BERKELEY, Calif. -- A Cisco executive said AT&T and BT are close to a TelePresence interconnection deal that will ignite both the international demand for the high-definition conferencing service and the supply of it. The carriers, the first two providing the service, should complete their deal this summer, after considerable haggling, said Randy Harrell, the product marketing director for Cisco’s TelePresence business unit. He spoke Friday at the Immersive Telecommunications conference.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection has issued a news release assuring U.S. and Canadian citizens that "if otherwise admissible" they will be able to re-enter the U.S. when the land and sea portion of the Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative is implemented on June 1, 2009.
CBP has issued a news release announcing that it is committed to the flexible and practical implementation of the June 1, 2009 document requirements for U.S. and Canadian citizens at land and sea ports of entry as part of the Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative. CBP has also posted a WHTI land/sea factsheet. (News release, dated 05/27/09, available at http://www.cbp.gov/xp/cgov/newsroom/news_releases/05272009_7.xml)
Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service sources have stated by phone that letters of intent to participate in the Lacey Act Blanket Declaration Pilot Program must be postmarked by Saturday, May 30, 2009 (as the May 31, 2009 deadline falls on a Sunday).
At the May 6, 2009 Departmental Advisory Committee on Commercial Operations of U.S. Customs and Border Protection and Related Homeland Security Functions (COAC) meeting, a subcommittee on Air Cargo Security was formally established.
The National Public Safety Telecommunications Council told the FCC it had no objections to giving Business/Industrial/Land Transportation (B/ILT) licensees the same benefits that public safety seeks through proposed changes in rules for the 470-512 MHz band. That puts the NPSTC at odds with the Association for Maximum Service TV and NAB, which oppose changing the land mobile/TV rules for anyone other than public safety.
Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor has handled few communications matters as a federal appeals or district court judge. She did write the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals opinion in a 2008 case upholding a district judge’s ruling that a Kansas man had no claim against the reorganized MCI for pre-bankruptcy claims. In that case, In re: WorldCom Inc., Victor Browning sued MCI, saying the company had been unjustly enriched by installing without permission telecom cables in a railroad right of way across land he owned. Sotomayor, as a district court judge, had ruled in New York Times Co. v. Tasini that publishers could license the work of freelance journalists when their work was sold for inclusion in an electronic databases such as LexisNexis. The decision was ultimately overturned by the Supreme Court in a 7-2 decision. As a lawyer at New York’s Pavia & Harcourt in the 1980s, Sotomayor specialized in part in intellectual-property law.
Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor has handled few communications matters as a federal appeals or district court judge. She did write the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals opinion in a 2008 case upholding a district judge’s ruling that a Kansas man had no claim against the reorganized MCI for pre-bankruptcy claims. In that case, In re: WorldCom Inc., Victor Browning sued MCI, saying the company had been unjustly enriched by installing without permission telecom cables in a railroad right of way across land he owned. Sotomayor, as a district court judge, had ruled in New York Times Co. v. Tasini that publishers could license the work of freelance journalists when their work was sold for inclusion in an electronic databases such as LexisNexis. The decision was ultimately overturned by the Supreme Court in a 7-2 decision. As a lawyer at New York’s Pavia & Harcourt in the 1980s, Sotomayor specialized in part in intellectual-property law.
The Association for Maximum Service TV and NAB disagreed sharply with arguments by the Telecommunications Industry Association and others that the DTV transition opens the door to modifying land mobile/TV sharing in the 470-512 MHz band. The broadcaster groups reiterated arguments that any changes in the spectrum, which covers TV channels 14-20, must apply only to public safety. TIA argued that because “DTV receivers are less susceptible to interference than analog receivers, NPSTC’s recommendations will not harm television viewing.” “Any … sharing rules must be carefully crafted to avoid harmful interference to television operations relied upon by consumers,” NAB and MSTV said in response. “Such care is particularly warranted in light of the millions of dollars recently spent by consumers on new digital television sets and digital-to-analog converter boxes.” DTV is susceptible to a “cliff” effect and deserves similar protections to analog broadcasts, the broadcaster groups said. The FCC sought comment on a petition for rulemaking by the National Public Safety Telecommunications Council seeking changes in the sharing rules.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection's Port of Los Angeles has issued a Public Bulletin informing the general aviation community of a change in procedure that will require all private aircraft to report to a single CBP approved General Aviation Facility (GAF) upon landing from abroad at Los Angeles International Airport. (LA09-017 is available via email by sending a request to documents@brokerpower.com)