U.S. Customs and Border Protection has posted to its Web site a notice which announces the phased enforcement of mandatory Automated Commercial Environment electronic manifest: Truck for advance cargo information purposes at all land border ports in Idaho and Montana beginning August 6, 2007.

Content based on the hit NBC TV show Heroes was made available for download on Microsoft’s Xbox Live Marketplace for Xbox 360 users in a deal with Universal Studios Consumer Products Group. The terms weren’t disclosed. Downloadable content includes images of characters from the show -- but not episodes of the series, whose first season ended Mon. Separately, Microsoft will start expanding its Fargo, N.D., campus, adding a 3rd 120,000-sq. ft. building, to be completed in 2009, it said Tues. The new building will let the facility support 575 more employees, the company said, calling it only “part of the first phase” of its Fargo expansion. The Redmond, Wash.-based firm employs 1,293 people in the area -- 956 full-time employees at the campus, and 337 vendors and contingent staff. The Fargo location “has significantly expanded its charter over the past several years, and today the campus is home to teams from across the company,” said Jeff Raikes, pres. of Microsoft’s Business Div. The expansion “will help position us to keep pace with our growth and the changing needs of our business,” he added. The Fargo effort also includes a 65,000-sq. ft. expansion of the existing Horizon Building, plus linking all buildings, adding meeting space at the campus’s Vista Building and land improvements, it said. Microsoft expects to house about 3,800 employees, vendors and contingent staff when construction is complete.

The city of N.Y., on behalf of its police and firefighters, asked the FCC to rethink plans to establish a deadline for many private land mobile radio licensees to transition to 6.25 kHz technology. Before imposing any deadlines, the FCC should issue a further notice of proposed rulemaking to “reevaluate the mandate and address how the interests of public safety communications can best be promoted,” NYC said. The city filed a petition for reconsideration to the 3rd report and order in the proceeding, which the FCC approved in March. The FCC said in the order its goal is to promote adoption of a more efficient narrowband channel plan, employing equipment that can operate in 6.25 kHz channels, which are 1/4 the size of channels formerly used. “This order affords agencies no opportunity to plan and implement a reasoned migration path consistent with public safety standards,” NYC said: “It will strand investment in communications networks to the detriment of local and state government public safety operations.”

In the beginning of May 2007, U.S. Customs and Border Protection posted to its Web site a notice announcing the phased enforcement of mandatory Automated Commercial Environment electronic manifest: Truck for advance cargo information purposes at all land border ports in Michigan and New York beginning May 24, 2007.

The Southern Governors Assn. (SGA) endorsed a public- private partnership to build a nationwide interoperable public safety network, in a recently passed resolution. Collaboration between public safety and the wireless industry “will allow the public safety community to harness the power of the commercial markets, software, high-speed digital networks and advances in radio technology,” an SGA resolution said. The Assn.’s leadership also sent a letter May 15 to DHS Secy. Michael Chertoff, FCC Chmn. Martin and NTIA Dir. John Kneuer.

The FTC is “diligently” wrapping up work on its 2005 CAN-SPAM rulemaking, Spam Coordinator Sana Chriss said Fri. at the Direct Mktg. Assn. e-mail policy conference. “We want to get it right,” she said of how long it’s taking. The rulemaking aimed to nail down “certain definitions and substantive provisions” of CAN-SPAM left to agency discretion. At the conference, e-mail chiefs also tangled with an audience member who complained that opt-in e-mail recipients have too much power in accusing Internet marketers of being spammers.

Frontline Wireless agrees satellites are needed for emergency backup in public-safety networks, CTO Stagg Newman, told us: Even if the most aggressive buildout proposals come to fruition, “you still have 25% or more of the land mass that is not covered. Satellites are the way you cover those areas.” Frontline rival Cyren Call explicitly mentioned satellites in its proposal; Frontline didn’t. “Satellites have a long-term role,” Newman said: “But we are not focused on that in the 700 MHz band because satellites use a different band.” If an Internet protocol-based public-safety network is built as Frontline envisions, handset makers will be more willing to build dual-mode - mobile and satellite - phones, he said: “It is possible to give first responders a dual-mode phone they can carry but you first you have to create the ecosystem.”

On May 4, 2007, Working Group III of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) issued a report that describes scientific progress in understanding global greenhouse gas emission trends, as well as the ability of short-to-medium-term strategies to achieve long-term goals of mitigating climate change.

At the request of General Dynamics SatCom Technologies, the FCC said, the agency is proposing to license vehicle- mounted earth stations (VMES) as an application of FSS operating in the Ku-band. The designation “would facilitate the U.S. military’s training needs with respect to advanced VMES,” General Dynamics had told the Commission. Proposed rules “seek to promote innovative and flexible use of satellite technologies” while avoiding interference, the FCC said. Currently, land mobile satellite services must protect primary FSS operations in the Ku-band. General Dynamics told the Commission that nonmilitary applications “are likely to follow adoption of regularized licensing procedures.” VMES is “ideally suited” for homeland security and disaster recovery, the company said: “Permitting broader VMES operations, under carefully prescribed conditions, would make the technology available for commercial uses such as satellite news gathering, weather services, mineral/fossil fuel exploration and extraction, and large-scale construction projects.” General Dynamic’s SatCom-on-the-Move (SOTM) consists of a fixed earth station serving as one endpoint of a link and various mobile stations mounted on combat vehicles. The fixed earth station uses a 2.4-meter earth station antenna. The vehicle-mounted antennas can be as small as 17.7”, General Dynamics told the FCC. SOTM has been operating under special temporary authority since Nov. 2004, the FCC said. SOTM was also granted authorization to access Intelsat 707 satellite at 53 degrees W. Comments will be due 30 days after publication in the Federal Register and replies 15 days later, the FCC said.

Inmarsat wants on Europe’s troubled Galileo navigation project whether it stays a public-private partnership or the European Commission decides it will pay for the project, said Inmarsat CEO Andrew Sukawaty in a Q1 earnings call. Other topics in the call included launch plans for Inmarsat 4-3, use of ancillary terrestrial component (ATC) service and the company’s plans for handheld service.