Only about 20 percent of the world’s e-waste was recycled in 2016, said an ITU report released Wednesday with the United Nations University and the International Solid Waste Association. Nearly 45 million metric tons of e-waste were generated last year, an 8 percent increase from 2014, said the report. “Experts foresee a further 17 per cent increase” to 52.2 million metric tons by 2021, it said. The assessment “highlights the significant and growing risk to the environment and human health due to increasing levels of e-waste and its improper and unsafe treatment and disposal through burning or in dumpsites,” it said. The “positive news” is that more countries are adopting e-waste legislation, it said. The report estimates two-thirds of the world’s population last year was “covered by national e-waste management laws,” a “significant” increase from the 44 percent that was covered only two years earlier.
Cisco and Chairman Emeritus John Chambers have been trying to get tax overhaul “pushed through” Congress for 15 years, “and so we are we are quite pleased that we are at the point we are at now,” CEO Chuck Robbins told the company’s annual shareholder meeting Monday. “There are lots of dynamics between the House version and the Senate version that we are obviously providing input on,” said Robbins, who assumed the executive chairman post from Chambers, who stepped down from the board effective with the annual meeting. “The biggest thing that we believe is important not only is a competitive tax rate for U.S. companies,” but also “the repatriation of foreign earnings would be very positive for us,” he said. “So, we are optimistic, or maybe I should say hopeful, that we get something done here in the next few weeks.”
Amazon Music Unlimited is in 28 more countries, along with the Echo smart speaker, said Amazon Friday. The on-demand paid music service, previously in the U.S., U.K., Germany, Austria and Japan, is now in Colombia, Costa Rica, Finland, Greece, Poland, Portugal, Sweden and elsewhere.
Broadcom will follow through with its decision, announced last month at the White House (see 1711020069), to move co-headquarters to Delaware from Singapore “whether or not there is corporate tax reform” enacted in the U.S., said Chief Financial Officer Tom Krause on a Wednesday earnings call. Broadcom wants to make the move "in a manner intended to be tax-free to shareholders," said Krause. “We are confident that our shareholders will support this move,” but the "final form and timing" of the "re-domiciliation" and the shareholder vote to approve it “will depend in part on tax reform efforts” in Congress, he said. Broadcom also remains determined to buy Qualcomm for $70 a share, despite the target board’s rejection of the offer last month (see 1711130031), said Krause. Broadcom told Qualcomm earlier this week of its plan to nominate a “highly qualified” slate of 11 directors to run for seats on the Qualcomm board at Qualcomm’s next annual meeting in March (see the personals section of the Dec. 6 issue of this publication), he said. Packing the board with directors friendly toward approving Broadcom’s buy would be a big step toward a hostile Qualcomm takeover, but Krause said “it remains our strong preference to engage in a constructive dialogue with Qualcomm." Broadcom is confident it could complete a Qualcomm buy within a year after signing a “definitive agreement” on the acquisition and that the combined company would become “a global communications leader,” he said.
The National Retail Federation wants the Senate to “move swiftly” to confirm Customs and Border Protection acting Commissioner Kevin McAleenan as the agency’s permanent head, said the group in a Thursday statement. With Senate Finance Committee's approval of McAleenan Thursday, NRF is “pleased to see” his nomination “finally moving through the process,” it said. “As major importers, retailers rely on CBP to facilitate legitimate commerce and enforce our trade laws, which is essential to our nation’s global competitiveness.”
Britain's Competition and Markets Authority will provide notice of its provisional findings and possible remedies in Fox's proposed buy of Sky in mid-January, instead of later this month, it said in an administrative timetable update Wednesday. It said the final report will be sent to the secretary of state for culture, media and sport in February or March; the agency's statutory deadline is March 6. The secretary referred the merger to CMA in September for a full six-month investigation.
Insufficient attention is being paid to reduction of e-waste and to poor practices during design and production of electrical and electronic equipment (EEE), the U.N. reported Tuesday. The report cited a need to engage more with the private sector to address businesses' responsibility in EEE production. The U.N. said its activities on e-waste are centered mostly in Africa and Asia, less in Europe and “significantly less” in North America, Australia and New Zealand. Africa and Asia have long been a hub for near-end-of-life and end-of life “legally and illegally imported EEE,” it said. It advised focusing on repair and refurbishment activities, supporting new business models and reducing or eliminating taxes on reuse and repair operations. It pushed supporting member states and "supranational entities" such as the EU in tracking and containing precious and rare-earth metals used in EEE and efforts to identify the link between e-waste and natural resource exploitation. It said the U.N. should help inform member states by expanding national data collection and information-sharing.
The first of a series of inter-regional ITU workshops in preparation for World Radiocommunication Conference 2019 was held earlier this month, with topics including international regulatory frameworks and frequency allocations for high altitude platforms, railway communications and non-geostationary satellite constellations, the ITU said Thursday. Among attendees were regional groups such as the Asia-Pacific Telecommunity, Arab Spectrum Management Group, African Telecommunications Union, European Conference of Postal and Telecommunications Administrations, Inter-American Telecommunication Commission and Regional Commonwealth in the Field of Communications, ITU said. Radiocommunication Bureau Director Francois Rancy said 5G development "is putting a lot of pressure on manufacturers and operators to start technology developments and network deployments ahead of WRC-19 decisions," and ITU is working toward early consensus on global harmonization of such bands.
The Dec. 7 meeting of the State Department International Telecommunications Advisory Committee will include a report on the outcome of the World Telecommunication Development Conference, an update on preparations for the ITU 2018 Plenipotentiary conference and discussion of preparations for upcoming multilateral meetings at ITU, the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development and Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation, said the agenda. The meeting will be at 10 a.m. at AT&T on the 10th floor of 1120 20th St. NW.
An FCC order eliminating international traffic and revenue annual reports takes effect Dec. 21, under a rule being published in Tuesday's Federal Register (see schedule). The order, which also streamlines circuit-capacity reports, was adopted unanimously Oct. 24 (see 1710240062).