Qualcomm stock closed down 12.7 percent Monday to $54.88 after Apple sued it for damages totaling $1 billion. In its complaint (in Pacer) filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of California in San Diego, Apple said Qualcomm overcharged the smartphone maker “billions of dollars” and that Qualcomm owes $1 billion to Apple, which Qualcomm claims Apple forfeited by responding to requests as part of an investigation by the Korea Fair Trade Commission. “If that were not enough, Qualcomm then attempted to extort Apple into changing its responses and providing false information to the KFTC in exchange for Qualcomm’s release of those payments to Apple. Apple refused.” In a statement, Qualcomm General Counsel Don Rosenberg called Apple’s claims baseless. “Apple has intentionally mischaracterized our agreements and negotiations, as well as the enormity and value of the technology we have invented, contributed and shared with all mobile device makers through our licensing program. Apple has been actively encouraging regulatory attacks on Qualcomm’s business in various jurisdictions around the world, as reflected in the recent KFTC decision and FTC complaint, by misrepresenting facts and withholding information. We welcome the opportunity to have these meritless claims heard in court where we will be entitled to full discovery of Apple’s practices and a robust examination of the merits,” he said. Also last week, the FTC sued Qualcomm (see 1701170065).

Auto industry groups opposed a waiver request by Kongsberg Seatex seeking to operate maritime broadband radio (MBR) in the 5460-5660 or the 5850-5925 MHz band, saying the devices pose a threat to use of the 5.9 GHz band for anti-crash dedicated short-range communications (DSRC) systems being deployed by automakers. “Kongsberg’s proposal seeks authorization to operate MBR in the DSRC band; however, the Waiver Request provides no reassurance regarding the potential for harmful interference to DSRC,” the groups said. “Kongsberg fails to include any sort of technical study of the issue. Rather, the Waiver Request suggests only that the interference potential between the services is low ‘due to the separation distance that will occur between the systems’ and because MBR uses ‘a power-regulating algorithm ... [that] will secure the lowest power possible for good communication.’” The Association of Global Automakers and the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers signed the comments, posted Monday in docket 16-413. The band is already subject of a fight between the auto industry and groups that want to also use it for Wi-Fi. Disagreements remain between automakers and safety groups and Wi-Fi advocates about how the band should be shared and whether safety operations should be restricted to part of the band (see 1605260059). Kongsberg didn’t comment. The Wireless Bureau said in a December notice seeking comment that the MBR is a “real-time, phased array digital radio that operates in the 5 GHz band and offers high-speed reliable data transfer between vessels and structures at sea.” Typical uses include hydrographic surveys and communications with offshore oil and gas operations, the bureau said. Comments were initially due Jan. 20, though that was a federal holiday, replies Feb. 3.

AT&T customers used more than 4.5 TB of data on the morning of the presidential inauguration, including President Donald Trump's swearing-in and inaugural address, an AT&T spokesman said Friday. During the 2013 inauguration, AT&T customers used 527 GB of data the entire day, he said. The data came from AT&T's 7 super cells on wheels, macro cell sites and distributed antenna systems serving the National Mall area from 12 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Friday, he said. AT&T and other wireless carriers upgraded network capacity in preparation for massive data demand from the expected 1 million visitors expected to attend the inauguration (see 1701050059).

Apple could see an uptick in average selling price for iPhones, said Consumer Intelligence Research Partners (CIRP) co-founder Josh Lowitz in a Thursday report: In the first full quarter of iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus sales, the latest Apple models generated nearly three-fourths of the company’s smartphone sales in the quarter ended Dec. 31. The iPhone 7 was 40 percent of U.S. iPhone sales and the iPhone 7 Plus 32 percent, which CIRP said was a “slightly higher percentage” of iPhone sales than the iPhone 6s and 6s Plus had in the year-ago quarter. The highest priced iPhone 7 Plus had a larger share than the 6s Plus, and the entry-level SE had a smaller share of iPhone sales than the similarly positioned 5s, said the research firm. Among iPhone 7 and 7 Plus buyers, 16 percent upgraded from the iPhone 6s and 6s Plus, and 37 percent upgraded from previous generation phones. The 7 and 7 Plus models attracted “mostly loyal iPhone owners, rather than Android owners,” said Mike Levin, CIRP co-founder. Only 15 percent of 7 and 7 Plus buyers switched from an Android phone, consistent with the 14 percent of iPhone 6s and 6s Plus buyers who jumped from Android in the year-ago quarter. CIRP surveyed 500 U.S. Apple customers Dec. 31-Jan.12.

Black Friday online sales in 2016 jumped 21.6 percent over 2015, compared with 12.1 percent online sales growth Cyber Monday, reported Adobe Digital Insights this week, so Black Friday may outpace Cyber Monday this year. Online holiday revenue Nov. 1-Dec. 31 grew 11 percent over 2015 to $91.7 billion, and billion dollar days were up by four to 57, said the company. Smartphone commerce traffic was up, but mobile conversion rates lagged those of PCs by 2.4 times. Conversion was highest on Cyber Monday, at 2.8 percent, some 26 percent below the desktop average, it said. Once the major shopping weekend hit, “the mobile gap disappeared and both websites that grew vs. those that didn’t tracked the same share of mobile traffic," said analyst Becky Tasker.

CTIA published updated “Messaging Principles and Best Practices,” the wireless association said Thursday. The document reflects “the messaging ecosystem’s shared goal of promoting a dynamic and innovative wireless messaging community where communication between consumers and enterprises is made simple and users are protected from unwanted messages,” the group said. The report said U.S. wireless networks carry more than 5 billion text messages daily. “Since 2001, CTIA has helped to convene and facilitate discussion among wireless messaging ecosystem stakeholders,” the group said. “Through this role, CTIA has identified ways to protect and enhance the consumer experience and account for the evolving wireless messaging marketplace.”

Electric utilities wanting to upgrade or expand their microwave radio networks often find all the 6 GHz channels already are assigned, requiring them to buy expensive gigahertz band repeaters, even while the 6 GHz band isn't affected by rain and the 11 GHz one is susceptible to rain fade, said engineering firm Burns & McDowell. The firm's comments, posted Wednesday in RM-11778, supported a Fixed Wireless Communications Coalition petition for changes in earth station licensing (see 1610180035). A microwave path seeking a coordinated pair of frequencies can take up to 24 months for approval and construction, but satellite earth stations can "dynamically change frequencies on the fly without coordination," the firm said.

Members and staff of the Mobile & Wireless Forum (MWF) said they met with officials from the FCC Office of Engineering and Technology to discuss IoT concerns. They discussed “MWF’s concerns about the capacity of the present certification procedures to accommodate the burgeoning number of approvals anticipated from the Internet of Things together with a proposal for a pilot program for expansion of self-certification where there would be limited risk of compliance issues,” the group said in a Thursday filing in docket 15-170. They also discussed the measurement of maximum permissible exposure for high-frequency spectrum devices “with emphasis on the need for the FCC Lab to establish an improved measurement area,” the filing said. The group stressed the importance of harmonizing a specific absorption rate for IoT devices. Among those at the meeting were OET Chief Julius Knapp and Rashmi Doshi, chief of the FCC lab, who joined by phone, MWF said. MWF members Intel, Motorola Solutions, Samsung and Zebra Technologies were represented at the meeting.

Sprint will release quarterly results Jan. 31, it said Wednesday. It plans a call with management starting at 8:30 a.m. EST to discuss the numbers, the company said in a news release.

More than 69 million light detection and ranging (lidar) sensors will ship in 2026, ABI Research reported Wednesday. Declining hardware costs and carmakers' need to ship vehicles with multiple sensors for 360-degree vehicle coverage will drive growth, said ABI. Analyst James Hodgson said Velodyne received a $150 million infusion from Ford and Baidu in 2016 and will develop a sub-$50 solid state system for widespread implementation: "Universal focus on low-cost solutions to enable autonomous functions on high-volume models will accelerate lidar shipments.”