Samsung faithful hoping for a peek at a rumored foldable smartphone weren’t disappointed Wednesday as the company gave an April 26 shipping date for the Galaxy Fold: a 4.6-inch screen when closed and a 7.3-inch tablet when open. Samsung filed trademark applications globally in the fall to register the promotional phrase “The Future Unfolds" (see 1810010009). Wednesday’s launch stage featured that tagline and had the look of a box with folding sides to drive home the theme.
Uniform software bill of materials (SBOM) standards will lead to more cyber-secure industry and government entities (see 1806060036), NTIA working group officials said Wednesday on a conference call. The agency is gathering feedback from software vendors, IoT manufacturers, medical device manufacturers, civil society and various sectors to improve transparency of software components and digital security.
Reactions were mixed to an FCC draft that would find broadband deployment is meeting a Telecom Act Section 706 mandate. Broadband providers and others welcomed a positive finding and credited the commission with clearing deployment obstacles, while consumer advocates were skeptical and slammed agency leadership. Chairman Ajit Pai Tuesday circulated a draft report internally that broadband-like advanced telecom capability is being deployed in a "reasonable and timely" way (see 1902190057). The report was due out Feb. 5 but delayed by the government shutdown. It might be put on the tentative agenda for the March 15 commissioners' meeting, which Pai is expected to highlight Thursday.
An FCC order on opening the C band to terrestrial 5G services is likely to come by midyear, with the agency indicating it wants to see that happen in Q2, Intelsat CEO Stephen Spengler said during an analyst call Wednesday. He said the rival T-Mobile band-clearing plan isn't serious but seems designed specifically to slow down the band-clearing process for anti-competitive reasons -- probably related to the pending T-Mobile/Sprint merger and protecting their C-band position, Spengler said. But it's not clear if the FCC also sees it that way, he said. T-Mobile didn't comment.
The FCC is expected to make broadband deployment on federal lands a top infrastructure focus in coming months, building on infrastructure work overseen by Commissioner Brendan Carr over the past year, industry officials said. FCC officials are starting to quietly ask about the lay of the land and what steps the agency can take to fill in gaps. The FCC’s Broadband Deployment Advisory Committee made a number of recommendations last year in a report on streamlining siting on federal lands (see 1801240033) .
Connecticut carriers and business groups lined up against proposed net neutrality and ISP privacy rules in written testimony for a Tuesday hearing of the Connecticut Joint Committee on Energy and Technology. But the Senate majority leader and two state officials backed legislation that could have momentum this year after Democrats gained a political trifecta in the 2018 election. Nobody wrote in against a separate bill before the committee to curb caller ID spoofing.
Faced with overlapping basic cable rate regulation proceedings -- proposed changes to basic tier regulation by local franchise authorities (LFAs) (see 1810230037) and Charter Communications' effective competition petition in Massachusetts and Hawaii (see 1809170020) -- the FCC is likely to handle them separately, though timing and order isn't clear, experts tell us.
CTIA urged the FCC to launch an additional NPRM to look at reserving the 6 GHz band's upper part for exclusive use licenses, while opening other parts for Wi-Fi and other unlicensed use. While many other commenters in docket 18-295 emphasized the importance of unlicensed spectrum and the need for mid-band alternatives, some 6 GHz incumbents said the FCC should drop the proposal completely, saying nothing it would mandate would eliminate the risk posed by widespread unlicensed use of the band. Comments were due midnight Friday.
Windstream suffered a court setback in a bond fight with a hedge fund that caused the telco's stock to plunge 61 percent Tuesday to $1.31 per share, cutting its market capitalization to $56 million and increasing bankruptcy speculation. Holding company Windstream Services breached Aurelius Capital Master's bondholder contract (indenture) by "engaging in an impermissible Sale and Leaseback Transaction," ruled Judge Jesse Furman, of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, Friday in U.S. Bank National Association v. Windstream v. Aurelius, No. 17-cv-7857. He ruled Aurelius was entitled to the relief it seeks, including a monetary judgment of $310.5 million, plus interest since July 23.
Communications Workers of America President Chris Shelton sees T-Mobile’s buy of Sprint as having equal shot of being approved or denied by regulators, Shelton said Tuesday during a taping of C-SPAN's The Communicators. “We think it's a very bad idea,” he said. But Shelton acknowledged CWA has no relationship with the DOJ or FCC officials reviewing the deal. T-Mobile has made no effort to offer concessions to the unions, he said: “I’m always open to talk.”