The FCC should establish a separate Tribal Broadband Plan within the National Broadband Plan, the National Congress of American Indians and other groups said. Native Public Media, the New America Foundation’s Open Technology Initiative and the Southern California Tribal Chairmen’s Association offered additional ex parte comments on the broadband plan. The comments built on an earlier filing on an FCC request for comment on high-speed access on tribal lands.
Two major public safety groups, APCO and the National Public Safety Telecommunications Council, said the FCC should take public safety’s interest in the TV broadcast band into account as the commission examines where to find more spectrum for wireless broadband. Both groups filed on National Broadband Plan Public Notice No. 26, examining spectrum issues.
USTR Kirk recently commented on President Obama's intent to enter into negotiations of a regional, Asia-Pacific trade agreement, known as the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement. Kirk said that the U.S. will have to confront big challenges, from rationalizing rules of origin amongst current FTA partners to addressing agricultural, developmental, and labor challenges elsewhere, to adding additional countries in ways that ensure that the countries maintain a comprehensive, high standard agreement. (Press release, dated 12/15/09, available at http://www.ustr.gov/about-us/press-office/press-releases/2009/december/ustr-ron-kirk-remarks-trans-pacific-partnership-n)
The Consumer Product Safety Commission has issued a press release announcing that CPSC and the Window Covering Safety Council (WCSC) have issued a voluntary recall to repair all Roman shades and roll-up blinds to prevent the risk of strangulation to young children.
At a November 4, 2009 trade association meeting, U.S. Customs and Border Protection officials discussed a variety of issues related to the importation of textiles and apparel, highlights of which include the following:
CompTel said its competitive-carrier members face “significant market barriers” in China, Egypt, India, Germany, Argentina and South Africa. The countries aren’t complying with World Trade Organization obligations or U.S. telecom trade agreements, CompTel said in comments filed Monday with the U.S. Trade Representative. The association said Argentina unfairly discriminates regarding universal service funding. China has “burdensome” capitalization requirements and it hasn’t carried out its duties under the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS), CompTel said. Egypt has failed to provide under GATS full market access and national treatment for fixed line voice and data service providers, including international services, it said. Germany also has failed to fulfill all its GATS promises, it lacks “transparency and objectivity,” and it has failed to live up to its access and interconnection duties, CompTel said. India has “discriminatory universal service and regulatory fees, excessive pricing of leased lines, burdensome and unnecessary regulation relating to encryption and network monitoring, and excessive annual regulatory fees,” it said. South Africa provides no access to submarine cable landing stations and it may impose foreign-ownership limits on service providers, CompTel said.
CompTel said its competitive-carrier members face “significant market barriers” in China, Egypt, India, Germany Argentina and South Africa. The countries aren’t complying with World Trade Organization obligations or U.S. telecom trade agreements, CompTel said in comments filed Monday with the U.S. Trade Representative. The association said Argentina unfairly discriminates regarding universal service funding. China has “burdensome” capitalization requirements and it hasn’t carried out its duties under the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS), CompTel said. Egypt has failed to provide under GATS full market access and national treatment for fixed line voice and data service providers, including international services, it said. Germany also has failed to fulfill all its GATS promises, it lacks “transparency and objectivity,” and it has failed to live up to its access and interconnection duties, CompTel said. India has “discriminatory universal service and regulatory fees, excessive pricing of leased lines, burdensome and unnecessary regulation relating to encryption and network monitoring, and excessive annual regulatory fees,” it said. South Africa provides no access to submarine cable landing stations and it may impose foreign-ownership limits on service providers, CompTel said.
The FCC needs to make solving the digital divide a high priority for its broadband plan, Commissioner Michael Copps said at a Practising Law Institute conference Thursday. People are starting to realize that the broadband plan is not just “technospeak from broadband geeks” but can lead to policies that improve peoples’ lives, said Copps, who was introduced at the conference by Chairman Julius Genachowski. But if policymakers don’t get it right, the result could be “more and even wider divides in this country,” Copps said.
The Department of Energy is allowing manufacturers subject to certain certification requirements for consumer residential products to remedy deficiencies in their certification submissions and/or to certify covered products. DOE will refrain from initiating an enforcement action for any violations of 10 CFR 430.62 that are remedied prior to 30 days from December 9, 2009. (FR Pub 12/09/09, available at http://edocket.access.gpo.gov/2009/pdf/E9-29356.pdf)
D-Link will ship a new set-top box for Boxee’s online video service in Q2, as the software developer moves to merge its technology with CE devices, Boxee CEO Avner Rosen said at a news conference Monday night in Brooklyn, N.Y. The cube- shaped, Linux-based product ($200) will feature an SD slot, Wi-Fi, two USB connectors and HDMI. Other specs, including the set-top’s storage capacity, the processor supplier and the chip’s clock speed weren’t disclosed. Boxee’s interface requires “tens of megabytes” for storage, company officials have said. Boxee will be showing off the set-top at the Wynn Hotel in Las Vegas during CES. “We had conversations with media and cable companies and they were intrigued, but it’s going to be a while before they are comfortable with this,” Rosen said. D-Link was the “most aggressive” in pursuing an agreement, he told us. Boxee began discussions with potential partners in January before landing on home gateway and router supplier D-Link, Rosen said. The alliance could open the door for Boxee to use D-Link’s distribution network including Best Buy and most other major retailers. The set- top will be used to demonstrate the video service’s capabilities, with a goal of eventually having the software built into TVs, Blu-ray players and other products, Rosen said. The set-top will have an Ethernet port and contain Boxee’s browser, but “surfing the net won’t be a popular application” for the device, Rosen said. About 300 applications have been developed for Boxee, roughly half user-generated, since the company started a developer program this year, Rosen said. Boxee didn’t say which of its content providers would have product available. It has alliances with Sony’s Crackle, Last.fm and Flickr and highlighted new partnerships with Clicker and The Escapist. The Escapist is an online videogames news and reviews site that serves as a “community” for the category. Clicker’s Internet video directory, which started in beta in September, was ported to the Boxee platform Thursday, company officials said. Clicker maintains a directory of about 450,000 streaming TV shows and episodes and is designed to be controlled with a remote. But Boxee won’t have access to Clicker’s entire database, which includes Hulu. Boxee has battled with Hulu over access to its programming. Boxee developed a workaround despite licensing issues, but it’s not the fully authorized interface it once had. The Boxee Set-top also will provide access to Netflix to users who have accounts with it. Netflix isn’t compatible with Linux, but Boxee will develop an application that is, Rosen said. As it unveiled hardware plans, Boxee also launched a four-week beta test of a new version of its software. The software was revamped to better organize the service’s content by category and add search capability. Movies and TV programs are now organized both in a general “library” and by user preferences. Boxee also is working with Last.fm and Pandora to similarly classify online music, Rosen said. And there’s a “my applications” tab for storing preferred applications. Boxee was previously a mix of 40 content sources, many with their own interfaces and search functions.