The Transportation Security Administration has sent a request for renewal of an information collection on air cargo security requirements to the Office of Management and Budget. The information collection is made up of five categories: security programs, security threat assessments (STA), known shipper data via the Known Shipper Management System (KSMS), cargo screening reporting, and evidence of compliance recordkeeping. TSA requests comments on the renewal request by April 5, 2010. (D/N TSA-2004-19515, FR Pub 03/04/10, available at http://edocket.access.gpo.gov/2010/pdf/2010-4443.pdf)
Uncompetitive telecom markets are holding broadband speeds back, the European Competitive Telecommunications Association said Wednesday. Its study on Europe’s digital deficit said consumers and businesses are losing 25 billion ($34 billion) per year because powerful monopoly providers are keeping prices higher and broadband speeds lower. It said incumbent retail market shares are high, stable and, in some cases, increasing, and that some dominant companies are engaging in potentially anti-competitive and discriminatory practices. Meanwhile, ECTA said, new entrants struggle to make a return on their investment. ECTA said it will press the European Commission and national regulators to investigate competition failures in the sector and to consider using the new power of functional separation of a business’s network and services arms when needed. A study for the EC concluded that effective broadband take-up across the EU would create more than a million new jobs and boost gross domestic product by 850 billion by 2015, ECTA said. Separately, network operators said the EU digital agenda should be given higher priority and a stronger role in cross- sector issues such as CO2 reduction, education and social cohesion. Besides boosting jobs and economic activity, broadband-enabled applications in the energy, transport and building sectors could cut carbon emissions by 15 percent by 2020, the European Telecommunications Network Operators’ Association said. It again backed a “more targeted and proportionate regulatory environment” to encourage investment in risky next-generation access networks. Meanwhile, Point Topic analysts said emerging countries are now experiencing the largest growth in the number of broadband lines and will likely be the main drivers of broadband take-up in the next four years. By 2014, emerging economies could account for more than 320 million lines, 43 percent of the world total of 740 million by then, it said. The forecast looked at the 40 biggest countries in terms of broadband lines, dividing them into emerging, youthful and mature. The first category, which includes Brazil, China, Russia, India and others in Southeast Asia, South America and Eastern Europe, could see growth of more than 14 percent per year. Youthful economies such as the U.S., Japan, Greece and others, can expect broadband growth of 5.5 percent annually, mature countries such as Canada, South Korea, and advanced Western European nations 4.6 percent, the analysts said. The youthful markets are “probably the most unpredictable,” they said. With about 155 million lines as of mid-2009, they're just behind the emerging countries in terms of broadband size and they include the world’s two largest economies, the U.S. and Japan, they said. Individual countries in this group could see a change in prospects if governments set higher goals for broadband take-up, they said. It remains to be seen, however, whether the broadband investment plan in the U.S. stimulus package will boost take-up above the predicted 6 percent per year, the analysts said. The ten countries predicted to have the biggest broadband networks by 2014 are China, Russia, India and Brazil (emerging), the U.S., Japan and Italy (youthful) and Germany, the U.K. and France (mature), they said.
Uncompetitive telecom markets are holding broadband speeds back, the European Competitive Telecommunications Association said Wednesday. Its study on Europe’s digital deficit said consumers and businesses are losing €25 billion ($34 billion) per year because powerful monopoly providers are keeping prices higher and broadband speeds lower. It said incumbent retail market shares are high, stable and, in some cases, increasing, and that some dominant companies are engaging in potentially anti-competitive and discriminatory practices. Meanwhile, ECTA said, new entrants struggle to make a return on their investment. ECTA said it will press the European Commission and national regulators to investigate competition failures in the sector and to consider using the new power of functional separation of a business’s network and services arms when needed. A study for the EC concluded that effective broadband take-up across the EU would create more than a million new jobs and boost gross domestic product by €850 billion by 2015, ECTA said. Separately, network operators said the EU digital agenda should be given higher priority and a stronger role in cross-sector issues such as CO2 reduction, education and social cohesion. Besides boosting jobs and economic activity, broadband-enabled applications in the energy, transport and building sectors could cut carbon emissions by 15 percent by 2020, the European Telecommunications Network Operators’ Association said. It again backed a “more targeted and proportionate regulatory environment” to encourage investment in risky next-generation access networks. Meanwhile, Point Topic analysts said emerging countries are now experiencing the largest growth in the number of broadband lines and will likely be the main drivers of broadband take-up in the next four years. By 2014, emerging economies could account for more than 320 million lines, 43 percent of the world total of 740 million by then, it said. The forecast looked at the 40 biggest countries in terms of broadband lines, dividing them into emerging, youthful and mature. The first category, which includes Brazil, China, Russia, India and others in Southeast Asia, South America and Eastern Europe, could see growth of more than 14 percent per year. Youthful economies such as the U.S., Japan, Greece and others, can expect broadband growth of 5.5 percent annually, mature countries such as Canada, South Korea, and advanced Western European nations 4.6 percent, the analysts said. The youthful markets are “probably the most unpredictable,” they said. With about 155 million lines as of mid-2009, they're just behind the emerging countries in terms of broadband size and they include the world’s two largest economies, the U.S. and Japan, they said. Individual countries in this group could see a change in prospects if governments set higher goals for broadband take-up, they said. It remains to be seen, however, whether the broadband investment plan in the U.S. stimulus package will boost take-up above the predicted 6 percent per year, the analysts said. The ten countries predicted to have the biggest broadband networks by 2014 are China, Russia, India and Brazil (emerging), the U.S., Japan and Italy (youthful) and Germany, the U.K. and France (mature), they said.
The International Trade Administration's U.S. and Foreign Commercial Service is organizing a Trade Mission to Bogot and Cartagena, Colombia and Panama City, Panama, September 20-24, 2010, which will focus on helping U.S. companies launch or increase their export business in these markets. (FR Pub 03/03/10, available at http://edocket.access.gpo.gov/2010/pdf/2010-4350.pdf)
FCC officials faced tough questions about a proposed Emergency Response Interoperability Center (ERIC), at a forum sponsored by the Public Safety Bureau at FCC headquarters Tuesday. Public Safety Spectrum Trust Chairman Harlin McEwen questioned the need for the new center and whether the FCC will inadvertently slow deployment of a national wireless broadband network serving public safety. Last week, APCO and other public safety groups said they were deeply concerned about the FCC’s proposal to auction the 700 MHz D-block for commercial use, which like ERIC is expected to be part of the National Broadband Plan (CD Feb 26 p 1).
The following are the trade-related hearings scheduled for March 1-6, 2010:
The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative has posted to its Web site the President's 2010 Trade Policy Agenda and 2009 Annual Report on the Administration's progress on trade issues and future objectives.
The wireless aspect of the National Broadband Plan should “provide for meaningful access by entrepreneurs like paging carriers, so that they can develop new service offerings for their clientele such as the health care industry,” officials of the American Association of Paging Carriers said in meetings at the FCC. AAPC President Roy Pottle and others with the group said in an ex parte filing that they met with advisers to Commissioners Robert McDowell, Mignon Clyburn and Meredith Baker. The group also discussed the status of the paging industry in the U.S. and why “the broadcast protocol employed in paging technology makes it uniquely fast and reliable for emergency alerting applications.”
Tough new rules proposed at the Department of Transportation for shipping lithium batteries on airplanes would seriously threaten distribution of the cells and the devices they power at a time when industry is trying to recover from the worst economic decline since the Great Depression, 34 companies and trade groups told the department by letter Thursday.
The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative has posted USTR Kirk's remarks, as prepared for delivery, for the Retail Industry Leaders Association Logistic Conference. Among other things, Kirk stated that the USTR is currently seeking to resolve outstanding issues on the Colombian, Korean, and Panamanian Free Trade Agreements in an effort to move those forward at the appropriate time. (Remarks, posted 02/24/10, available at http://www.ustr.gov/about-us/press-office/speeches/transcripts/2010/february/remarks-ambassador-ron-kirk-retail-industry)