Germany is the best-prepared country for expansion of cloud-computing services, while Japan ranks second, the U.S. third and Vietnam last in a pool of 24 nations, according to BSA. BSA scored countries on data privacy; security; cybercrime; IP rights; standards and rules; promotion of free trade; and IT readiness and broadband deployment. Germany recorded an overall score of 84, Japan 82.1, the U.S. 82 and Vietnam 36.4. Russia and China ranked 21st and 22nd, respectively, with scores of 45 and 43.7.

It’s in the best interests of government, industry and civil society to keep the internet open and data flowing around the globe, said NTIA Administrator David Redl Wednesday at the Global Internet and Jurisdiction Conference in Ottawa. Free flow of data has resulted in widespread economic growth and educational opportunities and opened communication lines for marginalized populations, he said. It’s up to open internet advocates to “persuade those on the other side of the debate that the challenges of the free flow of data are far outweighed by the benefits,” he said.

Sixty-seven percent of people believe internet access is a human right, Facebook reported Monday. It said a significant gender gap remains, as men on average are 33.5 percent more likely than women to have access. Global internet connectivity grew 8.3 percent in 2017, but lower-income countries had a 65.1 percent increase. The largest increases were Rwanda (490 percent), Nepal (138 percent) and Tanzania (87.8 percent). Cost of mobile broadband data plans in lower-income nations fell 17 percent, the steepest drops in Argentina (89 percent), El Salvador (77 percent), Tanzania (69 percent) and Ethiopia (61 percent). Facebook said internet remains too expensive when compared with income, because lower-income countries haven't met the U.N. 2025 goal of internet access at 2 percent of gross national income per capita.

Comments will be due in 30 days on an FCC request to the Office of Management and Budget for approval of a change in the OMB reporting requirement that facilities-based international service providers submit and maintain a list of routes on which they have direct termination agreements with a foreign carrier, says Thursday's Federal Register. The commission said it's seeking input on whether collection of common carrier international telecommunications service information is necessary for FCC functions, and ways to reduce the data collection burden.

A bill for faster access to internationally stored electronic crime data would help American law enforcement, wrote White House Homeland Security Adviser Tom Bossert and U.K. Deputy National Security Adviser Paddy McGuinness in The New York Times Wednesday. “American efforts to investigate crime and terrorism are increasingly impeded by our lack of access to data stored outside the United States, even when it is held by companies subject to our jurisdiction.” They supported the Clarifying Lawful Overseas Use of Data (Cloud) Act. Introduced by Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, and Rep. Doug Collins, R-Ga. (see 1802060065). It was pitched to streamline cross-border data requests. “Officials in one country investigating a serious crime with victims in that very same country [often] cannot get data they need simply because it is on a server halfway across the world,” wrote Bossert and Paddy McGuinness: “Our legal constructs are not keeping up” with technology. The legislation would authorize the U.S. attorney general to sign special agreements with other nations, allowing America expedited access to foreign data stored on the cloud. The two said potential partners would be limited to allies “that respect privacy and protect civil liberties,” and Britain is the first potential one.

U.S. broadband download speeds ranked higher for fixed than for mobile service among 28 countries examined, the FCC reported. The U.S. "ranked 10th in terms of actual [fixed] broadband speeds (55.07 Mbps) weighted by the number of tests in each city" in 2016, up from "11th in 2015 (40.38 Mbps) and 15th (28.09 Mbps) in 2014," said a report in docket 17-199 mandated by the 2008 Broadband Data Improvement Act. It said the U.S. ranked 24th in actual mobile broadband speeds "in both 2016 (19.98 Mbps) and 2015 (15.58 Mbps)," after being 18th (12.62 Mbps) in 2014. U.S. prices for fixed and mobile broadband were among the more expensive, with various rankings in the bottom half of countries with available data, the report said. Also Friday, the agency issued a U.S. broadband deployment report (see 1802050002).

Qualcomm will team with six large Chinese smartphone OEMs in a “5G Pioneer” initiative to speed “availability of commercial 5G premium tier devices” starting in 2019, the companies said Thursday. Joining are Lenovo, Oppo, Vivo, Wingtech, Xiaomi and ZTE. Through the initiative, Qualcomm expects to be able to supply Chinese manufacturers “with the platform they need to develop premium tier and global 5G commercial devices,” said the announcement.

The European Commission released guidelines Wednesday for implementation of new data protection rules set to start in May. The commission also announced a new online tool to help businesses and the public comply with and benefit from the rules.

Qualcomm will appeal the European Commission fining the company $1.23 billion on grounds its now-expired modem chip pricing and supply agreement with Apple violated EU competition law, said the company Wednesday. The EC decision “does not relate to Qualcomm’s licensing business and has no impact on ongoing operations,” it said. “We are confident this agreement did not violate EU competition rules or adversely affect market competition or European consumers,” said Qualcomm General Counsel Don Rosenberg. “We have a strong case for judicial review and we will immediately commence that process.” The company “abused” its “market dominance” in modem chips “by preventing rivals from competing in the market,” said the EC Wednesday. “It did so by making significant payments to a key customer on condition that it would exclusively use Qualcomm chipsets. The issue with such an arrangement is not that the customer receives a short-term price reduction, but that the exclusivity condition denies rivals the possibility to compete.” The “latest episode in the fractious relationship between Apple and Qualcomm appears to have reached new heights” in the $1.23 billion penalty, said David McQueen, ABI research director, in a Wednesday statement. “It comes as a surprise that this level of 'sweetener' has been paid by Qualcomm, as it has solid leadership in the baseband chipset business,” he said of the exclusivity clause. With its market dominance, “did Qualcomm really need to have such a clause with Apple?” he asked.

AT&T backed FCC proposals to revise international bearer circuit (IBC) regulatory fee tiers for undersea cable capacity and to apply the new tiers to all international terrestrial and satellite capacity. The telco supported "the addition of lower fee tiers for providers with small volumes of IBC capacity," said a filing posted in docket 17-134 Monday on a meeting with Office of Managing Director and International Bureau officials. AT&T noted its concerns about a CenturyLink proposal for a two-tier fee for terrestrial and satellite circuits (see 1801160033). That "would not fairly allocate these fees," given "disparities" in operator circuit volumes "likely to increase as the result of the Commission’s recent decision to apply the IBC regulatory fees to non-common carrier terrestrial circuits," AT&T said, referring to a September order (paragraph 34). It's also concerned about a Submarine Cable Coalition proposal to "replace a significant portion of the IBC fees on non-common carrier submarine cables (or all IBC fees for all cables) with a flat fee on international [Communications Act] Section 214 authorizations," saying "such changes would effectively reverse the Commission’s decisions to provide a competitively neutral IBC fee structure."