U.S. Customs and Border Protection has posted the draft agenda for its Advisory Committee on Commercial Operations of Customs and Border Protection (COAC) meeting on December 7, 2011. CBP has also posted the following presentations, draft recommendations, and other documents (note that if the links below have expired, these documents are available here):
The FCC granted Able Radio Corp.’s application for a new FM station in Tonopah, Ariz. A Media Bureau order Wednesday also dismissed an objection from Entravision, which said the site Able proposed after winning the channel in an auction is in an area overseen by the Bureau of Land Management that can’t be used for communications facilities. “Entravision cites no cases in which the Commission has dismissed an application based on a lack of reasonable assurance for an amended site,” said the order (http://xrl.us/bmjvih) signed by Chief Peter Doyle of the bureau’s Audio Division. “We decline to do so here."
Sony isn’t divulging the “next-generation” TV technology it said last month it’s developing as a product differentiator for use over the next three fiscal years to revive profitability in its TV business (CED Nov 3 p1), Sony Electronics CEO Phil Molyneux said in a New York media briefing Wednesday.
ZTE is pushing to raise the U.S. brand profile with a goal of having the market be its largest for smartphones and tablets by 2015, ZTE North America President Lixin Cheng told us. While customers in China accounted for 35 percent of its cellphone sales in the first nine months of this year, that will change in the future as the company’s U.S. mobile device revenue grows 50 percent over the next three years, company officials have said. The U.S. currently represents about 10 percent of the company’s annual cellphone sales. ZTE secured its first distribution with a tier one supplier last year when Verizon launched the Salute smartphone.
The FCC Wednesday approved a long-awaited order approving a secondary spectrum allocation sought by the Alfred Mann Foundation for wirelessly connecting neuromuscular microstimulators implanted in patients with brain and spinal cord injuries and neuromuscular disorders. FCC Commissioner Robert McDowell questioned why it took the FCC five years to act. The FCC approved a notice of inquiry at its July 2006 meeting asking about emerging medical technologies, including those outlined in the Alfred Mann proposal. The order approved Wednesday in a 4-0 vote allocates 24 MHz of 400 MHz band spectrum in four band segments for the MedRadio service on a secondary basis.
Oregon regulators are proposing a hefty registration fee hike for electronics makers to deal with growing deficits in the state’s e-waste recycling program. The Department of Environmental Quality has set up a committee comprising device makers and others involved to advise it on “options for revising the registration fees and developing a proposed fee structure that will cover DEQ’s costs for administering Oregon E-Cycles.” The department is looking at an increase of 25 to 45 percent, “depending on where we land with the committee in discussions,” Kathy Kiwala, E-Cycles program lead, told us.
NAB warned that the test of a TV white spaces database by Spectrum Bridge found numerous problems that still must be addressed. NAB said the overall results of the tests can only be described as “mixed.” The FCC Office of Engineering and Technology sought comment earlier this month on the recently completed 45-day public trial of Spectrum Bridge’s prototype white spaces database. Comments were due Tuesday. “It appears that during the initial testing period users encountered a high number of problems relative to the number of trial registrations entered into the database,” NAB said in comments filed at the FCC (http://xrl.us/bmjr8z). NAB said Spectrum Bridge received 65 “tickets” containing “comments, concerns, and issues related to the trial” among only 551 who registered to use the database, “a rate of nearly 12 percent.” NAB said these “tickets” likely do not fully account for all of the problems encountered by users. “NAB staff experienced numerous problems with attempting to register protected entities that occurred prior to the user reaching the screen where a ticket could be initiated; thus, they were unable to report these incidents through the system,” the association said. “Accordingly, the actual problem rate encountered by users was probably higher than reported.” Spectrum Bridge maintains that none of the problems encountered could be considered “critical,” NAB said. “Some, in fact, concerned very important issues, such as the inability to register certain operations for protection.” The Wireless Internet Service Providers Association countered that the test shows the database is ready to go live. WISPA said it agrees with a Spectrum Bridge report that none of the problems encountered were critical. “Further, it appears that [Spectrum Bridge] addressed questions from the public and made minor changes during the trial period in an expeditious and satisfactory manner,” the group said (http://xrl.us/bmjr9h). Spectrum Bridge also “made voluntary database changes to improve public comprehension of the database and thereby increase its utility,” WISPA said. Key Bridge Global, which plans to compete with Spectrum Bridge with a rival white spaces database, questioned whether the test offered a complete evaluation of a channel availability calculator, the cable headend and broadcast auxiliary temporary registration utilities and a wireless microphone registration utility critical to any database. “Some clarity should be provided as to exactly what functionality was demonstrated and independently validated and verified and what follow-up steps are required prior to Spectrum Bridge’s further designation as a white space administrator,” Key Bridge said (http://xrl.us/bmjsan). The Land Mobile Communications Council said work remains on guaranteeing that public communications systems using the 470-512 MHz band are protected, especially those authorized by FCC waiver in urban areas including Los Angeles. Such “operations are at least as essential to the public as is enhanced wireless broadband access,” the group said (http://xrl.us/bmjsbo).
NAB warned that the test of a TV white spaces database by Spectrum Bridge found numerous problems that still must be addressed. NAB said the overall results of the tests can only be described as “mixed.” The FCC Office of Engineering and Technology sought comment earlier this month on the recently completed 45-day public trial of Spectrum Bridge’s prototype white spaces database (CD Nov 15 p 13). Comments were due Tuesday.
The United Nation's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has recently issued a report that links increases in greenhouse gases (GHG) and other human influences to increases in extreme global minimum and maximum temperatures, precipitation, and other climate change. According to the report, resulting extreme weather events will have greater impacts on sectors with closer links to climate, such as water, agriculture and food security, forestry, health, and tourism, and infrastructure.
Activision’s multiplatform Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 remained the best-selling game in the U.K. its third week available despite sales falling 41 percent from the prior week, according to the Association for U.K. Interactive Entertainment (UKIE) Games Charts compiled by GfK Chart-Track for the week ended Saturday. Sales of the game had tumbled 87 percent in week two from week one (CED Nov 22 p9). Ubisoft’s Assassin’s Creed: Revelations for the Xbox 360 and PS3 repeated at No. 2 in its second week despite sales tumbling 61 percent. There were two new releases in the top 10, led by THQ’s WWE ‘12, at No. 6. The two versions of the game for the 360 accounted for a combined 53 percent of its sales, ahead of the combined 44 percent for the two PS3 SKUs. The remainder of its sales was apparently on the Wii, although UKIE didn’t specify data for that platform. The other new release was Nintendo’s DS game Professor Layton and the Last Specter, at No. 7. The only other new release to make the top 40 was Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment’s Lord of the Rings: War in the North, at No. 38. Ubisoft, THQ and Nintendo each had one other game in the top 10. Ubisoft’s was Just Dance 3 for the Wii and 360, up two at No. 8 in its seventh week as sales grew 22 percent. THQ’s was Saints Row: The Third for the 360, PS3 and PC, up one, No. 3, second week despite sales sliding 40 percent. The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim from Bethesda Softworks for the 360, PS3 and PC dipped one to No. 4 in its third week as sales slid 43 percent. Nintendo’s was Super Mario 3D Land for the 3DS, down one, No. 10, second week, sales down 12 percent. Electronic Arts also had two games in the top 10: the multiplatform FIFA 12, No. 5 again in its ninth week as sales grew 22 percent, and Battlefield 3 for the 360, PS3 and PC, down one, No. 9, sales down 4 percent. Two games fell out of the top 10: Nintendo’s The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword for the Wii, down 12, No. 19, second week, and Microsoft’s Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary for the 360, which fell from the top 20 completely after being No. 6 the prior week.