U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has issued a notice stating that it has re-accredited and re-approved SGS North America, Inc., of Deer Park, Texas, as a commercial gauger and laboratory, effective January 4, 2005. CBP adds that the next triennial inspection date will be scheduled for January 2008. (CBP Dec. 06-40, FR Pub 12/22/06, available at http://a257.g.akamaitech.net/7/257/2422/01jan20061800/edocket.access.gpo.gov/2006/pdf/E6-21928.pdf)
Sophisticated hackers will devise new, creative ways of sabotaging systems in 2007, experts told us. Expect more dangerous phishing scams and targeted attacks and other devastating threats, they said.
The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) has issued a press release stating that on December 19, 2006, the U.S. and Panama announced that they had completed negotiations on a free trade agreement(FTA) with the understanding that it is subject to further discussions regarding labor.
Cybersecurity will be a major issue for members of the President’s National Security Telecom Advisory Committee (NSTAC) and associated agencies, according to several members speaking at the Committee’s meeting Tues. The body met Tues. with President Bush and Vice President Cheney and then held a public meeting to discuss and approve reports on emergency communications and interoperability, and telecom and electric power interdependencies. The Committee also tentatively decided to move up its conference call to discuss follow- through on the reports from Jan. 25 to the 2nd week Jan.
Cable rates in cities as far-flung as San Francisco and Boston cluster at about $50 monthly for a popular package of local TV stations and cable networks. Expanded basic and similar packages cost about that much, excluding taxes like franchise fees in 15 cities we surveyed cable rates. Bills rose an average of 9.1% early this year in 8 cities, including Philadelphia and Norfolk, Va.
Cyber security will be a major issue for members of the President’s National Security Telecom Advisory Committee (NSTAC) and associated agencies, according to several members speaking at the Committee’s meeting Tues. The body met Tues. with President Bush and Vice President Cheney and then held a public meeting to discuss and approve reports on emergency communications and interoperability, and telecom and electric power interdependencies. The Committee also tentatively decided to move up its conference call to discuss follow- through on the reports from Jan. 25 to the 2nd week Jan.
As of Dec. 1 the Govt. Emergency Telecom Service (GETS) had some 140,000 subscribers and the Wireless Priority Service (WPS) 40,000, said Peter Fonash, deputy dir. of the National Communications System, in Fri. remarks to the Practising Law Institute. Fonash told us network improvements are needed. “What we need to do next is go to a next-generation network,” he said. NCS is starting to work with industry on the needed standard, he said. Both programs give first responders, govt. officials and other qualified subscribers immediate access to congested networks at minimal cost. WPS is accessed by dialing *272 and the destination number using a WPS-ready handset. GETS has been growing about 10% per year; WPS, 20%, he said. WPS is in a growth spurt with this year’s addition of Verizon Wireless to the program and Sprint Nextel’s pending addition. On Sept. 11, 2001, about 5,000 callers used GETS, compared to 40,000 during Hurricane Katrina, Fonash said. He wants the program grow faster, he said. “We have proved that it actually does work very well under disaster conditions,” he said: “What we need to do is outreach to more people. We always want to go talk to people and sign people up.”
The EC began enforcement actions Wed. against nations alleged to have breached EU telecom rules. Key issues are at stake in the latest smaller group of proceedings, an EC spokesman said at a briefing. A cornerstone of the new e- communications regulatory framework (NRF) is the need for independent regulators, he said, a requirement Poland and Slovakia have yet to enshrine in national law. A 2nd issue is availability of caller location information for pan- European emergency number 112. In Latvia, only emergency calls from public phones provide caller location, while in Poland caller location is unavailable for mobile phones. The EC sent 2 hard-core cases to the European Court of Justice: Poland for incorrectly adopting the EU access directive into national law, and France for flubbing its designation of universal service providers, the spokesman said. The Commission has been able to close around 50% of the cases begun since the NRF took effect, “but we have some black sheep,” said a spokesman for Information Society & Media Comr. Viviane Reding. The EC won’t shy away from enforcement, particularly where regulatory independence is concerned, he said. Germany’s revised telecom act, which will grant “regulatory holidays” for “new services” such as Deutsche Telekom’s fiber network, is scheduled to take effect within days, the EC spokesman said. The Commission, now readying an infringement case, will be “ready to shoot,” he said.
PALO ALTO, Cal. -- Creating a model that uses schools as wireless broadband emergency hubs is the aim of an unusual alliance of a federal institution, local public agencies, business and a Silicon Valley nonprofit. At a meeting here late Tues., the not-for-profit Wireless Communications Alliance (WCA) introduced its Emergency Communications & Leadership Information Center (eCLIC) and the Livermore Information Network Collaborative (LINC) that the center helped organize east of Silicon Valley. Other LINC participants are the Lawrence Livermore National Lab, the Cal. Office of Emergency Services, the school district and the police and fire departments in Livermore, Cal., and Trapeze Networks.
Net neutrality has made its way into DoD policy discussion, judging by comments of John Grimes, Pentagon CIO and asst. Secy.-networks & information integration. Speaking to FCBA members Wed., Grimes touched briefly on net neutrality, satellite issues and what he called the recent politicization of the National Security Telecom Advisory Committee (NSTAC), among many other matters.