Ericsson confirmed it received a voluntary request from U.S. authorities to answer questions about its operations. "While we strive to at all times conduct our business in compliance with applicable laws, matters do arise from time to time as a result of the global nature of our business," said a company statement Friday. "We will not provide any detailed comments on the request as such, but can say that it relates to Ericsson's anti-corruption program and questions related to the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. Ericsson cooperates with US Authorities and works diligently to answer the questions."
Mistaken IT changes to about 200 codes led to import transactions involving FCC data to be incorrectly rejected Tuesday, said Customs and Border Protection in an alert. CBP said Wednesday it corrected the problem and such filings should now be accepted upon submission.
Google thinks the Trans-Pacific Partnership promotes the free flow of information in “unprecedented” ways for a binding international trade agreement, balances the interests of copyright holders and public’s interest of creative works, and bans discrimination against foreign internet services, General Counsel Kent Walker wrote in a blog post. Small businesses will especially benefit from these elements of the agreement, but future agreements should include “more balancing provisions,” and “all stakeholders” should be allowed to provide input in future trade negotiations, Walker said Friday. U.S. Congress members and some transparency and other advocates have said TPP wasn't transparently negotiated, and Wikileaks had a campaign to release the text before governments did. "The TPP is not perfect, and the trade negotiation process could certainly benefit from greater transparency," Walker wrote. "We will continue to advocate for process reforms, including the opportunity for all stakeholders to have a meaningful opportunity for input into trade negotiations."
The International Trade Commission is investigating Apple and AT&T alleged patent infringements by importing smartphones and laptops that include haptics technologies, as requested by Immersion, the ITC said in a news release last week. Immersion's complaint earlier this year alleged Apple and AT&T are importing and selling iPhone 6s, MacBook and MacBook Pro devices that include infringing technology, which allows users to feel a vibrating force or resistance based on different user interactions with the device. The ITC will consider whether to issue a limited exclusion order and cease and desist orders against Apple and AT&T Mobility. Those companies had no comment Friday.
The FCC rechartered its World Radiocommunication Conference Committee and is soliciting applications for members, the International Bureau said in a public notice Thursday. The agency said the committee would focus in particular on international frequency spectrum issue advice and recommendations for the agenda of WRC 2019. The committee will meet two to three times a year in the District of Columbia, and members also would be expected to take part in working groups, IB said. The initial deadline for nominations is June 27, though the IB said it will accept committee membership applications on a rolling basis afterward, and nominations -- including qualifications -- can be submitted to WRC-19@fcc.gov.
The EU-U.S. "umbrella agreement" will set a high bar for protecting trans-Atlantic personal data transferred by law enforcement agencies, will strengthen legal certainty and will boost the rights of people, DOJ said in a news release. The new agreement (see 1606020018), which awaits approval by the European Parliament, is aimed at improving EU-U.S. cooperation to fight crime, including terrorism. DOJ called it a "major step forward" in relations. Thursday's signing was in Amsterdam during a EU-U.S. Ministerial Meeting on Justice and Home Affairs and was attended by Attorney General Loretta Lynch, Homeland Security Deputy Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas and European Justice Commissioner Věra Jourová, DOJ said.
By December, the European Commission will have laid out all the legislative and nonlegislative proposals -- including a second copyright package, a public-private cybersecurity partnership, a telecom review, and free flow of nonpersonal data within the European Union, among other issues -- that it committed to when the digital single market (DSM) strategy was released a year ago, said Andrea Glorioso, counselor for the digital economy with the EU delegation to the U.S. He gave a public overview about the progress in developing the DSM, including what has been proposed over the past six months (see 1605240018, 1602020036 and 1509240053). On the free flow of nonpersonal data, he said EU officials are assessing how they should deal with the huge amount of data generated by the IoT and sensors that aren't personal in nature and should be able to flow freely within the internal market. He said there's "anecdotal and more than anecdotal evidence" regarding national obstacles to that free data flow. For example, he said weather data is a potential source of innovation but some member states are applying a "bizarre interpretation" that makes it more difficult to facilitate such data flows. Glorioso reviewed a host of proposals that have been laid out already, including allocating the 700 MHz band for mobile internet use, providing more trust and security for personal data, creating research hubs similar to Silicon Valley and boosting e-commerce. All the proposals, he said, will be negotiated between the European Parliament and the Council of the EU. The DSM strategy seeks to establish one set of rules for the online world across its 28 member countries. European officials have said that, as a result, consumers and businesses would have better access to digital goods and services across the continent and a larger economy with strong data protection standards.
The ULE Alliance, which promotes ULE technology as a standard for home wireless networks, said Wednesday that a Huawei-built ULE gateway, branded as Qivicon powered by Deutsche Telekom, received ULE certification. The tests were done at AT4 wireless, the official ULE testing and certification partner. Alliance members are eligible to certify ULE devices, and the application for certification is at www.ulealliance.org, it said.
Myanmar's Ministry of Transport and Communications signed a multiyear deal with Intelsat giving it multi-transponder capacity on two Intelsat satellites for deployment of the nation's wireless communications infrastructure and expansion of enterprise broadband access, Intelsat said in a news release Friday. It said the ministry will use C-band on Intelsat 902 and Ku-band on Intelsat 906 for a very small aperture terminal network and cellular backhaul services, and move by 2018 to high-power services on Intelsat 39.
The European Parliament voted 542-51 Thursday to recommend the European Commission establish a task force to monitor bitcoin and other virtual currencies in a bid to prevent their use for money laundering and financial terrorism. The proposal, drafted by EP Member Jakob von Weizsäcker, would allow the task force to make legislative recommendations for virtual currency. The task force should focus on “precautionary monitoring rather than pre-emptive regulation,” von Weizsäcker said in an EP news release. “But IT innovations can spread very rapidly and become systemic. That's why we call on the Commission to establish a taskforce to actively monitor how the technology evolves and to make timely proposals for specific regulation if, and when, the need arises.” In the U.S., a move is afoot to harmonize across states and federal agencies rules for virtual currencies (see 1602230071).