The Wi-Fi 6E and Wi-Fi 7 chipset market is growing rapidly, with projections showing a rise from $33.65 billion in 2024 to $40.50 billion by 2025 and an expected $149.65 billion by 2032, ResearchAndMarkets.com said last week. That reflects an annual growth rate of 20.50%, “primarily driven by organizations upgrading their wireless networks in response to rising digital application use and increasing data volume,” the report said.
The Foundation for Defense of Democracies, a self-described neo-conservative think tank, urged the FCC on Monday to require recertification for any authorized device that's modified by an entity on the agency’s “covered list” of unsecure companies. “This oversight would prevent any entity currently on the Covered List from modifying previously authorized equipment in ways that might introduce new vulnerabilities following purchase or installation,” said a filing in docket 21-232. The requirement would “encourage American firms to transition toward alternate suppliers, further bolstering U.S. national security.” The FCC should also impose the “broadest possible prohibitions” to safeguard U.S. security, rather than pinpointing “specific components that may harbor vulnerabilities, such as modular transmitters, logic-bearing hardware, firmware, software, or semiconductors," the group said.
Qualcomm announced Thursday that it completed its $2.4 billion purchase of British semiconductor company Alphawave Semi. Tony Pialis, the CEO and co-founder of Alphawave Semi, will now lead Qualcomm's data center business. Qualcomm CEO Cristiano Amon said his company “delivers high-performance, energy-efficient compute and AI solutions, and the addition of Alphawave’s technologies will strengthen our platforms and optimize performance for next-generation AI data centers.”
Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., on Thursday urged Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick and Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang to testify on Capitol Hill in response to the Trump administration allowing sales of the company's more advanced H200 AI chips to China. Warren said during a floor speech that she is concerned that President Donald Trump may force DOJ to curtail a crackdown begun earlier this week on smuggling of such chips to China. “Will Donald Trump muzzle his own [DOJ] because he does not want Americans to know that he is selling out our national security?” she asked. The White House, Commerce Department and Nvidia didn't immediately comment.
The cable industry has embarked on a "bizarre" strategy of trying to prevent spectrum auctions and starve fixed-wireless access (FWA) of more spectrum rights, High Tech Forum founder Richard Bennett wrote Wednesday. FWA providers are excited about the 800 MHz target for new spectrum licenses, as laid out in Congress' budget reconciliation package, previously called the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, he said. Cable's response is "positioning itself as the one true champion of Wi-Fi, the presumed loser from the OBBB auction plan." However, he said, "Wi-Fi doesn’t care what technologies users employ for Internet access. Wi-Fi simply connects devices in a home or office to each other. Telcos need -- and use -- Wi-Fi for the same reason cable does: to convenience its customers."
China will “further consolidate its 5G-Advanced leadership position” and has a “head start” on developing 6G technologies, but “progress may slow” due to “existing process limitations” in the country’s semiconductor production, said a TechInsights connectivity report released last week. “Huawei continues to diversify its portfolio of home-grown mobile RF technologies.”
ORLANDO -- BEAD-related fiber deployments will face sizable data center competition for fiber-optic cabling, and the BEAD camp is likely to lose out, supply chain experts predicted this week at the Broadband Nation Expo.
House lawmakers from both parties continued Wednesday to criticize new Senate language in the package to end the government shutdown (HR-5371) that would allow senators to sue federal agencies in response to reports of DOJ spying on some Republican lawmakers' phone records during the Biden administration. The Senate-approved provision targeted claims that the FBI and former Special Counsel Jack Smith accessed the phone records of several Republican lawmakers as part of the Biden administration’s probe of the Jan. 6 Capitol siege (see 2510170039). The House was set to vote Wednesday night on HR-5371, which could lead the FCC to restart most of its operations Thursday. The FCC suspended most of its functions when the government shutdown began Oct. 1. and furloughed 81% of its staff (see 2510010065). The Senate passed HR-5371 Monday night 60-40.
Mobile satellite firm Kymeta names Manny Mora, ex-General Dynamics, as president and CEO, replacing Rick Bergman, who will support the transition … Network supplier Nile taps Mike Weston, ex-Gulf Business Machines, as president of international sales and operations, a newly created position ... Wireless technologies firm Sivers Semiconductors names Raymond Biagan, formerly GlobalFoundries, as chief revenue officer ... Nokia appoints Kristen Pressner, ex-Roche Diagnostics, as chief people officer and member of the Group Leadership Team, effective May 1, replacing Lorna Gibb, who left the company in June.
Much of the opposition to a 5G-based terrestrial positioning, navigation and timing (PNT) system as a complement to GPS has "troubling connections" to Chinese entities, conservative group the Bull Moose Project said Thursday (docket 18-89). Substantial opposition from groups like the LoRa Alliance, RAIN Alliance, Security Industry Association, Wi-Sun Alliance and Z-Wave Alliance seems "designed to stall progress rather than solve a major national security threat," the Bull Moose Project said. It said those groups count Chinese companies such as ZTE, Shenzhen Makerfabs, Zhejiang Chint Electrics, Ningbo Dooya Mechanic & Electronic Technology and Taixin Semiconductor as members, and representatives of the groups have been vocal in the FCC’s PNT proceeding. The groups' opposition sometimes seems "less concerned about interference and more about stalling competition, favoring alternative approaches, or protecting China’s strategic edge and keeping America vulnerable to a single point of failure," Bull Moose Project added.