Court of International Trade activity

Eutelsat signed an agreement with Poste Italiane for satellite broadband service across Italy. The deal is expected to transform Italy’s broadband landscape “where 2.37 million Italians in 3,600 towns and villages are still unable to benefit from a quality Internet connection for education, entertainment, communication and e-commerce,” Eutelsat said in a press release (http://bit.ly/1aJO22B). Eutelsat’s service, Tooway, will be available in Poste Italiane offices and through its business sellers, “with the priority to serve regions beyond range of terrestrial broadband” beginning the first quarter of 2014, Eutelsat said. Poste Italiane provides Italy with postal, communications, logistics and other services.

Boeing signed an agreement with Inmarsat, making Boeing the largest reseller to the U.S. government market for Inmarsat’s forthcoming Global Xpress Ka-band network. Boeing will have a specific focus on military Ka-band services, Inmarsat said in a press release (http://bit.ly/1c6VxzS). Since 2010, the companies “have worked in close partnership on the development of the original fleet of three Global Xpress satellites,” it said. Inmarsat plans to launch services on the network next year (CD April 12 p5).

A lack of quorum caused the Senate Judiciary Committee to postpone its National Security Agency oversight hearing scheduled for Thursday. “Apparently this is another example of how we try to block the president’s judges and I'm sorry for that,” said Chairman Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., when he recognized the committee was one senator short of quorum and it appeared only Democratic senators had shown up. In the past three weeks, Senate Republicans have blocked three presidential court nominees, said Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., during remarks on the floor Thursday (http://1.usa.gov/19Lf71I). After Leahy recessed the hearing, he made his way to the Senate floor and a few hours later the upper chamber voted 52-48 to change the nomination rules to allow most judicial and executive branch nominees to be confirmed with a simple majority vote, instead of the 60-vote level previously required (http://1.usa.gov/18rm7EU). The hearing had been scheduled last week, well before it was known the Senate would be voting on rules changes Thursday. After briefly considering rescheduling the hearing for Thursday afternoon or Friday morning, the committee pushed it back to sometime in December, said a spokeswoman for the Computer and Communications Industry Association. CCIA President Ed Black was to testify during the hearing, along with representatives from the NSA, the Justice Department and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence.

Global Eagle Entertainment’s Wi-Fi service is available gate-to-gate on Southwest Airlines, said the Wi-Fi provider in a news release Thursday. The airline uses the satellite-based connectivity platform through Global Eagle’s Row 44 subsidiary, “which was optimized from the beginning to work in all phases of flight, including on the ground,” Global Eagle said. It said the service is available on more than 435 Southwest aircraft, and available for use by more than 100 million passengers yearly.

Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va., Thursday attached language identical to the Cybersecurity Act of 2013 (S-1353) as an amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act (S-1197). Rockefeller “believes the provisions in his amendment will strengthen the nation’s national security and, therefore, deserve consideration through the NDAA,” a Senate Commerce aide said. The cyber bill, sponsored by Rockefeller and Sen. John Thune, R-S.D., would authorize the National Institute of Standards and Technology to work with industry on an ongoing basis to develop voluntary cybersecurity guidelines and best practices, in line with NIST’s current development of the Cybersecurity Framework. The bill, which would also strengthen the government’s cybersecurity research, education and public awareness efforts, cleared Senate Commerce in late July in a unanimous vote (CD July 31 p1). Since then, “it’s been sitting on the sidelines for too long and there’s too much at stake to not look for every opportunity to pass it in the Senate,” Rockefeller said in a statement. Senate Democratic leaders have warned against attaching amendments on unrelated political issues to the authorization bill, but the Senate Commerce aide told us Rockefeller had the backing of Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., and Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Carl Levin, D-Mich. The NDAA now contains more than 300 amendments, including at least five that challenge aspects of controversial National Security Agency surveillance programs. Democratic leaders would like to pass the defense bill before Thanksgiving (CD Nov 21 p10).

New York Public Service Commission staff issued recommendations for telecom companies based on “lessons learned” from superstorm Sandy (http://bit.ly/I79p4w). Staff called for the emergency plans of telecom companies to be updated to reflect operational changes and improvements following the storm. The report said staff will continue to participate in state and federal level proceedings intended to improve wireless service resiliency and redundancy and the reporting of outage information to better support emergency services and public communications during emergency events. The report said telecom companies staffed their recovery efforts “to the best of their abilities,” and it found no “specific company effort inadequate.” The report said staff will make a recommendation for telecom restoration crews to have improved access to affected areas. Wireless and cable carriers improved their outage reporting compared with Hurricane Irene, but staff said improvements were still necessary. Despite Sandy being forecast “well in advance,” staff said outreach and repeated discussion was required with some companies during the event to “obtain substantive and timely outage and restoration information.” This becomes especially important for wireless carriers “whose service is relied upon most by emergency responders and the public for communication during emergency events,” said the report. Companies are asked to review the recommendations and provide a written response, within 60 days in case 13-M-0025, on plans to implement the recommendations and provide the status of any other initiatives implemented from lessons learned following Sandy.

The broadband availability gap in Michigan is decreasing, with 98.37 percent of residents now having access to broadband speeds of at least 10 Mbps download/1.5 Mbps upload, compared to 95.89 percent last April, said Connect Michigan in a new data release Wednesday (http://bit.ly/I6A6q3). This availability includes mobile wireless speeds, but excludes satellite services, said Connect Michigan. Fixed broadband speeds of 3 Mbps download/768 Kbps upload or higher, a different gauge, yet the relevant metric for FCC Connect America Fund subsidy eligibility, have reached 97.73 percent of households in the state, said the new data. Households with fixed wireless broadband service have increased 37 percentage points from October 2011 to 68.35 percent, said Connect Michigan. Availability of broadband service speeds of at least 50 Mbps download/1.5 Mbps upload have increased to 83.33 percent, a 34-percentage-point increase from October 2011, said the data.

The FCC granted Global Data Systems 60-day special temporary authority to operate its very small aperture terminal network “with a relocated existing hub and new 9.4-meter and 7.2-meter hub antennas” in the 14.0-14.5 GHz and 11.7-12.2 GHz bands, said the International Bureau in a public notice (http://bit.ly/1fn4GcP). It granted SES’s application for a 30-day STA to communicate with a Netherlands-licensed satellite, NSS-806, at 47.5 degrees west location, it said. The STA is “for the limited purpose of characterizing the C-band interference environment” in the 6050-6258 MHz and 3825-4033 MHz bands, it said. Gogo requested special temporary authority to allow up to 15 earth stations aboard aircraft to communicate with Intelsat 904 and Eutelsat 172A satellites for coverage of Russia, said an application to the bureau (http://bit.ly/IiqUOt).

The U.K. Office of Communications wants input on plans to prioritize release of spectrum in bands that could be used for mobile data services in the long term, it said in a consultation paper (http://xrl.us/bp6tv6) Thursday. There are challenges to satisfying the demand for such services, including the need for continuing technology improvements to increase the capacity and performance of mobile and Wi-Fi networks, and deploying networks that make even more effective use of existing spectrum by, for example, use of smaller cells and Wi-Fi, it said. Other concerns are to ensure competition in mobile data services; consider other demands for spectrum, not just for mobile data; and meet potential increasing expectations and demands for ubiquitous coverage of mobile data services for such things as new machine-to-machine applications, it said. Ofcom is already working on freeing spectrum in the 700 MHz, 2.3 GHz, 3.4 GHz and UHF TV white space bands, it said. It proposed giving high priority to releasing spectrum in the 1452-1492 MHz, 1980-2010/2170-2200 MHz, 3.6-3.8 GHz and 5350-5470 and 5725-5925 MHz bands. As a medium-high priority, Ofcom said it will continue to support several bands as potential candidates for consideration at the World Radiocommunication Conference 2015: 2.7-2.9 GHz and 3.8-4.2 GHz. In the longer run, the regulator said it will continue to engage in international talks on the future of the 470-694 MHz band while safeguarding digital terrestrial TV and wireless microphone users; and will consider the 450-470 MHz band for mobile data. Ofcom said it expects to publish a statement in Q2 2014. Comments are due Jan. 30.

The Intellectual Property chapter in a final Trans-Pacific Partnership deal must ensure trade secret protection and violation enforcement, said National Association of Manufacturers Senior Director Christopher Moore in a Tuesday post (http://bit.ly/1bRNvwO). Improving trade secret domestic laws and international agreement provisions is critical, due to the ever-increasing value of trade secret protection, said Moore. “Trade secrets are often subject to much weaker legal protections than other intangible assets. Once disclosed, their value cannot be recovered,” said Moore. “In recent years, trade secrets misappropriation has risen rapidly due to greater global workforce mobility, increased international competition and the proliferation of digital devices that multiply opportunities for cyber theft.” The U.S. Cyber Command believes trade secret theft is costing U.S. businesses $250 billion annually, said Moore. U.S. negotiations are convening in Salt Lake City this week to hash out IP provisions, among other unresolved issues. The Obama administration has targeted the conclusion of negotiations with the 12 TPP participant nations this year. WikiLeaks last week published a secret TPP IP chapter, allegedly disseminated at a summit in late August (CD Nov 14 p21). Moore called the leak the “most boring scoop ever” but beneficial nonetheless because it “put the spotlight in the right place."