As of January 3, 2012, the Federal Maritime Commission received 56 comments in response to its Notice of Inquiry into the extent to which the U.S. Harbor Maintenance Tax and other factors incentivize containerized cargo destined for U.S. inland points to shift from U.S. West Coast ports to Canadian and Mexican ports. According to most comments1, the HMT and lack of U.S. infrastructure spending distort trade and put U.S. West Coast ports at a competitive disadvantage to Canadian ports.
The FCC adopted a rule to make it easier for radio stations serving Native American Tribes and Alaska Native Villages to move to urban areas, as expected (CD Dec 12 p4). Under the new rules, the FCC will establish a “Threshold Qualifications Window” for tribal entities to claim they meet the qualifications for a move, including: (1) the applicant is at least 51 percent owned by a recognized tribal entity. (2) at least 50 percent of the station’s signal coverage contour is over tribal lands. (3) the city of license is on tribal lands. (4) the proposed service must be first or second aural service, or a first local tribal-owned commercial service. If more than one entity applies for a particular location, tribes will have a period to settle mutually exclusive applications. If there’s no settlement, the allocation will be auctioned, the FCC said. If no qualifying party applies for the radio allocation, it would be auctioned to anyone. The rules do not include the FCC’s original proposal of a tribal bidding credit. FCC Commissioner Michael Copps said he believes the rules will “lead to licensing significantly more tribal entities” to provide radio service.
Sales of the PS Vita tumbled to 72,500 units in the handheld system’s second week available in Japan from 324,900 in week one (CED Dec 23 p7), according to Media Create data for the week ended Sunday. Sony Computer Entertainment’s system fell three to No. 5 on the country’s hardware chart. SCE remained mum on initial PS Vita sales data, but Media Create’s data indicated that a total of 397,300 units were sold in Japan through Sunday. The weak game release slate for the PS Vita was even more apparent than in its launch week as not a single software title for the system cracked the top 30. It won’t ship in North America and Europe until Feb. 22. The 3DS remained Japan’s best-selling system, sales growing to 482,200 from 367,700 the prior week. Cumulative 3DS hardware sales grew to an estimated 4.06 million in Japan, according to Media Create’s data. All weekly sales estimates are rounded to the nearest 100. The older PSP outsold the PS Vita, sales improving to 101,100 units from 64,500 as the PSP moved up two to No. 2 on the videogame hardware chart. The Wii moved up two to No. 3 on the hardware chart, sales improving to 91,200 from 60,900. The PS3 dipped one to No. 4, but sales grew to 75,900 from 65,100. Sales of all other systems again trailed far behind. The DSi LL remained No. 6, but sales improved to 8,500 from 5,600. The DSi moved up one to No. 7, sales growing to 5,900 from 3,500. The Xbox 360 dipped one to No. 8, but sales improved to 4,200 from 3,600. The PS2 remained No. 9, but sales inched up to 1,600 from 1,400. The DS Lite was again in last place, sales again well below 100. Nintendo’s Mario Kart 7 for the 3DS moved up two to become the week’s best-selling videogame, sales growing to 260,800 copies from 182,400 the prior week. Tecmo Koei’s Warriors Orochi 2 for the PS3 was No. 2 in its first week, moving 200,500 copies. Nintendo’s Super Mario 3D Land for the 3DS moved up two to No. 3, sales growing to 174,600 from 112,500. Capcom’s Monster Hunter 3G for the 3DS fell two to No. 4, sales slipping to 155,100 from 208,400. Square Enix’s Final Fantasy XIII-2 for the PS3, the prior week’s No. 1 videogame, fell to No. 5 in its second week as sales tumbled to 118,800 from 524,200. Sony’s Hot Shots Golf: World Invitational was again the best-selling PS Vita game, but it tumbled to No. 37 in its second week from No. 7. Sony’s Uncharted: Golden Abyss for the PS Vita tumbled to No. 40 from No. 8. The only other PS Vita games in the top 50 were Tecmo Koei’s Dynasty Warriors Next, down 26 at No. 44, and Square Enix’s Lord of Apocalypse, down 30 at No. 49. There were 10 PS Vita games in the top 50 the prior week.
Skycasters landed a GSA contract to provide satellite-based Internet services to government agencies, it said. The broadband satellite service is to be available under GSA’s Cooperative Purchase Program, ARRA Program, Disaster Recovery Purchase Program and other government programs, it said. Skycasters said its rapid-deployment satellite systems can deliver Internet connections within 10 minutes of deployment, and are simple enough for untrained personnel to operate.
Public safety should pursue a single public land-mobile network identification (PLMN-ID) as early projects are launched building the first public safety networks in the 700 MHz band, the Los Angeles Regional Interoperable Communications System (LARICS) said in a filing at the FCC. LARICS, which hopes to build one of the first local networks, responded to a letter from the state of Texas, also building a network, filed at the FCC last month. “There are a number of fundamental and central architectural and operational decisions that have substantial implications on capital implementation and operating costs in order to achieve national interoperability with a single PLMN ID,” LARICS said in a filing at the FCC (http://xrl.us/bmmq2w). “We note that without a PLMN ID, public safety will not have ‘operability,’ and therefore, it is critical that public safety secure a single PLMN ID to operate these early networks.” LARICS said, “Given that several waiver entities are ready to launch their networks, the demand for a PLMN ID is immediate.” The PLMN ID is the LTE network identifier that functions similarly to system IDs in digital mobile radio networks.
Nebraska Furniture Mart hired Interbrand Design Forum to draft plans for its new 546,000-square-foot store in the Dallas area. Interbrand, which has done work for JCPenney, Michael’s and Yankee Candle, designed Nebraska’s store in Kansas City, Mo., which opened in 2003. The Dallas location, which is on 433 acres spread across four parcels of land Nebraska closed on earlier this month, is expected to open by 2015, the company has said. Construction is to begin in the spring, the company said. In addition to the showroom, the site will include a 1.8-million-square-foot warehouse and 25,000-square-foot regional office, Nebraska has said. The store, Nebraska’s fourth, following those in Omaha, Kansas City and Des Moines, is expected to generate $600 million to $800 million in annual revenue, company officials have said. The new location won’t result in any changes in Nebraska’s merchandise mix, but it will allow it to test out new store designs including wider aisles, company officials have said. Nebraska had been expected to decide on a new location last year (CED Feb 22/10 p1). The new store will adopt the design of the 51,000-square-foot CE department deployed in Kansas City, which features store-within-a-store displays for Apple, Bose, Harman, Hewlett-Packard and Sony.
Online retailers without a brick-and-mortar presence have a difficult time expanding their businesses through traditional financial services companies, said Marc Gorlin, chairman of Kabbage, a funding company heading to CES next month to promote its funding and data collection services for small online businesses.
Online retailers without a brick-and-mortar presence have a difficult time expanding their businesses through traditional financial services companies, said Marc Gorlin, chairman of Kabbage, a funding company heading to CES next month to promote its funding and data collection services for small online businesses. Kabbage provides working capital to small online merchants who sell on marketplaces including eBay, Amazon, Yahoo and Etsy, Gorlin said. Kabbage uses what it calls “nonstandard” data beyond a credit report to “take someone from landing on our site, entering information about sales channels, business and personal information, to having money in their account in less than 10 minutes,” he said. The company offers funding lines, in a fee-based structure, ranging from $500-$40,000, he said.
On December 21, 2011 the Foreign Agriculture Service issued the following GAIN reports
The ITU-R study group on terrestrial services will begin two new studies and revise 16 ongoing studies unless objections arise by March 19, the director of the Radiocommunication Bureau said in a letter to administrations. One new study on frequency sharing and compatibility between systems in the fixed service will look at acceptable levels of interference from systems in services with and without primary allocations, including in adjacent bands, it said. A second study of use and future use of the fixed service will examine the key trends and drivers of technologies and applications for the fixed service across the different bands over the 2013 to 2023 time period and beyond, it said. A study on cognitive radio systems in the mobile service will examine how cognitive radio systems can spur the efficient use of radio resources. It will also examine the cognitive capabilities that can spur sharing and coexistence of mobile systems with systems in other services, including broadcasting, science, satellite and space services. A study on mobile broadband wireless access systems will no longer be limited to the mobile service. A study on nomadic wireless access systems including radio local area networks will no longer be limited to mobile applications. An ongoing study will focus more precisely on use of the mobile, amateur, and amateur satellite services in times of disasters. An existing study of mobile wireless access systems providing telecommunications for a large number of ubiquitous sensors and actuators scattered over wide areas in the land mobile service will now look at machine-to-machine communications. A study on intelligent transport systems will be extended to 2015. A study on radio-frequency arrangements for fixed wireless systems was extended to 2015. A study on software defined radio will be extended to 2015.