The Electronic Frontier Foundation filed a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit against DOJ to get records about any FBI use of Best Buy employees and other U.S. computer repair facility informants to do warrantless searches of customers’ computers. The FBI denied EFF's FOIA request for such information, saying bureau policy is not to discuss existence or lack thereof of records about something of investigatory interest, the group said Wednesday in a complaint for injunctive relief to U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia (case 1:17-cv-01039). But the group said it didn't seek documents about Best Buy itself, as the FBI apparently believed. "The records request aims to shed light on how the FBI co-opts Best Buy repair technicians in criminal investigations, and whether the computer searches they conducted were in effect government searches," said an EFF news release. "Court records in a child pornography case against a California man who sent his computer to Best Buy for repair showed a long, close relationship between company technicians and the FBI, according to media reports." Best Buy, where Geek Squad staff apparently cooperated with the government, and DOJ didn't comment Thursday.

The typical house, with 10 or more connected devices, is stressing the home network, which needs to be “faster, smarter and flexible enough” to be upgraded without disrupting infrastructure, Dan Artusi, general manager of Intel’s Connected Home division, blogged. The challenge is that using a singular connectivity hub doesn’t always provide consistent, reliable connectivity to every corner of a home because Wi-Fi degrades the farther a connected device is from the gateway, Artusi wrote. The company's Home Wi-Fi Development Kit can be used by ISPs to meet some challenges, he said Tuesday.

The U.S. had an average internet connection speed in Q1 of 18.7 Mbps, among the top 10 countries, Akamai reported Wednesday. The U.S. average connection speed increased year-over-year and was up 8.8 percent over Q4, when it was 14th-highest at 17.2 Mbps. South Korea had the highest average speed in Q1 at 28.6 Mbps, Norway No. 2 at 23.5 Mbps, Sweden No. 3 at 22.5 Mbps and Hong Kong No. 4 at 21.9 Mbps. The global average peak speeds in Q1 stood at 44.6 Mbps, with Singapore registering the highest at 184.5 Mbps. The U.S. ranked No. 16 for average peak speed for the quarter at 86.5 Mbps. Global adoption of connection speeds of at least 25 Mbps rose to 12 percent for Q1, with the U.S. having 38 percent adoption of that minimum speed, Akamai said.

A recent court ruling supports the FCC rationale for proposing to return broadband internet access service to a Title I regulatory classification, said Seth Cooper, Free State Foundation senior fellow, in a Monday blog post. He said the FCC 2015 broadband reclassification as a Title II telecom service reached its "strained result" by excluding "Internet access service" from the 1996 Telecom Act's definition of a Title I "information service." A May 8 ruling by Judge Susan Richard Nelson of the U.S. District Court for Minnesota "recognized that an offering’s performance of one function listed under Title I -- transforming -- sufficed to render it an 'information service,'" Cooper wrote, referring to Charter Advanced Services v. Lange, (Case No. 15-cv-3935). The ruling also "emphasized that the information service definition is keyed to the provision of the 'capability' of performing certain functions -- regardless of whether those functions are actually performed in every instance," Cooper wrote. "In Charter Advanced Services v. Lange, it was 'the capability to convert calls' between Internet Protocol (IP) and Time Division Mutiplexing (TDM) that brought Charter Advanced within the meaning of Title I."

FCC staff certified the Perkins School for the Blind as administrator of its $10 million annual National Deaf-Blind Equipment Distribution Program ("iCanConnect") in Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Nevada, New Mexico, Rhode Island, Virginia, Washington and West Virginia. A Consumer and Governmental Affairs Bureau public notice Monday in docket 10-210 also said the Colorado Commission for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing was certified for Colorado and the Connecticut Tech Act Project for Connecticut. The certifications take effect July 1, said the PN, which noted the bureau would continue to make certification announcements on a rolling basis after reviewing applications and supplemental materials. The Perkins school applied for certification for 22 states and territories, the most of any applicant (see 1704260029).

That FCC Chairman Ajit Pai and Commissioner Mike O'Rielly are backing an appellate court panel decision declaring the junk fax rule unlawful (see 1703310018) means intervenors seeking an en banc rehearing can't show extraordinary circumstances that would warrant granting their request (see 1705010061), said the class-action defendant petitioners. In a response (in Pacer) Friday in U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, the defendant petitioners said the panel decision was "a routine application" of the Chevron standard and in line with prior Supreme Court and D.C. Circuit Court decisions. Counsel for intervenors didn't comment Monday.

Comments are due July 3 on the FCC illegal robocalls NPRM and notice of inquiry, the Consumer and Governmental Affairs Bureau said Thursday after the item appeared in Wednesday’s Federal Register. Replies are due July 31, said a public notice. The FCC released the robocall items in March (see 1703240046).

Telcordia/iconectiv asked the FCC to approve changes to its code of conduct and voting trust, and if necessary, transfer of control, without waiting for replies due Tuesday. Telcordia/iconectiv, the incoming local number portability administrator (LNPA), said it didn't plan to reply. "Prompt approval would allow the parties to move forward to diversify Telcordia’s ownership and to bring about the other public interest benefits of the transaction," said a Telcordia/iconectiv counsel filing Wednesday in docket 09-109 on a conversation with Wireline Bureau officials. The trust holds the voting stock in iconectiv owned by its only current shareholder, Ericsson Holdings II. The trust and the code are intended to ensure Ericsson won't exert undue influence on iconectiv -- which is taking over LNPA duties from Neustar -- in favor of any telecom service provider, said the approval request of Telcordia/iconectiv and FP Investors, which plans to acquire a minority stake in iconectiv (see 1704030034). They said the transaction will bolster "iconectiv's neutrality" and eliminate a possible legal dispute under Delaware corporate law.

In response to a 2015 petition by various groups asking for a repeal of the FCC rule requiring telcos to retain toll-call data for 18 months, the agency is taking comments, said a public notice Wednesday. Comments in docket 17-130 are due June 16, replies July 3. The petition was brought by the Electronic Privacy Information Center's advisory board and 26 consumer rights, human rights and civil liberties organizations (see 1508040027).

Two hundred more "startups" endorsed a call for the FCC to keep net neutrality rules, adding to the 800 signers of an April 26 open letter, a policy group said. "The success of America’s startup ecosystem depends on an open internet with enforceable net neutrality rules, ensuring that small companies can compete on a level playing field without the threat that their services will be discriminated against by big cable and wireless companies," an Engine post said.