Wireless Regulatory News
:: Wireless Regulatory News ::
CES: FCC chair sets hard date for DTV transition
By Kevin Fitchard
FCC’s Kevin Martin says broadcasters will leave 700 MHz in 2009; implies the commission may consider EchoStar-DirecTV merger if they change business model...
Nokia declares first victory in Qualcomm phone wars
By Kevin Fitchard
Qualcomm’s attempt to get Nokia GSM phones banned in the U.S. was halted today as an administrative law judge with the U.S. International Trade Commission ruled that Nokia violated none of Qualcomm's patents...
700 MHz: Google in; Time Warner, Comcast out
By Rich Karpinski
AT&T and Verizon are in the mix too, as bidders line up for January's wireless spectrum auction...
Google comes clean on 700 MHz bid
By Rich Karpinski
Google today confirmed it will bid in the Federal Communications Commission’s upcoming 700 MHz spectrum auction, a move that was expected but that had become fuzzier in recent weeks as the wireless industry moved toward the more open network approaches Google advocated...
Qualcomm, Nokia skirmish heats back up
By Kevin Fitchard
Qualcomm and Nokia are back in the courtrooms, this time in Britain, battling over the same patents the two companies failed to reach licensing agreements over last summer...
Web standards body joins plea for open mobile Internet
By Kevin Fitchard
BOSTON--A number of Internet companies have been banging away at the wireless industry lately, pleading with it to open its mobile networks and handsets to the larger world of the Internet...
Femto Forum gains followers
By Kevin Fitchard
The new industry advocacy group of femtocells is building up its ranks, announcing this week a new roster including heavy hitters from the wireless industry. The Femto Forum’s membership now includes operators such as Telefonica O2, Rogers Wireless and India’s Bharti Airtel as well as infrastructure vendors Motorola, Alcatel-Lucent and Nokia Siemens...
CTIA: Microsoft won’t bid for 700 MHz
By Kevin Fitchard
SAN FRANCISCO--Microsoft will not participate in the upcoming 700 MHz auction, which will distribute former UHF TV channels to wireless operators for broadband services, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer said today at the CTIA Wireless IT & Entertainment show....
Martin rebuffs VZW’s open access demands
By Kevin Fitchard
FCC Chairman Kevin Martin today said he would not give in to Verizon Wireless’ demands to remove the open access requirements from the upcoming 700 MHz auction...
The last great spectrum auction
By Joan Engebretson
The 700 MHz auction could usher in 4G wireless, but it presents bidders with a diverse -- and potentially treacherous -- mix of regulatory requirements...
EU picks up Qualcomm investigation
By Sarah Reedy
Qualcomm is in the hot seat once again. The European Commission announced today that it has begun an antitrust investigation into Qualcomm for alleged exploitative practices in the market for mobile phone chipsets...
Exploiting education spectrum
By Carol Wilson
It's hardly unusual these days for government entities to explore ways of delivering wireless broadband to the masses...
Qualcomm gets chip-ban reprieve
By Kevin Fitchard
A U.S. appeals court stayed the U.S. International Trade Commission’s ban on Qualcomm technology imported into the U.S., but only lifted the prohibition on third-party devices not Qualcomm’s own chipsets...
Verizon Wireless challenges 700 MHz rules in court
By Carol Wilson
In what could be the opening salvo in a long legal battle, Verizon Wireless has asked a federal court to set aside the Federal Communications Commission’s rules requiring open-access rules for one portion of the 700 MHz spectrum being auctioned beginning in January...
NTP takes carriers to court
By Kevin Fitchard
Fresh off its record win over Research in Motion, push-messaging patent-holder NTP is setting its sights on bigger fish, or whales rather. This time it’s taking on the giants of the telecom industry, suing AT&T, Verizon Wireless and Sprint...
Nokia under ITC investigation
By Kevin Fitchard
In what may well be rehash of the heated intellectual property battle between Qualcomm and Broadcom, Nokia has found itself the target of a U.S. International Trade Commission investigation into the technology used in its 3G handsets...
Motorola wins Iridium court fight
By Ed Gubbins
Motorola prevailed today in a lawsuit filed by creditors of satellite provider Iridium...
Nokia takes Qualcomm to ITC
By Kevin Fitchard
Nokia is taking a page from Broadcom’s book in its ongoing patent dispute with Qualcomm, taking its legal attacks outside of the federal courts and into the chambers of the U.S. International Trade Commission...
Google makes $4B pledge to 700 MHz
By Carol Wilson
Google said today it has promised to spend a minimum of $4.6 billion in bidding for spectrum in the FCC’s upcoming 700 MHz auction – provided the commission agrees to Google’s version of auction rules...
Carriers attack Martin over ‘Google block’ auction
By Kevin Fitchard
FCC Chairman Kevin Martin’s comments in USA Today advocating open-access usage of license in the upcoming 700 MHz auction didn’t go unnoticed...
Ericsson, Samsung cross-license wireless patents
By Kevin Fitchard
Ericsson and Samsung today said they have agreed to cross-license each others 2G and 3G network technology, heading off any potential intellectual property showdown like that which has consumed Nokia and Qualcomm...
Nokia makes patent claims against Qualcomm’s FLO, BREW
By Kevin Fitchard
Nokia filed its second U.S. countersuit this weekend in its ongoing legal battle over intellectual property, this time claiming Qualcomm’s BREW content delivery platform and its MediaFLO mobile TV technology...
Nokia strikes back in Qualcomm patent dispute
By Kevin Fitchard
Nokia has fired back at Qualcomm in its ongoing CDMA licensing battle, filing a countersuit to the one Qualcomm filed in a Wisconsin federal court last month, and denying it has infringed on any of Qualcomm’s patents...
Martin publicly opposes call blocking
By Carol Wilson
According to multiple accounts published on the Web, Federal Communications Commission Chairman Kevin Martin said today that the commission has instructed large telcos such as AT&T and Qwest not to block calls placed to smaller LECs that are actually being routed overseas or to conference calling facilities...
Qualcomm increases legal pressure on Nokia
By Kevin Fitchard
Qualcomm has filed another two patent infringement suits on handset and infrastructure maker Nokia, this time claiming Nokia is absconding with intellectual property related to the downloading over GPRS/EDGE networks and speech encoder technologies...
