Colombia’s National Spectrum Agency is on the right track in announcing its intention to allocate an additional 25 MHz of spectrum for wireless services, 4G Americas said in a news release Tuesday. The spectrum Colombia will offer is 5 MHz in the 900 MHz band, and 20 MHz at 1.9 GHz. Colombia has 49 million mobile subscribers out of the 714 million subscribers in the Latin America region, the group said.
Recent congressional pressure to ease cross-border data flows has the potential to fuel economic growth and job generation in the U.S., said the Telecommunications Industry Association Monday. Four senators urged the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative Friday to remove data flow restrictions in the Trans-Pacific Partnership (see 1410270005). "The ability to send commercial data across borders with minimal unnecessary restrictions is vital for U.S. businesses of all sizes and all sectors that conduct business here in the United States and around the world,” said the TIA. “A great example is how e-commerce has rapidly become the way that U.S. small businesses access global markets to expand their exports.” Finance Committee Chairman Ron Wyden, D-Ore., and ranking member Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, alongside Commerce Committee Chairman Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va., and ranking member John Thune, R-S.D., had sent the letter to U.S. Trade Representative Michael Froman.
The Information Technology and Innovation Foundation ranked 125 countries on the amount of taxes and duties applied to information and communications technology goods, said ITIF in a report released Monday. Thirty-one countries impose taxes and duties that exceed 5 percent on ICT products, and Argentina, Bangladesh, Brazil, Iran and Turkey are considered the “worst offenders,” said the ITIF. Governments frequently use ICT tariffs "in the mostly vain pursuit of protecting domestic industries" even though "when businesses face extra costs for importing goods, this gets reflected in their subsequent export price -- hurting their competitive position," ITIF said. Goods in the ICT sector are also seen by governments as an easy source of tax revenue because the products are considered as more of a luxury, it said. "These added costs limit ICT adoption and the productivity increases associated with it," it said. "If countries resist the temptation to impose excess taxes on ICT goods and services and eliminate ICT tariffs, they will reap the benefits in broader digital adoption by businesses and consumers, leading to faster economic growth and increased quality of life." The ITIF has spearheaded for years expansion of the Information Technology Agreement. Parties to the ITA, which total in the dozens, haven’t broadened the list of duty exempt products since the agreement’s 1996 inception, despite many IT industry developments.
The ITU Plenipotentiary shouldn’t “initiate or authorize a treaty-making process or otherwise develop binding agreements on international security or cybersecurity,” said Danielle Kriz, Information Technology Industry Council global cybersecurity policy director, in a blog post Sunday. The ITU “lacks the expertise to deal with many technical and legal matters, including cybersecurity and cybercrime,” she said. The plenipotentiary should “oppose” any expansion of the ITU Standards Bureau into “new areas of cybersecurity standardization” and should avoid efforts to have the bureau partner with other standard development organizations, said Kriz. ITU member countries elected Houlin Zhao of China as the ITU’s new secretary-general last week (see 1410240047). Zhao will take over as secretary general Jan. 1.
The election of China’s Houlin Zhao as ITU secretary-general was applauded by ICANN CEO Fadi Chehade, in an ICANN news release Thursday (http://bit.ly/1DFCco4). Zhao’s support was “punctuated by the fact that he obtained 152 votes of the 156 countries that were present and voting in the election,” he said. Chehade said he has a "shared belief" with Zhao’s predecessor, Hamadoun Toure, that the "Internet has an increasingly important role in global socioeconomic development ... We are enthused at the prospect of continuing those efforts with Houlin Zhao." Zhao will take over Jan. 1, when Toure's term ends.
The Advanced Media Workflow Association disclosed changes in its membership, in written notifications filed with the U.S. attorney general and the FTC, said a Justice Department notice in Wednesday's Federal Register (http://1.usa.gov/1ylmueC). Canon U.S.A., Swedish companies Vizrt and Kista, and John Fleming of Australia were added to the organization, while EMC, Encompass, The Weather Co., Andreas Georg Stasheit of Germany and Jone Lee of South Korea withdrew from the association, the notice said.
FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler and Industry Canada Senior Assistant Deputy Minister Kelly Gillis signed an agreement that will allow public safety officials in both countries to use handheld radios when they cross the border, the FCC said Tuesday. The agreement expands on a 1952 treaty that allowed only for cross-border use of radios installed in public safety vehicles, the FCC said. The new agreement also allows a public safety official to operate a radio across the border without a permit provided the official is licensed in his country of origin, the FCC said (http://bit.ly/ZMWUDj).
The Hellenic Telecommunications and Post Commission (EETT) completed its auction of 800 MHz and 2.6 GHz spectrum licenses Monday, EETT said. All three Greek carriers, Cosmote, Vodafone and Wind Hellas, bought spectrum, said a release from the regulator (http://bit.ly/1wA1QpH). The highest prices were paid for the 800 MHz spectrum blocks. All three carriers bought a single 2 x 5 MHz block for just over 51.5 million euros. Bidding lasted 10 rounds.
The European Commission freed two markets in the telecom industry from regulation. The retail market for access to fixed telephony and the wholesale market for fixed call origination were deregulated due to a decrease in volume of fixed calls as customers have turned to alternative solutions and providers, said the EU Thursday in a news release (http://bit.ly/1yb0kyv). Customers who still use fixed telephony “are now able to purchase fixed access from a number of different platforms,” like fiber or cable networks, it said. The EC also redefined two broadband markets “to limit regulatory burdens to what is strictly necessary for competitive broadband access and investment,” it said. The new rules recognize that “virtual access products” can be considered substitutes to physical unbundling when they fulfill certain characteristics, it said.
EU findings that ISPs there aren’t violating net neutrality rules despite “fear mongering on behalf of net neutrality proponents” also have implications in the U.S., said Roslyn Layton, visiting fellow at the American Enterprise Institute’s Center for Internet, Communications and Technology Policy, in a blog post Tuesday. Layton cited a news release last week from the EU (http://bit.ly/1xlOBdc). EU investigators did a thorough search, raiding the offices of Deutsche Telekom, Orange and Telefonica in July “during an unannounced investigation of the Internet and mobile service providers’ traffic management practices,” she said. “The EU Commission should be recognized for conducting a proper investigation of traffic management practices as part of its net neutrality rulemaking,” she wrote (http://bit.ly/1nYwfyZ). “When the evidence does not exist to support the proposed regulation, then the regulation should not be implemented. It’s a lesson just as important for the EU as it is for the US."