Emergency communications, the IP transition and net neutrality are expected to be the main telecom issues discussed at NARUC’s meeting in Washington, state officials and industry observers told us. The meeting is to unofficially begin Friday and run through Wednesday, with Telecom Committee sessions to begin Monday. The Telecom Committee is considering two resolutions, including one that would urge the FCC to continue collaborating with state utility regulators on issues included in the commission’s November IP transition NPRM. The other telecom resolution would seek expedited FCC approval of a 2009 petition from the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) for state regulators to get state-specific access to the commission’s Network Outage Reporting System (NORS) (see 1502050039).
A draft order on establishing air-ground (ATG) mobile broadband service for aircraft passengers in the 14.0 to 14.5 GHz band was removed from circulation Feb. 6 amid national security concerns, FCC officials said. It was circulated Jan. 23, according to the agency's public list of circulated items. The Association of Flight Attendants raised concerns in a Feb. 5 comment in docket 13-114 that the system could increase the risk of terrorism and cyberwarfare (see 1502060034). Federal law enforcement also raised concerns.
Sens. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., and John Thune, R-S.D., introduced a bill on Feb. 12 to raise the duty-free de minimis level for U.S. imports from $200 to $800. The de minimis level is the threshold that goods are able to enter the U.S. duty-free. Both lawmakers tried but failed to advance the Low Value Shipment Regulatory Modernization Act in the last Congress (see 13030805).
Waivers to the proposed paid prioritization ban in FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler’s draft net neutrality order (see 1502040055) would be subject to more stringent standards than those for other commission rules, an agency official told us. Public interest groups hailed that aspect of the order, with the caveat that they hadn't seen the language.
Waivers to the proposed paid prioritization ban in FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler’s draft net neutrality order (see 1502040055) would be subject to more stringent standards than those for other commission rules, an agency official told us. Public interest groups hailed that aspect of the order, with the caveat that they hadn't seen the language.
Congressional skepticism about the IANA transition is partly attributable to ICANN’s inability to clearly define the “multistakeholder community,” House Commerce Committee member John Shimkus, R-Ill., said in an interview Monday. Shimkus last week reintroduced his Domain Openness Through Continued Oversight Matters Act (DOTCOM) (HR-805), which calls for a GAO study of the final transition proposal for up to one year before approval by NTIA (see 1502060057). The Senate also passed a resolution last week to raise awareness about Internet governance, just before ICANN 52 kicked off in Singapore.
FCC Commissioner Ajit Pai disputed Chairman Tom Wheeler’s claims that the net neutrality draft order wouldn't result in rate regulation as “flat-out false.” Pai also assailed Wheeler at a Tuesday news conference and in a fact sheet for not making the document public before the commission’s scheduled Feb. 26 vote. Saying he was “correcting the record” and last week’s “carefully stage-managed rollout” of the draft order (see 1502040055), Pai highlighted what he said are some previously undisclosed aspects of the order that made it “worse than what I imagined.” Among them, Pai said data usage plans would “now be subject to regulation."
FCC Commissioner Ajit Pai disputed Chairman Tom Wheeler’s claims that the net neutrality draft order wouldn't result in rate regulation as “flat-out false.” Pai also assailed Wheeler at a Tuesday news conference and in a fact sheet for not making the document public before the commission’s scheduled Feb. 26 vote. Saying he was “correcting the record” and last week’s “carefully stage-managed rollout” of the draft order (see 1502040055), Pai highlighted what he said are some previously undisclosed aspects of the order that made it “worse than what I imagined.” Among them, Pai said data usage plans would “now be subject to regulation."
Congressional skepticism about the IANA transition is partly attributable to ICANN’s inability to clearly define the “multistakeholder community,” House Commerce Committee member John Shimkus, R-Ill., said in an interview Monday. Shimkus last week reintroduced his Domain Openness Through Continued Oversight Matters Act (DOTCOM) (HR-805), which calls for a GAO study of the final transition proposal for up to one year before approval by NTIA (see 1502060057). The Senate also passed a resolution last week to raise awareness about Internet governance, just before ICANN 52 kicked off in Singapore.
The transition of cargo release to the Automated Commercial Environment in November is going to be marked by a transition period that will require some heavy lifting from the trade community, said CBP officials at a National Association Foreign-Trade Zones (NAFTZ) seminar on Feb. 10. While CBP hopes to get everyone to the point where they can exchange electronic messages, it remains to be decided how automation will work at the operational level for entities like terminal operators, truck drivers, and container freight stations that currently stamp paper, said James Swanson, CBP director-cargo security and controls.