The Dec. 7 meeting of the State Department International Telecommunications Advisory Committee will include a report on the outcome of the World Telecommunication Development Conference, an update on preparations for the ITU 2018 Plenipotentiary conference and discussion of preparations for upcoming multilateral meetings at ITU, the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development and Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation, said the agenda. The meeting will be at 10 a.m. at AT&T on the 10th floor of 1120 20th St. NW.
An FCC order eliminating international traffic and revenue annual reports takes effect Dec. 21, under a rule being published in Tuesday's Federal Register (see schedule). The order, which also streamlines circuit-capacity reports, was adopted unanimously Oct. 24 (see 1710240062).
State commissions shouldn’t step in to regulate the internet as the FCC pulls away, American Enterprise Institute adjunct scholar Bronwyn Howell blogged Thursday. State-by-state policy on issues like net neutrality would remove an advantage the U.S. has over the EU in setting telecom policy, she said. “Fragmenting regulatory oversight will inevitably mean a fragmenting of the single market that has served the US so well in the mobile age,” Howell said. “Differential regulations across state lines could invoke real costs.”
Intelsat and Coca-Cola are partnering on delivery of satellite-enabled Wi-Fi services to remote parts of Africa, Intelsat said Tuesday. It said the two will work jointly to establish Wi-Fi access at retail faculties in rural areas, allowing for personal and commercial connectivity.
Broadcom CEO Hock Tan announced Thursday he's moving co-headquarters to Delaware from Singapore. Broadcom already operates co-headquarters in San Jose but also operated in Singapore after its 2016 purchase of Avago Technologies. President Donald Trump joined Tan in making the White House announcement, which Tan said came because “business conditions have steadily improved.” Broadcom “will invest more than $3 billion in R&D and $6 billion in manufacturing, creating many high-paying jobs,” Tan said. “More than $20 billion in annual revenue will come back to our cities, towns, and the American workers,” Trump said.
The FCC is ending Form 740 filing requirements for imported RF devices, effective Thursday, the agency is to say in that day's Federal Register. The FCC will continue to require compliance with rules for importing RF devices, it said: The regulator "retained the requirement that there must be an entity that assumes responsibility for the compliance of the device and modified the rules to ensure the existence and identity (and a domestic presence under the new [Supplier’s Declaration of Conformity (SDoC)] rules), of such a responsible party." Commissioners approved in July (see 1707130032).
Views of antitrust enforcement differ internationally, and even within the U.S., but there needs to be worldwide understanding there can be no exemption from universal procedural norms, DOJ Antitrust Division Chief Makan Delrahim told a New York University School of Law audience Friday, according to a transcript. Principles include nondiscrimination, he said, and when foreign competition agencies occasionally favor domestic companies or discriminate against foreign firms, they violate that norm and "engage in shortsighted and counterproductive public policy." Procedural fairness and transparency are also among those principles, Delrahim said. He said the division's International Section "will continue to be a point of emphasis," with Roger Alford -- most recently University of Notre Dame associate dean-international and graduate programs -- named division deputy assistant attorney general. Delrahim said his renaming the Foreign Commerce Section as the International Section "emphasize[s] the breadth of its work." He said an Antitrust Division priority is making its technical assistance and support available to competition authorities in other nations and in modernizing its facilities with investments in new equipment and technology.
The FCC sought comment by Nov. 10 on recommendations by its World Radiocommunication Conference Advisory Committee, prepared for the WRC meeting in 2019. “Based upon an initial review of the draft recommendations forwarded to the Commission, the International Bureau, in coordination with other Commission Bureaus and Offices, tentatively concludes that we can generally support most of the … recommendations,” said a public notice. It noted differing views on some recommendations.
Twitter will bans ads from Russian RT and Sputnik news agencies effective immediately, based on internal research and a January report from intelligence agencies confirming the Russian firms attempted to interfere with the U.S. 2016 election, the company blogged Thursday. Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Calif., ranking member of the House Financial Services Committee, demanded Twitter provide information on how she was targeted. “While I have never publicly discussed it before today, I have been aware for some time that I was targeted by Russian operatives whose interests were aligned with Donald Trump," Waters said. Twitter said the advertising ban wasn't a decision it came to "lightly" but is part of the company's ongoing commitment to protect users. The company said it will donate the $1.9 million it earned from RT ads purchased beginning in 2011 to do additional research on use of its service in civic engagement. House Intelligence Committee ranking member Adam Schiff of California said the decision "should prevent" Russian agencies from spreading disinformation and undermining democracies.
Amazon’s application for the generic top-level domain name .amazon will be a major discussion topic at next week’s ICANN meeting, blogged American Enterprise Institute visiting fellow Shane Tews. Although Peru and Brazil opposed the application (see 1710040051), a review panel said the ICANN board didn't adequately explain its reasons for blocking the applications, giving Amazon a green light, Tews said. Debate will continue, since the two governments oppose Amazon’s application based on concerns it impinges on countries in their region. “The internet community sees the .amazon application as a case study in what they can and cannot do without government permission,” Tews said Monday.