The “amended and expanded” long-term licensing agreement Qualcomm signed with Samsung is contingent on Samsung withdrawing its opposition to Qualcomm’s appeal of the South Korean Fair Trade Commission’s decision fining Qualcomm $865 million for violating South Korean competition laws, said Qualcomm CEO Steve Mollenkopf on a Wednesday earnings call. Qualcomm’s separate “multiyear strategic agreement” with Samsung applies to “various technology areas and across a range of mobile devices,” said Mollenkopf. “This agreement expands the companies’ long-standing relationship as technology and business partners into 2018 and beyond as we transition to 5G.” On 5G, Qualcomm is “working with a number of OEMs to have smartphone launches in the first half of 2019,” said President Cristiano Amon in Q&A. There’s “high” motivation among the smartphone OEMs to stage 5G product launches in 2019's first half, and “we’re marching towards that date,” he said. Amon doesn’t see 5G becoming “a significant contributor of volumes” until 2020, but “early launches in ’19 are very important” because they “define your competitive position and the ability to have a mature product, so you can ramp volumes in premier devices” starting in 2020.
Market-based regulation is important to spectrum policy, said Thomas Lenard, senior fellow at the Technology Policy Institute, in response to an FCC notice seeking comment on various Technological Advisory Council spectrum policy recommendations. Comments were due Wednesday. “While mitigating interference and its effects in real time is a technological issue, truly dealing with the problem in a longer-term, more robust way requires thinking about it as an economics and incentives problem,” Lenard commented in docket 17-340. “We would expect a flexible, market-based system to provide the best incentives to address interference problems in a cost-effective manner and to promote efficient use of the spectrum.” The Office of Engineering and Technology sought comment in December (see 1712040034).
The FCC’s new Office of Economics and Analytics should be helpful to smaller carriers concerned about FCC regulation, Competitive Carriers Association President Steve Berry said in a statement Wednesday. The FCC approved creating the office Tuesday (see 1801300026). “As CCA has consistently noted, previous administrations have relatively poor track records complying with the substantive obligations of both the Regulatory Flexibility Act (RFA) and the Paperwork Reduction Act (PRA), which are critically important for small businesses with limited resources,” Berry said. “Many competitive carriers are small businesses, and meeting RFA and PRA requirements helps businesses like these remain viable, and more importantly, leads to more informed policy decisions.”
Sprint highlighted why it thinks the FCC should streamline the historic review process for new wireless installations, especially small cells. The carrier said that in Chicago, it recently received demands of a combined $90,000 for tribal reviews at six sites. The company has antennas at those locations and proposed to add antennas to increase capacity, it said in docket 17-79. “The project does not involve any ground disturbance. In general, macro cell collocations are exempt from historical review except when the location is in or near a historic district.” The six sites aren’t in or near historic districts, Sprint said: “Nevertheless, Commission rules require that carriers consult with tribal nations for such minor upgrades with no chance of adversely affecting tribal historic property.” Sprint met with Commissioner Brendan Carr and aides to the other commissioners, except Mignon Clyburn.
Corning’s target is to double its sales of glass for mobile devices over the next several years, said CEO Wendell Weeks on a Tuesday earnings call. “Flagship” smartphone models from Samsung and others “now feature glass on the front and the back,” and glass backs “double the area we sell for phones and also support new innovation opportunities,” he said.
The FCC Incentive Auction Task Force and Wireless Bureau approved grant of 600 MHz licenses bought in the broadcast incentive auction by four additional bidders. The licenses cleared were bought by the Iowa RSA 2 L.P., Pioneer Telephone Cooperative, SAL Spectrum and Smith Bagley. The FCC has been working through license applications after approving the grant of the first licenses in June to national players (see 1706140048).
Free-market and limited-government supporters backed CTIA's Supreme Court challenge of a Berkeley, California, ordinance requiring retailers to inform prospective cellphone buyers that carrying their devices in certain ways can cause exposure to RF radiation exceeding federal limits (see 1801240050). "The right not to speak is an essential part of the liberty guaranteed by the First and Fourteenth Amendments -- and ... when someone is forced to act as a mouthpiece for particular government ideas, that warrants the most rigorous judicial review,” wrote the Cato Institute, Competitive Enterprise Institute and Cause of Action Institute in case 17-976. They said the Supreme Court should “clarify that all government attempts to impose content-based speech mandates are subject to rigorous First Amendment scrutiny.” Response is due March 1, the court said.
T-Mobile said Monday it will move to 100 percent renewable electricity by 2021. It joined the RE100 coalition of companies committed to using only renewable power. T-Mobile said it finalized a contract for 160 megawatts of power from Infinity Renewables’ Solomon Forks Wind Project in Kansas, to be operational in early 2019. “To reach 100 percent, T-Mobile will buy enough wind power annually to account for every unit of electricity the company consumes,” the carrier said. It's "focused on creating new energy from renewable sources, buying only from projects that wouldn’t exist without T-Mobile’s involvement.”
Hewlett Packard Enterprise is the HP-related member part of a group of companies meeting with the FCC on the 6 GHz band (see 1801260043).
FiberTower agreed to return all of its 24 GHz licenses and part of its 39 GHz licenses to the FCC, in an agreement that settles FCC litigation. AT&T is buying FiberTower, with an interest in its high-frequency spectrum (see 1702010035). As part of the deal, FiberTower promised to terminate two court proceedings and pay $27 million to the U.S. Treasury. “This case presents a series of unique circumstances, which, when taken together, demonstrate that a waiver is in the public interest,” said a Wireless Bureau order in Monday's Daily Digest. “With the return of all of FiberTower’s 24 GHz licenses and the settlement of litigation, the 24 GHz band will be virtually clear of licenses and can be made available for initial licensing, enabling rapid deployment of 5G and next generation wireless services nationwide.” The return of 39 GHz “will assist in rebanding the 39 GHz band,” the bureau said. "Millimeter wave spectrum is important to our 5G strategy, and we expect to be the first U.S. company to introduce mobile 5G in a dozen markets by late 2018," an AT&T spokesman said. T-Mobile said in a statement Monday the order is disappointing. The FCC “is rewarding AT&T and Fibertower for Fibertower’s failure to construct,” emailed Steve Sharkey, vice president-government affairs. “This decision weakens the Commission’s ability to enforce its buildout requirements and further consolidates millimeter wave spectrum in the hands of AT&T and Verizon without a competitive auction.”