The head of the State Department office in charge of approving export licenses for communications satellite components said his office is necessarily cautious about granting such approvals. “I have no interest of appearing in this building again and testifying to the successor to the Cox Committee,” said Robert Kovac, managing director of the State Department Directorate of Defense Trade Controls. A committee led by former Rep. Christopher Cox, R-Calif., found in the 1990’s that satellite technology that could be used for both civilian and military purposes had been exported to China. Responding to the Cox Report, Congress changed the export control laws, putting communications satellites and their components on the munitions list.
Exports to China
An FCC assertion of “ancillary jurisdiction” overseeing net neutrality isn’t enough, House Judiciary Chairman John Conyers, D-Mich., said Tuesday at a hearing. He thinks Hill action is needed, he said, urging more oversight by his panel. “If Congress acts, it will not be because we have decided to regulate,” he said. “It will be because the Internet service providers have imposed their own new regulations on the Internet and interfered with its healthy growth.”
The European Broadcasting Union contracted with CNC China Netcom Group to provide fiber and uplink services at the 2008 Olympic Games, the EBU said. A control system CNC launched last month will let the group monitor all venue networks in real time during the games, it said. CNC said it’s working with Cisco to deliver “a fully broadband Olympics,” and ensure normal operation of the games’ fixed- line system.
3Com, Bain Capital and Huawei Technologies withdrew a joint filing to the Committee on Foreign Investment in the U.S. Wednesday, unable to resolve concerns that their merger would threaten national security, they said. The agreement, under which Bain would own 83.5 percent of 3Com with the other 16.5 percent held by China-based Huawei, has undergone intense scrutiny since last fall. 3Com hopes to resume talks with CFIUS that could lead to approval.
China Mobile beat an analyst firm’s net subscriber add estimate for January by more than 1.23 million. Pali Research predicted a 5.8 million subscriber gain. The carrier added 7.04 million, beating a 6.6 million record it set in October. China Mobile’s total subscriber base grew 23 percent to 376.38 million, with its market share in China rising one point to 68 percent. “China is in the middle of the same accelerating subscriber growth trends that occurred in Latin America over the past 3 to 4 years and in Europe and the United States in the late 1990’s when these companies, regardless of GDP per capita, experienced accelerated growth between [30 and 60 percent] penetration,” Pali Research said.
Federal agencies are beefing up IPv6 transition efforts to meet a June Office of Management and Budget deadline, but other nations still run far ahead, and vendors are following the money, an E-Gov Institute IPv6 forum heard Wednesday. “This is an international competition,” and the U.S. must “win this battle,” said Gerald Lepisko, information technology specialist with the IRS planning and policy division. But to get agencies to respond at all vendors must tailor their approaches with care, he said.
LAS VEGAS -- Though a shrinking audience threatens the broadcast networks’ established business model, new media distribution platforms offer unique opportunities for content providers and advertisers alike, speakers said at NATPE Wednesday. Unlike passive viewing in broadcast, the Internet makes viewers proactive, which demands new ways of doing business, said Yahoo Sports Vice President James Pitaro. “In today’s world, Internet users are too sophisticated to accept anything but openness. Putting a wall around your content won’t work… From the consumer perspective, there is a willingness to pay. We haven’t seen a shift towards a demand for free content which would push toward more advertising models.”
U.S. cable operators lost 500,000 TV subscribers last year -- a 0.7 percent decrease to almost 68 million -- In- Stat said Friday. But operators in China, India and other emerging markets keep adding subscribers, the research firm said. “In more established markets like North America and Western Europe, satellite TV services and telco TV services continue to attract new pay-TV subscribers, in addition to a growing contingent of former households.” The U.S. has the second most cable subscribers. China is first with 140 million.
Motorola shares plummeted 18.75 percent in regular trading Wednesday after the device maker said it expects demand for its handsets to keep slowing in 2008. Falling cellphone market share sank Motorola net earnings for Q4 $423 million year-over-year to $100 million, the handset maker said Wednesday. “2008 will be a challenging year and the recovery of mobile devices will take longer than previously expected,” said CEO Greg Brown in a Q4 results call. “We are taking on these challenges with both a sense of determination and urgency.”
Nations in the World Meteorological Organization are deciding whether that body should delve more deeply into international coordination of space weather monitoring. Solar eruptions and other types of space weather can harm satellites and snarl radio communications, said Jerome Lafeuille, chief of the WMO’s Space-based Observing System. The WMO could facilitate harmonization of satellite instruments to avoid redundancy, and help standardize data, products and data exchange, said a WMO document from a satellite policy meeting this week. The U.S., China, Russia, Japan and other countries have interest in monitoring space weather, the paper said. WMO policy and consultative meetings on satellite matters took place Tuesday and Wednesday in New Orleans