Wireless industry watcher responses were mixed after Comcast unveiled further details Thursday about its Xfinity Mobile wireless service. This "could be [Comcast's] next growth driver," Wells Fargo analyst Marci Ryvicker wrote investors. The offering "highlights cable's optionality and introduces another potential negative to the wireless industry," Macquarie's Amy Yong said.
Drawback
A duty drawback is a refund by CBP of the duties, taxes, or fees paid on imported goods, which were imposed upon importation as prescribed in 19 U.S.C. 1313(d). More broadly, a drawback also includes the refund or remission of other excise taxes pursuant to other provisions of law.
Fuel for satellites used after launch into space is eligible for customs duty refunds, called drawback, because the launched satellite is considered to be exported, Customs and Border Protection said in a recently released ruling. Drawback is allowed for goods imported into the U.S. that are unused or quickly exported. Thales Alenia Space asked CBP about drawback eligibility for satellite propellant, which "is solely utilized to power a satellite’s thruster system after the satellite has been launched into orbit and activated." CBP considers satellites and components "exported for drawback purposes despite the satellite’s exportation destination not being within a foreign country," said the agency. "Due to the commercialized technology and business conditions of communications satellite manufacture and launch, the definition of exportation includes satellites that are launched into permanent orbit from the territory of the United States by private entities." Thales also sought input on what documentation is necessary to prove export through launch. "Submission of multiple documents corroborating the fact and date of exportation, describing the merchandise, and identifying the ultimate purchaser of the satellite may serve as sufficient proof," the agency said.
FCC Chairman Ajit Pai “can hardly wait to unwind the FCC’s existing open internet protections, and is a proponent of unchecked corporate control of the Internet,” and the Trump administration overall is “openly hostile to net neutrality,” wrote Rep. Anna Eshoo, D-Calif., in an opinion piece for The Hill Thursday. Neither Pai nor the administration has offered precise plans on the order. “Some critics of the FCC’s rules claim that investment in broadband infrastructure was harmed by the adoption of these rules, but broadband providers themselves tell a different story,” said Eshoo, former ranking member of the Communications Subcommittee, citing AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson’s meeting with President Donald Trump to tout the company’s investments. She also cited recent remarks from House Commerce Committee Chairman Greg Walden, R-Ore., who conceded no drawback in investment (see 1702140055). Eshoo said “investment in online businesses increased 35 percent in the year following the adoption of the rules,” saying Snap “painted a stark picture of what the app economy could look like without strong net neutrality rules in place” in recent initial public offering paperwork. “To keep our nation the greatest in the world, we have an abiding obligation to ensure freedom of speech to all Americans. This includes preserving an open internet and it must begin with Chairman Pai and the FCC,” Eshoo said. Economist Hal Singer, who has consulted for AT&T, tweeted that these investment claims were “fishy,” saying AT&T’s domestic broadband capital expenditures are “down big.”
Several prominent voices on Capitol Hill have questioned AT&T’s proposed buy of Time Warner. The Senate Judiciary Antitrust Subcommittee is gearing up for a November hearing on the deal, with more scrutiny expected regardless of the congressional and White House victors in November. The deal was entangled in rhetoric from presidential campaigns and opposition from former presidential contender Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., and Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump.
The FCC has come under fire for rulemaking policies and practices by everyone from lawmakers to its minority-party commissioners, though its openness and transparency -- especially in comparison with some other regulatory agencies -- could be worse, said several commission watchers and regulatory agency experts. Considering the amount of rulemaking the FCC engages in, "it works pretty well," Free Press Policy Director Matt Wood told us.
British regulator Ofcom estimates 15 million U.K. internet users have embarked on “digital detox” self-help therapy “to strike a healthier balance between technology and life beyond the screen,” said a Thursday report. Ofcom canvassed 2,025 adults on their online habits and found that one in three adult internet users (34 percent), equivalent to 15 million people in the U.K., has “sought a period of time offline,” with one in 10 having done so in the previous week, it said. Of those “digital down-timers,” 25 percent spent up to a day internet-free, while 20 percent took up to a week off and 5 percent went internet-free for up to a whole month, Ofcom said. Respondents had mixed opinions about the benefits and drawbacks of their internet abstinence, it said. A third of those canvassed (33 percent) said they felt “more productive” as a result, and 27 percent found it “more liberating” to stay offline, Ofcom said. But 16 percent said they experienced the “fear of missing out,” 15 percent said they felt “lost,” and 14 percent “cut off,” it said. Ofcom estimates millions of U.K. consumers built their “digital detox” strategies into their vacation plans. Of U.K. adult internet users canvassed, 16 percent reported “purposely” visiting a vacation destination with no internet access, and 9 percent said they intentionally traveled “to a place with neither internet nor mobile phone coverage,” Ofcom said. The internet “has revolutionised our lives for the better,” said the agency. “But our love affair with the web isn’t always plain surfing, and many people admit to feeling hooked. So millions of us are taking a fresh look at the role of technology in our lives, and going on a digital detox to get a better tech-life balance.”
Industry discussions around proposed FCC rules for set-top boxes are focused on apps-based proposals, though pay-TV carriers and proponents of the NPRM disagree what that proposal should be. “It is possible for there to be an app-oriented approach that would achieve the Commission’s goals,” said Public Knowledge in an ex parte filing in docket 16-42 Friday. “The current iteration of the MVPD app proposal is not it.” Meanwhile, multichannel video programming distributor officials have told us the apps-based proposals from PK and Incompas would create the same problems for content security as the NPRM.
The FCC’s record-refresh public notice in docket 13-49 on the 5.9 GHz band generally asks the questions the agency was expected to ask, officials on both sides said Thursday. Fundamental disagreements remain about how the band can be shared between Wi-Fi and dedicated short-range communications (DSRC) systems designed to prevent motor vehicle accidents (see 1605260059).
An industry group objected to DOJ's proposal to alter the Federal Rule of Criminal Procedure 41 to expand federal judges’ ability to issue warrants for remote searches of computers outside their jurisdictions, which has drawn privacy advocates' concerns. Congress has until Dec. 1 to take action on the Supreme Court-cleared proposal or it automatically takes effect (see 1604290057). "This so-called procedural update raises complex technical, Constitutional, and geopolitical concerns,” said Computer and Communications Industry Association President Ed Black in a Monday evening news release. “A substantive expansion of government hacking powers should not be done as a behind-the-scenes rule change -- its merits and drawbacks should be openly debated.” The revision “would grant legitimacy to practices that have yet to be found constitutional under the requirements of the Fourth Amendment,” said Black, whose group has members including Amazon, Dish Network, Google, Microsoft and Sprint according to its website. “A key requirement of a constitutional search is that it is focused on a known location with particularity. One problem is that a remote search inherently lacks those elements.” CCIA is “further concerned that by using hacking tools and remotely searching computers in unknown locations, it would be all too easy to search, intrude upon and even damage the security of foreign computers, which could violate international sovereignty and is currently the subject of robust Congressional debate,” Black said.
The FCC will take up at its April 28 meeting a rulemaking that looks at effectively ending text technology (TTY) in favor of real-time text (RTT). Making that change was a recent recommendation of the FCC Disability Advisory Committee (see 1602230066). AT&T, Cellular South and Verizon have all received temporary waivers to use RTT as a substitute for TTY (see 1512210045). FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler is circulating the item Thursday for a vote at the meeting, agency officials said. Thursday night, the FCC's preliminary agenda listed the NPRM, as well as a special access order and NPRM, also as expected (see 1604070069).