General Cable said it agreed to sell its Asia Pacific operations -- made up of businesses in Australia, China, New Zealand and Thailand -- to MM Logistics for about $205 million in cash, according to a news release Friday. The sale is expected to close in Q3 and includes an estimated $30 million in preliminary net cash.

Broadcom signed memoranda of understanding with Chinese companies, including two for the development of Ultra HD equipment, it said in a news release. Its joint development agreement with Inspur Group, a systems integrator, is aimed at fashioning a new DOCSIS 3.0 Ultra HD set-top "that can power an entire digital home system,” Broadcom said Thursday. The goal of a separate pact with Beijing-based pay-TV operator StarTimes is to jointly define and develop set-top offerings for Africa, Broadcom said: “Both sides will invest engineering resources to develop a series of low-cost set-top boxes and high-end Ultra HD home gateways.”

Mobilicity accepted a $440 million (Canadian) (US$354 million) takeover bid from Rogers Communications, Rogers said Wednesday in a news release. Mobilicity has been under creditor protection since April 2013. To win regulatory approval, Rogers said it plans to sell some of Mobilicty’s spectrum to Wind Mobile. Rogers also said it has completed the previously announced acquisition of Shaw's AWS-1 spectrum. Mobilicity, originally formed as Dave Wireless, emerged as a competitive carrier after buying spectrum in Canada’s AWS auction. “We're basically adding multiple lanes on our wireless highway in three key markets overnight," said Guy Laurence, CEO of Rogers. "This means faster speeds and better quality for our customers as they use more and more mobile video." Rogers said the deals will give it more spectrum in Alberta, British Columbia and southern Ontario. The Mobilicity deal is subject to various government approvals.

The use of a promotional model for demos doesn't constitute a "permissible use" under drawback rules permitting refunds of customs duties for unused goods, Customs and Border Protection ruled. CBP said in the just-released May 28 ruling, HQ H258306, that demos of Anritsu network testing devices before sale go beyond incidental usage and don't qualify as unused merchandise. Anritsu is a Japanese manufacturer of network test and measurement equipment for the telecom industry. The company's U.S. sales personnel generates interest in Anritsu products through the use of promotional models imported into America. The company lets potential customers test the models, either through letting the prospect take a device home or within a lab setting, said CBP.

Telco Cuba filed an application Wednesday with the FCC International Bureau to operate as a resale carrier for Cuba. A subsidiary of Amgentech, Telco Cuba said it plans to offer a variety of communications services, including VoIP and direct SMS messaging in the U.S. and between the U.S. and Cuba. Several telecom companies, such as Sprint, have started moving into the Cuban market since the recent shift in U.S. policy (see 1506150070).

The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative removed Paraguay from its 2015 Special 301 Watch List after the U.S. signed an intellectual property rights (IPR) agreement with the country Thursday, USTR said in a statement. The agency plans an out-of-cycle review of Paraguay in the near future, the statement said. USTR released its most recent edition of the Special 301 Report in late April (see 1505010009). Paraguay has "stepped up its efforts to strengthen IPR protection and enforcement" over the past 18 months, said USTR.

SoTel Systems is expanding into the Latin American region through the acquisition of the international business operations of Teleswitch in Miami, a news release from SoTel said Tuesday. SoTel is an international provider of business communications equipment, products and services, including domestic VoIP service, it said. The new division of SoTel will operate as Teleswitch International, the release said.

Chinese consumers (65 percent) tend to prefer to shop in brick-and-mortar stores, while those who buy online, generally 30-somethings, do so to avoid crowds and to find the best bargain, said CEA Chief Economist Steve Koenig in Shanghai last week at CES Asia. He presented results of an online survey of 3,000 Chinese consumers along with half-hour conversations. Seventy-two percent had a smartphone that’s six months to two years old and 66 percent own a wearable that’s less than a year old, Koenig said. Fifty-seven percent said they replace their smartphone every two years and 63 percent plan to replace their wearable every two years, Koenig said. Forty-six percent buy a new smartphone to replace a non-working model, while 43 percent buy to upgrade to a newer model. In TV viewing, 36 percent of Chinese consumers spend their time watching live content, 20 percent view digital video files, 16 percent watch VOD, 10 percent view streamed content and 10 percent use a DVR, Koenig said. The cutoff age for predominantly live versus DVR content is 40, he said.

Evoking a connected future where “everything that consumes electricity computes and communicates,” Intel Senior Vice President Kirk Skaugen outlined the future of Intel-powered devices and solutions. Skaugen spoke Monday at CES Asia in Shanghai of the PC being the “incubator” for technologies that “waterfall” to smaller and smaller devices due to miniaturization, increased processing power and “halved” manufacturing costs. Shaping the consumer electronics industry over the next five to 10 years are innovation in personal computing; creating new technology experiences by eliminating wiring and passwords; and buildout of the IoT. Skaugen cited the 50 billion connected devices expected to be in the market by 2020, where anything that can be made to compute and connect “will do so.” The results will benefit users’ lifestyle, health, safety and “many unimagined results,” while creating volumes of cloud-based data, he said. Intel’s version of “cord-cutting” means cutting out cords altogether, said Skaugen, citing the Rezence wireless charging standard and proximity-based peripheral syncing that will cut the cord between a monitor and a PC. This wire-free computing, based on WiGig, enables monitors to start up automatically when in proximity to a PC, he said. Intel’s vision by 2016, said Skaugen, is to “eliminate all wires from computing,” and that includes charging cables, data transfer and HDMI cables for convenience and e-waste reasons. Intel is working on new ways to interact with mobile devices including a facial or iris scan as a way to log in to a PC, said Skaugen.

An equal number of cellphones, batteries and Bluetooth earphones included in the same container shipment but not packaged for retail sale isn't classifiable as a "retail set," said Customs and Border Protection in an internal advice ruling. Samsung Telecommunications America, the importer, argued that the merchandise is covered within general rules of interpretation 3(b) that describes "mixtures, composite goods, and goods put up in sets for retail sale." CBP disagreed with Samsung and said the goods should be sold separately rather than as a set. The Port of Dallas took issue with a 2013 Samsung entry of an "equal number of mobile phone handsets, batteries, and Bluetooth wireless earphones, imported in the same container, but segregated in separate shipping boxes by kind and not packaged for retail sale." The port questioned Samsung's classification of the goods as retail set and requested the internal advice. CBP headquarters found that because the merchandise isn't imported in a condition suitable for sale directly to users without repacking, 3(b) doesn't apply. The ruling dated Jan. 15 was recently released. Samsung representatives didn’t comment.