Debate during a Senate Commerce Committee hearing Tuesday on the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) transition centered on the perceived merits and consequences of proposed delays of the transition, as expected (see 1605230059). Several committee Republicans expressed interest in seeking the delay via an extension of NTIA's current contract with ICANN to administer the IANA functions, but their interest didn't appear to be strong enough to signal actual momentum in favor of a delay, stakeholders said in interviews. The IANA transition faced other roadblocks on Capitol Hill Tuesday, including the House Appropriations Committee's retention of a rider in its proposed FY 2017 Department of Commerce budget that would extend an existing ban on NTIA's use of funds on the IANA transition. House Appropriations cleared the Commerce budget on a voice vote Tuesday with the IANA transition rider intact.
Russia export controls and sanctions
The use of export controls and sanctions on Russia has surged since the country's invasion of Crimea in 2014, and especially its invasion of Ukraine in in February 2022. Similar export controls and sanctions have been imposed by U.S. allies, including the EU, U.K. and Japan. The following is a listing of recent articles in Export Compliance Daily on export controls and sanctions imposed on Russia:
The FTC OK’d Mitel’s $1.96 billion buy of Polycom, Mitel said in a news release Thursday. The Canadian telco announced the deal last month (see 1604150056). It's expected to close in Q3, subject to shareholder approval and regulatory OKs from Russia and Germany.
House Armed Services Committee leaders want to include a spectrum amendment to their National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for FY 2017 (HR-4909), up for a floor vote next week. They filed the bipartisan amendment Wednesday among more than 300 others, some of which involve cybersecurity, telecom and drone policy. The legislation and committee report already include some spectrum policy issues (see 1605100056).
Switzerland is now on the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative's lower-tier watch list for copyright and other IP rights violations, USTR said Wednesday in its annual Special 301 report on the global status of IP rights enforcement. China and India remain on USTR's mid-tier priority watch list, which includes nine other countries, because ongoing IP rights enforcement problems outweigh efforts to reform both nations' IP laws. USTR again chose not to include any countries on its higher-tier priority foreign country list.
Mitel agreed to acquire Polycom in a $1.96 billion deal, they said in a news release Friday. The cash-and-stock acquisition is expected to close in Q3, subject to shareholder and regulatory approvals from the DOJ, FTC, Russia and Germany. The combined company will be located at Mitel’s headquarters in Ottawa, Canada, operating as Mitel under CEO Richard McBee but keeping the Polycom brand. The combined company will have a global workforce of about 7,700.
If its takeover of DOD duties monitoring space traffic and warning of possible satellite collisions is approved by the White House and Congress, the Federal Aviation Administration could have a pilot program or the first steps of such a transition underway in the "next couple years," George Nield, FAA associate administrator-commercial space transportation, said Thursday on a Washington Space Business Roundtable panel.
Spectrum allocation disagreements between the satellite industry and terrestrial wireless providers will be the norm for the foreseeable future, satellite officials said Thursday on a Satellite 2016 panel on the future of the satellite broadcast industry. November's World Radiocommunication Conference deferred several decisions, and frequency allocation issues will likely be on the agenda for WRC-23, said Gary Thatcher, U.S. International Broadcasting Bureau associate director: "I can't imagine everything will be resolved at WRC-19."
Gogo wants special temporary authority (STA) to allow up to 200 earth station aboard aircraft (ESAA) terminals to communicate with satellites Intelsat 18 and Yamal 401, it said in an FCC International Bureau filing Thursday. Gogo said it needs the STA to meet customer demand for in-flight connectivity in the South Pacific and over Russia while its application to modify to ESAA is pending before the FCC. Neither satellite will be used in U.S. airspace, Gogo said.
Additional intellectual property protections are needed -- including those involving "ancillary copyright laws," and patent and intermediary liability protections -- in certain countries, said Internet and communications trade groups during a public hearing Tuesday of the U.S. Trade Representative's Special 301 Subcommittee. The USTR each year identifies "countries that deny adequate and effective protection of intellectual property protection," and recently received written stakeholder comments on the issue (see 1602080061). The public hearing included testimony from representatives of four countries -- Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Egypt and the Ukraine -- detailing their governments' recent efforts to improve IP protections and arguing they should be excluded from the USTR's watch list this year.
ICANN CEO Fadi Chehadé framed his involvement with the Chinese government-led World Internet Conference (WIC) as “a natural continuation of ICANN's work” to promote multistakeholder Internet governance. The explanation came in a letter Friday responding to questions from GOP presidential hopeful Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, and other senators. Cruz and Sens. James Lankford, R-Okla., and Mike Lee, R-Utah, raised concerns in early February about Chehadé's decision to become co-chairman of a high-level advisory committee to WIC after his planned mid-March departure from ICANN (see 1602040061).