FCC review of broadband network management drew more 26,000 comments, said Free Press, which wants the agency to adopt rules on such practices (CD May 6 p13). But 26,457 of those comments inadvertently landed in the wrong docket, the group told FCC Secretary Marlene Dortch. “Free Press would like to apologize for the inconvenience.” Free Press re- filed the comments April 25 to the correct docket, 07-52, organizing them into one batch per state.
In December 2007, U.S. Customs and Border Protection announced that the phased enforcement of mandatory Automated Commercial Environment electronic manifest: Truck for advance cargo information purposes at all land border ports in Alaska beginning February 11, 2008.
Net neutrality was Tuesday’s hot topic in tech policy on and off the Hill. Lawmakers addressed the Computer and Communications Industry Association annual caucus, then took part in a House Telecom Subcommittee hearing on the Internet Freedom Preservation Act. (See separate report in this issue.) Electronic surveillance, broadband expansion and intellectual property also came up at the CCIA meeting. The FCC and Justice Department stirred the most heat among lawmakers.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection has posted its report to Congress on the Automated Commercial Environment for the first quarter of fiscal year 2008 (October 1, 2007 - December 31, 2007). The report provides an update on ACE accomplishments, challenges, fiscal status, and upcoming program milestones.
Lite-On Technology is selling its display business to Wistron for $302.1 million in a deal expected to close by Q3, company officials said. The deal includes inventory, machines and IP, but not land or buildings, to be leased to Wistron, Lite-On said. Wistron will move the gear to its own plants in a year or two, it said. Lite-On will invest $$39.4 million in Wistron. Lite-On’s digital display business posted $136.7 million in revenue in 2007, the company said. In 2007, Wistron LCD TV shipments were 700,000 to a million, and the company expects the volume to rise this year to two million, analysts said.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection has posted its report to Congress on the Automated Commercial Environment for the first quarter of fiscal year 2008 (October 1, 2007 - December 31, 2007). The report provides an update on ACE accomplishments, challenges, fiscal status, and upcoming program milestones.
IBM subcontractor Epiq Systems said revenue in its Settlement Administration division, which mails DTV coupons to consumers, soared 75 percent Q1 to $17.3 million on “a major contract” launched during the quarter. But the unit’s earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization plummeted 56 percent to $700,000 because “the contract had significant start-up costs,” Epiq said, not invoking the NTIA contract by name. Still, “the contract is on track with achieving targeted profit and margin levels, which are projected to increase during future quarters,” it said. Last summer, when Epiq landed its piece of the IBM contract (CED Aug 16 p1), “our revenue recognition was based on the amount of milestone payments that were due,” Chief Financial Officer Betsy Braham told analysts in an earnings call. “And the milestone payments were established at the inception of that case. The project activity has been much heavier earlier in the case than what was originally projected. So, we've incurred higher costs which you see coming through that line in the fourth quarter.” Since “the activity levels for this case in fact are much heavier than what the government had expected” for Q1, they boost costs, Braham said. “And because the milestone payments for revenue were set at the beginning of the case and they don’t change, we don’t have an alignment between our revenue and our costs. And so as we head into the second, third and fourth quarter of this year, we would expect to see that flip and the cost structure to go down relative to the revenue structure.” In the program’s 22.25 million-coupon base, the contract, as posted at NTIA’s site, pays the IBM team $2.53 million for the first 10 million coupons it mails, $1.11 million for the next 5 million, $712,000 for the 5 million after that, and nothing for the final 2.25 million. Payouts are higher in the “contingent” phase, when only over-the-air households qualify for the 11.25 million coupons available. The contract pays $1.74 million for the first 5 million contingent coupons mailed, $1.71 million for the remaining 6.25 million coupons.
Liability risks and uncertainties are emerging for online businesses and others as a unified security standard for the credit-card system takes effect and is absorbed into the law, members of an American Bar Association panel said Tuesday. The Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard “is not a law but in reality it is becoming a legal standard” via contracts and state legislation and as a standard of care in negligence lawsuits over data breaches, said David Nevetta, president of InfoSecCompliance and vice chair of the ABA’s Information Security Committee. The committee has set up a PCI working group to study legal risks and liability, he said.
Qwest urged the FCC to reverse three audit findings by the Universal Service Administrative Co. In the audit, USAC decided that Qwest must report partial Lifeline credit amounts on FCC Form 497 line 9, that the Bell inappropriately seeks enhanced Lifeline support for customers not living on tribal lands and has failed to keep customer certifications.
In a letter to DHS Secretary Chertoff, seventeen Senators, lead by Oregon Senators Smith and Wyden, expressed their concerns about CBP's proposed reinterpretation of the practice of Customs valuation based on the first sale rule. (Letter, dated 04/17/08, available by emailing BP at documents@brokerpower.com )