The Federal Communications Commission did not look too kindly upon AT&T's bid to purchase T-Mobile, but the agency yesterday did approve AT&T's acquisition of spectrum from Qualcomm—with conditions.
The FCC voiced some competitive concerns about the deal.

"Post-transaction, AT&T would hold a significant proportion of the available spectrum suitable for the provision of mobile voice or broadband services, particularly below 1 GHz spectrum, that has technical attributes important for other competitors to meaningfully expand their provision of mobile broadband services or for new entrants to have a potentially significant impact on competition," the commission said in its order.

As a result, the FCC imposed a few conditions on the transaction, like requiring that AT&T's new spectrum doesn't stop rivals from using neighboring 700 MHz spectrum for broadband services and limiting AT&T's ability to use the Qualcomm spectrum in a way that would deprive rivals of the benefits of FCC's roaming rules.

In a statement, AT&T said it expects to close the transaction in the coming days.

"This spectrum will help AT&T continue to deliver a world-class mobile broadband experience to our customers," Bob Quinn, senior vice president of federal regulatory issues at AT&T, said in a statement. "We appreciate the FCC Chairman, the Commissioners and their staff for completing its review before the holidays."

Read full article here

source article: pcmag.com
source image: pcmag.com

For Amazon, it’s going to be hard to top 2011. After all, this was the year the gargantuan online retailer launched a cloud storage service, opened the doors on its own Appstore, and released a tablet, the Kindle Fire, that happens to be selling like crazy.

Looking at the bigger picture, this was the year Amazon moved to unify its several disparate services into a full-fledged platform in its own right. The site — though it’s not just a site anymore, is it? — already has a massive user base, and now its services are slowly turning more and more of them into something resembling loyal customers, or if Amazon’s lucky, “members.”

Although the company has momentum, it’s in danger of tripping over obstacles on the road ahead. Amazon has a presence in so many digital markets now, it’s easy to lose count, which means it’s competing in one form or another with pretty much every major technology company. From Google and Apple to Barnes & Noble and Netflix, Amazon has a lot of top-caliber enemies, which says a lot about how far the company has come.
What does 2012 hold for the company that businesses turn to for cheap cloud services, writers turn to for self-publishing, and everyone turns to for a cheap gift for mom? Here are Mashable‘s predictions for Amazon in 2012.

Read full article here

source article: mashable.com
source image: mailware.com

(Updates with share price in eight paragraph. For more on AT&T’s failed T-Mobile bid, see {EXT5 <GO>}.)

The International Trade Commission judge found there was no violation of six other disputed patents.

The ruling may aid Microsoft's efforts to chase licence fees from other Android-based handset makers.
Microsoft already charges HTC, Samsung and others royalties for technologies used in Google's operating system which it claims makes use of some of its innovations.

In October the Windows software-maker said it had struck licence deals with companies "accounting for more than half of all Android devices". Motorola Mobility was not among their number.

Read full article here

source article: bbc.co.uk
source image: bbc.co.uk

Apple scored a minor victory in its battle against Google Android, with the International Trade Commission (ITC) banning certain HTC smartphones from import in April 2012. However, observers believe HTC will have little trouble altering its devices in order to sidestep the ban.

The patent in question, considered a minor one by analysts, concerns the ability to dial a phone number in an email or text by tapping on it. “We believe there are workarounds available to HTC, and HTC has noted that it can quickly remove the feature,” Peter Misek, an analyst with research firm Jefferies & Co., wrote in a coauthored note Dec. 20. “A prior ruling that HTC was infringing one of Apple’s broader patents was overturned.”

In other words, Apple hasn’t exactly managed to cripple HTC’s efforts in the United States. “This ruling falls far short of anything that would force HTC out of the U.S. market in the near term,” patent expert Florian Mueller wrote in a Dec. 19 posting on his FOSS Patents blog. “Out of ten patents originally asserted, Apple finally managed to enforce one, and it’s one of medium value.”

Read full article here

source article: eweek.com
source image: siliconangle.com