U.S. Customs and Border Protection has posted a notice announcing that the next customs broker license exam will be held on Monday, October 3, 2011.
Northern Valley Communications and Kentucky Telephone complained about rules designed to curb “so-called ‘access stimulation,'” in an ex parte filing in docket 01-92. “Ultimately, at a time when the nation’s economy remains in peril and the Chairman is focused on how technology and innovation can create jobs for Americans, the rules proposed by the FCC are unwarranted,” the companies said. “These proposed new regulatory burdens would serve only to kill jobs in rural America, and by attacking free conference calling services would make it more expensive for small businesses and entrepreneurs to collaborate on their ventures.” The companies also took a look at the USTelecom-brokered agreement on Universal Service Fund and intercarrier compensation reform (CD Aug 1 p1). “While the approach suggested by these carriers has many flaws which counsel against its adoption, we noted that this or similar proposals would effectively moot the need to adopt rules specifically addressed at ‘access stimulation,’ because the industry-wide transition to such low rates would effectively prevent carriers from having sufficient revenues to share with their end user customers,” the companies said.
Windstream’s Q2 profit was $93.2 million, up from $79 million in the same period last year. Though more work needs to be done, the USTelecom-brokered USF proposal is a good start, CEO Jeff Gardner said during an investor call Friday.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection has posted an updated version of its spreadsheet of ACE ESAR A2.2 (Initial Entry Types) programming issues.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection states that Web-Based Training (WBT) for e-Manifest: Rail & Sea (M1) is now available. CBP's information on M1 is broken into six lessons, with the recommended audience listed as appropriate.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection has issued its July 2011 ACE Trade Account Owner Update, which contains information on the new features and edits of the next ACE release, e-Manifest: Ocean and Rail (M1), which is expected to be deployed in pilot form in September.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection is announcing that the Advisory Committee on Commercial Operations of U.S. Customs and Border Protection (COAC) will meet on August 18, 2011 in Long Beach, CA, and for the first time is offering a live webcast via the Internet of the meeting, as an alternative to attendance .
On July 27, 2011, U.S. Customs and Border Protection Deputy Commissioner Aguilar hosted a Trade Day forum with several groups, including Businesses for a Better Border, also known as B3.1 Among other things, CBP states that a pilot using single application requirements for Canada's Partners in Protection Program (PIP) and CBP's Customs-Trade Partnership Against Terrorism (C-TPAT) was very successful and that CBP is looking at expanding the pilot in September.2
U.S. Customs and Border Protection has issued an information notice on the Importer Security Filing (ISF) Portal that includes information on the recently announced ISF Reports available on the ISF Portal via the ACE Portal. The notice states that this new feature is available for Trade Account Owners with Importer, Broker, Carrier (VOCs, NVOCCs), or Surety views. Importers can download in PDF or Excel, depending on the type of report they received by email, while others are able to download their reports in PDF and Excel formats. The notice also states that Cross Account Access can be provided.
Phone companies aren’t the only industry group divided by potential Universal Service Fund change proposals. With a group convened by USTelecom poised to give the FCC on Friday a plan to make USF pay for broadband (CD July 26 p1), large and small cable operators also have different views on that framework. Just as major phone companies like AT&T and Verizon are expected to back the plan, with some mid-size telcos also joining in, the biggest U.S. cable operators also may support many if not all parts of the plan. As with small telcos that are net recipients of USF money and intercarrier compensation funds, cable operators that get such money also may back few if any aspects of the framework. That’s according to interviews with cable executives Tuesday.