WASHINGTON, Aug 10 (Reuters) – A U.S. congresswoman on Wednesday requested more information on security company McAfee’s report detailing a five-year hacking campaign that breached 72 organizations globally.

Representative Mary Bono Mack, chairman of the House Commerce subcommittee with jurisdiction over cybersecurity, said she was alarmed by the report on a slew of cyber attacks that McAfee has dubbed “Operation Shady RAT.”

In a letter to Dmitri Alperovitch, vice president of threat research for McAfee and author of the report, Bono Mack requested a briefing with his research team and asked how the government and private sector could more effectively mitigate data breaches.

McAfee uncovered the biggest hacking campaign discovered to date, a multiyear campaign targeting governments, corporations, the United Nations, defense contractors and others. Its report, released last week, said a single “state actor” — which the company did not identify — seeking military, diplomatic and economic advantage was behind the attacks. [ID:nL3E7J32UM]

Intel Corp (INTC.O: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) acquired McAfee, the world’s No. 2 maker of security software after Symantec Corp (SYMC.O: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz), in a $7.68 billion deal earlier this year to help it offer customers using its chips more safety from hackers.

Bono Mack, in the letter, asked McAfee if it believed greater public disclosure of significant, potentially damaging breaches would help or harm efforts to curb cyber crime.

The congresswoman introduced legislation in July that would require companies that collect consumers’ personal information to implement data security measures and notify consumers of data breaches.

WASHINGTON, Aug 9 (Reuters) – U.S. communications regulators were adamant on Tuesday that hedge fund manager Philip Falcone’s satellite broadband start-up would not be allowed to operate if it posed a risk to GPS services.

The Federal Communications Commission and other agencies are evaluating Falcone’s LightSquared after months of testing found its original plan for a high-speed wireless network would interfere with GPS services.

Some 500 million GPS receivers are estimated to be in government or commercial use in the United States, serving critical public safety functions like aviation navigation, emergency communications and weather tracking.

“We’re not going to do anything that creates problems for GPS safety and service as we explore technical solutions that will both protect GPS and allow a new service to launch,” FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski said during a press conference after the agency’s monthly open meeting.

LightSquared in June unveiled a new plan for deploying its network that uses a different block of wireless airwaves that is farther away from the GPS band.

The company hopes this will deal with interference issues and satisfy the FCC, which must give its approval before the network can be built.

But an FCC official speaking at a background briefing for the press said creating such a “guard band” between LightSquared’s airwaves and those used for GPS left a large swath of spectrum underutilized.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – AT&T Inc’s $1.9 billion offer for some of Qualcomm Inc’s wireless licenses will be tied to a simultaneous review of AT&T’s $39 billion proposed takeover of T-Mobile USA, U.S. communications regulators said in a letter sent late on Monday.

The Federal Communications Commission, citing the many related issues, dropped the agency’s informal 180-day timeline for review of the Qualcomm deal. The move could significantly delay completion of the smaller Qualcomm deal because the review of AT&T’s bid for Deutsche Telekom AG’s T-Mobile is expected to span at least into the first quarter of 2012.

Qualcomm said swift action on its deal was in line with the FCC’s goal to free up more airwaves for mobile broadband use. The company said the deal would not only re-purpose unused spectrum for wireless Internet services, but it would also allow it to invest and deploy more spectrum efficient technology.

“The FCC should approve the pending AT&T-Qualcomm spectrum sale now because of the clear benefits to the public from the sale that stand on their own and are totally unrelated to the proposed AT&T-T-Mobile merger,” Dean Brenner, vice president of government affairs for Qualcomm, said in a statement.

But the FCC said it was concerned about AT&T amassing spectrum across the country, especially in overlapping areas, among other issues.

“We have concluded that the best way to determine whether either or both of the proposed transactions serve the public interest is to consider them in a coordinated manner at this time,” the FCC’s Wireless Telecommunications Bureau said in a letter to AT&T and Qualcomm.

The decision does not prevent the agency from considering the deals separately at a later date.

WASHINGTON, Aug 4 (Reuters) – Two Republican senators urged U.S. officials to consider the benefits of AT&T Inc’s (T.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) $39 billion bid to acquire Deutsche Telekom AG’s (DTEGn.DE: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) T-Mobile USA.

Mike Lee, the top Republican on the Senate’s antitrust subcommittee, and colleague John Cornyn, sent a letter to the U.S. Justice Department and Federal Communications Commission, urging them to consider all the available evidence before deciding whether the transaction should go through.

The senators cited the faster fourth generation service that AT&T has said it can rollout faster to more customers if the merger is approved. The deal could also spur handset innovation and development of new applications, the senators said in the letter dated Wednesday.

The antitrust panel’s Democratic chairman, Senator Herb Kohl, urged authorities last month to block the deal, saying there were no effective remedies that the companies could offer to stop the merger’s harm to consumers and competition.

If approved as proposed, the merger would concentrate 80 percent of the U.S. wireless market in just two companies: AT&T/T-Mobile and Verizon Wireless, a venture of Verizon Communications (VZ.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) and Vodafone Group Plc (VOD.L: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz).

AT&T argues the purchase of T-Mobile will help it expand faster service to more customers. Critics charge that less competition will increase prices and limit consumer choice.

Lee and Cornyn said the deal could be of great help to the quality of mobile broadband service in the United States, improving network capacity and increasing data speeds.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The chairman of the U.S. House of Representatives Judiciary Committee, urged the federal government to resist one-sided calls to block AT&T Inc’s $39 billion plan to buy wireless rival T-Mobile USA.

In a letter sent Monday to the U.S. Justice Department and Federal Communications Commission, Representative Lamar Smith said calls to block the merger that ignore the deal’s benefits to wireless service paint an incomplete picture.

“I urge you to carefully weigh all of the evidence, including the many benefits of this transaction, before coming to a conclusion,” the Republican from Texas wrote.

The ultimate decision on the deal rests with the Justice Department, that is conducting an antitrust review, and the FCC, which is weighing whether the transaction is in the public interest.

Lawmakers have no direct role in reviewing the merger that was proposed in March, but Congress, through oversight of the regulators, and by holding hearings on such deals, can influence the climate of public opinion.

Smith, whose committee oversees the Justice Department, said AT&T’s acquisition of T-Mobile from Deutsche Telekom AG had the potential to create jobs, spur innovation, enhance AT&T’s broadband network and encourage competitors to also improve their networks.

He called lawmakers’ objections to the deal one-sided and based on limited information as congressional hearings are not equipped to provide the detailed analysis required for a merger of this size.

WASHINGTON, Aug 2 (Reuters) – Broadband speeds are now significantly closer to what Internet service providers advertise than they were in 2009, a study to be released by U.S. communications regulators on Tuesday found.

Cable, DSL and fiber-to-the-home services were examined at 13 top U.S. broadband providers, representing about 86 percent of all U.S. fixed broadband connections.

Actual download speeds provided by the majority of U.S. broadband providers were within 80 percent or better of companies’ advertised speeds even during peak usage hours, according to a draft copy of the report.

The findings are considerably improved from data collected in 2009 for a study on U.S. broadband performance that showed actual download speeds were more often around 50 percent of the Internet service provider’s (ISP) advertised speed, the Federal Communications Commission said.

During peak consumer usage hours when networks are most busy and experience the greatest degradation in speeds, actual download speeds varied from 114 percent of advertised speed to a low of 54 percent of advertised speed among the different ISPs, the draft report said.

The 13 participating ISPs in the new study included Verizon Communications (VZ.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz), which had its fiber and DSL services tested separately, AT&T (T.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz), Comcast (CMCSA.O: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz), Time Warner (TWC.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz), Cox Communications, Cablevision (CVC.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz), Frontier (FTR.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz), CenturyLink (CTL.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz), Charter (CHTR.O: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz), Insight Communications Co, Mediacom Communications, Qwest Communications and Windstream (WIN.O: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz).

Average download speeds as a percentage of those advertised were highest for Verizon’s fiber service and lowest for Cablevision.

WASHINGTON, July 29 (Reuters) – Six telecom providers told U.S. regulators they could begin to fund in 2012 a revamped government subsidy program that would help deploy high-speed Internet service to 4 million Americans living in rural and costly-to-serve areas.

The commitment was part of a proposal sent to the Federal Communications Commission as it shifts the focus of its $8 billion universal service fund to broadband service from phone lines.

AT&T (T.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz), CenturyLink (CTL.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz), FairPoint (FRP.O: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz), Frontier Communications (FTR.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz), Verizon (VZ.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) and Windstream (WIN.O: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) said on Friday they backed the proposal that could help provide broadband to underserved areas.

The current patchwork of programs in the FCC’s fund — paid for by fees added to consumers’ telephone bills — would be fully replaced by two new universal service programs to support fixed and mobile broadband under the telecom companies’ plan. The transition would be complete in 2016.

The industry proposal would also gradually lower the charges phone companies pay to each other for handling voice traffic, reforming the complex system of payments between carriers called intercarrier compensation.

The plan follows the FCC’s request for industry input after it proposed new rules in February to modernize the universal service fund. More than 20 million Americans are without access to high-speed Internet.

“We’re pleased that many have taken up that challenge, and we will consider those proposals as we finalize reforms,” an FCC official said.

WASHINGTON, July 27 (Reuters) – AT&T Inc’s (T.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) $39 billion plan to acquire Deutsche Telekom AG’s (DTEGn.DE: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) T-Mobile unit got support from a Louisiana regulator and 11 state attorneys general on Wednesday.

The Louisiana Public Service Commission, which regulates public utilities and transportation in the state, said it voted 4-1 to approve the merger, after staff found nothing to suggest the wireless deal was contrary to the public interest.

Separately, 11 state attorneys general wrote to the U.S. Justice Department and the Federal Communications Commission in support of the transaction that would vault the combined companies ahead of current market leader Verizon Wireless.

Attorneys general from Arkansas, Utah, Alabama, Georgia, Kentucky, Michigan, Mississippi, North Dakota, South Dakota, West Virginia and Wyoming said they believed the merger would bring better service and faster data speeds.

They asked for merger-specific conditions to protect competition and the public interest without delaying the merger, according to a news release from the Arkansas AG’s office.

A statement by the Utah attorney general said the merger may raise competitive concerns in some discrete local markets and the AGs asked for targeted remedies in those cases.

The ultimate decision on the deal rests with the U.S. Justice Department, that is conducting an antitrust review, and the FCC, which is weighing whether the transaction is in the public interest.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Efforts to give U.S. regulators the authority to auction off some television airwaves for mobile broadband use are getting a boost in a debt ceiling plan proposed by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid.

The auctions have the potential to raise $15 billion in revenue, according to Reid’s plan, with some of the proceeds going to broadcasters as compensation.

The Federal Communications Commission has been pushing for the authority to hold such auctions as a part of its broader National Broadband Plan. The FCC wants to repurpose 120 megahertz of spectrum currently used by TV broadcasters to free up more airwaves for rapidly growing wireless services.

The final shape of a plan to cut government spending in an effort to gain Republican support for raising the nation’s $14.3 trillion borrowing limit is very uncertain.

Lawmakers are still far apart over competing plans in the U.S. House of Representatives and Senate to raise the debt ceiling before August 2, when the U.S. Treasury says the government will start to run out of money to pay its bills.

The debt package proposed by House Speaker John Boehner, a Republican, does not include spectrum auctions, multiple industry sources said.

But the inclusion by Reid, a Democrat, of the auction revenues could speed a spectrum reshuffle if it were to become part of the final plan.