FCC acting Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel, Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo and Secretary of State Antony Blinken backed Doreen Bogdan-Martin’s candidacy for ITU secretary general Wednesday. Bogdan-Martin, director of ITU's Telecom Development Bureau, would be the first woman to lead ITU and the first U.S. secretary general in more than 50 years. Rosenworcel said "no one is more qualified to sit at the helm of the ITU." Bodgan-Martin "has dedicated her career to championing gender equality and the expansion of digital access and adoption across the developing world," Raimondo said. Blinken said she's a "widely admired expert on global communications issues." In 2018, delegates to the ITU Plenipotentiary Conference elected Bogdan-Martin director of the ITU Telecom Development Bureau, the first American elected to one of five leadership positions there in 30 years (see 1811010052).
Global eSIM device installations will reach 3.4 billion by 2025, up 180% from the 1.2 billion projected for 2021, reported Juniper Research Monday. Juniper predicts global eSIM deployments across “consumer verticals” will increase by 170% over the next four years, “with widespread adoption reliant on backing from network operators,” it said. “Fragmentation of hardware vendors in the cellular IoT device market will require each vertical to adopt a combination of wireless technologies, hardware, and management tools.”
Despite lagging behind SpaceX and OneWeb, Guowang's Starlink constellation "seems a pretty safe bet to be around for a long time," Larry Press, a professor of information systems at California State University-Dominguez Hills. blogged Friday. A broadband satellite initiative of China's state-owned China Aerospace Science and Technology, Guowang has Chinese government backing plus "an edge" in serving nations in China's Belt and Road global infrastructure initiative, said Press.
The Commerce Department's Bureau of Industry and Security plans a virtual forum April 8 at 2 p.m. EDT to collect input on how the Biden administration can help boost the competitiveness and capacity of the U.S. semiconductor industry, says Tuesday’s Federal Register. Comments are due April 5 on the BIS notice of inquiry on semiconductor competitiveness (see 2103110054). The comments and feedback from the forum will help shape Commerce’s policy recommendations to the White House on President Joe Biden’s Feb. 24 executive order to relieve bottlenecks in the chip supply chain. Registration for the virtual forum closes Thursday.
An estimated 40% of consumers increased use of smartphone speakerphones during the COVID-19 pandemic, Cirrus Logic found. The chipmaker hired SAR Insight & Consulting to canvass 1,722 consumers in China, Germany, South Korea, the U.K. and the U.S. Younger respondents especially rely "more on a variety of smartphone applications that require better audio, indicative of behavior that we expect to continue beyond the pandemic,” said SAR analyst Peter Cooney.
Global e-commerce generated $4 trillion in 2020 revenue, up nearly 27% year on year, BrightDrop CEO Travis Katz told a Bank of America virtual investor conference. “Not only are we ordering more and more online, we want our deliveries to arrive faster than ever” and in a manner that doesn’t worsen traffic congestion or emissions, he said Monday. General Motors launched BrightDrop in January as “a true ecosystem of all-electric, first-to-last-mile solutions,” he said. Though e-commerce demand is soaring, “consumers are increasingly saying they want their packages delivered without harming the environment,” said Katz, a former Trip.com and News Corp. executive. "Global package alone is expected to be a $300 billion market this year.”
Omnispace and Lockheed Martin will partner on exploring development of 5G capability from space, they said Tuesday. They said the proposed space-based network would have commercial, enterprise and government applications. Omnispace would use its 2 GHz S-band spectrum rights, and the network would connect directly to devices from non-geostationary orbit, it said.
The Department of Commerce should delay implementing an interim final rule on securing the information and communications technology and services (ICTS) supply chain, the Information Technology Industry Council commented Monday in docket 210113-0009. The rule is meant to address foreign adversaries’ exploitation of software and hardware sales and intellectual property theft. Its “breadth coupled with the broad discretion the rule grants to the Secretary continue to cast a cloud of uncertainty over almost all ICTS transactions and could undermine the national security objectives it purports to address, while also hindering U.S. competitiveness,” ITI said. Microsoft recommended an approach that “incentivizes adoption of technology-based best practices to better protect supply chain security and maintain tech leadership.” These incentives, rather than imposing “undue and unpredictable regulatory burdens,” will “better protect supply chain security and help the United States and other democracies maintain tech leadership,” wrote Associate General Counsel-Global Trade Sarah O’Hare.
Personal protective equipment importer Radia Enterprises became the first complainant in the massive Section 301 litigation in the U.S. Court of International Trade to name new U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai as a defendant. The 1974 Trade Act doesn't authorize USTR “to engage in an indefinite trade war,” said the Friday complaint (in Pacer) from Radia, which does business as Spectrum Uniforms. Like the more than 3,700 other complaints flooding the court since September, it seeks a declaratory judgment that the tariffs are unlawful and a refund of the Lists 3 and 4A duties paid. Tai won Senate confirmation last Wednesday on a 98-0 vote (see 2103170042). She was sworn in late Thursday.
SoftBank launched its 5G millimeter-wave service in Japan using devices based on Qualcomm’s Snapdragon platforms and modem, Qualcomm said Friday. All initial 5G mmWave-compatible mobile devices in SoftBank’s lineup, including soon-to-be-announced 5G smartphones, are expected to be Qualcomm-powered, along with a pocket Wi-Fi 5G mmWave mobile hot spot.