Benton RSS Feed

Author 
Coverage Type 

[Commentary] The Internet of Things has continued to emerge as a trend this year within the consumer electronics sector. Everyone’s trying to get into the game, with connected devices now ranging from dog collars to toasters to sneaker, all getting connected to the “cloud.” This is an exciting trend for consumer electronics in general, but we as an industry need to take a step back and realize that true connectivity extends beyond just the cloud. Just because something is connected to the Internet, doesn’t mean it’s truly part of an Internet of Things (or as we like to call it at Qualcomm, the “Internet of Everything”). What’s unique about the Internet is its openness — the ability for one website to link to any other and leverage information in novel ways. The problem is that each specific device seems to connect to its particular cloud service. There isn’t really ONE cloud. Every manufacturer has their own cloud service, and often these clouds are closed, proprietary environments. Devices that live in their own silo’d cloud cannot speak to one another, meaning they cannot benefit from the data, context or control of nearby IoT devices. That is why we currently need a separate app to control — and interface with — each connected thing we buy. This may be acceptable in the near term, but it cannot scale.

[Liat Ben-Zur is a senior director of product management at Qualcomm]


Connecting Things to the Internet Does Not an Internet of Things Make
Author 
Coverage Type 

Coca-Cola is making major promises to fight obesity – ceasing advertisements directed at kids, slapping calorie counts on all its packaging – as the soda giant stares down a rising tide of concern over sugar-stuffed beverages. But the part of Coca-Cola’s pledge likely to get the most attention is the promise not to market to audiences where children under age 12 make up more than 35%. The company has often said in the U.S. that it does not buy advertising directly targeting such demographics, but now appears to have expanded the policy globally. Commercials on television, radio, print, the Internet and mobile phones are all affected. It’s unclear what will become of the cuddly polar bear Coca-Cola likes to employ in its advertising.


Coca-Cola anti-obesity promises include no advertising to kids
Source 
Author 
Coverage Type 

Rep Ed Markey (D-MA) is touting his work on telecom policy in his first ad of the general election campaign for Senate in Massachusetts. In the ad, Rep Markey is credited with helping to boost innovation in the industry with his work on the Telecommunications Act of 1996. "It's hard to believe, but 20 years ago, almost no one had broadband. Smartphones hadn't been invented yet. Facebook, Skype, Google — the stuff of science fiction," Rep Markey says in the ad. The ad features Diane Hessan, CEO of a Boston-based communications firm, vouching for Markey's efforts.


Rep Markey touts telecom work in first general election ad Innovation (Ed Markey for MA)
Author 
Coverage Type 

Academic, author and network neutrality rule skeptic Christopher Yoo said that he is not a candidate for the FCC Republican seat being vacated by Robert McDowell, at least not now.

Sources had said that Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY), who is vetting candidates for the post, was looking at academics, and one source said Yoo's name had surfaced as one of those. Yoo confirmed there had been interest. Yoo indicated he was flattered but not interested, at least not for the moment. "Others have suggested my name," he wrote. "[W]hile I am flattered, I have asked McConnell's staff not to consider me for a position as FCC Commissioner at this time." Among the names still said to be in the hunt for the seat are Michael O'Reilly, a top staffer with Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX), and Ray Baum, a former Oregon Public Utility Commission chairman and current top adviser to House Communications Subcommittee Chairman Greg Walden (R-OR).


Christopher Yoo Says He Has Asked Not to Be Considered for FCC Post
Source 
Author 
Coverage Type 

San Francisco city leaders, after losing a key round in court against the cell phone industry, have agreed to revoke an ordinance that would have been the first in the United States to require retailers to warn consumers about potentially dangerous radiation levels.

In a move watched by other U.S. states and cities considering similar measures, the city Board of Supervisors voted to settle a lawsuit with the Cellular Telecommunications Industry Association by accepting a permanent injunction against the right-to-know cell phone ordinance. Deputy City Attorney Vince Chhabria said a federal appeals court decision last year upholding a preliminary injunction against the measure signaled that trying to win the case at trial would be a long shot. If the city lost, a judge could have awarded the industry group as much as $500,000 in attorneys' fees, he said.


San Francisco surrenders in fight over cell phone warnings
Source 
Author 
Coverage Type 

Apple, taking its patent fight to Google through its infringement litigation against Samsung, is asking a judge to force Google to turn over documents related to its Android operating system.

Apple told U.S. Magistrate Judge Paul S. Grewal in San Jose, California, that Google is improperly withholding information about what terms it’s using to find the documents Apple has requested in pretrial information sharing. Apple, as part of its second patent-infringement lawsuit against Samsung in the same court, argues that Android is used in all of Samsung’s allegedly infringing products and “provides much of the accused functionality” in Apple’s claims, according to a court filing. “It’s a question of transparency,” Mark Lyon, a lawyer for Apple, told Judge Grewal, referring to the documents. “We have concerns that they’re not doing a full search.” The dispute over evidence gathering comes in the case filed last year by Cupertino, California-based Apple covering technology in newer smartphones made by both companies, including its iPhone 5 and Samsung’s Galaxy S III. Matthew Warren, a lawyer for Google who also represents Samsung, told Judge Grewal that Apple made a “strategic decision” in filing its case “to keep Google off the complaint.” As a third-party to the case, Warren said, Google doesn’t have the same legal rights that Apple and Samsung have, in particular with respect to “reciprocal discovery.”


Apple Seeks Android Source Code Records in Samsung Suit

The Federal Communications Commission’s Technological Advisory Council (TAC) has been tasked to study the role of receivers in ensuring the efficient use of spectrum and to provide recommendations on avoiding obstacles posed by receiver performance to making spectrum available for new services. Acting on this request, the TAC working group on Receivers and Spectrum provided actionable recommendations to the Chairman at the TAC’s December 2012 meeting and has recently formalized these recommendations in a white paper for the Commission. The FCC’s Office of Engineering and Technology (OET) invites comment on the TAC white paper and its recommendations to help determine what next steps may be appropriate.

Comments must be filed on or before June 21, 2013, and reply comments must be filed on or before July 8, 2013.


Technological Advisory Council Recommendation for Improving Receiver Performance
Source 
Author 
Coverage Type 

Commissioner Mignon Clyburn has been the strongest advocate for mobile device interoperability on the Federal Communications Commission and now that she has been appointed acting chairwoman – a position she could hold for several months – AT&T saw fit to reiterate its arguments against interoperability in the lower 700 MHz spectrum band in a blog post.

“AT&T has conducted rigorous testing and engineering analyses, and those tests and analyses make very clear that at typical real-world power levels, Channel 51 transmissions would substantially degrade our LTE service – creating LTE ‘no call zones’ – if AT&T were required to use chipsets that enabled A-block receptions,” wrote AT&T Senior Vice President – Federal Regulatory Bob Quinn. US Cellular, however, has deployed devices using the exact chipset AT&T is fighting and a U.S. Cellular spokeswoman told Telecompetitor that the company has not experienced the problem that AT&T describes.


AT&T, US Cellular at Odds on 700 MHz Interference
Source 
Author 
Coverage Type 

comScore MobiLens market research service finds that smartphone penetration in the U.S. mobile market reached 58% as 136.7 million people owned smartphones on average during the three-month period, up 9% since December.

Apple’s 39% OEM market share was a 2.7% gain since December. Samsung ranked second with a 21.7% share of the global OEM smartphone market, up 0.7% during the first three months of 2013. HTC followed in third with a 9% market share, with Motorola (8.5%) and LG (6.8%) following. Google Android’s 52% average market share (71.1 million subscribers) was down 1.4% from December, while second-ranked Apple’s iOS gained 2.7% for a 39% share of smartphone platforms. BlackBerry ranked third with 5.2%, down 1.2%, with Microsoft ranking fourth with a 3% market share, up 0.1%. Fifth-ranked Symbian captured 0.5% of the smartphone platform market, also down 0.1% since December.


Report: Apple Has 39% of Smartphone Market
Source 
Coverage Type 

[Commentary] For so many years important sectors of the telecommunications industry in Mexico have been under the control of the Mexican government or in the hands of a few private investors. This practice has been systematically denounced as oligopolistic by both Mexican and foreign entrepreneurs frustrated by the lack of opportunities within the sector. Fortunately, this situation is nearing a most anticipated end.

The Mexican congress recently approved a bill that, once approved by the majority of the Mexican states’ legislatures, will result in unprecedented opportunity for Mexican and foreign investors who have been waiting for this dramatic and, for many, most welcome breakthrough. Under the new law, foreign investors will be allowed to invest up to 100% in the telecom industry. Historically, foreigners have been limited to owning no more than a 49% interest in Mexican telecom businesses. The new law will also dramatically change Mexico’s long-time bar against foreign ownership of any share of Mexican broadcast stations. The new law permits foreign investment in broadcast stations up to the higher of: (a) 49% of the corporate capital, or (b) the percentage of corporate capital investment made available to Mexican nationals in the investor’s home country. Final approval by the necessary majority of state governments is viewed as a near certainty and likely to be completed within a matter of months.


Mexico Looks to Increase Competition, Foreign Investment in Communications Industries