House Pulls Transport Appropriations Measure that would have removed Truckers Hours of Service Requirement

As Reported  by Trucking Info: Just as the House was set to consider an amendment that would reverse the recent changes in truck driver hours-of-service rules, leaders pulled the Transportation, Housing and Urban Development appropriations bill from the floor.

It was evident that the bill, which would have implemented the $44 billion budget the House adopted three months ago, did not have enough support, said Appropriations Committee Chairman Hal Rogers, R-Ky.

A close follower of the issue said that all of the Democrats in the House opposed the bill because it cut too much, while some Republicans opposed it for the same reason and others because it cut too little.

In theory the House could take up the bill again after its August recess, but Rogers does not think it likely.

“I am extremely disappointed with the decision to pull the bill from the House calendar today,” he said in a statement.

“The prospects for passing this bill in September are bleak at best, given the vote count on passage that was apparent this afternoon.”

Rogers said the bill was the “best possible effort” to fund transportation and housing programs while making budget cuts. The bill would cut $4.4 billion from current spending, to a level below what the programs had in 2006, he said.

“I believe that the House has made its choice: sequestration – and its unrealistic and ill-conceived discretionary cuts – must be brought to an end,” Rogers said.

He also said that the higher funding levels in the Senate’s $55 billion appropriations bill are not achievable. The Senate is considering its bill Wednesday and Thursday.

The House’s move could lead to use of a Continuing Resolution to keep these programs funded while until both chambers can pass and reconcile an appropriations bill.

Hours of Service
Before the bill was pulled the House was going to consider a proposal by Rep. Richard Hanna, R-N.Y., and several others to cut off funding for implementation or enforcement of the hours-of-service rule that went into effect on July 1. It would leave the prior rule in place.

The amendment is supported by 16 trucking and shipping interests, including American Trucking Associations, the Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association and UPS, as well as the Transportation Intermediaries Association, the National Retail Federation and the National Grocers Association.

Hanna, joined by Reps. Tom Rice, R-S.C., Trey Radel, R-Fla., and Todd Rokita, R-Ind., said in a Dear Colleague letter that the new rule decreases driver flexibility and raises costs – complaints that have been aired by all of the industry interests.

His letter also notes that the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration is working on a field study of the 34-hour restart provision of the revised rule.

“Common sense dictates that the field study should be completed before the issuance of the final rule,” Hanna and his colleagues wrote. “Nonetheless, the study is still ongoing and the final rule has been put into effect.”

Earlier this month a FMCSA spokesperson said that data collection for the study was on track to be done by the end of July.

Congress ordered the study in last year’s highway bill, at the insistence of ATA.

The association’s view was that the agency should confirm in the field a finding from a laboratory study that daytime sleep is not as restorative as nighttime sleep.

That finding is the scientific basis for the new requirement that a driver take two periods off between 1 a.m. and 5 a.m. during his 34-hour restart.

It remains to be seen if the data from the field study will be persuasive enough for the agency to reconsider its approach to the restart.

UK Drivers to be banned from wearing Google Glass

As reported by The Telegraph: The UK Department for Transport has acted before the invention goes on general sale amid fears that users could be distracted.

Google is expected to put the device, which is worn like a pair of glasses, on the market next year.
Although smaller than normal spectacles, Google glass – essentially a wearable computer – places a small screen just above the right eye.

Users can tell the glass to take a picture, record a video and read messages. According to Google it will have the benefit of interacting with the web, but be less intrusive than a mobile phone.

However the DfT stressed it would not be acceptable for motorists to wear Google Glass.

A spokesman said: “It is important that drivers give their full attention to the road when they are behind the wheel and do not behave in a way that stops them from observing what is happening on the road.

“A range of offences and penalties already exist to tackle those drivers who do not pay proper attention to the road including careless driving which will become a fixed penalty offence later this year.

“We are aware of the impending rollout of Google Glass and are in discussion with the Police to ensure that individuals do not use this technology while driving.”

Warrantless Cellphone Tracking Is Upheld

As reported by the New York Times: In a significant victory for law enforcement, a federal appeals court on Tuesday said that government authorities could extract historical location data directly from telecommunications carriers without a search warrant.

The closely watched case, in the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, is the first ruling that squarely addresses the constitutionality of warrantless searches of historical location data stored by cellphone service providers. Ruling 2 to 1, the court said a warrantless search was “not per se unconstitutional” because location data was “clearly a business record” and therefore not protected by the Fourth Amendment.

The ruling is likely to intensify legislative efforts, already bubbling in Congress and in the states, to consider measures to require warrants based on probable cause to obtain cellphone location data.

The appeals court ruling sharply contrasts with a New Jersey State Supreme Court opinion in mid-July that said the police required a warrant to track a suspect’s whereabouts in real time. That decision relied on the New Jersey Constitution, whereas the ruling Tuesday in the Fifth Circuit was made on the basis of the Federal Constitution.

The Supreme Court has yet to weigh in on whether cellphone location data is protected by the Constitution. The case, which was initially brought in Texas, is not expected to go to the Supreme Court because it is “ex parte,” or filed by only one party — in this case, the government.

But the case could renew calls for the highest court to look at the issue, if another federal court rules differently on the same question. And two other federal cases involving this issue are pending.

“The opinion is clear that the government can access cell site records without Fourth Amendment oversight,” said Orin Kerr, a constitutional law scholar at George Washington University Law School who filed an amicus brief in the case.

For now, the ruling sets an important precedent: It allows law enforcement officials in the Fifth Circuit to chronicle the whereabouts of an American with a court order that falls short of a search warrant based on probable cause.

“This decision is a big deal,” said Catherine Crump, a lawyer with the American Civil Liberties Union. “It’s a big deal and a big blow to Americans’ privacy rights.”

The group reviewed records from more than 200 local police departments last year, concluding that the demand for cellphone location data had led some cellphone companies to develop “surveillance fees” to enable police to track suspects.

In reaching its decision on Tuesday, the federal appeals court went on to agree with the government’s contention that consumers knowingly give up their location information to the telecommunications carrier every time they make a call or send a text message on their cellphones.

“That means it is not protected by Fourth Amendment when the government goes to a third-party service provider and issues something that is not a warrant to demand production of those records,” said Mark Eckenwiler, a former Justice Department lawyer who worked on the case and is now with the Washington law firm Perkins Coie. “On this kind of historical cell site information, this is the first one to address the core constitutional question.”

Historical location data is crucial to law enforcement officials. Mr. Eckenwiler offered the example of drug investigations: A cellphone carrier can establish where a suspect met his supplier and how often he returned to a particular location. Likewise, location data can be vital in establishing people’s habits and preferences, including whether they worship at a church or mosque or whether they are present at a political protest, which is why, civil liberties advocates say, it should be accorded the highest privileges of privacy protection.

The decision could also bear implications for other government efforts to collect vast amounts of so-called metadata, under the argument that it constitutes “business records,” as in the National Security Agency’s collection of Verizon phone records for millions of Americans.

“It provides support for the government’s view that that procedure is constitutional, obtaining Verizon call records, because it holds that records are business records,” said Mr. Kerr, of George Washington University. “It doesn’t make it a slam dunk but it makes a good case for the government to argue that position.”

An important element in Tuesday’s ruling is the court’s presumption of what consumers should know about the way cellphone technology works. “A cell service subscriber, like a telephone user, understands that his cellphone must send a signal to a nearby cell tower in order to wirelessly connect his call,” the court ruled, going on to note that “contractual terms of service and providers’ privacy policies expressly state that a provider uses a subscriber’s location information to route his cellphone calls.”

In any event, the court added, the use of cellphones “is entirely voluntary.”

The ruling also gave a nod to the way in which fast-moving technological advances have challenged age-old laws on privacy. Consumers today may want privacy over location records, the court acknowledged: “But the recourse for these desires is in the market or the political process: in demanding that service providers do away with such records (or anonymize them) or in lobbying elected representatives to enact statutory protections.”

Cellphone privacy measures have been proposed in the Senate and House that would require law enforcement agents to obtain search warrants before prying open location records. Montana recently became the first state to require a warrant for location data. Maine soon followed. California passed a similar measure last year but Gov. Jerry Brown, a Democrat, vetoed it, saying it did not strike what he called the right balance between the demands of civil libertarians and the police.

Vodafone Egypt assures security of its “tracking” technology

As reported by the Daily News Egypt: Vodafone announced it is capable of providing users Automatic Vehicle Location (AVL) tracking services with the highest available level of security to protect both their data and privacy.

A representative for the project Zakaria Nabil said Vodafone engages in “periodic searches” of its system every three months as a special security measure to protect users and their data, and users of the company’s tracking services will not have to worry about acts of piracy or hacking.

Through the service, users would be able to follow and track their vehicles, know the exact routes taken, the amount of fuel consumed, the locations in which they stop and begin moving, as well as the speed of the vehicle, Nabil said.

He said such services have long-existed in other countries, but was not made available in Egypt until recently, largely for security reasons, adding that the “service will only be permitted if it complies with specific security standards imposed by Egypt’s government.” The device itself comes with a wireless modem integrated with a GPS receiver.

He said the service can also be used to help combat acts of theft. After an act of theft has been detected, the service would work to identify and pinpoint the vehicle’s position, then inform the user via SMS of its exact location.

He added that Vodafone had first begun cooperating with the Egyptian Tracking Services for Information Technology, which is considered a partner in the project, to develop the service during Ramadan 2012.

Nabil emphasised the service’s security dimension, noting that the Egyptian Tracking Services for Information Technology Company had assisted Vodafone in tackling security for the service.

He said when users seek to log on to acquire information regarding their vehicles, they do so through a Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure system, a security and telecommunications system which prevents users or individuals from being able to read its contents. All of the above stated security measures he said, would conform to the country’s Telecommunications Regulatory Act.

Nabil said the country’s security services stipulated that all data and special systems used must be located and operated within Egypt so as not to be monitored and reviewed by foreign elements, adding that all service data would be located in a special central database belonging to the company located in 6th of October city.

He said the service also allows drivers to determine the best possible route, in order to consume the least amount of gasoline.

Nabil said the price of the service had not yet been determined, estimating, however, that it could be between EGP 1,300 and EGP 1,500 for individuals and EGP 1,900 for companies.

Hybrid location technologies: GPS, RFID and other technologies

A typical RFID tag with an active antenna

Continued from our previous report: There are other potential technologies for finding a mobile user’s location such as Bluetooth beacons, indoor messaging systems (IMES), machine-to-machine (M2M) communications, near-field communications (NFC), radio-frequency identification (RFID), and ultrasonic beacons. Many of these techniques aren't yet widely used; except for RFID, but that may change in the near future.

RFID tags can be installed in certain pre-determined locations and then serve as reference position generators for other positioning technologies such as sensors.  More commonly, they can be used with GPS/GNSS stations to geotag the RFID tag at a particular location - something that is now fairly popular for group sports, such as triathlons, marathons, and skiing.

Many lift tickets at major ski resorts now include RFID
Not only do they indicate the status of the lift ticket,
but when combined with geotagged readers at the lift
the skiers can be provided information about lifts they
visited at the resort.

Logistics and transportation are major areas of implementation for RFID technology. Yard management, shipping and freight and distribution centers use RFID tracking technology. In the railroad industry, RFID tags mounted on locomotives and rolling stock identify the owner, identification number and type of equipment and its characteristics. This can be used with a database to identify the lading, origin, destination, etc. of the commodities being carried.

When combined with the GPS/GNSS location of the locomotive, or trucking transportation system (using vehicle tracking systems)- specific orders and equipment can be located in near-real-time (if they are in a wireless coverage area).  For instance - in produce transportation (which is usually RFID tagged), additional information from the vehicle tracking system can also indicate the temperature of the produce during the transportation process.

RFID tagged packages can be geotagged using vehicle or
fleet tracking systems that utilize GPS/GNSS for location
tracking.

In commercial aviation, RFID technology is being incorporated to support maintenance on commercial aircraft. RFID tags are used to identify baggage and cargo at several airports and airlines.

Many hospitals also utilize RFID tags for patient tracking, as well as to keep track of critical and potentially dangerous drugs.

Some countries are using RFID technology for vehicle registration and enforcement. RFID can help detect and retrieve stolen cars.  RFID cards are used for access control to public transport.
In London travelers use Oyster Cards on the tube, buses and ferries. It identifies the traveler at each turnstile and so the system can calculate the fare.  It's possible in the future that vehicles may include RFID tags for licensing, and VIN identification.

A runners RFID gate.  It is geotagged
when it is setup using GPS/GNSS and
as the runners pass through the gate
or over the pad, their identifying RFID
is geotagged and time-stamped, and
Wi-Fi is used to transfer the information
to a central database - and then
forwarded for near-real-time updates on
the runners progress - or for later
analysis with additional data.

Due to some poor marketing information, there has been some confusion regarding the functionality of RFID and GPS/GNSS; some have thought that the RFID tags can be used for location tracking on their own.  That is not the case.  RFID tags must be used with an RFID 'reader' that is in the proximity of the RFID tag.  The reader itself may be geotagged, so that the general location of the RFID tag can be registered for that time and date - but without the RFID reader and an additional geotagging location system, the devices cannot provide their current position.

One of the key enablers of hybrid positioning is an entity that can intelligently determine which positioning technique to use depending on reported readings from the mobile device. This entity may reside on the mobile device, on the network, or on some combination thereof. For example, the central database server for Wi-Fi positioning may be on the network, but a client on the device could get “snippets” of the database relevant to the current location. Termed the positioning engine, it can implement a position calculation function (PCF) using Kalman filters to process input data from a variety of sources, for example.

Hybrid location technologies simultaneously carry out all of these positioning techniques. Depending on the reported readings, the positioning server prioritizes certain methods over others. In addition, methods that provide a fast, low-accuracy fix may be prioritized over those that are slow but provide high-accuracy fixes.

RFID tags for runners can be included on
the shoe, or the wrist.  The shoe is usually
preferred since it is closer to the RFID reader.

Positioning may occur in MS-assisted (mobile station) or MS-based mode. In the MS-assisted mode, the positioning server calculates the final position based on measurements provided by the mobile device. In MS-based mode, the mobile device (smartphone, vehicle tracking device, etc) calculates the position based on its own measurements and optionally reports the final position to the server - either in near-real-time, or as a passive store and forward function.

RFID tracking for marathons would be considered an MS-assisted mode, since the geotagged and time-stamped information regarding the runner is done at the RFID gate.

Smartphone tracking using GPS/GNSS would be MS-based mode.

One of several fitness bands currently
available on the market.

A combined or hybrid system could use both technologies - the RFID tracking system to provide near-real-time runner location. Using a local smartphone system, combined with a Bluetooth biometric system such as a fitnessband or activity tracker.  The fitness band sending information to the connected smartphone system which then combines location, altitude, instantaneous speed, a highly accurate time-stamp, and the biometric data collected such as heart rate, oxygenation levels, calories burned, etc.

This data can be forwarded from the smartphone (as a wireless network is available during the activity) to the central server that is also collecting RFID location data for the runner.  The server can then post-process any critical biometric data to provide additional alerts or updates (via email or SMS) to either the runner, family, or coaching staff as needed.

Hybrid tracking systems are likely to be used more in the future as technology progresses in order to provide multiple redundant methods of location tracking under changing environmental conditions, as well as to provide geotagged data for more sophisticated analysis and functionality.

Sprint lost 2M subscribers after Nextel network went dark

Sprint pulled the plug on its old Nextel iDEN
network in Q2 triggering a huge exodus of customers.
With new spectrum from Clearwire and new capital
from SoftBank, though, the rest of the year looks brighter.

As reported by Gigaom: Sprint Corporation's first earnings report as a SoftBank-owned company wasn't exactly a positive one. Sprint shed 2 million customers in the second quarter, nearly 4 percent of its subscriber base. The big reason was Nextel, which Sprint shut down completely at the end of June.

The network shutdown resulted in 1.3 million iDEN subscriber losses, but that wasn't Sprint’s only pain point. Its retail prepaid and its wholesale connection businesses also took big hits. The only area where Sprint saw growth was in postpaid contract customers, which increased by 194,000.

That customer exodus contributed to the widening of its quarterly net loss to $1.6 billion from $1.4 billion a year ago. Sprint’s revenues, however, remained steady at $8.9 billion both quarter over quarter and year over year.

Sprint CEO Dan Hesse

Sprint executives at Tuesday’s earnings call, however, said the worst was behind them. With the iDEN network fully decommissioned, the steady stream of fleeing Nextel customers will now cease. Sprint’s acquisition of Clearwire and SoftBank’s majority investment in Sprint officially closed in the third quarter, giving Sprint a huge infusion of both capital and spectrum. Sprint CEO Dan Hesse said that cash and those airwaves will allow Sprint to become a much stronger competitor and build one of the most powerful networks in the country.

Sprint’s immediate priority is its LTE rollout. Sprint is one of the few carriers still offering unlimited plans. Once those plans are combined with LTE’s superfast speeds across its footprint, Sprint will have a key way to differentiate itself from Verizon Wireless and AT&T.

To that end, Sprint announced Tuesday it has extended LTE coverage to 40 new markets, most of them small cities with Philadelphia; Portland, Ore.; Oakland, Calif.; and Jacksonville, Fla., being the exceptions. Sprint has been bringing LTE to the big cities gradually since it began its roll-out last year. Last week, it turned on its new 4G service across the Bronx and Brooklyn, but not New York’s other three boroughs. Now it’s starting its Bay Area LTE expansion in Oakland before making its way to San Francisco.

Sprint now has LTE in 151 markets, though it hasn't yet revealed how much of the population is now covered by its LTE umbrella.

Hybrid location technologies: GPS, cellular ID, and triangulation - trilateration

The handset and the base-stations interact to implement
observed TDOA positioning.  The RTT measurement
is used for eCID mobile location.

As continued from our previous report: Cell ID referencing is a network-based positioning method where the user's equipment (UE) or mobile device position is estimated depending on the cell it is connected with. In the enhanced cell ID (eCID) method, the handset sends cell measurements to the network, which can be used to better estimate the position. Measurements can include (depending on the radio access technology or RAT) round-trip time (RTT) and timing advance. These methods can be used in any cellular network, but the specific eCID position estimation techniques may be proprietary. They are accurate from 250 to 1000 m.

Location measurements involving distances is referred to as 'trilateration' and measurements involving angles is called 'triangulation'.  A third method is called multilateration which uses difference in distances or absolute measurements of time-of-flight from three or more sites at known locations.  GPS position location uses a type of trilateration.  eCID can use one or more of these techniques as a hybrid mobile tracking solution.

For some eCID location techniques, fingerprinting methods are similar to the approach used for Wi-Fi positioning. A central database is created with geotagged cell information, such as received signal strength indication (RSSI), cell ID, real-time difference (RTD), and network measurement record (NMR) in GSM. The mobile tracking device reports currently observed network information from the serving cell and all other nearby cells. This information is used as an input to a fingerprinting algorithm that estimates the mobile device position. Accuracy is 100 to 300 meters.

In time difference of arrival (TDOA) methods (downlink only), the mobile device detects the TDOA of signals between the serving base-station and one or more neighbors. The time differences can be used to estimate the mobile tracking device position. Typically, TDOA methods are more effective in synchronized networks. Accuracy ranges from 25 to 300 m. Common applications include:

• CDMA/advanced forward link trilateration (AFLT): Time differences in pilot signals from the serving cell and the reference cell are detected and used for positioning.
• LTE/observed TDOA (OTDOA): Special cell-specific reference signals, called positioning reference signals (PRS), are used for the time difference measurements.

The key handset factors that enable good performance vary depending on the technology. They all require the mobile device to be able to continuously measure the signals necessary for enabling the technology, while at the same time handling all the other call and data functionality required.

Positioning must be conducted in connected mode at the same time as various network procedures such as handovers, circuit-switched fall back (CSFB), and cell reselections. Cellular positioning typically does not provide as high-grade accuracy as A-GNSS, but it can assist in deriving a quick, coarse location, as well as provide an alternative for GPS or GNSS when indoors.