Adam Bender

The ACLU plans this fall to help rally opposition to the Protect America Act, which updated FISA just before Congress went on recess, said Caroline Frederickson, ACLU Washington legislative office director. The ACLU will meet with Congress members and community leaders across the country, run ads, work with bloggers, launch petitions and make phone calls, she said.

Two Motorola subsidiaries are seeking damages and an injunction against Aruba Networks, alleging infringement of four wireless local area network (WLAN) patents. Symbol Technologies and Wireless Valley Communications filed a complaint Monday in the U.S. District Court in Wilmington, Del. An Aruba spokesman said he couldn’t comment since the company hadn’t been served.

Opening FCC designated entity rules to wholesalers will be Frontline’s “No. 1 priority” on a petition for reconsideration filing due Sept. 24, Frontline attorney Jonathan Blake said in an interview. The filing follows an Aug. 22 meeting between Blake and FCC General Counsel Sam Feder on an FCC rule restricting wholesale businesses from designated entity status. Unless dropped, that rule would “handicap” Frontline and other wholesalers’ ability to take part in the 700 MHz auction, Blake said, suggesting that harm would come to open access if that is the case.

Jeff Pulver is shooting at telecom industry rumors that he’s distancing himself from VON and Pulver.com and looking to sell. “This ‘rumor’ is news to me,” he said Friday. Pulver still is owner of Pulver.com and chairman of PulverMedia, which produces the VON events, he said. “I sent out an e-mail a week or so ago announcing my Strategic Consulting Group,” he said. “Maybe some people misread the e-mail.” Blogger and Livingston Communications CEO Geoff Livingston said he heard the talk, calling it false. “I understand these rumors are making the rounds, but they are not true.”

Nokia added Windows Live services to its European handset line, under an arrangement with Microsoft, it said Thursday. Nokia customers in eleven countries with compatible S60 devices can now download the Microsoft suite. Next year, Nokia plans to give Windows Live access to Series 40 phones, it said. The suite includes Windows Live Hotmail, Messenger Contacts and Spaces, it said. Nokia customers with the Nokia N73, N76, N80 Internet Edition, N93i and N95 devices can get Windows Live in Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Netherlands, Norway, Spain, the United Kingdom, Sweden, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, Nokia said. Nokia hasn’t made a similar announcement in the United States, perhaps because U.S. carriers have more say about device partnerships than do their European counterparts, said Current Analysis’ Avi Greengart. Nokia probably teamed up with Microsoft because it noticed increasing popularity for devices “tightly tied to services” like Windows Live, Greengart said.

Xfone said Thursday it will buy competitive carrier NTS Communications of Lubbock, Tex., for $42 million. Xfone operates in Israel, the U.S. and the United Kingdom. NTS expects the deal to close in December or January, said Brad Worthington, NTS executive vice president. The companies filed SEC papers on the deal Wednesday, Xfone said. The deal also requires approval by the FCC and the public service commissions in Texas, Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado, Oklahoma and Kansas, Worthington said. NTS has secured 85 percent shareholder approval and will hold a Sept. 5 meeting to take questions and seek more support, he said. Xfone is in talks with lenders to finance the transaction, the company said. Xfone expects the merger to “significantly expand” its service area and “dramatically enhance” its revenue, cash flow and profitability, it said. NTS senior management, including Worthington, Barbara Baldwin and Jerry Hoover, will join Xfone in “key management positions,” Xfone said. Also joining Xfone is NTS’s sales and operations team, Xfone said.

SunRocket wants damages and an injunction against Vonage for misuse of SunRocket’s customer list, it said in a Delaware Chancery Court lawsuit. Vonage got and used fallen VoIP company SunRocket’s 220,000-name customer list without permission, SunRocket said. Vonage denied the claim, saying it obtained legitimately from an established New York broker the only VoIP subscriber list it has been using. Vonage said it will fight the lawsuit, filed Wednesday. The complaint creates more work for Vonage lawyers, who are representing the company in patent infringement disputes with Verizon, Sprint Nextel and Nortel.

Calls for wireless market regulation that would make the U.S. more like Europe “are not based on sound empirical evidence,” according to an American Consumer Institute study published Wednesday. The U.S. leads Europe in wireless, contrary to popular belief, the free market nonprofit said: “The contention that concentration leads to higher prices, lower usage and decreasing consumer welfare does not appear to be a U.S. problem.” The noncommissioned report based its findings on “widely available” data from the FCC, CTIA and the Organisation for Economic Co-Operation and Development, it said.

Vonage wants a federal judge to stop Nortel from making infringement claims against Vonage concerning three patents. In a complaint filed Friday, Vonage asked the U.S. District Court, Delaware, for a declaratory judgment that Vonage hasn’t violated any of Nortel’s rights. Vonage also seeks an injunction to block further Nortel litigation against Vonage concerning the patents, and an award of attorney’s fees and court costs in this latest case, it said. The complaint is the latest in a skein of Vonage-Nortel litigation dating to 2004. That year, Digital Packet Licensing filed a federal trial-court suit against Nortel in the Northern District of Texas alleging infringement of three patents. In June 2006, Vonage acquired the Digital Packet patents and with them the lawsuit against Nortel. Last month, Nortel filed with the Texas court to add counterclaims to its response. They allege that Vonage infringed three Nortel patents, not the other way around. Vonage acted Friday in response to that “defensive move,” said a spokesman for the company. “Vonage opposes any attempt by Nortel to amend its response in the Texas case.” Vonage took action in Delaware because “it is unclear if the District Court in Texas will allow Nortel to amend their original response,” he said. If the Texas court denies Nortel’s motion to amend, “Vonage desires for the court in Delaware to preside over the action on the three Nortel patents,” he said. A Nortel spokesman said the company doesn’t comment on ongoing litigation, but will “vigorously defend” its intellectual property rights.

Sprint Nextel will increase its casual text-message rate Oct. 1 to 20 cents a message from 15 cents, a company spokeswoman confirmed Tuesday. The wireless company will also increase the SMS overage rate for customers with text message plans to 20 cents from 10 cents a message, she said. Sprint is alerting customers of the change in their August and September bills, the spokeswoman said. Customers can’t use the increase to get out of their contracts without termination fees, the spokeswoman said. Sprint’s terms of service allow customers to terminate without fee “in response to a materially adverse change.” But the SMS rate change affects a “casual use charge” that Sprint’s terms of service say is “not a core part of the rate plan package.” The termination fee waiver “only applies to fee changes to plans with a term commitment, such as voice plans,” the spokeswoman said. “Attachables and additional services such as text messaging do not require a term commitment and can be canceled at any time without penalty or affecting the customers’ contract… Casual usage is not covered by the terms and conditions since it is not subscription-based.” Sprint did allow customers to leave without termination fee when it raised the charge to 15 cents from 10 cents in October 2006.