Jimm Phillips

House Intelligence Committee members said they remain skeptical and frustrated about the response from Chinese telecom firms Huawei and ZTE to their investigation into whether the companies posed a security threat to the U.S. The committee has been investigating whether the Chinese government is using the companies as agents to commit espionage and threaten critical U.S. infrastructure (CD Nov 18 p5). The committee called in executives from both companies Thursday -- Charles Ding, Huawei’s senior vice president, and Zhu Jinyun, ZTE’s senior vice president for North America and Europe -- to answer questions under oath they think the companies haven’t properly responded to during the investigation.

Opponents of the European Telecommunications Network Operators’ Association’s (ETNO) proposed revisions to the International Telecommunication Regulations (ITR) have misinterpreted the proposal as an attempt to regulate the Internet, said ETNO Chairman Luigi Gambardella in an interview. The U.S. has been one of the most prominent critics of the ETNO proposal in recent months, particularly since it publicly released its own ITR position ahead of the World Conference on International Telecommunications (WCIT). Delegates to the conference, beginning in Dubai Dec. 3, will seek a consensus on revisions to the treaty-level ITR. Terry Kramer, head of the U.S. delegation to WCIT, has publicly criticized the ETNO proposal and other nations’ proposals that the U.S. claims could wrest control of the Internet from current stakeholders like the Internet Corp. for Assigned Names and Numbers and give it to the United Nations’ ITU (CD Aug 2 p1). The U.S.’s initial WCIT filing also reflected that position (CD Aug 6 p2).

A Chinese delegation to a joint U.S.-China roundtable discussion on spectrum issues Wednesday claimed China is not dealing with the same spectrum capacity issues as the U.S. That’s because China has not “felt our pain yet,” Cisco’s Government Affairs Director Mary Brown said Thursday during a recap of the event for the Telecommunications Industry Association, which also organized the roundtable. “Here in the U.S. ... we are gobbling up spectrum at a rapid rate,” Brown said on the webcast recap event (http://xrl.us/bnooib). “They're a little bit behind the curve,” Brown said of China. “Their technologies tend to be more purely 3G technologies; they have not started deploying LTE technologies. So they're not yet feeling the pain that we feel or our colleagues in Europe feel when it comes to spectrum."

Apple lost its patent lawsuit against Samsung in Japan Friday, when Tokyo District Judge Tamotsu Shoji dismissed Apple’s case and ordered the company to pay court costs. Apple had claimed in its lawsuit that Samsung had violated Apple patents related to its iPhone and iPad lines, according to Bloomberg. Japan’s ruling came a week after a U.S. District Court jury in San Jose, Calif., found Samsung had violated several of Apple’s iPhone patents and awarded Apple more than $1 billion in damages (CD Aug 28 p6). Apple sought 100 million yen (the equivalent of $1.3 million) in damages from its lawsuit in Japan, Bloomberg reported. Apple now wants a ban on the sale of eight Samsung smartphones in the U.S., including several from the company’s Galaxy series (CD Aug 29 p3). The Tokyo court ruled against a similar request after dismissing the lawsuit, according to Bloomberg (http://xrl.us/bnnwds).

Apple must wait until Dec. 6 to argue in court for its request for a permanent ban on the U.S. sale of eight Samsung smartphones, U.S. District Judge Lucy Koh said in an order Tuesday. Apple was initially set to argue for the permanent ban at a previously-scheduled Sept. 20 hearing, at which Koh was expected to issue a final decision on the outcome of Apple’s lawsuit against Samsung over design and utility patent violations.

Apple wants a ban on the sale of eight Samsung mobile phones within the U.S., the company said in a filing Monday in the U.S. District Court, San Jose. Apple is seeking a ban on seven phones in Samsung’s Galaxy line, plus Samsung’s Droid Charge, according to the filing, which followed a federal jury’s decision Friday that Samsung infringed on multiple Apple iPhone design and utility patents. The jury awarded Apple more than $1 billion in damages, though that award is not official until U.S. District Judge Lucy Koh renders a final decision on the case at a hearing Sept. 20. Samsung is likely to appeal (CD Aug 28 p6).

Samsung Electronics vowed to fight on in its legal battle with Apple over allegations of intellectual property violations, saying the company “will continue to do our utmost until our arguments have been accepted” (http://xrl.us/bnnd6h). A jury for the U.S. District Court of Northern California said late Friday that Samsung infringed on multiple Apple design and utility patents related to Apple’s iPhone products, awarding Apple more than $1 billion in damages. The jury did not find for any of the claims Samsung made in a countersuit, in which the company sought $421 million in damages, according to court documents.

Two mobile carriers are set to expand their use of unlimited data plans, even as a new analysis shows Verizon Wireless’s shared data plans are doing well and AT&T is set to begin offering plans of its own. T-Mobile announced Wednesday that it will begin offering a new unlimited data plan option starting Sept. 5 that eliminates connection throttling. Meanwhile, MetroPCS announced late Tuesday it’s offering a new promotional rate on its existing unlimited data plan.

Verizon Wireless co-owner Vodafone criticized a decision by the U.K. Office of Communications to allow a U.K. mobile carrier co-owned by T-Mobile parent Deutsche Telekom (DT) to operate what will be that country’s first 4G LTE service. Ofcom approved an application by Everything Everywhere (EE), co-owned by DT and France Telecom, to use its 1800 MHz spectrum in the U.K. to operate the service. Ofcom-issued licenses will allow EE to start the service as soon as Sept. 11, the regulator said in a written statement.

AT&T announced Friday that only subscribers on the new “Mobile Share” shared data plan will be able to use the popular iPhone FaceTime app on the carrier’s mobile network, which prompted renewed charges Monday that restrictions on the app’s use violated FCC rules. All iPhones are currently only able to use the app via Wi-Fi, but will be able to use it on mobile networks on the new iOS6 system set to debut this fall. Last month, speculation centered on whether AT&T would charge users a fee to use the app on its mobile network, prompting public interest groups to charge that such a move would violate the FCC’s Open Internet rules (CD July 19 p11). News that mobile use of the app would be restricted to “Mobile Share” subscribers renewed those charges. “The FCC’s rules prohibit such blatantly anti-competitive conduct by wireless companies,” Free Press Policy Director Matt Wood said in a statement. “Such behavior would be a problem no matter what Internet platform you choose. It would be unimaginable on your home broadband connection. Apple’s FaceTime comes pre-installed on a Macbook Pro, too, but no home broadband provider would dream of blocking the app there unless you'd signed up for a more expensive data plan.” AT&T spokesman Mark Siegel said AT&T does not believe their decision to limit mobile use of FaceTime violates FCC rules. “FaceTime is available to all of our customers today over Wi-Fi and we're now expanding its availability even further as an added benefit of our new Mobile Share data plans,” he said.