GENEVA -- The U.S., Japan and Taiwan won in a World Trade Organization dispute over European duties as high as 14 percent on some information technology gear covered under the Information Technology Agreement for tariff-free treatment, officials said. About $44 billion in global exports of set-top boxes, LCD panels and multi-function printers is at stake in the agreement. Questions linger over the possible future tariffs on consumer goods that continue to evolve and incorporate communications and other functions.

Public interest groups and industry players got what may be their last chance to offer formal comments on Chairman Julius Genachowski’s proposed “third-way” broadband reclassification proposal. Reply comments were due at the agency Thursday. The FCC has logged almost 40,000 comments in the proceeding in the past 30 days, according to commission records, with many of the major players offering extensive comments that go on for dozens of pages.

An FCC proposal to require that all pay-TV providers let devices connect to their networks by 2012 without complicated or expensive equipment such as CableCARDs and get online video drew fears of content unbundling from cable programmers, telco-TV, direct broadcast satellite providers and cable operators. AT&T, Cablevision, NCTA, Verizon and a group of seven major media companies that own cable networks were among those voicing fears that the so-called AllVid regime could lead to disaggregation of video content.

The consumer electronics and wireless industries are concerned that a potential settlement of a disagreement over whether terrestrial stations ought to pay royalties when they air music could include requirements of chips to allow cellphones to get radio broadcasts, executives favoring and opposing a deal told us. The pact on the table (CD Aug 5 p6) would bypass the Performance Rights Act -- which broadcasters worry could pass over their opposition in the waning days of this Congress -- but it isn’t a done deal, broadcast industry officials said. There appears to be wide support among broadcasters for the pact, our survey found.

A $302 million cut in the NTIA’s Broadband Technologies Opportunities Program, signed into law by President Barack Obama this week (CD Aug 12 p8), raises questions for applicants -- many of which spent tens of thousands of dollars in their efforts -- and for public safety agencies across the country that hope to use grants to build out networks in 700 MHz spectrum. RUS’s broadband program was not cut. Many applicants were surprised by the cut, which came in a bill providing $26.1 billion to states for Medicaid and teachers’ jobs.

Wireless has already faced deep cuts in universal support and the goal of the FCC now should be to encourage more deployment of mobile broadband, CTIA said in replies on an inquiry and rulemaking on changes to the high-cost universal service program. As a result of the 2008 cap on support for competitive eligible telecom carriers, wireless carriers and other CETCs have already lost $800 million in funding, the group said. The notices follow up on recommendations in the National Broadband Plan that the Universal Service Fund be restructured to pay for broadband.

A deal between Cox Communications and TiVo will bring the cable operator’s VoD programming to some broadband-connected DVRs. A Cox digital TV customer who buys a TiVo Premiere box and broadband service from Cox will be able to access its VoD programming menus next year, the companies said Thursday. The service will be limited to customers who take both cable TV and broadband from Cox because requests from the TiVo box to the cable headend will be handled on the cable operator’s upstream Internet connection, Cox Vice President Steve Necessary said in an interview. When a customer makes a VoD request from a TiVo box, a signal will leave the box through the Ethernet port and travel through the cable modem up the Cox broadband path to equipment from SeaChange that will translate it for Cox’s VoD servers, he said.

Interest in fiber appears to be higher in the Middle East than in Europe, Fiber-to-the-Home Council Europe Director General Hartwig Tauber said in an interview. With several Mideast countries building up to decisions about broadband deployment in the next few years, now is the time for fiber proponents to tell players about the technology’s benefits, he said. But deployment of FTTH is being slowed by the absence of a regulatory framework like the EU’s, he said.

Broadcasters’ future with mobile DTV is “up in the air,” Gray TV CEO Bob Prather told investors Thursday. He said the formation of Pearl Mobile DTV group at this year’s NAB show with just nine large station groups created a split among station owners. “There’s now a split between those guys and the rest of us out there,” he said. “It’s delayed us from coming up with a plan overall. At this point mobile DTV is in flux.” The technology works, and Prather is still optimistic about it, but “it may be delayed a little longer than I initially thought,” he said.

Debate about FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski’s third-way broadband reclassification proposal comes on the eve of a key international meeting on broadband, October’s ITU Plenipotentiary Conference where government regulation of the Internet is expected to be a key topic. Genachowski has not indicated when the FCC will vote on a reclassification order.