An FCC proposal to remove radiofrequency device certification requirements for importers needs some language changes to avoid unintended regulatory issues, said the National Customs Brokers & Forwarders Association of America in a filing posted Wednesday in docket 15-170. While NCBFAA generally favored proposed changes to eliminate the import declaration filing requirements on FCC Form 740, the association said some language tweaks are necessary to distinguish between the parties involved in import transactions. Although the FCC intends to remove requirements for commission-specific declaration or filing upon import, the proposed language "does not accurately capture this shift," the NCBFAA said. As proposed, it said that "no radio frequency device may be imported into the Customs territory of the United States unless the importer or ultimate consignee, or their designated customs broker, determines that the device meets one of the conditions of entry." But "without a declaration to affix responsibility in each instance, it will be unclear exactly who made the determination," the NCBFAA said. "If the responsible party for making the determination could be any of three entities (i.e., the importer, the ultimate consignee or the customs broker, as the proposed regulation suggests), there is no certainty for the FCC or the trade as to which party is responsible for documenting how the radio frequency device was determined to be in compliance. This leaves a potentially significant gap in affixing responsibility." Customs brokers shouldn't be among the entities considered able to make such a "determination," the group said. While fewer than 100 forms a month were filed when the form became a requirement, an estimated 2 million are filed annually today, the NCBFAA said. "By 2020, an estimated 26 billion devices may be subject to FCC jurisdiction as the Internet of Things expands, making the Form 740 filing a burdensome requirement that appears to us to yield few enforcement benefits for the FCC."

Public Knowledge said Wednesday it welcomes a State Department diplomatic initiative aimed at spreading broadband adoption worldwide, discussed last week by Phil Verveer, senior counsel to FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler (see 1509180042). “The initiative’s goals are based on the core understanding that the Internet should be Open and protected as a public interest infrastructure, and that’s a sentiment we share,” Carolina Rossini, PK vice president-international policy, said in a news release. “By working closely with other nations through the U.N., the World Bank and other stakeholders, the U.S. could jump-start critical investments and policy initiatives to make the Internet available and affordable to people all over the world.”

The Bureau of Industry and Security penalized two Dubai-based traders and three companies operated by the pair over violations of the Export Administration Regulations, BIS said in a notice set to appear in Thursday's Federal Register. The two individuals and their companies violated the EAR by conspiring to export and re-export controlled telecom equipment to Syria without the proper U.S. authorization and through falsified documents, BIS said. The agency placed on the Denied Persons List companies including iT Wave, for four years. The five entities are collectively being charged $7 million, the order said. The BIS directed the entities to pay only $250,000 in total over an annual, staggered payment schedule. The remaining fees will be waived after two years if no further violations are committed, BIS said.

Customs and Border Protection changed procedures for sharing information with importers and rightsholders when it suspects trademark infringement. The CBP final rule takes effect Oct. 19, the agency said in Friday's Federal Register. Regulations in 19 CFR 133.21 enlist importers and rightsholders to help CBP determine whether merchandise infringes on trademarks and trade names and should be seized or excluded, without violating Trade Secrets Act restrictions on government agency release of protected business information. Importers have seven days' notice of detention issuance to convince CBP its mark is legitimate before unredacted images or information or samples are provided to the rightsholder for verification. Partly to address importer concerns, CBP added language clarifying that information provided to rightsholders is only for the purposes of assisting the agency in making infringement determinations. CBP must give the importer unredacted information, pictures or a sample of the suspect merchandise, it said. “Releasing this information to importers will assist them in providing CBP with a meaningful response before or within the seven business day response period." In other changes, the agency removed provisions for a 30-day extension of the limit for detaining merchandise before it's deemed excluded.

New America's Open Technology Institute welcomed an FCC undersea cable NPRM as "focusing attention" on an "opaque part of the Internet's architecture that needs greater oversight." Its adoption Thursday launched a proceeding aimed at requiring undersea cable licensees to report on major outages (see 1509170047). "Most online traffic travels through submarine cables at some point, and yet we know very little about when this part of the network fails," the OTI said in a statement Thursday. "A single cable outage can disrupt entire regions, as we saw in the Northern Marianas [sic] Islands earlier this year when an outage knocked out the territory's access to the Internet and forced a shutdown of its banking system. We need more data about these outages to strengthen the Internet's resilience and to protect people from future disruptions."

European online video revenue rose seventeenfold between 2012 and this year, when it's expected to top $423 million, IHS and SpotX said Wednesday. By 2020, close to $2.3 billion of online ad revenue will be generated programmatically, meaning involving algorithms that overlay watchers' demographic and behavioral data, with programmatic video becoming the predominant OVD ad revenue source in France, the Netherlands and the U.K., IHS said. The IHS/SpotX study said the German OVD ad market is expected to be roughly $374 million this year, putting it behind France and the U.K.; that by 2020, 54 percent of French ad revenue will come from programmatic channels; and that the Italian programmatic video market is expected to boom in 2016 and 2017.

The Committee on Foreign Investment in the U.S. approved Nokia's proposed buy of Alcatel-Lucent, Nokia said in a news release Monday. Nokia received approval of the transaction from the European Commission in July (see 1507240023) and said it's still waiting for approval from a "few remaining antitrust authorities in the relevant jurisdictions." The acquisition is expected to close in the first half of 2016, Nokia said.

Sprint is seeking FCC International Bureau approval to begin offering telecom service to Cuba, the company said in a filing posted Friday in docket 10-95. The company signed an interconnection agreement Sept. 4 with Cuban telecom company Empresa de Telecomunicaciones de Cuba to provide international service between the two countries, Sprint said.

U.S. Trade Representative Michael Froman chose USTR General Counsel Timothy Reif as the agency’s first chief transparency officer. In a statement, USTR noted that the new position comes at a “critical time in trade policy” as the U.S. angles to complete the Trans-Pacific Partnership and make progress in other trade negotiations. The agency won't appoint new general counsel, said a USTR spokesman. Lawmakers forced the agency to create the new position through a provision in the 2015 version of Trade Promotion Authority, which President Barack Obama signed into law in late June. That provision directs the chief transparency officer to “consult with Congress on transparency policy, coordinate transparency in trade negotiations, engage and assist the public, and advise the United State Trade Representative on transparency policy.” Senate Finance Committee ranking member Ron Wyden, D-Ore., an advocate for more transparency in trade, also applauded the new position.

The “new Pioneer,” in cooperation with Onkyo, is readying a portable digital audio player with 4.7-inch screen and powered by a quad-core processor working under Android Lollipop Version 5.11. The XDP 100R player was previewed Thursday in Berlin at IFA in near-ready state. The XDP 100R was introduced as the “world’s first product with MQA (Master Quality Authenticated) to deliver super hi-res audio in CD bandwidth. The new Pioneer player can download music directly from online stores such as Onkyo Music, without the need for a computer, and also access Google Play and third-party stores such as Deezer, Spotify and Tidal. The large screen can be used for YouTube, Internet radio and gaming. Onboard storage is a mix of 32 GB inbuilt memory and up to two 128 GB SD cards, making a total of 288 GB, appearing to the user as one large memory bank.