No Change on Chevron, Suit Says Apple Rigged iOS 13, Will 6G End the Smart Phone?

Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai, when asked if he had changed his position on the issue of Chevron deference said he had never, to his knowledge, taken a position on the Supreme Court decision.

Pai was speaking at a Technology Policy Institute event on Thursday, the day after Thomas Johnson of the FCC general counsel claimed FCC authority to interpret Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act.

See “FCC Details Section 230 Authority Argument,” Broadband Breakfast, October 22, 2020

Johnson said that because of the “unique interest” generated by Pai’s decision to move forward with the rulemaking to interpret Section 230, “Chairman Pai has now asked me to make my analysis public, in furtherance of his longstanding commitment to transparency in the rulemaking process.”

Johnson responded to public commentators who claim through what is sometimes called “Chevron Step Zero” that “Congress did not intend for the Commission to administer Section 230, and therefore, the Commission has no authority to interpret it.”

Chevron deference comes from the landmark supreme court decision Chevron U.S.A., Inc. v. Natural Resources Defense Council, Inc., – the landmark 1984 decision governing administrative law.  Johnson said that “Congress is well aware that the ambiguities it chooses to produce in a statute will be resolved by the implementing agency.”

When Pai was asked if he believed that Twitter and other platforms are publishers under the law or how to save the internet without destroying it, Pai emphasized that the FCC was squarely concerned about the interpretation and scope of the liability provision and giving meaning to terms some find ambiguous. “We’ll leave the broader policy debate to others at this time,” he said.

Apple sued for rigging iOS 13 for ‘Massive Data Usage’

Apple embedded a “consuming code” for “its own undisclosed purposes and its own benefit” in last year’s iOS version 13, according to a lawsuit filed Saturday in federal district court in San Jose, seeking class-action status.

This code, according to the lawsuit, caused iPhone users to face “exorbitant” overage fees from their carriers as their monthly data allowances depleted without their knowledge.

“Apple has the ability to correctly identify and account for all mobile data usage by its numerous operating system features,” said the complaint. iPhone makers “tried to hide the massive data usage” by “miscategorizing it in a way that many users would not discern,” which violates California consumer protection and unfair competition laws.

“Apple knew what it was doing, and it tried to keep users from discovering the amount of money Apple was costing them. Apple also deliberately withheld from users the ability to control the costs.”

All who installed iOS 13 on their iPhones before Apple’s June release of version 13.6 which eliminated the consuming code are identified as the potential class for the suit.

6G to end smart phone era

6G could be the end of the smart phone era, projected Virginia Tech Professor Walid Saad at a symposium last week on so-called “6G” technology.

Enabled in part by greater spectrum, integrated satellite networks, energy transfer and harvesting, and edge artificial intelligence, 6G promises multisensory XR applications, connected robotics and autonomous systems, wireless brain computer interactions, and blockchain and distributed ledger technologies, explained Saad.

6G has the potential to integrate technology into people’s daily experience. In the morning during a workout, a person would have a virtual assistant helping with your workouts that would compile and sent data to a doctor warning about any potential health issues, explained Mazin Gilbert, electrical engineer for AT&T.

Synchronous multiparty gaming will be enabled through the mobile cloud and autonomous cars and navigation through XR devices will become the norm. When attending football games, people will be able to have the same experience from any seat in the stadium.

Through 6G people will be able to do more at home, from trying on clothes at a store to having medical procedures. The low latency that started in 5G will progress to enable more holographic communications.

Energy efficiency will be a big part of 6G, said Saad. He predicted that in the next 5-10 years more devices will be reliant on battery which will make energy efficiency a lot more important. Going forward he suggested lowering energy and increasing AI would be one of the biggest challenges.