President Bush Not Interested In Getting Involved In Qualcomm/Broadcom Patent Fight

from the leave-me-out-of-this dept

Back in June, Broadcom used a bit of a loophole to get Qualcomm in trouble over patents. Rather than just going the traditional court route, Broadcom had the International Trade Commission simply decide that Qualcomm infringed on Broadcom patents, and bar the import of certain next generation Qualcomm chips. While Qualcomm will still appeal the decision in court, it also appealed directly to President Bush. It would appear the President has more important things to do with his time than get involved in a pointless patent battle, as he's decided to allow the ban to stand. Once again, expect many more companies to start going to the International Trade Commission as a way of getting around court rulings that have been a lot less kind to bogus patents lately. In the meantime, Qualcomm claims it has a workaround to avoid infringing on the patent, but somehow we expect Broadcom won't be satisfied.

Filed Under: patents, president bush
Companies: broadcom, qualcomm

Apple Sued For Patent Infringement On iPhone Keyboard

from the and-out-come-the-wolves dept

It's almost surprising that it took this long, but someone has finally sued Apple for patent infringement related to the iPhone. Remember, back when Steve Jobs announced the iPhone he hyped up all the patents the company filed associated with the phone. It didn't make sense to us, because many of the technologies in the iPhone weren't new at all and had plenty of prior art. It was just the ability to put them all together in a compelling package that people would buy that was the key -- and no one could simply mimic Apple's ability to do that (though we can all watch others flounder around as they try). Still, with any new technologies these days, there's bound to be a patent thicket, meaning that there would inevitably be patent disputes. We had discussed a potential patent suit over the touchscreen interface, but it's not clear what became of that. In this latest case, the patent is for putting a keyboard on a touchscreen, which hardly seems like such a unique idea that it deserves a patent. Oddly, if you read the actual patent, it notes that "the input area... may not be minimized, maximized, or deleted." Since the iPhone keyboard can be minimized, you would think this patent doesn't apply. But, these days, why let little details prevent a patent lawsuit and potentially billions in payouts for doing nothing? Not surprisingly, the company is demanding a cut of every iPhone sold and wants an injunction against selling more iPhones with this technology included. Update: Turns out there's even more to this story. The guy who holds the patent was recently sentenced to 51 months in prison for fraud.

Filed Under: iphone, patents
Companies: apple

Anti-Anti-Muni Bills Take Hold In Congress

from the 'bout-time dept

Efforts by incumbent telcos to stifle municipalities' attempts to roll out municipal broadband projects may not get the press they did a few years back, but the carriers are still at it, trying to get state legislatures to pass laws banning or hamstringing muni broadband. This week, though, a bill was introduced in the house that would prevent states from passing such laws. It follows similar legislation that was introduced in the Senate, and appears to already have a broad base of support -- but given the power of the telco lobby in Washington, we won't count the eggs before they've hatched.

Filed Under: congress, muni wifi, politics, telecom

Two Airlines Move Ahead With In-Flight Internet Plans

from the looking-through-the-clouds dept

One of the many modern tech myths seems to be the idea that in-flight internet access is guaranteed to be a success, even though this has proven not to be the case. The supposed demand for the service among travelers hasn't been enough to overcome the cost of the service, both for airlines and end users, and technical barriers, as highlighted by the failure of Boeing's much-hyped Connexion service. Now, however, one of the airlines that offered Connexion, Lufthansa, says it's working with T-Mobile to bring back in-flight internet access, while American has signed a deal with AirCell to offer its service to travelers on some planes. Lufthansa wants a system that supports WiFi, but also SMS and cellular data, though it won't allow cellular voice calls; American plans to test WiFi access on some transcontinental domestic flights before deciding whether to proceed. The American system will differ from Connexion in that it won't use satellites, but an air-to-ground radio system, explaining why it will only be available domestically. Hopefully this will translate into lower costs for consumers than the $30 per flight Connexion charged, otherwise the service will suffer the same fate. Lufthansa is reportedly looking at a satellite-based system for its long-haul flights, and unless it's figured out some way to slash the costs of such a system and pass the savings on to consumers, it's hard to see things working out any better this time around.

Filed Under: airlines
Companies: aircell, american airlines, boeing, lufthansa

Latest Shot At The Personal Mobile Hub Looks A Lot More Open

from the about-time dept

If you've been in the mobile space for a long time, you may recall the buzz from nearly a decade ago about the concept of the "personal mobile hub." The idea was that computers don't need to be big (even laptop big) general machines, but rather you could break out the components and make for interesting combinations. That is, you could have a small core unit that was basically just a CPU with some wireless connectivity, and then add in additional components as necessary (or simply let other things connect to the hub). So, your mobile phone could connect to the hub to get better wireless capabilities. You could also have a separate storage module for extra storage. Then, perhaps you could have different screen technology depending on what you needed. Or different inputs. The whole idea was to make computing a lot more modular. Unfortunately, pretty much every attempt at doing so failed (often miserably). For years, the concept was championed by a company called IXI, who got a lot of hype but produced little in the way of a product for quite some time. In 2004, it finally came up with a product called the ogo, which was a messaging device sold by AT&T Wireless. However, the other components (the whole point of such a system) never appeared and the device mostly died off (though, it's been revived at times elsewhere).

There's some buzz going around about a new startup called Bug Labs that is in some ways bringing back this very concept with more of an open source/DIY/hacker ethos. Right now, exactly what Bug Labs is doing isn't entirely clear, but it sounds like they're producing something quite similar to the general idea of the personal mobile hub -- but making it very open and encouraging everyone else to develop apps and systems for it. In fact, it sounds like the company doesn't plan on being in the hardware business at all. This is definitely a step forward from the IXI way of doing things, but it still remains to be seen whether or not the market really buys into the idea of modular computing in this manner. The good news for Bug Labs, however, is that if such a concept is going to succeed, it's probably going to take an approach similar to what Bug is doing.

Filed Under: mobile hub, open source
Companies: bug labs, ixi

FCC Pays Open Access Wireless Networks Some Lip Service

from the appearance-of-activity dept

The FCC yesterday approved the rules for the upcoming 700 MHz spectrum license auction, scheduled for early next year. This is an important auction because of the quantity and quality of spectrum it covers, making it particularly suitable for wireless broadband networks. A coalition headed by Google has been pushing the FCC to adopt four "open access" principles for the spectrum, which would require license winners to open their networks to any compatible device, allow users to access any service they wish, and to sell wholesale access to their network to third parties. Google even said it would bid at least $4.6 billion in the auction if the FCC adopted the four principles. Unsurprisingly, the FCC didn't, instead going with rules that were largely along the lines of what Chairman Kevin Martin had earlier proposed: licenses for 22 of the 60 MHz on offer will require winners to allow any compatible device on their network and not block access to any services, but will not have the wholesale requirement that Google and its partners were looking for.

Without question, there's some gamesmanship going on here. If Google really wants to own spectrum licenses and have a network that follows its open access principles, there's nothing preventing it from bidding in the auction, winning licenses, and either running its network that way, or leasing the licenses to somebody who will. What's more likely, though, is that Google simply wants the ability to buy wholesale network access, rather than own licenses or build its own network. Again, there's nothing preventing it from entering into such a deal with any license holder, but requiring all the license holders to wholesale access would create a more competitive market and drive down prices. But perhaps the bigger game here is the political one by the FCC. These open access rules, really, are pretty toothless, and perhaps that's best illustrated by the fact that both AT&T and Verizon support them. The device requirement could easily be rendered meaningless by the winning bidder's choice of technology for their network. Using a proprietary or unpopular technology would likely mean that the only outlet to purchase compatible devices would be from the network provider. The open access to services requirement is one the operators would likely follow anyway, since blocking access to certain sites and services wouldn't make their wireless broadband services too popular with consumers.

While perhaps these rules represent a small first step for the FCC towards fostering a more competitive broadband, they seem much more like a missed opportunity to affect some real change. It seems like more than anything, this is a bit of smoke and mirrors that makes it look, to the casual observer, like the FCC's done something significant, when it's actually done very little -- and that would fit with the persistent whispering about Martin's political ambitions.

Filed Under: fcc, telecom, wireless
Companies: at&t, fcc, google, verizon

Ad Sales On Muni Wireless Networks Yet Another Example Of Unrealistic Expectations

from the hype-hype-and-more-hype dept

Many of the hype-fuelled municipal WiFi plans made by various cities across the country involved free services supported by advertising. The party line was that businesses would love the chance to advertise to users in their immediate vicinity, while users would eat up the free services. Unsurprisingly, like muni WiFi in general, the actual deployments attempts at generating ad revenues have failed to live up to the inflated expectations. One of the biggest problems was that advertisers would have to do deals with individual networks, making it much more difficult to get make a wide ad buy than with other media like traditional web ads. That's starting to change, as a handful of companies are sprouting up to set up nationwide ad networks, allowing marketers to make purchases across multiple muni WiFi networks. That's a good step, but it's not a complete solution. Many networks have had teething problems that that have generated bad press and hardly encouraged usage, while the idea that businesses will pay a premium to advertise to local users may be oft-repeated, but remains unproven. One area where WiFi networks are seeing strong ad sales? Airports and hotels, where the attraction for marketers is a high number of business travelers. The different demographics of free municipal networks may not dictate the same level of demand.

Filed Under: muni wifi
Companies: jiwire

FCC Chairman Talks Up Open-Access Wireless Networks

from the different-tune dept

Just last month, we noted how FCC Chairman Kevin Martin sounds like a broken record when it comes to telecom policy, always covering the same ground with his same old ideas of what constitutes a competitive market. Maybe the summer heat has gotten to him, but he's now gone and changed all that, as he's getting ready to propose dramatic new rules for the upcoming 700 MHz wireless spectrum license auction, mandating that winners of licenses for a third of the spectrum build open-access networks -- networks that allow any compatible device to connect and for any service to be run across them. The 700 MHz spectrum is pretty prime real estate, as these things go: there's a lot of spectrum that will be available, and the low frequency gives it excellent propagation and building-penetration characteristics. There's been a lot of talk from tech companies and other groups about handling these licenses differently than previous ones, in order to encourage the development of broadband wireless networks that offer real competition to fixed-line networks. Typically, this entails mandating that license winners build wholesale networks which sell access to any service provider that wants to then sell the service on to consumers. While Martin's draft of rules doesn't go that far, it does offer a significant change to how wireless spectrum licenses have typically been sold and regulated. Unsurprisingly, the trade group of cellular operators isn't happy, and says that there's no need to regulate what it sees as a perfectly competitive marketplace. Whether or not the cell phone service market is competitive is an argument for another day, but it's pretty clear that as things stand now, it doesn't have much of a competitive impact on the broadband market, which is still largely a duopoly of cable and telephone companies. The operators hope to use their deep pockets to buy up as much spectrum as possible -- not just to use it themselves, but to keep it out of the hands of any potential new entrants that could come into the market and actually compel them to compete.

Filed Under: open access, wireless
Companies: fcc

Nobody Loves Palm (And Really, Why Should They?)

from the circling-the-deadpool? dept

There have been long-running rumors that Palm was up for sale, with the things getting so ridiculous that at one point it looked like they were made up to boost the share price. The company has never been sold, though private equity firm Elevation Partners bought a 25% stake last month and brought in some new management. Some people wondered at the time if Palm went down this road because it couldn't find anybody interested in buying the whole company; an SEC filing about the Elevation deal suggests that this was indeed the case. The deal in and of itself does nothing to solve Palm's long-standing problems (and neither will its recently announced and wholly underwhelming Foleo product), and in the meantime the bad news rolls on: Palm also said this week that devices using a Linux-based follow-up to Palm OS 5 -- like it's been talking about since 2004 -- have been delayed until next year.

The Downside Of The Muni WiFi Hype Cycle Rolls On

from the we-love-you-we-hate-you dept

Municipal WiFi got hyped up to such ridiculous levels that it was bound to be seen as a failure, often by the same media that whipped up expectations in the first place. Now, in Toronto, the paper notes that the citywide WiFi network there has seen usage fall since its free trial period ended. What? You mean more people will use a WiFi network when it's free than when they have to pay? Shocking, we know. The company behind the network says that it's converting more free users to paid subscribers than it had planned, but that doesn't seem to placate the reporter of the original story, who manages to work in another yarn of hype by saying the WiFi network "may soon be irrelevant" because of the emergence of WiMAX. In reality, the approach of Toronto Hydro, the company that built and runs the network, seems pretty good. Its interest began with using WiFi for a pragmatic purpose -- remote meter reading -- and it then decided to extend its network to offer public internet access. The company's public network now covers only six square kilometers, and it's waiting to attract a sufficient number of users before expanding citywide, rather than jumping in whole-hog and experiencing the problems other providers have faced when launching much bigger networks. This relentless build-'em-up-then-knock-'em-down hype cycle doesn't help anybody, but when it comes to muni WiFi, it doesn't look like it's going to stop anytime soon.