BlackBerry and Qualcomm reached a settlement resolving all amounts payable in connection with an interim arbitration decision announced in April (see 1704120059), BlackBerry said Friday. Qualcomm will pay $940 million by May 31, including interest and attorneys’ fees and royalties for 2016 and Q1 of this year, it said. BlackBerry said in April that Qualcomm would have to pay a minimum of $815 million for patent royalty overpayments stemming from a Feb. 27-March 3 binding arbitration hearing in San Diego over whether Qualcomm’s agreement to cap certain royalties was applicable to a licensing agreement between the companies. In response to our request for comment Friday, a Qualcomm spokeswoman referred us to the company's April 13 news release. She also cited comments from Canaccord Genuity technology analyst Michael Walkley, saying: "In 2010, before its smartphone business collapsed, BlackBerry signed a nonrefundable agreement with Qualcomm covering royalty payments through 2015." Further, "A slump in demand for the Canadian company’s devices following the accord meant that it shipped far fewer phones than it expected, leading it to seek a refund on some of the payments.”

A Microsoft/Open Technology Institute panel on unlicensed spectrum needs (see 1705240041) made clear the key role unlicensed spectrum plays in the economy and the need for more, WiFiForward emailed Friday. It said panelists agreed there needs to be more efficient sharing of underutilized spectrum and more consideration of emerging use cases such as Wi-Fi/Wi-Gig network interactions.

Retired Air Force Maj. Gen. Robert Wheeler, ex-DOD deputy chief information officer, backed a look at 1780-1830 MHz as a band suitable for wireless broadband. Wheeler spoke Wednesday at an Armed Forces Communications and Electronics Association/George Mason University symposium on Critical Issues in C4I (command, control, communications, computers and intelligence). Materials (here and here) identified him as being associated with Strategic Consulting Unlimited and having joined GMU's C4I and Cyber Center. His posted slide presentation said, “Commercially-valuable spectrum is ripening for auction to benefit DOD.” The slides cited “New targets of opportunity for DOD modernization funding,” and listed 1780-1830 MHz as “a candidate band.” The band is above one of the paired bands -- 1755-1780 MHz -- the FCC auctioned in the AWS-3 auction and that was reallocated from federal use, including by DOD. Wheeler's slides also described “Follow-on DOD Access to Spectrum Funds” and “completing unfinished AWS-3 obligations.” His presentation said there's an “opportunity to fund upgraded/enhanced Air Combat Training System (ACTS) from SRF money to benefit DOD” and noted “ACTS is significant user of the AWS-3 band (1755-1830 MHz) using outdated equipment.” His presentation said the upgrade “went unfunded in initial DOD transition plan due to lack of advanced replacement technology” and that equipment is “now available to upgrade capabilities, while enabling early transition.”

Best Buy enterprise revenue reached $8.5 billion for the quarter ended April 29, up 1.6 percent from the year-ago quarter, it reported Thursday. The retailer saw growth on better-than-expected mobile sales, among other things. The company's stock closed up 22 percent Thursday to $61.27.

U.S. smartphone penetration reached 80 percent of homes, a 6 percentage point increase from a year ago, CTA said in a report. American consumers now own 27 million more smartphones than they did last year, CTA said. "Smartphones are our personal hubs for innovative technologies like smart homes, connected cars and voice-recognition services,” said President Gary Shapiro. “As more of us recognize the ability of technology to change our lives for the better, smartphones will continue to be one of the most pervasive technologies owned in homes throughout the U.S."

The FCC Public Safety Bureau sought comment Thursday on a proposal by Washington County, Oregon, to modify a private land mobile radio license by adding six new 800 MHz channels to its base station, located on Gales Peak. The county says its 800 MHz trunked radio system provides mobile radio coverage to 18 police and fire agencies there, but expanded service to include 94 agencies from Clackamas County and Newberg, the bureau said. Washington County contends not enough public safety or vacated spectrum frequencies are available for licensing at the Gales Peak site to add the six channels it needs, said a public notice. The six channels are set aside for business/industrial/land transportation uses, so the county needs a waiver, the bureau said: Comments due June 9, replies June 23.

The FCC Public Safety Bureau approved a waiver request from Michigan to share the Michigan Public Safety Communications System (MPSCS), a statewide 800 MHz radio network, with Detroit-based electric utility DTE. “Michigan has shown good cause for a waiver,” said an order. “Michigan has demonstrated that it has adequate spectrum to accommodate the planned sharing" of the network with DTE, the bureau said. “Michigan has also demonstrated that DTE will fund construction of additional infrastructure … to mitigate its impact on the MPSCS network. The shared use will improve the ability of public safety and DTE to communicate with one another and coordinate power restoration in times of emergency.”

By partnering with AT&T, FirstNet assures first responders are more likely to avoid capacity issues in emergencies, consultant Andrew Seybold said Thursday in an email blast. AT&T has much more spectrum available than just FirstNet’s 20 MHz of 700 MHz, Seybold said. “It also has LTE up and running on its own 700-MHz spectrum in band 17, in the AWS band 66, and [Wireless Communications Service] band 30 spectrum. It is also replacing a lot of its systems with LTE in the PCS 1900-MHz band.” That doesn’t mean problems couldn’t occur, he said. “AT&T has to serve its existing customers even during incidents, and it has to make the network available for 9-1-1 emergency traffic. ... Shortage of network capacity during most types of incidents will not be an issue. However, there may be times when AT&T will have to limit the amount of non-FirstNet spectrum being made available to Public Safety.” CEO Randall Stephenson said at J.P. Morgan conference Tuesday he's very excited about deploying the spectrum. “You build this network for first responders, we're going to have to climb every cell site and while you're up on the cell tower, you're going to assume we'll be lighting up all of the spectrum,” he said. “We're basically going to be pre-provisioning a significant amount of capacity as we deploy FirstNet. ... We're going to get a huge performance upgrade as we deploy all this spectrum and bring carrier aggregation to play, and so those three things we'll be executing on heavily over the next 12 months.”

LeEco put a positive spin Tuesday on its decision to slash the vast majority of its U.S. workforce. It comes roughly six weeks after LeEco blamed "regulatory headwinds" for its failure in closing its $2 billion Vizio acquisition. “While we’ve made progress in growing our distribution channels, the challenges with raising new capital have made it difficult in the past few months to support all of our business’ priorities. As a result, the capital we do have will have to be highly focused resulting in a significant restructuring and streamlining of our business, operations and workforce. This will impact approximately 325 people in the U.S.,” it wrote.

Apple and Nokia said Tuesday they reached a patent licensing agreement that ends a six-month legal dispute over Apple's use of Nokia-patented technology in its iPhones. Nokia sued Apple in the U.S. and 10 other countries for patent infringement after Apple said it wouldn't continue to pay patent royalties to Nokia. The settlement resulted in a new patent licensing agreement in which Apple will pay royalties to Nokia effective in Q2. The companies said the pact involves Apple beginning to sell Nokia-made digital health products in its stores.