Gilat and AirMedia Group signed a deal to provide in-flight connectivity services over mainland China, Gilat said in a news release Tuesday. It said the service will use its own high-throughput satellite platform alongside ChinaSatcom's Ka-band capacity to be launched this year, and should begin commercial rollout in early 2018. Gilat China General Manager Jun Xiang said the company is in talks with several other potential Chinese and international partners about similar in-flight connectivity ventures in China.
The FCC International Bureau approved two trans-Pacific undersea cable systems connecting the U.S. and Asian nations. Applications for submarine cable landing licenses were granted to the fiber systems in two bureau public notices (here, here) listed Friday in the agency's electronic documents management system. Both applications were coordinated with the State Department and other executive branch agencies, said the PNs. They said the New Cross-Pacific (NCP) system will connect the continental U.S., China, Japan, South Korea and Taiwan, and the Southeast Asia-US (SEA-US) system will connect the continental U.S., Indonesia, Philippines, Guam and Hawaii. NCP received some letters of support and SEA-US was unopposed, the PNs said. "As the infrastructure of the Internet, these systems will provide critical connectivity between the United States and the Asia-Pacific region," said an email from attorney Kent Bressie of Harris Wiltshire, which worked on the applications. He said Harris Wiltshire jointly represented (1) Microsoft, China Mobile International, China Telecom, China Unicom, Chunghwa Telecom and KT Corp. on NCP, and (2) Globe Telecom (Philippines), GTA (Guam), GTI Corp. (U.S.), Hawaiian Telcom, RAM Telecom International (U.S.), Telin (Indonesia) and Telkom USA on SEA-US.
Switzerland and the U.S. agreed on a new framework for transferring personal data of Swiss citizens to American companies similar to the EU-U.S. Privacy Shield that came into force in August (see 1608010017), said Switzerland in a Wednesday news release. The new framework replaces an older arrangement between the two countries. "The Swiss-US Privacy Shield is needed for the secure, efficient and rapid transfer of data," said the release. "The USA does not have legislation on data protection that guarantees an adequate level of protection in terms of Swiss law." Improvements include: a "stricter application of data protection principles" by participating companies; oversight of the arrangement by U.S. authorities; and closer cooperation between the Department of Commerce and Switzerland's Federal Data Protection and Information Commissioner. "An arbitration body is being introduced to deal with claims that remain unresolved through other available remedies. Lastly, people living in Switzerland will be able to address enquiries relating to the processing of their data by US intelligence services to an ombudsperson in the US State Department," the release said. The government said U.S. companies will get certification under the new arrangement. Commerce didn't comment Wednesday.
Though China has made progress on intellectual property, issues remain, the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative reported to Congress on the country's World Trade Organization Compliance. During 2016, the two nations made “significant progress” on ensuring that information and communications technology (ICT) policies don't impose unnecessary nationality-based restrictions on the purchase, sale or use of those products by commercial enterprises, said USTR. It said the U.S. will continue to engage China on ICT policies and technology localization. China is reforming its IP rights regime, but U.S. companies must contend with unpunished thefts of trade secrets for the benefit of Chinese companies, widespread counterfeiting and “bad faith” trademark registration, whereby Chinese authorities “hold … them for ransom,” USTR said. It noted Chinese officials at a November Joint Commission on Commerce and Trade meeting in Washington cited potential harm caused by “bad-faith” trademarks and confirmed they're taking more steps to combat them. Overly burdensome licensing requirements, discriminatory regulatory processes and informal bans on entry and expansion continue to affect telecom and internet-related services doing business in China, the report said.
Gogo subsidiary AC BidCo wants to add three satellites -- Galaxy 28, SES-3 and Telesat T12V -- to its earth stations aboard aircraft license. In an FCC International Bureau filing Monday, AC BidCo also said it wanted to update its license to reflect that traffic that had been carried by the AMC-3 satellite had been transferred to AMC-6. AC BidCo said the Galaxy and Telesat satellites will provide coverage of Brazil, and the SES satellite will provide North America coverage.
Roslyn Layton credited India with recognizing the value of free data but cited problems with its "aggregator" approach. Reversing a previous ban on differential pricing for data services, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) now acknowledges free data can help the poor, said a Tuesday blog post by Layton, an American Enterprise Institute scholar and Trump FCC landing team member (see 1611290022). The "TRAI rejected three proposed models for free data and presents a new model in which 'third party aggregators' create the market for free data," she wrote. "Let’s applaud TRAI for recognizing the value of free data. Aggregation is a novel approach, but it is neither costless nor neutral. Moreover, the ruling creates a new problem of regulatory discrimination restricting how telecom service providers can participate in the market." Layton suggested the better way to discover the best free-data approach "would be to conduct a randomized control trial without regulatory discrimination." Indian telecom carriers could still challenge the TRAI's decision in court, she said, but for now the aggregator-based policy sets up a "de facto randomized control trial" as other south Asian nations have implemented various free-data programs that have increased broadband adoption. "It’s hard to see why some 446 million people in rural parts of India could not benefit from such programs, in addition to at least 80 million urban poor in the country," she wrote.
A Macau man arrested Christmas Day in Hong Kong and awaiting extradition to the U.S. and two other defendants face computer intrusion, insider trading and wire fraud charges for allegedly stealing proprietary information hacked from networks and servers of several "prominent" New York City law firms, said DOJ in a Tuesday news release. Justice unsealed a 13-count superseding indictment against Iat Hong, Bo Zheng and Chin Hung, who allegedly targeted at least seven unidentified law firms and other organizations from April 2014 through late 2015, the release said. DOJ said the defendants targeted email accounts at the firms, which worked on high-profile merger-and-acquisition transactions, and then, based on inside information, bought stock in certain companies, "which were expected to, and typically did, increase in value once the transactions were announced." Manhattan U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara said the defendants made more than $4 million in illegal profits. "This case of cyber meets securities fraud should serve as a wake-up call for law firms around the world: you are and will be targets of cyber hacking, because you have information valuable to would-be criminals,” he said. Hong, 25, was arrested Sunday and is going through extradition proceedings, but DOJ didn't provide the status of 50-year-old Hung, a Macau resident, and Zheng, a 30-year-old resident of China.
Being taken over by Amalgamated Telecom will give American Samoa telco/underwater cable company Bluesky and its affiliates more financial and managerial resources, and would have no anticompetitive effects because ATH provides no telecom services in American Samoa now, Fiji-based telco ATH said in an FCC International Bureau filing Tuesday on the public interest benefits of the proposed deal. ATH said the transaction would require transfer of Communications Act Section 214 authorizations, commercial mobile radio service licenses, and common carrier and non-common carrier Bluesky earth station licenses, plus transfer of control of the cable landing license associated with Bluesky affiliate American Samoa-Hawaii Cable.
Facebook provided "incorrect or misleading information" about its planned acquisition of WhatsApp during the European Commission review of the 2014 takeover, alleged the EC. It sent a statement of objections to the social media platform, said a Tuesday news release. If the allegations are confirmed, the EC said it could impose a fine up to 1 percent of Facebook's revenue, but the current investigation won't affect the acquisition of WhatsApp since approval was based on a variety of factors. A coalition of consumer and privacy groups in September asked the FTC to investigate WhatsApp's privacy policy changes that would permit the sharing of some user information with Facebook, which the groups allege is a violation of the commitments made by the companies when they combined (see 1609220031). The EC said Facebook indicated in 2014 that "it would be unable to establish reliable automated matching between the two companies' user accounts." The EC said it "takes the preliminary view" that it was technically possible in 2014 to automatically match users' IDs of both companies, despite what Facebook said. "The Commission therefore has concerns that Facebook intentionally, or negligently, submitted incorrect or misleading information to the Commission, in breach of its obligations under the EU Merger Regulation," the release said. Facebook will have until Jan. 31 to respond to the EC. In an online statement, the company said it's "confident that a full review of the facts will confirm Facebook has acted in good faith" and has "consistently provided accurate information about our technical capabilities and plans."
Rogers Communications will begin deploying Comcast's X1 platform in early 2018, it announced Friday. Before the X1 launch, Rogers said, it will make changes to its existing video platform, including additional 4K content and a 4K personal video recorder. The Canada cable company said it's moving to X1 "to ensure it has access to the scale and technical roadmap needed to meet the ongoing pace of IPTV innovation." Comcast previously licensed X1 to Cox Communications in the U.S. and Canada's Shaw (see 1507230038).