The FCC proposed an action to remove its nondiscrimination rules on the U.S.-Cuba route, which currently require all facilities-based U.S. carriers providing services on the U.S.-Cuba route to operate under "identical rate terms and conditions," the commission said in a news release Friday. Cuba is the only country still under the nondiscrimination requirements. "If the proposal is adopted, U.S. carriers would have more flexibility to negotiate rates with the state-owned telecommunications operator ... and to respond to market forces," said the release. The FCC said its action is a result of the State Department's recommendation to remove the requirements based on the recent change in diplomatic relations between the U.S. and Cuba. The action seeks comment on removing particular nondiscrimination requirements and "asks whether removal would lead to more direct agreements between U.S. carriers and the state-owned telecommunications operator, and encourage competition on the U.S.-Cuba route."
CTA and the Information Technology Industry Council joined six other trade groups in urging the Department of Energy to extend its Friday comments deadline and hold a public meeting to explain an NPRM (docket NEERE-2015-BT-CE-0019) that would require importers of products covered under “an applicable energy conservation standard” to file a “certification of admissibility” for each shipment of such products before their arrival at a U.S. port of entry. The proposal “would be a completely new requirement,” and would “trigger a new and additional reporting scheme and importers would need to develop internal processes to comply,” said the eight groups in a Feb. 2 letter that was posted online Tuesday. In the NPRM issued Dec. 29, DOE sought comment on “six weighty issues” and gave commenters only 45 days to respond, “starting during the winter holiday season,” the letter said. “Although it seems DOE contemplated a public meeting because one is mentioned” in the NPRM, the agency hasn't scheduled one "to discuss this proposal with the large number of affected stakeholders,” it said. The trade groups have genuine confusion about the NPRM because it “does little to explain the specific issue the Department is attempting to resolve with the proposed import data collection,” it said. The groups also “are confused by the proposed requirements for products that are imported as component parts of other products not subject to DOE regulations,” the letter said. “We would like to further understand how DOE envisions that proposal working in practice and the goals DOE has for requiring the brand name and model number be reported for the final product.” The groups want DOE to extend the comments deadline for an additional 30 days from the date of a public meeting, "if one is scheduled as we hope it will be," the letter said. The meeting also should be held before comments are due, not after, it said. If the agency denies the request for a public meeting, the comments deadline should be extended for 60 days to April 12, it said. Also signing the letter were the Association of Home Appliance Manufacturers, the Air-Conditioning, Heating, and Refrigeration Institute, the Hearth, Patio & Barbecue Association, the National Electrical Manufacturers Association, the North American Association of Food Equipment Manufacturers and Plumbing Manufacturers International. DOE representatives didn’t comment Wednesday.
The European Commission will unveil finalized text of the new EU-U.S. Privacy Shield in the "2nd half of February," tweeted European Justice Commissioner Věra Jourová Monday (see 1602020040). In a separate tweet, she wrote that the new updated safe harbor framework "is part of a wider effort to restore trust in transatlantic data flows. Adoption of #JudicialRedressAct is now key." European officials have sought passage of the bill. It's awaiting a vote by the full Senate and provides European citizens a way to pursue legal action if they believe U.S. government agencies have abused their personal data (see 1601290021).
Trademark holders said some countries don't protect U.S. copyright, and the International Intellectual Property Alliance, which includes MPAA and RIAA, said the U.S. Trade Representative's office should resume classifying Ukraine as a priority country for not protecting U.S. IP. In the filings we were able to get in the runup to last Friday's deadline for comments to USTR, the Trademark Working Group, while not recommending the office add countries to the priority countries list, said Argentina, Brazil, India, the Philippines and Malaysia -- which TWG called the “slows” -- regularly fail to adjudicate oppositions and cancelations in a “reasonable period of time.” IIPA, in comments it released Friday said Chile, China, India, Indonesia, Russia, Thailand and Vietnam should be added to USTR's priority watch list. Brazil, Canada, Colombia, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Mexico, Switzerland, Taiwan and the United Arab Emirates should go on the regular watch list. IIPA members also include the Association of American Publishers, Entertainment Software Association and Independent Television & Film Alliance. Last week's Trans-Pacific Partnership signing was "a timely reminder of the valuable role our government plays in promoting U.S. economic interests abroad, and of the need to seek enforceable commitments from key trading partners to remove impediments to legitimate marketplaces," said IIPA Counsel Steven Metalitz in a news release. "TPP holds the potential to make a critical contribution, along with other trade agreements and Congressionally mandated reviews like the Special 301 Report, to this market-opening drive.” Monday, USTR posted about 30 public comments. The next issue of this publication will report on what tech groups like the Computer & Communications Industry Association, Internet Association and others said.
"The path is now clear" for the U.S. to "help bring Cuban telecommunications into the [21st century]," said Jamie Barnett, a Venable cybersecurity and telecom lawyer, in an online memo, referring to a recent policy change of the Commerce Department's Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS). The bureau's policy change regarding Cuba -- from a "case-by-case" review of telecommunications license applications to a "general policy of approval" -- became effective in late January, and coincides with recently announced amendments to the Cuban Asset Control Regulations (CACR) made by the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), Barnett said. OFAC's amendments to the CACR "further relax[ed] the restrictions on the economic activities in, and financing exports to, Cuba," he said. Barnett said OFAC took multiple, incremental steps in 2015 to open up U.S. telecom-based services in Cuba, and its most recent action in January continues that trend. "As both OFAC and BIS have made clear, the purpose of the new rules involving trade with Cuba is to engage the private sector in that country to the largest extent possible while supporting the Cuban government as little as practicable in keeping with this purpose," he said. "In the telecom field, the U.S. government appears to appreciate that major infrastructure projects will be required and that these can be accomplished only by working with the Cuban government." Although providers will need BIS licenses to "bring Cuba telecom into par with the U.S.," and U.S. companies will need to carefully negotiate the remaining OFAC sanctions, "U.S. policy is clearly to promote the modernization of Cuba's telecommunications sector."
The Groupe Speciale Mobile Association is concerned with the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India’s (TRAI) recommendation to set a starting price of $1.7 billion per megahertz for pan-Indian 700 MHz spectrum, GSMA Chief Regulatory Officer John Giusti said in a news release Tuesday. Spectrum’s biggest value doesn't come from high sales prices, but from its use to expand social and economic opportunity for all of India’s citizens, he said. “The more mobile operators have to pay for a spectrum licence, the less capital is available to roll out new mobile networks," Guisti said. "As the digital economy becomes increasingly important to India’s future prosperity, we encourage greater focus on the long-term benefits of connecting more people in India to affordable mobile broadband, rather than on short-term financial gain."
The U.S. has a mixed record in international broadband metrics, said an FCC international broadband data report listed in Monday's Daily Digest that looked at deployment, speed and pricing. "The available international broadband data, though not fully comparable to data on the United States, continue to suggest that although the United States may be among the leaders for developed countries with regard to some broadband metrics, it lags in some other metrics," said the 201-page report. For instance, with 89 percent coverage in 2014, the U.S. ranked ahead of 21 of 31 European countries on the scope of its fixed broadband deployment, it said. But the U.S. ranked only 26th out of 40 countries in 2014 in terms of actual fixed broadband "download speeds (26.68 Mbps) when weighted by sample size," it said. The U.S. also ranked only 23rd out of 33 countries for least-expensive overall fixed broadband pricing plans, though it ranked third least expensive on stand-alone broadband plans with data usage limits when taking those limits into account, the report said. On mobile broadband, the U.S. ranked 23rd least expensive out of 30 countries on price per GB for plans with usage limits less than 5 GB, and 23rd least expensive out of 31 countries on price per GB for plans with usage limits greater than 5 GB, it said.
Sky will be the first user of Roku's hybrid set-top box that allows TV services to offer both linear and streaming programming, Roku said in a news release Friday. The Roku Powered set-top will be part of Sky's Now TV service in the U.K., Roku said.
A Department of Commerce rule to facilitate telecom and other exports to Cuba was published in the Federal Register Wednesday. Under the rule, various exports and reexports will be subject to a general policy of license approval by the Bureau of Industry and Security, including: “(i) Telecommunications items that would improve communications to, from, and among the Cuban people; (ii) Commodities and software to human rights organizations or to individuals and non-governmental organizations that promote independent activity intended to strengthen civil society in Cuba; (iii) Commodities and software to U.S. news bureaus in Cuba whose primary purpose is the gathering and dissemination of news to the general public.” The rule was announced Tuesday (see 1601270018).
The World Customs Organization will use 2016 to develop and review technologies that can help process international trade, WCO Secretary General Kunio Mikuriya said in a news release. "We, as a Customs community, are signalling our aspiration to further develop digital solutions and services, making life easier for the trading community, other border agencies and Customs officers, and to further adopt enabling technologies, such as the use of big data, telematics and the cloud, to help increase operational performance, and to facilitate the reinvention of the way we do business." During 2016, he invites "members to promote and share information on how they are adapting to the digital environment, how they are leveraging the potential of IT, and how they are implementing and using digital technologies to advance and achieve their objectives and respond to the expectations of traders, transport and logistic operators, and governments," Mikuriya said.