The FCC told the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit that China Telecom moved too quickly to challenge in court the revocation of the company’s Communications Act Section 214 authorizations (see 2102020029). In January, the company sought expedited court review in court docket 20-2365 (see 2101220050). “China Telecom challenges the Commission’s decision to conduct the revocation proceeding through full written submissions before the Commission itself, rather than adopt more formal hearing procedures or hold an in-person hearing before an administrative law judge,” the FCC said in a Friday posting: “The decision whether and how to conduct a proceeding is not final agency action, so China Telecom must wait until the Commission issues a final order resolving whether or not to revoke its authorizations.”
Trade policy on China should prioritize technology issues and set “benchmarks" for a "phased rollback" of Trade Act Section 301 tariffs, the Information Technology Industry Council wrote new U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai Tuesday. It encouraged Tai to "move swiftly" on the commitment she made at her Senate Finance Committee confirmation hearing to install "a transparent, predictable, and rapid process for tariff exclusions.” Reforming the tariff exclusions process would be "very high on my radar" if confirmed, Tai told the committee (see 2102250043). Noting USTR has investigated the digital services taxes policies of several U.S. trade partners, the group asked the agency “to discourage further proliferation of such measures.” USTR didn't comment Wednesday, and ITI didn't answer our queries about whether it got a response from the agency. The Chinese tariffs are “there to be punitive,” rather than to stop China’s allegedly unfair trade practices, ITI CEO Jason Oxman told us in January (see 2011090043).
Chinese 5G subscriptions are expected to reach 739 million by 2025, enough for 40% global share, reported ABI Research Tuesday. It forecasts 5G annual data traffic in China reaching 782 exabytes by 2025, for nearly 60% share of 5G. Unlike in other early adopter 5G countries like the U.S., Japan and South Korea, mobile network operators in China are government-owned, enabling them to get “extensive support” for developing networks, “especially in the consumer market," said analyst Jiancao Hou. The U.S-China trade war and Commerce Department export restrictions on Huawei and other Chinese vendors aren't "slowing down 5G deployment in China,” said Hou.
The FCC created docket 21-112 for filings on Verizon’s proposed buy of Tracfone from America Movil (see 2010070056). Parties have been filing to the International Bureau's ITC-T/C-20200930-00173.
The Commerce Department's Bureau of Industry and Security plans a virtual forum April 8 at 2 p.m. EDT to collect input on how the Biden administration can help boost the competitiveness and capacity of the U.S. semiconductor industry, says Tuesday’s Federal Register. Comments are due April 5 on the BIS notice of inquiry on semiconductor competitiveness (see 2103110054). The comments and feedback from the forum will help shape Commerce’s policy recommendations to the White House on President Joe Biden’s Feb. 24 executive order to relieve bottlenecks in the chip supply chain. Registration for the virtual forum closes Thursday.
The U.S. and European Commission will “intensify” negotiations on an “enhanced” EU-U.S. Privacy Shield framework to comply with the Schrems II decision (see 2101150016), Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo announced Thursday with European Commissioner for Justice Didier Reynders. The negotiations “underscore our shared commitment to privacy, data protection and the rule of law and our mutual recognition of the importance of transatlantic data flows to our respective citizens, economies, and societies,” they said. Also Thursday, the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation said the U.S. and EU should forge a "pragmatic" digital alliance for data transfers (see 2103250004).
Global videoconferencing device shipments are expected to reach 12.5 million units by 2025, a sixfold increase from 2020, reported Frost & Sullivan Wednesday. “This year marks the beginning of the revival of meeting rooms and office spaces,” F&S said. “As businesses and educational institutions prepare for the return to work, meeting rooms and classrooms will see heavy technology investments to support hybrid work and learning.” The company projects global revenue will exceed $7.7 billion in 2025, vs. $2.75 billion in 2020: “The long-term, sustainable demand for video meetings to connect remote workers and geographically dispersed teams” is driving the “secular growth opportunity,” said F&S.
The Department of Commerce should delay implementing an interim final rule on securing the information and communications technology and services (ICTS) supply chain, the Information Technology Industry Council commented Monday in docket 210113-0009. The rule is meant to address foreign adversaries’ exploitation of software and hardware sales and intellectual property theft. Its “breadth coupled with the broad discretion the rule grants to the Secretary continue to cast a cloud of uncertainty over almost all ICTS transactions and could undermine the national security objectives it purports to address, while also hindering U.S. competitiveness,” ITI said. Microsoft recommended an approach that “incentivizes adoption of technology-based best practices to better protect supply chain security and maintain tech leadership.” These incentives, rather than imposing “undue and unpredictable regulatory burdens,” will “better protect supply chain security and help the United States and other democracies maintain tech leadership,” wrote Associate General Counsel-Global Trade Sarah O’Hare.
The Commerce Department Bureau of Industry and Security plans to issue another set of emerging technology controls this year and hopes to propose them for multilateral control in 2022, said Matt Borman, BIS acting assistant secretary-export administration. Borman said he hopes BIS can fall into a more predictable “sequence” for its emerging and foundational technology control effort and move past last year’s pandemic disruptions. The “ideal scenario” is to seek comment “during the course of this year, so that we can tee them up early next year” for a Wassenaar Arrangement meeting, Borman told the department's Emerging Technology Technical Advisory Committee meeting. “That's the sequencing I'd like to get us into.” BIS plans to share the proposals with advisory committees “relatively soon,” he said Friday. “We want to make sure that the regime discussions are as informed as possible."
SoftBank launched its 5G millimeter-wave service in Japan using devices based on Qualcomm’s Snapdragon platforms and modem, Qualcomm said Friday. All initial 5G mmWave-compatible mobile devices in SoftBank’s lineup, including soon-to-be-announced 5G smartphones, are expected to be Qualcomm-powered, along with a pocket Wi-Fi 5G mmWave mobile hot spot.