The FCC should stop “excessive” special-access pricing by AT&T and Verizon, the NoChokePoints Alliance, a new coalition of competitors and customers of the big phone companies (CD June 18 p7), told reporters Monday. “Releasing the broadband economy from the choke hold these huge phone companies have on the special-access market will be a catalyst for innovation and investment in the broadband marketplace,” said spokeswoman Maura Corbett. The coalition’s statement prompted a flurry of counter-statements from incumbent local exchange carriers and others.
AT&T could cope if the FCC adds a fifth principle on nondiscrimination to its Internet policy statement, but the company doesn’t think it’s necessary, Senior Executive Vice President Jim Cicconi said Friday. “If it were structured properly, I could certainly conceive of one that we could live with,” Cicconi said on a panel on net neutrality at the Pike & Fischer Broadband Summit.
AT&T could cope if the FCC adds a fifth principle on nondiscrimination to its Internet policy statement, but the company doesn’t think it’s necessary, Senior Executive Vice President Jim Cicconi said Friday. “If it were structured properly, I could certainly conceive of one that we could live with,” Cicconi said on a panel on net neutrality at the Pike & Fischer Broadband Summit.
Standards are needed to ensure that Internet users feel safe about how their information is used, House Commerce Committee members said Thursday at a hearing. But the standards remain under discussion, and there’s uncertainty over which agency should enforce them. The Communications and Consumer Protection subcommittees held a joint hearing, interrupted several hours by floor votes. Consumer Protection Subcommittee Chairman Bobby Rush, D-Ill., said his data breach bill (HR-2221) may provide some guidance as Congress deals with behavioral advertising.
Standards are needed to ensure that Internet users feel safe about how their information is used, House Commerce Committee members said Thursday at a hearing. But the standards remain under discussion, and there’s uncertainty over which agency should enforce them. The Communications and Consumer Protection subcommittees held a joint hearing, interrupted several hours by floor votes. Consumer Protection Subcommittee Chairman Bobby Rush, D-Ill., said his data breach bill (HR-2221) may provide some guidance as Congress deals with behavioral advertising.
Comments on whether FM stations can transmit in digital at 10 times the current maximum power are due at the FCC July 6, after the Federal Register published a notice from the commission, it said Tuesday. Replies are due July 17. The new questions raised (CD May 27 p6) are whether the commission should wait to act on the power-level request from FM stations and equipment makers until a National Public Radio study is finished and whether low-power stations should be protected from HD broadcasting interference, lawyer David Oxenford wrote on the Davis Wright Tremaine blog. The firm represents full-power radio broadcasters.
Comments on whether FM stations can transmit in digital at 10 times the current maximum power are due at the FCC July 6, the commission said in a Federal Register notice published Tuesday. Replies are due July 17. The new questions raised (CED May 27 p3) are whether the commission should wait to act on the power-level request from FM stations and equipment makers until a National Public Radio study is finished and whether low-power stations should be protected from HD broadcasting interference, lawyer David Oxenford wrote on the Davis Wright Tremaine blog. The firm represents full-power radio broadcasters.
Narrowly targeted, bipartisan satellite reauthorization legislation drew guarded praise from cable, satellite and broadcast executives at a House Communications Subcommittee hearing Tuesday. But each industry offered ways to improve the bill. Subcommittee Chairman Rick Boucher, D-Va., said he hopes ongoing industry negotiations will produce agreement on two matters not included in the discussion draft: solving problems preventing some viewers from getting local-into-local service, and eliminating “short” markets, where viewers can’t watch affiliates of all the major broadcast networks. The bill would extend the Satellite Home Viewer Extension and Reauthorization Act five years.
In the June 12, 2009 issue of the U.S. Customs and Border Protection Bulletin (Vol. 43, No. 24), CBP published a notice proposing to modify one ruling and revoke a treatment regarding elastomeric yarn and DR-CAFTA eligibility, as follows:
China's General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine has issued a notice announcing an annual supervision examination on designated accreditation bodies, labs and factory inspectors, as well as spot tests on CCC licensed products which include toys, household appliances, information technical products, motorcycles, lighting, latex products, coffers against theft and plant protection machineries. (Notice, dated 06/11/09, available at http://english.aqsiq.gov.cn/NewsRelease/NewsUpdates/200906/t20090611_118033.htm)