Russia export controls and sanctions

Global fixed broadband numbers are growing faster than expected in the economic downturn, driven by sustained high growth rates in developing countries, Point Topic analyst Tim Johnson said. He updated its ranking by number of broadband lines in 2013 to show China, the U.S., Japan, Germany, India, France, Brazil and the U.K. still in the lead. Russia and Mexico moved up to ninth and tenth places. China and the U.S. will account for more than 270 million broadband lines total by 2013, nearly 40 percent of the world’s installed base, he said. Johnson predicted the number of lines will rise to 695 million, instead of the 683 million forecast earlier. The small increase “hides the fact that broadband is having quite a difficult time,” he said. The previous prediction reduced the expected growth rates in most countries to take account of the just-beginning recession, he said. More recent data suggests a small but definite relationship between falling gross domestic product and below-trend growth in broadband, with GDP changes accounting for around 20 percent of the change in broadband numbers, he said. Twenty-two of the 40 nations surveyed saw growth rates drop below the expected trend in the second half of 2008, 14 had higher growth than predicted and four stayed the same, said Johnson. Those which “raced ahead” of forecasts are mostly late-comers to broadband such as Mexico, Peru, Vietnam and Brazil, he said.

ITU member countries remain deeply divided about the future tasks of the global telecom regulatory body. At the World Telecom Policy Forum in Lisbon Wednesday, some recommended that the ITU not take up new topics, saying the list of “Internet-related public policy matters” and “emerging telecommunication policy and regulatory issues” that ITU Secretary General Hamadoun Toure mentioned in his report is long. Others explicitly asked that the ITU take a bigger role. “It is about the mandate,” said Richard Beaird, acting U.S. State Department coordinator for international communications and information policy.

LOS ANGELES Stronger legislation and enforcement have failed to curb global piracy, said Timothy Trainor of the Global Intellectual Property Strategy Center. Testifying Monday in Los Angeles before a special session of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, Trainor urged the committee to provide more enforcement resources, including additional officers in the field to try and combat the problem.

Denmark placed first, Sweden second and the U.S. third in the World Economic Forum’s annual report on how 134 economies take advantage of technology for competitiveness and development. China gained 11 spots to 46th, beating Russia, India and Brazil for the first time, the report said. Broadband access everywhere is crucial to global prosperity, John Chambers, Cisco Systems’ CEO, said in the report. Barbados, Chile and Puerto Rico placed highest in rankings of Latin American and Caribbean countries. Countries in sub- Saharan Africa still lag, the report said.

Nokia disclosed the countries where its Ovi online- services umbrella will launch, early in May. It will start at least in the U.S., Australia, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Russia, Singapore, Spain and the U.K., a company spokeswoman said. Ovi will encompass the company’s current Web efforts, including N-Gage in gaming, and will advance customers’ discovery in mobile commerce by taking into account a user’s location and the choices that friends have made, Tero Ojanpera, Nokia’s executive vice president for services, said Tuesday at the GDC Mobile conference in San Francisco. There are 50 million Nokia handsets suited to the service in the nine countries, he said. India and other markets may be added for the launch, the spokeswoman said. “There’s a long list that are on the cusp, and it’s a local business decision, really.” Ovi will be essentially global by year- end, Ojanpera said, with a potential reach of 250 million devices. “Mashups” making use of various handset capabilities will be a growing trend, he told the audience of game developers. Nokia is developing a game in which an online map of any place can be used as the setting for an automobile race track, Ojanpera said, and Dance Fabulous, also in development, will make use of the cellphone’s music- player side. Social networking also will become integral to mobile gaming, he said. Nokia is the No. 1 maker of mobile devices for Facebook updates from Europe and Asia, Ojanpera said, citing M:Metrics research. Billing is a challenge for an international mobile-content store because credit cards aren’t a standard way to pay in some countries, he said. “We'll be working around the world” to make carrier billing a reality, Ojanpera said. N-Gage has seen sales increases up to 80 percent where carrier billing has been introduced, he said. The service has taken orders from 200 countries, the spokeswoman said.

Mobile software developer Streamezzo signed an agreement to develop, deploy and operate mobile web portal services for Samsung Electronics, the companies said. The Samsung Rich Internet application, embedded on multiple Samsung devices, allows subscribers access to free and premium mobile services including news, ringtones, music, video-on-demand and games. Streamezzo’s Mobile Open Development Platform, compatible with all mobile operating systems, will power the creation of Rich Internet applications. Samsung has released the Rich Internet Portal in Russia, Germany and the U.K. Additional rollouts are planned for coming months.

GENEVA -- The ITU is lowering expectations for Telecom World 2009 and recasting the event as a top political, telecom and information technology forum to meet pressing challenges and opportunities. Bookings for exhibitors and others are about one-third of forecasts, officials said. The organization is looking for new ways to make up for the shortfall, said Sanjay Acharya, ITU chief of media relations. One idea to cope with smaller budgets is for countries to pool resources and participation, officials said.

Discussions between the U.S. and Russia following the collision of the Iridium satellite and the inactive Russian Cosmos satellite have been a valuable transparency- and confidence-building measure, said Garold Larson, in charge of affairs for the U.S. delegation to the Conference on Disarmament. “Last week’s collision underscores the increasingly congested space environment,” Larson said. Department of Defense analysis of events leading up to the collision may take weeks, Larson said. Collisions and similar events can make valuable areas of space unavailable for future use, he said. The collision emphasizes the importance of international cooperation between governments and industry, critical for boosting space safety, he said.

There needs to be an international space objects organization that functions similar to air traffic control, space and military experts said in response to the collision this week of an Iridium satellite and a defunct out-of- control Russian craft. The international community needs to “find a way that our exchange of data is more complete,” said Marine Gen. James Cartwright, vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. “We would be remiss if we didn’t take advantage” of this event to call for greater international cooperation, Cartwright said.

Intel is on track with its international WiMAX deployment and expansion, despite the world recession, Executive Vice President Sean Maloney said Wednesday on a conference call. On the U.S. stimulus bill, the chip maker believes that it would “be a shame to spend the money on yesterday’s technology, not tomorrow’s,” Maloney said. WiMAX meets the technology requirements of the bill and offers a fast track to economic benefits, he said.