The following are documents which CBP updates frequently (weekly, monthly, etc.):
U.S. Customs and Border Protection has posted an Automated Commercial Environment "Topic" document entitled "ACE 101," which provides an introduction to ACE. An overview of ACE is provided, as well as information on the ACE Secure Data Portal, current ACE features (account management, reports tool, Periodic Monthly Statement (PMS), Entry Summary, Accounts and Revenue (ESAR) A1, etc.), future ACE features (ESAR A2, Cargo Control Release), and additional ACE resources. (ACE 101 document, posted 01/03/08, available at http://www.cbp.gov/linkhandler/cgov/toolbox/about/modernization/ace_welcome/ace101.ctt/ace101.pdf)
The State Department has issued a final rule, effective February 1, 2008, which amends 22 CFR Parts 22 and 51 to provide for a passport card (also called a PASS Card) for land and sea travel between the U.S. and Canada and Mexico, the Caribbean, and Bermuda.
Maine regulators Wednesday gave unanimous final approval to Verizon’s $2.7 billion transfer of its landline assets to FairPoint after settling wholesale service issues left open in last week’s Maine agreement on the deal’s financial, broadband and retail service conditions. Verizon and FairPoint asked Vermont’s Public Service Board to rethink a December rejection of their deal and accept a revised settlement. That accord, reached Tuesday with the state’s utility consumer advocacy agency, the Department of Public Service (DPS), incorporates Maine’s financial conditions.
The FCC narrowly approved Verizon’s plan to transfer to FairPoint Communications its local exchange companies in Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont. The commission, voting 3- 2, said it’s “unlikely the merger will result in any anticompetitive effects or other public interest harms.” Instead, the arrangement could produce public benefits such as “the accelerated deployment of broadband throughout the region,” according to the FCC. The order, adopted Dec. 20, was released Wednesday. The transaction requires approval by the states. Maine has approved much of the deal, and Vermont seems close to action. FCC Commissioners Michael Copps and Jonathan Adelstein voted against the deal. Copps didn’t believe FairPoint could deliver on promises to invest in broadband, increase jobs and improve service quality, he said. “The Commission has not grappled meaningfully with the question of whether this transaction truly satisfies the public interest standard,” Adelstein said. Although the order affects Lifeline service and broadband connections for about 3 million people, the agency responded with “casual dismissal” to “red flags” raised by unions, citizens’ groups and state regulators, he said. Adelstein is “particularly concerned” about the three states’ high proportions of rural residents, since rural consumers “face some of the lowest levels of broadband penetration in the country,” he said. The agency doesn’t believe the transaction will harm competition by disrupting competing carriers’ ability to get wholesale services, it said. “We find nothing in the record to suggest that FairPoint will have either greater incentive or ability to discriminate in the provision of wholesale inputs than Verizon,” the order said. The agency rejected calls for various conditions as not involving “merger- specific harms” but being concerned about issues broader than this particular transaction. For example, the agency rejected a proposal that it apply to the FairPoint deal voluntary conditions attached to the Verizon-MCI merger. The FCC has a “broad industry-wide view” that enabled it to see the benefits of the transaction for consumers and businesses, said Verizon Senior Vice President Susanne Guyer. The Independent Telephone & Telecommunications Alliance, which represents mid-sized telecom companies like FairPoint, said the FCC decision “will send a strong signal to consumers and the market that broadband deployment will continue to take place by companies that want to serve the high-cost parts of our country.” Meanwhile, Maine regulators Wednesday gave unanimous final approval to the deal after settling wholesale service issues left open in last week’s Maine agreement on the deal’s financial, broadband and retail service conditions. The Maine PUC took less than two hours to resolve wholesale issues, compared to last week’s marathon 13-hour session on financial, broadband and retail service matters. The PUC inserted a non-compete clause barring FairPoint from competing for broadband customers against entities that get ConnectME grants to bring broadband to underserved and unserved areas. FairPoint would be barred from competing against existing grant recipients for two years after they go online. The condition would not apply to ConnectME recipients awarded grants after sale closing. Adams said FairPoint in the future would have a chance to trump ConnectME applicants with its own broadband deployment proposal, but in regard to existing grant recipients, “we don’t want a 900-pound gorilla landing on these small entrepreneurs just as they're getting off the ground.” The PUC rejected a proposed condition to require that FairPoint establish a separate DSL subsidiary, concluding that the separate business unit would serve no wholesale or retail purpose. Verizon and FairPoint asked Vermont’s Public Service Board to rethink a December rejection of their deal and accept a revised settlement. Terms added to the companies’ original Vermont proposal include: (1) Invest a minimum of $40 million per year in network improvements for the first three years after closing. (2) Make broadband available to all customers in at least 50 percent of its Vermont exchanges by the end of 2010. (3) A service quality guarantee stipulating penalties of up to $12.5 million a year if quality standards aren’t met.
New Games and Accessories: Mad Catz Interactive signed a multi-year licensing deal with Viacom’s MTV Networks division that gives Mad Catz the North American and other worldwide rights to produce and distribute third-party game peripherals and other products for the game Rock Band, the accessory maker said Friday. Terms weren’t disclosed. The game is published by MTV Games and distributed by Electronic Arts. Mad Catz accessories will include wired and wireless bass guitars, a drum percussion set bundled with “professional quality wooden drum sticks” and a wired microphone, Mad Catz said. It expects the initial products under the deal to ship in the first half of 2008. Pricing wasn’t disclosed… Bomberman Land for PSP and Nintendo Wii, as well as Bomberman Land Touch! 2 for Nintendo DS, achieved “gold master” status and are on track to ship Jan. 29 at $29.99 each, Hudson Entertainment said Friday. The games are being published by Hudson and distributed in North America by Konami Digital Entertainment.
The FCC is drafting rules on testing for interference to AM antennas (CD Sept 17 p4) by emissions from cellular, wireless data and two-way radio and other communications towers, said three proponents of the computer analysis method. Media Bureau officials are working on an order, with a draft expected by month’s end, said Ray Benedict, head of a group of 33 broadcasters supporting method of moment testing. The order would go to the office of Chairman Kevin Martin for review and circulation among colleagues, said Benedict. He hopes for a mid-April vote. “It seems to have good support in the Media Bureau,” he said. “The issue will just be that the commission is so busy and finding time to look at it” is hard.
Arbitron is doing a better job recruiting panelists for its Portable People Meter panels, company officials said during a Thursday press briefing on the PPM’s status. Arbitron pushed back its rollout of the meters, which are to replace paper and pencil diaries, after radio industry clients complained it lacked enough young and ethnic participants (CD Nov 28 p8). Arbitron spent the last few months trying to lure younger participants into panels in Philadelphia and New York by increasing the money it pays them and asking more young people to join, said Jay Guyther, senior vice president of ratings services: “We're beginning to see that our focus on improving 18-24 year old participation is beginning to pay dividends.”
NTIA ultimately may succeed in getting DTV converter box coupons to all eligible households who request them, but bugs and peculiarities abounded when we applied for coupons in the first 40 hours after NTIA’s phone and online systems went live Jan. 1.
The Department of Homeland Security and the State Department have issued a proposed rule for the land and sea portion of the Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative (WHTI) that would require a passport or other secure document denoting citizenship and identity for all land and sea travel into the U.S.