Fiber surpassed DSL as the world's largest fixed-broadband platform in 2016, said Kagan research Thursday. The researcher surveyed 80 fixed-broadband markets. Fiber subscriptions grew 56 percent year-over-year, driven mainly by rapid deployment in Asia, Kagan said. The global fixed-broadband market could reach 1 billion subscribers by 2022, a 5.2 percent compound annual growth rate over five years, said Kagan. China and the U.S. are the largest fixed-broadband markets, combining for 46.9 percent of the total in 2016, it said. The U.S. has 12.2 percent of the global total; China is first with 34.7 percent. In 2016, China expanded its fixed-broadband market by 46 percent as it deployed fiber through a national broadband project, the firm said.

The European Commission's digital single market strategy work won't be expanded to tackle online “fake news” disinformation despite its proliferation over the past year, said EC Vice President-DSM Andrus Ansip during the commission's Wednesday rollout of its DSM progress report. The EC instead plans to coordinate with top internet firms to update voluntary agreements to address fake news, including clarifying what protections the companies can claim when they actively work to flag disinformation, Ansip said. The EC renewed its call in the DSM review for EU institutions to finalize important related legislation by the end of 2017, saying delays “would leave people less protected; unable to use better, faster and cheaper connections; and blocked from access to more online content.” The EC noted its successes in ending pan-EU retail roaming charges and ensuring pan-EU portability of online subscription services. Roaming charges are to end in the EU June 15, and the cross-border services portability mandate is to take effect in early 2018. The EC said it plans to propose legislation in the fall on cross-border flows of non-personal data and legislation in 2018 on access and reuse of public data. The commission also plans to review the 2013 EU cybersecurity strategy and is preparing legislation to address unfair contractual clauses and other trading practices by online platforms. The Computer & Communications Industry Association criticized the progress on the DSM strategy. The EC “came up with the right strategy, but several of its proposals would actually make the situation worse by fragmenting the single market or making digital innovation harder in the EU,” said Vice President-Europe James Waterworth in a statement. CCIA has been critical of EC DSM-related proposals, including its ongoing work on copyright legislation (see 1702240067) and a proposal to implement cross-border levies on VOD services (see 1611180048). The EC “should spend the next two years working closely with industry to come up with the best solutions on new challenges including cybersecurity and removing illegal content from the Internet,” Waterworth said. “It should not hand down solutions but partner with those who make these solutions a reality.”

Restrictions on pricing, on selling in online marketplaces, and geographic restrictions on selling and advertising online were some of the top concerns in the final e-commerce report released Wednesday by the European Commission's Directorate-General for Competition. Two years ago, the commission began looking into e-commerce of consumer goods and digital content across the EU as part of its digital single market strategy. The EC published a preliminary report in September and then sought comment, which was incorporated into a final one. It said pricing restrictions and recommendations are "the most widespread restrictions" reported by retailers. It said both manufacturers and retailers frequently track online retail prices through pricing software, which could enable manufacturers to detect deviations from pricing recommendations and retaliate against retailers or it could facilitate collusion among retailers. The report said restrictions limiting retailers' ability to sell via online marketplaces has raised concerns under EU competition rules. The report said 90 percent of retailers use their own online shop when selling, with 31 percent selling via their online shops and marketplaces and 4 percent selling only via marketplaces. The study said market restrictions play a bigger role in some member states than in others, and might "range from absolute bans to restrictions on selling on marketplaces that do not fulfil certain quality criteria." The Computer & Communications Industry Association said in a news release it's concerned about the outright bans. "These restrictions are particularly detrimental for small and medium-sized sellers. They also harm competition and consumer choice,” said Jakob Kucharczyk, director-CCIA Europe. "Turning a blind eye on these restrictions will mean that thousands of sellers will not be able to benefit from the latest technological wave. This in itself merits rigorous enforcement action against blanket marketplace bans.” The EC report also said geo-blocking measures are used by some retailers, with some raising competition concerns.

Emmanuel Macron's victory Sunday in the French presidential election marked “an endorsement of the country's confidence in the ability of French innovators and technology companies to power the national economy,” CTA President Gary Shapiro said in a statement. “France has long embraced the power of technology to change our lives for the better and deliver myriad economic benefits,” Shapiro said Sunday. In Macron, it now “will have a president who supports and enables that power and potential,” he said. Macron’s platform “to reduce government spending, lower corporate taxes and allow companies to negotiate work hours with their employees” will allow French tech companies “to innovate at a lightning-fast pace,” he said. Macron twice visited CES, and is a leader who’s “passionate about the tech sector and the jobs it creates,” Shapiro said. CTA expects France's presence at CES “to continue to climb under Macron's leadership,” he said. The U.S. tech sector “stands ready to support his vision for a forward-looking, innovative future of tech disruption," he said. BSA|The Software Alliance also reacted favorably.

AT&T offshored more than 12,000 in-house call center jobs since 2011, or about 30 percent of its U.S. call center employees, and closed about 30 call centers, Communications Workers of America reported Thursday. Over the past two years, AT&T used 38 call centers in eight other countries, it said. The report’s authors surveyed and interviewed call-center workers from the U.S. and abroad, CWA said in a news release. The union is bargaining with AT&T on contracts including for wireless workers (see 1704280048). "From Pittsburgh to Bakersfield, AT&T has shuttered dozens of call centers, stripping communities of thousands of jobs that are shipped over to vendors in the Dominican Republic, the Philippines and other countries,” District 1 Vice President Dennis Trainor said. AT&T provides "more good-paying full-time U.S. union jobs than any company in America," and CWA and members "have benefitted from that greatly,” a company spokesman emailed: AT&T has 200,000 U.S. employees.

The International Trade Commission began a Tariff Act Section 337 investigation into allegations that imports of Hytera two-way radio equipment infringe patents held by Motorola Solutions, the ITC said. “The products at issue in the investigation are ‘push-to-talk’ radio devices and related support devices such as repeaters, base stations, and dispatch stations.” The commission said Friday it will consider issuing a limited exclusion order and cease and desist orders banning import and sale of infringing products. Hytera "will defend itself against these allegations, and we are fully confident that we will prevail," the company said on its website. Motorola sees Hytera’s trade practices as "both unscrupulous and unlawful," said General Counsel Mark Hacker in a Friday news release.

Civil liberties groups praised the reported end of an NSA warrantless wiretapping program that collected Americans' emails and texts sent and received from people overseas that mentioned foreign surveillance targets. The New York Times Friday reported the agency made the change to comply with special rules the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court imposed in 2011 to protect Americans' privacy. Michelle Richardson, Center for Democracy & Technology deputy director-Freedom, Security and Technology Project, said in a news release the content of people's emails and texts contain "incredibly" personal data. "NSA should never have been vacuuming up all of these communications, many of which involved Americans, without a warrant," she said. Neema Singh Guliani, legislative counsel with the American Civil Liberties Union, said in a statement that the development shows lawmakers need to change Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act that she and other critics, including CDT, said illegally sweeps up information about Americans even though 702 is supposed to target only foreigners overseas. The program sunsets at the end of 2017 unless reauthorized by Congress. "While the NSA’s policy change will curb some of the most egregious abuses under the statute, it is at best a partial fix," Guliani said. Congress has been trying to find out for a long time how many Americans are swept up through 702 (see 1704070041). The NSA didn't immediately comment.

Tech groups generally hailed President Donald Trump’s executive order for its clause urging federal agencies to recommend “reforms to help ensure that H-1B visas are awarded to the most-skilled or highest-paid petition beneficiaries.” The Entertainment Software Association thinks an “expansive H1-B visa program, free of abuse, will drive technological advancements and allow brilliant innovators from around the world to strengthen the growing American economy,” ESA said in a Wednesday statement. ESA encourages the White House and federal agencies “to emphasize these goals as they look at potential reform,” it said. “ESA will strongly advocate for policies that energize and expand growth opportunities for our nation’s world-leading technology sector.” CTA President Gary Shapiro thinks Trump “has rightfully brought attention to the abuses in the H-1B tech worker visa program, demonstrating the need for administrative and legislative reform to this important program,” he said in a Tuesday statement. “Our country needs a new approach to skilled immigration -- one based on merit and not a random lottery, an idea shared by President Trump. Congress must take the lead by passing reforms that keep our system fair, effective and efficient. There is bipartisan support to crack down on abusers who are outsourcing American jobs, but Congress must also advance meaningful reforms that recognize the critical role highly skilled foreign workers play in growing our economy, creating American jobs and maintaining our nation's competitiveness.” H1-B immigrants “turbocharge U.S. innovation and create jobs,” said Dean Garfield, CEO of the Information Technology Industry Council, in a Tuesday statement. “We need to recognize the value H-1B employees contribute through their ingenuity to our innovation ecosystem -- they help innovate and grow America’s tech economy,” said Garfield. He cited estimates that half the 87 startup companies valued at more than $1 billion in the U.S. “were founded by at least one immigrant, many of whom first came to the country on H-1B visas, and each of these companies now employs on average 760 U.S. workers,” he said.

If an American company self-certifies with the EU-U.S. Privacy Shield, ​it can be sued for not living up to the principles established under the trans-Atlantic data transfer program, said the FTC in a blog post giving advice about compliance. The commission will pursue enforcement actions for misleading consumers about the participation in the framework or other international certification programs like it did under the old safe harbor agreement, wrote Guilherme Roschke, counsel-International Consumer Protection, and Hugh Stevenson, deputy director, Office of International Affairs. They said Thursday that companies should be careful about adopting a template or industry sample to create a privacy policy and make sure all of the framework's requirements are covered. "You're making promises you need to keep," they wrote, adding firms constantly must reassess their practices, review their privacy policies and check that their certifications don't lapse. "The FTC has sued companies that failed to maintain their annual certification, but still claimed to participate," they added. The Department of Commerce said Wednesday the Swiss-U.S. Privacy Shield framework started to accept applications (see 1704130005).

The FTC approved separate final orders with Sentinel Labs, SpyChatter and Vir2us, which settled allegations in February that they falsely participated in the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) voluntary data-transfer system (see 1702220040), the commission said in a Friday news release. Commissioners voted 2-0 to approve the three orders, which bar the companies "from misrepresenting their participation, membership or certification in any privacy or security program sponsored by a government or self-regulatory or standard-setting organization." The FTC alleged the companies falsely said in their online privacy policies that they participated in the APEC Cross-Border Privacy Rules system when they didn't. The commission also alleged Sentinel Labs "falsely" claimed participation in TRUSTe's privacy program.