A unilateral decision by ICANN's board to suspend review of domain name stability and security practices could jeopardize the internet body's transparency and accountability, new NTIA Administrator David Redl said in a Dec. 12 letter. Board members announced the action Oct. 28, saying the review "is a critical input for ICANN in service of its mission," but it's "imperative" the community assure itself the Security, Stability and Resiliency Review "is appropriately composed and structured." NTIA accused ICANN of violating its principles of openness and participation. The suspension "appears to have been done with little notice given and no clear rationale provided," NTIA said. ICANN bylaws provide little role for the board in workings of a review team, it said. The U.S. agency said its "concerns are compounded by the fact that the review teams ... are a critical accountability tool in the post [Internet Assigned Numbers Authority] stewardship transition phase of ICANN, something all stakeholders, particularly those in the United States are watching closely." ICANN hasn't yet responded, a spokesman said this week. NTIA's concerns are shared by many ICANN Governmental Advisory Committee members, and the agency expects the multistakeholder community will act, a spokesman said Tuesday.

Kaspersky Lab went to court seeking to reverse the Department of Homeland Security's ban on use of its products in federal IT systems, the company said Monday of its U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia case. "DHS’s actions have caused undue damage to both the company’s reputation in the IT security industry and its sales in the U.S.," Kaspersky said. The firm has been under fire for several months after reports that vulnerabilities in its software enabled the Russian government to breach U.S. federal systems (see 1712060045).

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.

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.”

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.

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.