GENEVA -- In the wake of the recent collapse of World Trade Organization negotiations in Cancun, Mexico, top telecom regulators at the ITU Telecom World 2003 show here Tues. stressed the need to continue to seek market-opening commitments through the 1997 agreement on trade in basic telecom services. Several telecom trade experts cited the work left undone at Cancun, including exploring the possibility of updating the classification of services and the need to continue a moratorium on customs duties on electronic transmissions.
Senate Commerce Committee Chmn. McCain (R-Ariz.) said Thurs. he would oppose efforts to legislate a 35% broadcast ownership cap through appropriations legislation. After the Committee’s 7th hearing this session on media ownership, he said he still was unsure of how -- or to what limit -- to regulate media ownership. McCain said he had a hold on S- 1585, the Commerce Justice State appropriations measure and the bill would be rolled into an omnibus appropriations measure, to which he would introduce an amendment to remove the 35% cap.
DirecTV and EchoStar filed suit against N.C. Dept. of Revenue challenging state’s 5% sales tax on satellite customers but not cable customers. Suit, filed in N.C. Superior Court, Wake County, followed required 90-day period allowing Dept. to consider companies’ refund request. DirecTV and EchoStar challenged constitutionality of tax under Commerce Clause, which they said prohibited state taxes that discriminated against interstate commerce or were not fairly related to services provided to taxpayers.
Freshman Sen. Coleman (R-Minn.) used his chairmanship of Senate Governmental Affairs Investigations Subcommittee Tues. to take RIAA to task over its subpoenas of suspected file sharers.
DirecTV and EchoStar filed a lawsuit against N.C.’s Dept. of Revenue in the Superior Court for Wake County challenging the state’s 5% sales tax levied on satellite customers and not cable customers, they said. The suit follows a required 90-day period allowing the Dept. to consider a refund request by the companies (CD July 1 p10). The companies challenged the constitutionality of the tax under the commerce clause, “which prohibits state taxes that discriminate against interstate commerce, or are not fairly related to the services provided to the taxpayer.”
The House Commerce Committee passed the Enhanced 911 (E911) Implementation Act (HR-2898) Wed., but not before some concerns from the Administration surfaced. The bill passed with no objection after House Commerce Committee Chmn. Tauzin (R-La.) introduced an amendment that would strengthen the grant program so no state -- or entity within a state, including Public Service Answering Points (PSAPs) -- that diverted E911 funds could get federal funding.
The Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA) is expected to announce the winners of the 3 regional mobile licenses in Iraq by Oct. 1, officials said at a conference on Iraqi telecom hosted by Information Gatekeepers Inc. (IGI) Mon. in Washington. The selection process turned out “to be more complicated than they thought in terms of the number of bids and the structure,” said Dept. of Commerce Dir.-Wireless Communications Div. Linda Astor.
Standards are a significant trade issue “not dealt with by the WTO [World Trade Organization],” Commerce Dept. Asst. Secy.-Technology Bruce Mehlman said Thurs. In a far-looking presentation, “Future Policy Challenges for American Innovation,” Mehlman told the Computer & Communications Industry Assn. (CCIA) of an example of competition involving standards. He said earlier this year he spoke with U.S. manufacturers of HDTV components, who argued that Brazil was being dissuaded from adopting the U.S. HDTV standard in favor of a yet-to-be-finalized Japanese standard as European companies sought to block U.S. entry into Brazil. (The Commerce Dept.’s Technology Administration launched a standards initiative earlier this year.) Acknowledging the recent collapse of WTO talks in Cancun, Mehlman observed what others in the Administration had said: “We may be going to a phase that’s more bilateral than multilateral for a while.”
Acting NTIA Dir. Michael Gallagher told a Computer & Communications Industry Assn. (CCIA) conference in Washington Wed. that a proposal to move NTIA into the Technology Administration (TA) remained a Commerce Dept. priority, but he acknowledged time is running short this year in Congress. “No matter how you slice it, there’s not much time left,” Gallagher said. TA Undersecy. Philip Bond has been in discussions on Capitol Hill on how the reorganization, which Gallagher said required congressional approval, would help in areas such as better serving govt. needs. He said there was “active dialogue with the Hill to make sure that all questions are being answered.” The Administration’s proposal would create a new agency called the Technology & Telecom Administration, with the NTIA’s head continuing as the President’s telecom adviser, even though the agency no longer would be a standalone organization under the Commerce Dept. The proposal by Commerce Secy. Donald Evans received a lukewarm reception on the Hill earlier this summer, failing to attract much interest from House or Senate Commerce Committee leadership. In other areas, Gallagher said the creation of a task force on Internet Protocol Version 6 (IPv6) was “imminent.” The protocol is designed to facilitate interoperability for terrestrial wireline, wireless and satellite communications and information technology systems. Gallagher noted that President Bush had issued an executive memorandum earlier this summer creating a task force to recommend how to stimulate more efficient govt. spectrum use. The task force held its first meeting earlier this summer and representatives of federal agencies have been meeting in a working group to move forward. Gallagher told the CCIA conference in a Q&A: “These issues are difficult and we need to maintain the interest level of the political leadership in these agencies as well as work the details at the staff level. Those issues continue to be advanced very aggressively.”
A Commerce Dept. spokeswoman said Tues. that former NTIA Dir. Nancy Victory “was not asked and did not resign” because of a report by the Dept.’s Inspector Gen. (IG). In response to recommendations by the Commerce IG, the spokeswoman said, the Dept. took “appropriate administrative action” but didn’t elaborate on what that entailed. The IG concluded in a report released Mon. that Victory, by accepting a party that lobbyists threw for her in Oct. 2001, had violated federal ethical standards (CD Sept 23 p3). The party was held in her Great Falls, Va., home by 6 lobbyists whom Victory said were personal friends, but whom the IG report said paid for the party out of corporate funds. The party represented a gift from people whose interests would have been affected by Victory’s duties, the report found. But it also concluded that a letter Victory wrote to the FCC within a few weeks of the party wasn’t influenced by the gift. She stepped down in Aug. after 2 years at the top post of NTIA, saying she was leaving the agency for “personal reasons.” The IG report was finalized June 25 and released Mon. by House Govt. Reform Committee ranking Democrat Waxman (Cal.). In the Commerce Dept.’s first public statement on Victory’s departure, the spokeswoman said: “As she stated at the time, she left for personal reasons following 2 years of service.”