“The port is invoking the full coercive power of the State to impose conditions on motor carriers, and that is exactly what Congress sought to prevent,” said Daniel Lerman, counsel for the American Trucking Associations, in oral arguments before the Supreme Court April 16. In American Trucking Associations v. City of Los Angeles, the ATA is challenging the Port of Los Angeles’ “concession contracts” for licensed motor carriers operating drayage trucks that bring freight in and out of the port.
Lightower Fiber Networks said it completed its merger with Sidera Networks (http://bit.ly/10O8zfX). Berkshire Partners agreed in late December to buy and merge the two fiber providers (CD Dec 28 p12). The merger “creates one of the largest metro fiber providers” in the U.S., with 20,000 route miles of fiber in New England, metropolitan New York, Philadelphia, metropolitan Washington, Virginia, and metropolitan Chicago, Lightower said. The provider said it also provides connectivity to landing points in London and Toronto.
Inmarsat plans to launch the first Inmarsat-5 satellite this year as part of its forthcoming Ka-band network, Global Xpress. The network will expand Inmarsat’s services in mobility and bandwidth to serve governments and the private sector (CD July 23 p15). Executives involved in the rollout at Inmarsat and companies it’s working with said in interviews that they're making progress on the product to improve satellite Internet coverage.
President Obama’s nearly $3.8 trillion budget includes specific funding for the various trade agencies to help complete the National Export Initiative, which aims to double exports over five years, plus increases for export reform and more staff and equipment at CBP. The budget spreads $447 million among five international trade and investment agencies “to promote international trade, enforce trade agreements and help meet the goals of the National Export Initiative,” said the Office of Management and Budget in a budget rollout statement. That includes:
Port of Corpus Christi Commissioners approved a long-term lease agreement with voestalpine Texas Holding, during an April 9 meeting. Voestalpine selected the authority's La Quinta property as their preferred location. The agreement "will drive import and export cargo through the Port of Corpus Christi," said Mike Carrell, chairman of the Port Commission. He said the commitment by the port and the Army Corps of Engineers to fund and extend the La Quinta Ship Channel to the site of the La Quinta Trade Gateway "was a significant factor in the negotiations." Voestalpine will lease about 475 acres of upland property and about 11 acres of submerged land for an initial lease term of 50 years, with two 15-year options and use it for a $700 million Hot Briquetted Iron (HBI) plant and a 1,060-foot long high-performance dock capable of unloading iron ore pellets and loading HBI. The authority said voestalpine will anchor development at La Quinta Trade Gateway facility. The voestalpine group is based in Austria.
The 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a lower court’s decision Friday against an arrangement between a Virginia land developer and telecommunications provider OpenBand that made the company the exclusive video provider for a residential subdivision. “This is the first case to determine whether courts can strike down exclusive easements under the Federal Communications Commission’s 2007 Order banning exclusive video access arrangements,” said a release from Wiltshire and Grannis, the law firm that represented Loudoun County’s Lansdowne on the Potomac Homeowners Association against OpenBand and several subsidiary companies. OpenBand’s parent company, M.C. Dean, did not comment on the decision. According to the release, OpenBand has used the exclusivity arrangement with Lansdowne on the Potomac’s developer “to prevent any competitive provider of wired video services from accessing or offering communication services to residents in the development’s approximately 2,000 homes.” According to the 4th Circuit decision, OpenBand created a web of multiple agreements among numerous subsidiary companies, such as OpenBand at Lansdowne LLC., as part of a complicated network of contracts that Judge J. Harvie Wilkinson called in his decision “an artifice to evade the FCC order” and “an elaborate game of regulatory subterfuge.” “The district court correctly pierced these arguments to recognize that OpenBand had set up just the kind of non-competitive video service monopoly -- with all the attendant dangers of high prices and poor service -- that the FCC banned.” Friday’s ruling permanently enjoins OpenBand from enforcing the terms of its exclusivity agreements in the subdivisions, the release said (http://fcc.us/Z3S5ln).
AT&T said it’s partnering with Scanbuy on the AT&T Mobile Barcode Services platform, which will help businesses launch more “relevant and engaging” QR code-based marketing campaigns. The platform includes tools to easily create mobile-optimized landing pages, create customized QR codes that highlight a business’s signature colors or logo, as well as allow for more advanced QR code-prompted actions, AT&T said Monday. Platform-generated QR codes will be compatible with most mobile QR applications, including the AT&T Code Scanner and Scanbuy’s ScanLife application. The platform will also include analytics data that will help businesses target their campaigns based on age, gender and other demographics, AT&T said (http://soc.att.com/14RMBhy).
AT&T said it’s partnering with Scanbuy on the AT&T Mobile Barcode Services platform, which will help businesses launch more “relevant and engaging” QR code-based marketing campaigns. The platform includes tools to easily create mobile-optimized landing pages, create customized QR codes that highlight a business’s signature colors or logo, as well as allow for more advanced QR code-prompted actions, AT&T said Monday. Platform-generated QR codes will be compatible with most mobile QR applications, including the AT&T Code Scanner and Scanbuy’s ScanLife application. The platform will also include analytics data that will help businesses target their campaigns based on age, gender and other demographics, AT&T said (http://soc.att.com/14RMBhy).
The number of commercial truck crossings into the U.S. from Canada and Mexico grew 3.6 percent in 2012 to 10.7 million, said the U.S. Department of Transportation's Bureau of Transportation Statistics. That followed a 1.7 percent rise from 2010 to 2011, after four years of decline from 2005 to 2009, it said. The overall database (here) also includes numbers of incoming trains, buses, containers, personal vehicles, and pedestrians entering the U.S. through land ports and ferry crossings.
Any measurable goals and targets for a development agenda after the 2015 deadline for reaching the Millennium Development Goals (MDG) “should explicitly include broadband,” the four leaders of the U.N. Broadband Commission said in an open letter on behalf of the group’s 55 commissioners (http://xrl.us/bos6rh). The group is chaired by telecom magnate Carlos Slim Helu and embattled Rwandan President Paul Kagame. Hamadoun Toure, the ITU secretary-general, and Irina Bokova of the U.N. Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, are the vice-chairs. The deadline for reaching the goals expires in 1,000 days, the letter said. A high-level panel, mandated by a 2010 summit on the MDG, will advise the U.N. secretary-general on the global development framework beyond 2015. Broadband, including mobile broadband, is fundamental for ensuring connectivity at sea and in the air, as well as on land in remote areas, it said. Broadband will also spur emergency and humanitarian communications, distance learning and e-commerce, it said. Broadband enhances remote diagnosis, tracking of symptoms, mapping epidemics and disease outbreaks, it said. Furthermore, broadband promotes increased opportunities for women and girls to participate in economic and social activities, it said. There is a need for a renewed global partnership that enables a transformative, people-centered and planet-sensitive development agenda, the high-level panel advising the U.N. secretary general said following a March 27 meeting (http://xrl.us/bos6r6). The Broadband Commission’s members include Vint Cerf of Google, Julius Genachowski of the FCC, Neelie Kroes of the European Commission, executives from major telecom and satellite companies, Microsoft, Cisco, Qualcomm, Huawei and others.