News Corp. will work with China Mobile on global wireless media opportunities, it said. Via subsidiary STAR, News Corp. will sell 19.9% of Phoenix TV to China Mobile, keeping 17.6% of the TV company. China Mobile and News Corp. will develop new wireless service products such as broadband interactivity and social networking, they said.
Exports to China
Congressional action to preempt state energy limits on DTV converter boxes would be needed if states like Cal. and N.Y. don’t provide exemptions, said industry officials. “I don’t see any alternative,” said James Burger, an attorney and lobbyist for the tech industry. If Cal. and N.Y. aren’t “reasonable” and exempt one-time purchase of the boxes or “set a realistic energy level that can be met without huge expense, they need to be preempted,” he added. “We are exploring all options and opportunities that prevent unnecessary regulation of any product that is crucial to the national transition,” said CEA Senior Dir.-Technology Policy Douglas Johnson.
New aides to FCC Comr. McDowell: Dana Shaffer, ex- Wireline Bureau, as acting wireline adviser; Angela Giancarlo, ex-Wireless Bureau, as acting wireless adviser; Christina Pauze, ex-Media Bureau, as acting media adviser… Andrew Vollmer, ex-Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale & Dorr, becomes SEC deputy gen. counsel… Stephen Ross, ex-FCC, moves to Bremer Law as consultant… Mark Lowenstein, ex- Mobile Ecosystem, joins Verizon Wireless as vp-mktg… Rainbow Ad Sales names Benjamin Tatta, ex- Comcast, senior vp-business development… Starz promotes Bob Greene to new position of exec. vp-advanced services… Arthur Kobler, ex-AT&T China, joins Hill & Assoc. board of advisers… Doug Stewart, ex-Mintera, moves to Net Insight as vp-sales-N. America… Ping Li, ex-Juniper Networks, joins Reactivity board… NCTA names Joy Sims, ex-Porter Novelli, dir.-media relations.
CHICAGO -- Telecom venture capital is sporadic, despite telecom’s ubiquity, panelists said Mon. at Globalcomm here. Buyouts provide a major part of funding to small businesses in the field, several panelists said, while most real opportunity is seen as overseas -- sometimes in unexpected places.
Klaus Ziegler was picked by 3 European standards bodies to raise the visibility of the European standardization system in China, officials said. He said he will work “to get the Chinese involved in European standardization, or if they adopt standardization in China, that this is not conflicting with the European way of doing things,” with an eye on global competitiveness of European industry, he said. Ziegler will be based in Beijing 3 years starting July 1. He was appointed by the European Committee for Standardization, the European Committee for Electrotechnical Standardization and the European Telecom Standards Institute. The European Commission and the European Free Trade are sponsoring the effort.
The IEEE committed “serious violations” of International Standard Organization (ISO) rules in backing the 802.11i wireless encryption standard against China’s WAPI standard for WLAN equipment, the China Broadband Wireless IP Standard Group claims, Xinhua reported. 802.11i won on a “fast track” ISO ballot in March. The China group, in an appeal to ISO, cited its belief that IEEE organized a “conspiracy” against WAPI using “intimidation and threats.” The group, which said it has 49 pieces of evidence documenting IEEE misdeeds, alleges the 11i standard has “many serious technical defects and numerous editorial errors.” China delayed a requirement for compliance with its 2003 mandate to use WAPI “because of pressure from the 802.11i camp through the American government,” Xinhua said (CD April 26/04 p6). WAPI backers declined to reveal its underlying encryption algorithms, an objection many ISO members raised at the time. “Backdoors” could be part of WAPI, Glenn Fleishman of Wi-Fi Net News said: “The events of the last 6 months make it clear that China wants to be able to monitor all data” on its networks and broader Internet.
Mobile handset revenue will peak in 2008 at $129.9 billion, according to a report Fri. by Research & Markets. The handset market is evolving in 2 directions, the report said: Feature are converging in multifunction devices while diverging into specialized devices. That increases the number of abilities manufacturers need, R&M said, as handset prices continue to drop and low-end devices continue to incorporate more features. The number of handsets shipped will increase through 2012, the report predicted, fueled by growth in the Middle East, China, Africa and Latin America.
GENEVA -- Differences on oversight of World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) follow-up activities have resulted in a proposal for informal meetings in June to flesh out a compromise, officials said. At stake is who will oversee WSIS’s international effort to help less-developed countries benefit from the telecom revolution by developing modern infrastructures and processes. Concerns about multilingualism, cybersecurity and access to telecom infrastructure are to be addressed in the post-WSIS process, which has become a forum for disparate groups around the globe, officials said.
GENEVA -- A raft of new organizational and data- gathering work took shape this week at meetings designed to implement World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) results. WSIS action line facilitation meetings are establishing systematic methods to follow the post WSIS process, officials said. At a Tues. meeting, parliaments’ role in implementing WSIS action lines was noted. Discussion focused on public governance authorities and interested parties and their hand in promoting ICTs for development, said Gherardo Casini, head of the U.N. Det. of Economic & Social Affairs.
Communities across the Empire State should look to Philadelphia’s model of offering municipal broadband access to citizens, N.Y. Attorney Gen. Eliot Spitzer (D) told the Personal Democracy Forum conference in N.Y.C. Mon. The gubernatorial candidate said the problem “isn’t a lack of resources, it’s a lack of imagination and a lack of leadership.”