The Information Technology Industry Council supports the Trans-Pacific Partnership, it said in a policy position statement released Monday. ITI called the trade agreement a "vital tool to promote durable growth and innovation" and to expand the "social and economic benefits" of the digital economy, and lauded provisions in the deal on cross-border data flows, information and communications technology market access, strong and balanced intellectual property rules and regulatory transparency. "After reviewing the agreement, we have decided to support the TPP, because it offers tremendous growth and innovation opportunities for the technology sector and our economy," ITI CEO Dean Garfield said. TPP "will promote an open, pro-innovation environment for the digital economy globally" and is a "strong rebuke against digital protectionism," ITI said.
Notable CROSS rulings
Cross-border portability of digital content and a possible "snippet tax" on news aggregators are part of a proposed European Commission copyright reform package raising concerns among stakeholders, they told us last week. The proposal includes a regulation to allow those who subscribe to Internet content services in their home countries to access them when they travel in Europe, and a communication setting out a vision for a modernized European copyright regime. The package represents the first move toward a digital single market, with other legislative and policy proposals to follow, the EC said.
The FCC Technological Advisory Council on Wednesday approved a recommendation by its working group on next-generation Internet services that the agency’s Measuring Broadband America program be expanded to include quality of service (QOS) and quality of experience measurements in addition to measuring connection speeds. The FCC is finalizing the 2015 version of the report (see 1511300030).
Any 5G deployment will need low- and mid-band spectrum allocations plus high band to enable such applications as IoT, and sizably different infrastructure from 4G, with many more small cell sites, said CTIA Chief Technology Officer Tom Sawanobori Wednesday at an FCBA telecom and wireless committees event. Unlike the traditional spectrum evolution where a technology came first, followed by technical requirements and regulations, 5G represents "a slightly different equation," said Michael Ha, FCC Office of Engineering and Technology Policy and Rules Division deputy chief. The increasing demand for bandwidth for data transmission and the relative lack of unassigned spectrum is pushing the move into the millimeter wave bandwidths to support 5G, Ha said. The spectrum frontiers rulemaking (see 1510230050) is looking at bands above 24 GHz for 5G, and the 2015 World Radiocommunication Conference identified some bands for 5G -- though 28 GHz, a subject of the FCC proceeding, wasn't included in the WRC work, Ha said. While numerous incumbent satellite operations already use that spectrum, Ha said, sharing is inevitable: "We know it's not going to be exclusive use." The satellite industry wants to be part of 5G -- such as in potential applications like driverless vehicles -- but also wants assurances and safeguards against harmful interference, said Satellite Industry Association President Tom Stroup. "We certainly are advocates of sharing, where it works." 4G has become ubiquitous in the U.S., with roughly 98.5 percent of the nation covered and traffic on the 4G network expected to sextuple over the next five years, Sawanobori said. Such applications as Voice over LTE are expected to become commonplace as soon as more products offer "high-definition voice," he said. 5G, by contrast, probably won't be deployed ubiquitously across the U.S. due to different business models, Sawanobori said.
Representatives of Internet and human rights interest groups disagreed Wednesday whether the Trans-Pacific Partnership is overall a beneficial trade agreement, and debated its merits on cross-border data flows. Some Internet group members at a panel discussion at the George Washington University School of International Affairs praised the inclusion of measures in TPP on the international transfer of data, saying it offers new protections for that much-needed activity.
The FCC quadrennial review shouldn't be “a vehicle” for relaxing ownership rules, Common Cause said in a meeting with an aide to Commissioner Mignon Clyburn Monday, according to an ex parte filing posted Wednesday in docket 09-182. “Nested ownership structures lead to homogenization of content, to the detriment of the public interest.” The record on media ownership is incomplete and “more research must be done should the Commission consider relaxing or eliminating the newspaper-broadcast cross-ownership rules,” said the group.
North County Communications (NCC) and Sprint disagree whether the FCC has jurisdiction to adjudicate Sprint's 2014 complaint about wrongful interstate access charges. In a joint status report posted Friday in docket 14-223 on the Enforcement Bureau complaint and parallel proceedings in the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, Sprint said the U.S. District Court final judgment in September should have ended the FCC proceeding. But it said if the agency doesn't dismiss the formal complaint, it should grant Sprint's first three counts but dismiss four and five as moot, once it determines NCC didn't provide service to Sprint. NCC, meanwhile, said the FCC should stay the case for now "instead of requiring the parties and the Commission to spend valuable time and other resources prosecuting and defending the referral issues." U.S. District Court in San Diego ruled in September against NCC and its claim of contract breach by Sprint, saying it was NCC that had breached the agreement; the court also said Sprint's contract damages fell outside the two-year statute of limitations. The joint filing said NCC had filed a notice of appeal with the 9th Circuit Oct. 28, with Sprint filing a cross appeal Nov. 9. NCC plans to argue the District Court was wrong in deciding it wasn't a telecom carrier when delivering calls to HFT, a chat-line service; Sprint said its appeal would argue its breach of contract damages weren't barred by statute of limitations. Oral argument hasn't been scheduled, the joint status report said.
FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler will plead with Congress not to slash the agency’s budget for FY 2016. He will warn of “severe consequences to the agency’s ability to protect public safety, advance the spectrum agenda, and transact business vital to the U.S. economy and consumers in a timely fashion” if lawmakers proceed with cuts as planned earlier in the year, according to written testimony for his appearance alongside all four other commissioners before the Communications Subcommittee Tuesday.
A federal appellate court upheld a lower court ruling dismissing Spectra Communications' claims that a Missouri city violated federal and state law by forcing the company to comply with a local ordinance on public rights of way, including pole attachments. A three-judge panel of the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed the decision by a judge of the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Missouri that sided with the city of Cameron, Missouri, against Spectra, which is owned by CenturyLink. "The district court dismissed one of Spectra's federal claims for failure to state a claim and, in light of parallel state court proceedings, later dismissed Spectra's remaining claims on the basis of res judicata or, alternatively, abstention. The district court also denied the City's motion for attorney fees. Spectra and the City filed cross appeals. We affirm," said the panel in its ruling Tuesday in Spectra Communications Group v. City of Cameron, No. 14-2808. Section 253 of the federal Communications Act "does not create an individual private right of action and the district court therefore did not err in dismissing Spectra's § 1983 claim. In addition, the district court did not abuse its discretion in abstaining under the Colorado River case or in denying the City's motion for attorney fees," the panel said.
The Obama administration released the full text of the telecom chapter of the Trans-Pacific Partnership, spurring reactions Thursday from many stakeholders. Some such as AT&T have strongly backed the trade deal during negotiations. The 22 pages of chapter text were posted on the U.S. Trade Representative website Thursday, alongside a summary document and some other chapters. One such chapter deals with e-commerce. The administration was compelled to release the document 90 days ahead of President Barack Obama’s signature as part of the Trade Promotion Authority arrangement, before congressional consideration.