State commissioners can influence broadband policy even with limited telecom authority, said NARUC broadband task force members at the association’s virtual annual meeting Thursday. Utility regulators’ telecom role “has diminished significantly” in most states, but they can still “play the role of honest broker,” said Idaho Public Utilities Commissioner Paul Kjellander, who next week becomes NARUC president. Collaboration with federal government is a must, said other commissioners.

State commissioners can influence broadband policy even with limited telecom authority, said NARUC broadband task force members at the association’s virtual annual meeting Thursday. Utility regulators’ telecom role “has diminished significantly” in most states, but they can still “play the role of honest broker,” said Idaho Public Utilities Commissioner Paul Kjellander, who next week becomes NARUC president. Collaboration with federal government is a must, said other commissioners.

Germany revised and added to its list of items subject to dual-use and military-related export controls, the EU Sanctions blog said Nov. 2. The additions, which took effect Oct. 29, include small firearms and components related to hunting and sports, software specially designed for “military offensive cyber operations,” certain land vehicles with military equipment, equipment relating to radiation weapons systems, and items used at “environmental testing facilities” to evaluate weapons and ammunition.

Singapore Customs issued an Oct. 30 guidance on the Association of Southeast Asian Nation’s Customs Transit System (ACTS), which it said will improve land transportation of goods when it takes effect Nov. 2. The system, which Singapore said will be implemented among some ASEAN member states, will allow traders to “submit a single ACTS electronic declaration to cover the entire transit journey,” Singapore said. The guidance contains details on how traders can register for the system and other conditions.

More than broadband disparity delays precision agriculture, said an FCC Precision Agriculture Task Force member. Many talented agriculturists, scientists and engineers work on precision ag, but “what seems to be lacking is overall coordination across all entities,” said Fifth Estate Growers farmer Andy Bater. “Everyone is rowing awfully hard, but the precision agriculture boat would move faster if the oars dipped into the water at the same time.” It needs “coordination and funding at a scale seldom seen in modern times, a Manhattan Project-level effort,” he said. The task force reviewed three interim reports Wednesday, as well as recommendations from working groups on mapping and analyzing connectivity on agricultural lands, current and future connectivity demand for precision agriculture, and spurring precision ag adoption and connected-farm jobs. It discussed but didn’t plan to vote on the work of a fourth WG about speeding broadband deployment on unserved agricultural lands. With the task force one year into a two-year charter, Wednesday’s virtual meeting was a “midterm report,” with recommendations preliminary, said Chair Teddy Bekele, chief technology officer for Land O’Lakes. The task force will spend most of next year tightening and seeking synergy among recommendations, he said. Among preliminary recommendations, the connectivity WG suggested asking the FCC to include $500 million from the $9 billion 5G Fund for edge computing, private wireless systems and precision ag applications. It should also provide incentives, with accountability, for providers to cover fields and pasturelands with high-speed, low-latency wireless coverage, the subgroup said. “Getting connectivity ... to just a farmhouse is a bridge halfway on this initiative. We absolutely need to cover every acre of land,” said Connectivity WG Chair Daniel Leibfried, a technology director at John Deere. Apply the broadband serviceable location fabric to the Agriculture Department's National Agricultural Statistics Service and U.S. Geological Survey national land cover database to map coverage in cultivated land and agricultural areas, suggested the Mapping WG. Do drive testing and "ground truthing" to check coverage, it said. The subpanel will talk next year about adding a topological layer to maps, said WG Chair Michael Adelaine, South Dakota State University vice president-technology and security. “Terrain could be very impactful.”

More than broadband disparity delays precision agriculture, said an FCC Precision Agriculture Task Force member. Many talented agriculturists, scientists and engineers work on precision ag, but “what seems to be lacking is overall coordination across all entities,” said Fifth Estate Growers farmer Andy Bater. “Everyone is rowing awfully hard, but the precision agriculture boat would move faster if the oars dipped into the water at the same time.” It needs “coordination and funding at a scale seldom seen in modern times, a Manhattan Project-level effort,” he said. The task force reviewed three interim reports Wednesday, as well as recommendations from working groups on mapping and analyzing connectivity on agricultural lands, current and future connectivity demand for precision agriculture, and spurring precision ag adoption and connected-farm jobs. It discussed but didn’t plan to vote on the work of a fourth WG about speeding broadband deployment on unserved agricultural lands. With the task force one year into a two-year charter, Wednesday’s virtual meeting was a “midterm report,” with recommendations preliminary, said Chair Teddy Bekele, chief technology officer for Land O’Lakes. The task force will spend most of next year tightening and seeking synergy among recommendations, he said. Among preliminary recommendations, the connectivity WG suggested asking the FCC to include $500 million from the $9 billion 5G Fund for edge computing, private wireless systems and precision ag applications. It should also provide incentives, with accountability, for providers to cover fields and pasturelands with high-speed, low-latency wireless coverage, the subgroup said. “Getting connectivity ... to just a farmhouse is a bridge halfway on this initiative. We absolutely need to cover every acre of land,” said Connectivity WG Chair Daniel Leibfried, a technology director at John Deere. Apply the broadband serviceable location fabric to the Agriculture Department's National Agricultural Statistics Service and U.S. Geological Survey national land cover database to map coverage in cultivated land and agricultural areas, suggested the Mapping WG. Do drive testing and "ground truthing" to check coverage, it said. The subpanel will talk next year about adding a topological layer to maps, said WG Chair Michael Adelaine, South Dakota State University vice president-technology and security. “Terrain could be very impactful.”

Tech giants are stepping up efforts for the holiday season. Amazon blogged Tuesday it’s filling more than 100,000 seasonal jobs to handle holiday orders. Positions are for employees who will help "pick, pack, and ship," it said. The seasonal jobs offer opportunities for pay incentives, benefits and a “path to a longer-term career, or can simply provide extra income and flexibility during the holiday season,” Amazon said. Google blogged Monday about tips for e-commerce merchants to help optimize consumer searches on Black Friday and Cyber Monday. It encouraged merchants to create pages early “so Googlebot has time to discover and index the page,” follow search engine optimization best practices, link to the landing page from home pages, use a recurring URL, use a high-quality image and “ask Google to recrawl your page.”

Tech giants are stepping up efforts for the holiday season. Amazon blogged Tuesday it’s filling more than 100,000 seasonal jobs to handle holiday orders. Positions are for employees who will help "pick, pack, and ship," it said. The seasonal jobs offer opportunities for pay incentives, benefits and a “path to a longer-term career, or can simply provide extra income and flexibility during the holiday season,” Amazon said. Google blogged Monday about tips for e-commerce merchants to help optimize consumer searches on Black Friday and Cyber Monday. It encouraged merchants to create pages early “so Googlebot has time to discover and index the page,” follow search engine optimization best practices, link to the landing page from home pages, use a recurring URL, use a high-quality image and “ask Google to recrawl your page.”

The FCC approved a 5G Fund as expected Tuesday, with partial dissents by Commissioners Jessica Rosenworcel and Geoffrey Starks (see 2010230056). Commissioners also approved revised TV white spaces rules 5-0, raising additional questions in a Further NPRM, including on the use of the Longley-Rice irregular terrain model for looking at interference (see 2010220048).

Giving laptops and hot spots to students who lack good internet won’t solve distance learning problems exacerbated by COVID-19, state and local officials said Monday. The California Senate Education Committee and the Special Committee on Pandemic Emergency Response jointly held a hearing Monday about online learning gaps. Earlier in the day at the virtual Mountain Connect conference, Chattanooga public and private officials said they’re using municipal broadband to provide free fiber internet to students in low-income households.