first time, it would remove DJI’s ability to get approval from the FCC, banning any future drones from being imported and possibly grounding current drones.

在官方的官面上則是直接列出大疆 (DJI)：

Countering CCP Drones Act

This bill requires the inclusion of telecommunications and video surveillance equipment or services produced or provided by Shenzhen Da-Jiang Innovations Sciences and Technologies Company Limited (a Chinese drone maker commonly known as DJI Technologies) on a list of communications equipment or services determined by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to pose an unacceptable risk to U.S. national security. Current law prohibits the use of federal funding available through specified FCC programs for purchasing or maintaining listed equipment or services.

現在是在聯邦禁用，看起來打算提升警戒列為國安等級，打算全國禁用？

SpaceX 得到 FCC 的同意架設家用的衛星網路

在「FCC approves SpaceX’s plans to fly internet-beaming satellites in a lower orbit」這邊看到的：

The Federal Communications Commission has approved SpaceX’s request to fly a large swath of its future internet-beaming satellites at a lower orbit than originally planned.

預定打四千顆低軌道衛星上去：

Under SpaceX’s original agreement with the commission, the company had permission to launch 4,425 Starlink satellites into orbits that ranged between 1,110 to 1,325 kilometers up. But then SpaceX decided it wanted to fly 1,584 of those satellites in different orbits, thanks to what it had learned from its first two test satellites, TinTin A and B. Instead of flying them at 1,150 kilometers, the company now wants to fly them much lower at 550 kilometers.

不知道價位會落在那個區塊... 如果價位夠低的話，也許是可以考慮當作偏鄉地區的通訊方案？至少是個備用方式...

Alphabet (Google) 的 Project Loon 拿到授權，支援波多黎各的救災計畫

Project Loon 是 Alphabet (Google 的母公司) 透過熱氣球建立網路的計畫。

這次波多黎各災後已經好幾個禮拜了，但還是有大量的基地台還是不通。於是 Project Loon 從 FCC 得到實驗性的執照，建立行動網路：「Alphabet’s Internet balloons will try to restore cell service in Puerto Rico」。

Nearly 82 percent of cell sites in Puerto Rico and 57 percent in the US Virgin Islands are out of service, the FCC said in its daily damage report yesterday. In nearly all counties in Puerto Rico, more than 75 percent of cell sites are not working, and "22 out of the 78 counties in Puerto Rico have 100 percent of their cell sites out of service." Large percentages of residents are also without cable or wireline service.

在 FCC 的公告裡提到授權了 900Mhz 頻段：「FCC GRANTS EXPERIMENTAL LICENSE FOR PROJECT LOON TO OPERATE IN PUERTO RICO」(PDF 檔但是標題是「Microsoft Word」...)。

Project Loon obtained consent agreements to use land mobile radio (LMR) radio spectrum in the 900 MHz band from existing carriers operating within Puerto Rico.

不過由於要讓使用者可以使用現有的 SIM 卡連上網，需要當地電信業者的合作，Google 目前還沒完全確認：

Alphabet hasn't announced a schedule for providing service in Puerto Rico, and the company says it is still determining whether it will be able to help.

Project Loon must be integrated with the network of a cellular company in order to provide service, and Alphabet is “making solid progress on this next step," the spokesperson said. Project Loon is part of Alphabet's X division, formerly known as "Google X."

是一戰成名的機會...

分析 FCC 對網路中立性的留言，將鄉民與機器人分開來分析

Boing Boing 的立場其實還蠻鮮明的，所以有時候他們的新聞看看就好...

但這篇真的很有趣，把 FCC (美國的聯邦通信委員會) 上兩千兩百萬則對網路中立性的留言拿出來分析，結果發現真人與機器人的差異超明顯 XDDD：「Analysis of 22 million FCC comments show that humans love Net Neutrality and bots really, really hate it」，引用的文章在「Discovering truth through lies on the internet - FCC comments analyzed」這邊。

分析可以發現，真人偏好網路中立，而機器人反對網路中立 XDDD：(其實大家心裡都有底是怎麼玩出來的... 只是這次有機會分析，讓事情更明顯)

Data analysis company Gravwell ingested 22,000,000 comments sent to the FCC's docket on Net Neutrality and posted their preliminary findings, which are that the majority of comments came from bots, and these bots oppose Net Neutrality; of the comments that appear to originate with humans, the vast majority favor Net Neutrality.

文章中列出幾個有趣的現象，像是機器人的 comment 大量重複：

A very small minority of comments are unique -- only 17.4% of the 22,152,276 total. The highest occurrence of a single comment was over 1 million.

甚至是 pornhub.com 的郵件位置 XDDD：

Most comments were submitted in bulk and many come in batches with obviously incorrect information -- over 1,000,000 comments in July claimed to have a pornhub.com email address

然後機器人的 pattern 也很容易辨別：

Bot herders can be observed launching the bots -- there are submissions from people living in the state of "{STATE}" that happen minutes before a large number of comment submissions

這個有點類似「50 Cent Party (五毛黨)」，但是是自動化機器人，而且產出的「品質」不太好 XDDD

電信商對 Zero Rating 與網路中立性的問題

在「AT&T users will be able to stream DirecTV Now without using their data」這邊才看到 FCC 在這個月月初針對電信商對特定服務的 zero rating 發出警告：「The FCC tells AT&T it may be violating net neutrality with its DirecTV plans」：

AT&T is far from the only US carrier to zero rate data. T-Mobile has been ostentatiously offering free data for music and movies for a year now, and Verizon also zero rates video from its Go90 app. But in zero rating DirecTV, the FCC thinks AT&T may have gone too far.

AT&T 說任何人只要付錢都可以參加這個 plan：

AT&T’s argument is that any company that participates in its Sponsored Data program has to pay AT&T for it, and that includes DirecTV.

但問題還是在 AT&T 擁有 DirecTV，所以是左手付到右手：

Except, again, AT&T owns DirecTV, so even if one division is paying another, the overall company still ends up not paying any money.

而且這筆金額其實不小：

The situation for other companies is very different — and the FCC believes that the price they’d have to pay is “significant[.]”

不過總統快換人了，很有可能會往更糟的方向前進...

Comcast 開始限制 Level3 的流量...

Slashdot 上的報導，Comcast 開始限制 (過濾) Level3 對 Comcast 的流量：「Level 3 Shaken Down By Comcast Over Video Streaming」。

另外 Level3 的新聞稿：「Level 3 Communications Issues Statement Concerning Comcast's Actions」以及 Comcast 的回應稿：「10 Facts About Peering, Comcast and Level 3」。

很擺明 Comcast 就是衝著 Level3 拿下 Netflix 的合約而來的 (參考「Netflix 拋棄 Akamai CDN，改以 Level 3 CDN 為主力」)，在評論「Comcast Says Their Dispute With Level 3 Is "Not About Online Video" - Yeah Right」也是對 Comcast 的說法不以為然。

剛好在 12/21 FCC 才要對網路中立性投票：「FCC To Vote On Net Neutrality On December 21」，這則新聞看起來真是...