Policymakers need to ensure the U.S. maintains its “preeminent position” as the driver of telecom technology innovation by maintaining it as a friendly environment for capital investment, AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson said Sunday during an event at the University of Colorado in Boulder. “What keeps me awake at night is, five years from now, is that still the case?” he said at the Silicon Flatirons event. “Five years from now, are Chinese companies going to be driving the standards, are top Chinese companies going to be driving the technological innovation in this industry? … I think we as a country do not want that."
The Department of Justice’s Antitrust Division and the FTC support the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office’s (PTO) efforts to “provide more complete information regarding patent ownership to the public,” the agencies said in a joint filing that PTO released last week (http://xrl.us/bofojr). The filing was one of several submitted in response to PTO’s request for input on its proposal to change its rules on collecting and publishing real-party-in-interest (RPI) patent ownership information. PTO held a roundtable discussion on the proposal last month, at which Google, Hewlett-Packard and IBM expressed support for improved RPI collection (WID Jan 14 p4). PTO had proposed two versions of the rules -- “Broad” and “Limited” -- that would define RPI in different ways. Justice and the FTC said they support “an RPI definition that, at a minimum, includes the [ultimate parent entities] either by including all UPE in the ‘Broad’ definition, or by adopting the ‘Limited’ definition."
The Department of Justice’s Antitrust Division and the FTC support the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office’s (PTO) efforts to “provide more complete information regarding patent ownership to the public,” the agencies said in a joint filing that PTO released last week (http://xrl.us/bofojr). The filing was one of several submitted in response to PTO’s request for input on its proposal to change its rules on collecting and publishing real-party-in-interest (RPI) patent ownership information. PTO held a roundtable discussion on the proposal last month, at which Google, Hewlett-Packard and IBM expressed support for improved RPI collection (CD Jan 14 p8). PTO had proposed two versions of the rules -- “Broad” and “Limited” -- that would define RPI in different ways. Justice and the FTC said they support “an RPI definition that, at a minimum, includes the [ultimate parent entities] either by including all UPE in the ‘Broad’ definition, or by adopting the ‘Limited’ definition."
Sprint Nextel lost a net 337,000 subscribers across its networks during Q4, with growth on its CDMA and LTE networks only partially outweighing a heavy subscriber exodus from the soon-to-be-shuttered iDEN network used by its Nextel service subscribers. The carrier’s Sprint networks added 401,000 postpaid and 525,000 prepaid subscribers, while its Nextel network lost a net 1.02 million subscribers. Sprint said it also lost a net 243,000 wholesale subscribers. Sprint added a net 605,000 subscribers for the entire year, down from a net 5.1 million added in 2011. Exits by Nextel subscribers will continue to accelerate as the service nears its targeted shutdown in the middle of the year, Sprint CEO Dan Hesse said Thursday during a conference call with investors. Sprint said it expects it will see a diminishing percentage of exiting Nextel subscribers choose to join the remaining networks; about 51 percent of Nextel subscribers who terminated their service during Q4 chose to join other Sprint services (http://xrl.us/boff9q).
Cisco forecast major increases in mobile data traffic through 2017. Faster than previously projected increases in 4G adoption and Wi-Fi offloading bear watching, experts told us. Mobile data traffic will reach 134 exabytes per year -- 11.2 exabytes per month -- by the end of 2017, Cisco said Tuesday in a report. That would be 134 times the total Internet Protocol traffic generated in 2000. It would also be a gain from 2012, when consumers’ global mobile data traffic rose by 70 percent, Cisco said. Traffic reached 885 petabytes per month by the end of 2012 -- up from 520 petabytes per month at the end of 2011, said the maker of equipment for telecom firms to handle data. The monthly mobile data traffic in 2012 was nearly 12 times the total monthly Internet traffic generated in 2000 -- 75 petabytes per month, Cisco said. Global traffic will continue to increase at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 66 percent through 2017, Cisco said. North America will see growth slightly below the global average -- at a 56 percent CAGR -- to 2 exabytes per month in 2017, Cisco said (http://xrl.us/bigzmr).
Cisco forecast major increases in mobile data traffic through 2017. Faster than previously projected increases in 4G adoption and Wi-Fi offloading bear watching, experts told us. Mobile data traffic will reach 134 exabytes per year -- 11.2 exabytes per month -- by the end of 2017, Cisco said Tuesday in a report. That would be 134 times the total Internet Protocol traffic generated in 2000. It would also be a gain from 2012, when consumers’ global mobile data traffic rose by 70 percent, Cisco said. Traffic reached 885 petabytes per month by the end of 2012 -- up from 520 petabytes per month at the end of 2011, said the maker of equipment for telecom firms to handle data. The monthly mobile data traffic in 2012 was nearly 12 times the total monthly Internet traffic generated in 2000 -- 75 petabytes per month, Cisco said. Global traffic will continue to increase at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 66 percent through 2017, Cisco said. North America will see growth slightly below the global average -- at a 56 percent CAGR -- to 2 exabytes per month in 2017, Cisco said (http://xrl.us/bigzmr).
Preparation for Superstorm Sandy’s landfall was key to New York-area broadcasters’ efforts to disseminate news and information to the public, said executives from Clear Channel Media and WABC during the FCC’s second hearing Tuesday on the storm’s communications impact. Others testified how Google and Twitter helped to fill the void left by outages in the area’s wireless and wireline communications networks.
Google and Twitter helped to fill the void left by outages in the New York area’s wireless and wireline communications networks during Superstorm Sandy, witnesses told the FCC’s second hearing Tuesday on the storm’s communications impact. The New York Fire Department used Twitter to communicate with the public throughout the storm, said Emily Rehimi, the department’s social media manager. In the hours after Sandy made landfall, NYFD tweeted out safety tips and emergency preparedness information, she said. But beginning at the height of the storm, she began fielding what amounted to tweeted 9-1-1 calls -- requests for help from people who had lost power and did not have the ability to call 9-1-1. Rehimi said she repeatedly urged the department’s Twitter followers to use the 9-1-1 system if they could, and relayed information to dispatchers from users who had no other way to get help. Once the storm passed, she began tweeting out information to people who had lost power. Rehimi said she also worked with NYFD’s press office to validate and invalidate information being disseminated on Twitter to avoid “unnecessary panic.” Rehimi urged the FCC to look into ways to make next-generation 911 social media-accessible. Google also deployed emergency resources during Sandy, said Nigel Snoad, product manager for Google’s Crisis Response team. Google deployed its Google Public Alerts service four days prior to the storm’s landfall, he said. The service placed official federal and local emergency information and other resources at the top of any web search for “Sandy,” Snoad said. Google originally developed the Public Alerts service in response to its experience during the 2011 Japan earthquake and tsunami, when users in Hawaii filled Google with searches for tsunami information, Snoad said. Google also deployed map layers to provide users with information about available emergency resources, including fuel and food distribution locations, he said.
Rep. Mike Rogers, R-Mich., will introduce the Energy Efficient Government Technology Act later this week, a spokesman for Rep. David McKinley, R-W.Va., told us. The bill would promote adoption of energy-efficient information and communications technology use in the federal government. McKinley is a co-sponsor of the legislation, along with Reps. Cory Gardner, R-Colo., Anna Eshoo, D-Calif., and Peter Welch, D-Vt. The Telecommunications Industry Association voiced support for the bill late Friday, before its public introduction. The bill was originally set to be introduced Tuesday, but the announcement has since been pushed to later in the week. TIA President Grant Seiffert declared the group’s support in a letter to Eshoo, McKinley, Rogers and Welch. “The federal government will realize significant energy efficiency and cost savings through the adoption of the information and communications technologies and best practices enabled by this legislation,” Seiffert said. IBM and other businesses in McKinley’s district are supportive of the bill, McKinley’s spokesman said. Welch’s office confirmed he is supportive of the bill and plans to be a co-sponsor. Eshoo’s office declined to comment on the legislation, while a representative for Rogers did not respond to our request for comment.
The U.S. is experiencing an “historically high” patent grant rate after decades of increases, but the government’s patent system needs improvement, said the Brookings Institution’s Metropolitan Policy Program Friday in a new report. The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office granted 247,713 patents during 2011, a “record high” that follows steady increases in patent grant rates that extend back to 1985, Brookings said (http://xrl.us/bod6n4).