GENEVA -- Expanding product coverage and national participation in a WTO agreement eliminating tariffs for certain information technology gear could give a big boost to global economic gains, officials and executives said at a symposium on the 15th anniversary of the Information Technology Agreement (ITA). The ITA “must be expanded,” said Charlene Barshefsky, an attorney with WilmerHale. Negotiations could address the nearly $1 trillion in annual trade that isn’t covered for tariff-free treatment, speakers said.
Europe isn’t lagging behind in tackling challenges to mobile payments, the chairman of the European Payments Council’s m-channel working group said in an interview. The payment channel is still considered an emerging one across the world, as in Europe, Dag-Inge Flatraaker said. Each region “has a different starting point and specific target scenarios,” he said. Many European Commission suggestions for integrating Europe’s market for mobile, Internet and credit-card payments won’t achieve their desired goals, he said. The EC is digesting comments on its January “green” (discussion) paper on the issues and the results of a May 4 Brussels conference on card, Internet and mobile payments, and expects to publish its latest thoughts by the end of July, Jonathan Faull, director general of the Internal Market and Services Directorate, told the conference.
A DVR feature offered by Dish Network that lets viewers skip commercials could lead to issues around retransmission consent agreements, some broadcast and satellite industry experts said. Auto Hop, the feature unveiled last week, uses technology that skips over ads during playback.
The “No. 1 agenda” in international telecom policy is to free up more spectrum for mobile broadband, said the U.S. delegation head for the 2012 World Radio Conference, Decker Anstrom. Executives from Qualcomm, Vodafone and Lockheed Martin agreed that spectrum demand continues to drive the conversation among international telecom firms. Executives on another panel at the Friday event hosted by the Hogan Lovells law firm said they're worried about the impact that broadband competition and wireless data caps could have on America educational needs.
Payphones got no love in comments filed in response to petitions for reconsideration of the Lifeline Order: A proposal to extend Lifeline funding to payphones was characterized as nonsensical, confused, and misplaced by those who commented on the idea, although NASUCA did say it “sympathizes.” This is not the first time the industry has blasted payphone operators’ request for Lifeline money (CD Jan 20/11 p9). Commenters also generally supported petitions to eliminate various “burdensome” reporting and auditing requirements. Tribal interests did not appreciate USTelecom’s claim that it was too difficult to comply with a requirement that carriers provide Tribe-specific information upon reasonable request. Reply comments in docket 11-42 are due Tuesday.
Liberty Global executives aren’t very concerned about a new Dutch law that could require the cable operator to make wholesale access to its analog video network available to competitors, CEO Mike Fries said during a Q1 earnings teleconference Friday. “Whatever occurs will probably take some time,” he said. Last time the Dutch government took similar steps “as you will recall, we had a pretty good economic solution even if it did come about, but we're not too worried about it,” Fries said.
ICANN’s “challenge” is to ensure that “governments feel like they have an effective voice within” the organization and also that they “aren’t the only ones at the table,” said Vice President Jamie Hedlund. Every four or five years, ICANN is a “target for inter-governmental organizations and is in the cross hairs of some governments who don’t like the multi-stakeholder process,” he said Friday at a forum in Washington organized by the Hogan Lovells law firm.
NEW ORLEANS -- Spectrum sharing between the U.S. government and carriers appears to be getting more attention in the wake of last week’s CTIA show, attendees and nonprofit officials told us. FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski discussed at the conference that his agency and the NTIA will work together to test government and industry sharing in the 1755-1780 MHz LTE band (CD May 9 p1). Carrier executives also urged spectrum sharing, as the industry is concerned with what it views as a coming shortage of supply of frequencies and a recent NTIA report on 1755-1850 MHz that said clearing the band would cost $18 billion (CD May 11 p1).
An attempt by Verizon to raise its special access rates ahead of an expected reform of the special access pricing flexibility rules is drawing criticism as several CLECs accuse the telco of “an attempt to game the system.” Verizon’s proposed new rates for special access -- dedicated circuits often used by businesses, and as backhaul for wireless sites -- increase the monthly recurring charges for most of its customers by about 6 to 8 percent, opponents say. That’s on top of a rate hike last year, bringing the total increase to about 12 percent in some areas. That’s too pricy for members of the Broadband Coalition, who said the telco is upping prices to offset the cuts that the FCC might make this year, if it reduces or caps special access rates. The Broadband Coalition includes XO, tw telecom, Earthlink, Cbeyond, Megapath, Lumos, Integra and CompTel. A Verizon spokesman defended the move, citing an increase in the cost of materials and labor to provide the service.
Talk of potential leadership changes at the National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC) could have a ripple effect in the House Communications Subcommittee, industry and Capitol Hill officials speculated. They said that if current NRCC Chairman Rep. Pete Sessions, R-Texas, doesn’t seek another NRCC term, Deputy Chairman and current subcommittee chair Greg Walden, R-Ore., would be the likely choice to replace him. Such a scenario could shake up the subcommittee leadership structure in 2013, though Capitol Hill aides said it’s too early to speculate.