USDA's Rural Utilities Service added countries to its list of those eligible for purchases by telecom and electric program award recipients, said a notice for Thursday's Federal Register. The announcement comes after the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative published a list in September determining which countries' products receive "the same treatment as manufactured and unmanufactured products" made in the U.S.

Mexico's 5G auction, set for 2025, “faces hurdles as high spectrum fees deter operator interest,” GlobalData told investors Thursday. The auction will offer licenses in the 600 and 1427-1518 MHz bands, including some covering small geographic areas, and unused licenses in the 800 MHz, 1.7/2.1 GHz, 1.9 GHz and 2.5 GHz bands, the firm said. “Concerns linger as past spectrum license returns highlight the financial strain on operators, potentially impacting the auction's outcome,” GlobalData said.

Spanish authorities approved Zegona Communications’ buy of Vodafone’s Spanish operations, Vodafone said Tuesday. The deal was valued at $5.41 billion. A combination of debt and equity will finance the transaction. The U.K.-based company announced the sale in October.

China-based Hikvision USA answered FCC questions on its proposed plan for compliance with agency rules (see 2308070047) and requested confidential treatment on information filed. The filing notes that Hikvision equipment is sold in the U.S. through distributors and original equipment manufacturers and provides data on its marketing. The data was redacted from the filing, posted Tuesday in docket 21-352.

The U.K.’s Office of Communications laid out its plan for making parts of the 26 and 40 GHz bands available for 5G through auctions. Ofcom said it will make a total of 6.25 GHz available “for mobile services globally, and for 5G in Europe.” Ofcom said it's adopting assignment stage rules it proposed a year ago. “Having considered stakeholders’ comments, we have decided not to include a negotiation period in the assignment stage of the auction,” Ofcom said: “However, to facilitate post auction spectrum trading, we will enable bidders to start negotiating in the period immediately after notifying the assignment stage results to bidders and before the auction licenses have been granted.”

The EU-U.S. Trade and Technology Council will likely continue if former President Donald Trump is reelected, European Commission officials said during a Wednesday briefing. The sixth TTC meeting will occur Thursday and Friday in Leuven, Belgium. It's the last of this political cycle, given U.S. and European elections later in the year. The EC doesn't expect too much disruption of TTC's work, which includes deliverables on 6G, platforms, standardization, AI and quantum computing, officials said. In response to our question about how the TTC can future-proof itself in the face of a possible second Trump presidency, one official cautioned against making too many projections on election results now. The EC believes a "critical mass" of activities has occurred in TTC working groups, demonstrating the importance of these issues for both sides. Regardless of the political situation, the official added, in the technology market, if a country wants to be serious about AI, semiconductor chips and other matters, it would be "foolish" to think it can do it alone. In fact, the official said, the TTC concept is attributed to Trump, who called for talks on trade and technology. Asked whether there's anything the TTC could do if this week's sessions are its final meetings, a second official said the council has shown a good deal of scope for cooperation, something that's politically attractive to both sides and is underpinned by the massive trans-Atlantic trade relationship. A third official noted the EC is building a structured process to prepare for the outcome of the U.S. presidential election. As such, meetings will take stock of previous agreements and discuss pre-election activities, officials said. The TTC has already achieved a great deal, such as helping coordinate trans-Atlantic responses to Russia's attack on Ukraine and creating a relationship for cooperation in the green marketplace, they said. Members will discuss a sustainable and resilient trans-Atlantic marketplace, which will result in a joint declaration on electronic invoicing and an agreement to continue working on digital tools to simplify the relationship; economic security issues such as investment screening and outbound investment; secure and resilient supply chains; and trade and labor issues. The council is also focused on critical materials; it will launch a security forum on minerals after the meeting. In addition, a joint statement will review what the TTC has achieved and discuss its next steps. "As long-time allies and close trading partners, the EU and the U.S. have the chance to set the tone for the next mandate of each partner, making it the 'mandate of cooperation,'" the Computer and Communications Industry Association said separately. However, it added, the time for the council to serve as a meaningful venue to address ongoing burdens U.S. suppliers face in the EU market "is running out."

Comparisons of 5G spectrum allocations and investments in China, the U.S. and Europe often lack detail or rely on data with different definitions, Dean Bubley of Disruptive Analysis wrote in a LinkedIn post Wednesday. Such comparisons "are mostly political and competitive." In addition, those who make such comparisons are often seeking more stringent regulation of a perceived competitor, he said. Claims that China has more midband spectrum allocated than the U.S. ignore that the 3.3-3.4GHz is dedicated for shared, indoor use by multiple mobile network operators, while 200MHz in the lower 6 GHz band is for "localised enterprise private networks," he said. Citing wireless interests seeking additional spectrum for fixed wireless access, Bubley said it is "rather disingenuous ... to complain about traffic volumes on mobile networks ... and then specifically promote services that they know will use 20x more data per subscriber."

GSMA members and their “technology partners” are “fully engaged” on the group’s application programmable interface (API) initiative, Alex Sinclair, the association’s chief technology officer, said Wednesday during a TelecomTV webinar. Operators worldwide so far have made about 95 APIs commercially available in 21 markets, he said. “It’s exceeding our initial expectations, but there’s a very, very long way to go,” Sinclair said. GSMA launched the gateway a year ago (see 2302270069). “It’s still early days,” but the response from developers “so far has been pretty positive,” he said. Working with developers isn’t “necessarily” the wireless industry’s “strong suit,” he said: “We have to listen more to what they want and what they need. … At the end of the day, we want to reach as many developers as possible.” Sinclair said it’s too early to draw conclusions on what approach on APIs will work best. “We’ve tried this sort of thing before -- we’re not naive,” he said. “Ultimately, the market will decide what the best channel is.” A McKinsey & Co. study found a potential market of $300 billion by 2030, which is a “pretty bold and big number,” he said. On Tuesday, GSMA announced that China Mobile, China Telecom and China Unicom launched the first API in China.

Vodafone agreed to sell 100% of its Italian operations to Swisscom for $8.71 billion, Vodafone said Friday. Swisscom will combine Vodafone Italia with Fastweb, its Italian network provider (see 2402280045). “With the sale of Vodafone Italy and Vodafone Spain, together with the merger of Vodafone UK and Three UK, Vodafone will now focus its operations in Europe on growing markets, where we hold strong positions with good local scale,” Vodafone said: “All telecom markets within the new geographic footprint have been growing over the last 3 years, and we will now accelerate our performance where we can create value.” The transaction is subject to regulatory approvals, including by the Italian Competition Authority. Vodafone and Swisscom are exploring “a closer commercial relationship to enable collaboration across a broad range of areas, beyond Italy,” Vodafone said.

The FCC and the U.K.’s Information Commissioner’s Office will cooperate on enforcement matters related to unlawful robocalls and robotexts and protecting consumer privacy and sensitive data, the FCC said Thursday. FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel and U.K. Information Commissioner John Edwards signed a memorandum of understanding agreeing to collaborate, the FCC said. The FCC's efforts to protect consumer privacy and defend against robocalls and text scams "are fortified through strategic partnerships like these,” said Rosenworcel.