Trade using surface transportation between the U.S. and Canada and Mexico was up 17.4% in February from February 2011, reaching $78.1 billion, according to the Bureau of Transportation Statistics (BTS) of the Department of Transportation. The trade figure increase for February from January was 3.4%, BTS said.
Harman International imposed a surcharge on speaker products in fiscal Q3, seeking to offset the rise in costs of rare earth materials, including those used for neodymium magnets, company officials told analysts in an earnings conference call.
HD Radio licensor iBiquity Digital is “definitely working” toward the goal of seeing HD Radio built into smartphones and other mobile devices for sale to the public before the end of this year, Chief Operating Officer Jeff Jury said in an interview. IBiquity first disclosed its HD Radio smartphone plans at the recent NAB Show in Las Vegas (CED April 17 p3).
HD Radio licensor iBiquity Digital is “definitely working” toward the goal of seeing HD Radio built into smartphones and other mobile devices for sale to the public before the end of this year, Chief Operating Officer Jeff Jury said in an interview. IBiquity first disclosed its HD Radio smartphone plans at the recent NAB Show in Las Vegas (CD April 17 p10).
AU Optronics has “several” smartphone customers for new OLED displays being produced in small quantities, President Paul Peng said in a conference call. AU, which scrapped an earlier OLED development effort in 2006, is making displays on a 3.5-generation with maximum monthly capacity for 8,000 sheets and plans to add a 4.5G line by year-end with maximum production for 15,000. AU Optronics also is working on converting a 6G LCD line to make OLED TV panels, analysts said.
The FCC Wireless and Public Safety bureaus suspended a Jan. 1, 2013, requirement that private land mobile radio (PLMR) licensees in the T-band migrate to narrowband technology. The bureaus also announced a freeze on the processing of Part 22 and Part 90 T-Band applications. Spectrum legislation enacted in February gives public safety use of the 700 MHz D-block, but requires agencies to vacate the T-band within nine years. “Pending further action by the Commission ... there is substantial uncertainty regarding whether application of the narrowbanding deadline in the T-Band would continue to serve its original purpose,” said the order addressing T-band narrowbanding (http://xrl.us/bm5agc). “Continuing to require narrowbanding could force many licensees in the band to invest in narrowband systems that may subsequently have to be relocated. In addition, Commission staff has taken steps to freeze future licensing in the 470-512 MHz band.” The order clarifies that T-band licensees also operating in the 150-174 MHz and 421-470 MHz bands must still meet the narrowbanding deadline with respect to those frequencies. The bureaus said they are ordering a freeze “to maintain a stable spectral landscape while the Commission determines how to implement” the spectrum legislation (http://xrl.us/bm5ahb).
The Environmental Impact Statement about proposals to export coal from up to six sites in Oregon and Washington did not evaluate the effects of coal exports to Asia, only the environmental effects of transporting and using the coal in the Midwest and eastern U.S., said Oregon Gov. John Kitzhaber (D) in a letter to Interior Secretary Ken Salazar and officials at the Bureau of Land Management and Army Corps of Engineers.
High-cost loop support got a major overhaul Wednesday, in an order designed to fix “problematic incentives and inequitable distribution of support” (http://xrl.us/bm49qi). The FCC Wireline Bureau order fleshed out the details of 2011’s commission-level USF/intercarrier compensation order, which set out a framework for reform. About 100 study areas with “very high costs relative to similarly situated peers” will see a total reduction in support of $65 million, the bureau said, and the reduction will be phased in between July 1 and 2014. “By delaying the full impact of the reductions until 2014, we provide companies who would be adversely affected adequate time to make adjustments and, if necessary, demonstrate that a waiver is warranted either to correct inaccurate boundary information and/or to ensure that consumers in the area continue to receive voice service,” the order said. The bureau expects about 500 study areas to receive $55 million to fund new broadband investment.
Directorate of Defense Trade Controls notification of name/address changes:
CenturyLink will get up to $90 million in Connect America Fund money, Frontier $72 million, Windstream $60 million, AT&T $48 million and Verizon $20 million, if they agree within 90 days to deploy broadband to unserved areas, the FCC announced late Wednesday (http://xrl.us/bm455q). Carriers accepting the incremental support must certify that their current capital improvement plan did not already include plans to complete broadband deployment to those locations within the next three years. Based on rules adopted in the USF/intercarrier compensation order, the number of new broadband deployments must be equal to the amount of support each carrier accepts, divided by $775, and they'll have three years to do it. FairPoint, Alaska Communications Systems, Consolidated, Hawaiian Telcom and Vitelco were offered about $10 million among them.