Ina Fried

Unlike most of the tech industry, the four telecom giants have been silent on Trump’s travel ban

While the tech industry as a whole started speaking out against President Donald Trump’s travel ban over the weekend, one segment has been noticeably silent: The big telecommunication firms.

There hasn’t been a peep from AT&T, Verizon, Sprint or T-Mobile, and there could be a clear reason why. Each of those firms really wants big things from the Trump administration and doesn’t want to risk angering the new president. Sprint and T-Mobile are seen as highly likely to seek approval for some sort of merger, while AT&T is in the midst of trying to buy Time Warner. Verizon, which has already made several deals, is seen as a potential buyer of a cable company or other major player that would require regulatory approval. All four would also like to see the Federal Communications Commission pull back on overall regulation, including the most aggressive parts of net neutrality.

For the sake of national security, Donald Trump needs to trade in his cellphone

As president-elect, Donald Trump has continued to use his Android device as his primary means for both keeping in touch with associates and expressing his displeasure with news outlets and “Saturday Night Live.” But experts say that, as president, Trump really needs to use something a whole lot more secure.

We’ve asked the transition team what kind of smartphone Donald Trump intends to use when he assumes the Oval Office on Jan 20 and have yet to get a response. Trump won’t have to figure this out on his own. There’s even an agency specifically tasked with supporting the president’s telecommunications needs, the White House Communications Agency. And the Secret Service, which has to protect the president, is likely to weigh in as well. As to whether government agencies can force Trump to give up his current phone, it’s complicated. Trump may resist technical security measures imposed on him by the Secret Service. However, by law, their protection of the president is mandatory and cannot be declined.

Apple confirmed it’s putting $1 billion into the SoftBank fund that Donald Trump loves

Apple is indeed investing some of its cash in a SoftBank fund that has won praise from President-elect Donald Trump for promising to put $50 billion into US tech companies. “Apple is planning to invest $1 billion in SoftBank’s Vision Fund,” Apple said. “We've worked closely with SoftBank for many years and we believe their new fund will speed the development of technologies which may be strategically important to Apple.” The move could help the company get some goodwill from Trump, who has criticized the company for its privacy stance and called on the company to start making iPhones in the US, something that is unlikely to happen.

After failing to strike a new deal, Nokia is suing Apple for patent infringement

After failing to strike a new deal with Apple, Nokia is suing the iPhone maker for patent infringement in both Germany and the US. The two companies had a deal in 2011 that covered some Nokia patents, but Nokia says efforts to reach a broader pact have gone nowhere. “Nokia has created or contributed to many of the fundamental technologies used in today's mobile devices, including Apple products,” Nokia patent head Ilkka Rahnasto said in a statement. “After several years of negotiations trying to reach an agreement to cover Apple's use of these patents, we are now taking action to defend our rights."

One of the big concerns in the phone industry has been just how agressive Nokia might be in pursuing large patent claims now that it is no longer in the phone-making business. (New phones are being introduced under the Nokia brand, but through a brand licensing deal, not because Nokia itself is selling phones.) Nokia’s remaining business is largely focused on making network equipment, though its smaller Nokia Technologies unit has a mission to both innovate in new areas and license the company’s brand and vast patent portfolio.

A new flaw puts nearly a billion phones at risk and shows Android security is still a patchwork mess

Another big security flaw in Android highlights just how messed up the Google ecosystem still is when it comes to security. This one, known as Quadrooter, was disclosed in recent days by security software maker Check Point. Quadrooter affects a whole host of top-end Android devices running one of Qualcomm’s Snapdragon chips. That means hundreds of millions or even a billion devices could be at risk, including top-end models such as the Samsung Galaxy S7, HTC 10 and LG G5 and even Google’s latest Nexus devices and security-focused devices like BlackBerry’s Priv and Silent Circle’s Blackphone.

The problem is there are still so many hands in the pot when it comes to updating Android. Google updates its software, but device makers have to tailor it for their phones — and sometimes they get their software not from Google, but from chipmakers like Qualcomm. And then sometimes mobile carriers want to do their own testing to make sure they aren’t inadvertently introducing other problems onto their network. All that means the time from when a flaw is identified or disclosed to when it is fixed is longer than it should be, sometimes leaving hundreds of millions of phones vulnerable for weeks or months.

Verizon Begins Slow Path to Routing Calls over LTE (And Why That Even Matters)

Verizon is announcing that it is nearly ready to offer nationwide calling over its LTE network, but the reality is this is just the start of a long process.

Eventually, the addition of voice-over-LTE will allow for higher-quality calls, quicker connection and easy video chats. But because those features require both parties to be on Verizon, have a compatible phone and opt-in to LTE calling, very few such calls will be made initially.

At some unspecified point, VoLTE calling will become the default. Even further down the road -- probably not until at least 2016 -- Verizon will start selling phones that only support LTE. And while the initial service is limited to calling fellow Verizon members, lab work is under way to eventually let people call among different LTE networks.

T-Mobile Says It’s Not Planning to Throttle Unlimited Customers

T-Mobile clarified that it has no plans to broadly throttle its unlimited data customers, but is reaching out to a small number of customers using the service in violation of company policies.

In particular, T-Mobile is calling people using the service to run a full-time Web camera or a server, or using their phones for large-scale peer-to-peer file sharing, to let them know that such practices aren’t allowed. That memo, T-Mobile’s Chief Marketing Officer Mike Sievert said, was misinterpreted by some to mean some sort of broad throttling of heavy users.

He stressed that for customers paying for totally unlimited service on their phone, T-Mobile means unlimited.

How T-Mobile’s Odyssey Could Still End in a Sprint Deal

With T-Mobile adding customers and suddenly becoming the target of a surprise buyout offer, it’s easy to think the company might not need Sprint after all. But the truth is that few options other than a sale to rival Sprint will help T-Mobile thrive over the long term.

Because AT&T and Verizon are so much bigger than T-Mobile, only a partner or owner with deep pockets could help it topple its powerful rivals.

Apple’s $3 Billion Beats Purchase Now a Done Deal

Apple’s $3 billion purchase of Beats Music and Beats Electronics has been completed. Apple has notified roughly 200 Beats workers that their positions at Apple will only be temporary, while the remainder will join Apple permanently.

AT&T Slowly Expanding “Toll-Free” Data Trial, but Still No Big-Name Customers

AT&T grabbed a lot of attention back in January when it announced plans to offer companies the option to pay for data used by their customers. Since then? Crickets.

Speculation that Amazon might be the first big-name customer for the service for the Fire phone proved to be premature. However, AT&T has been gradually adding a few smaller names to the pilot program launched earlier in 2014. So-called sponsored data is designed to work like a toll-free number did in the landline days.

In this case, the sponsor foots the bill for the consumer to use certain services without having the resulting data use count against his or her monthly limit. Seattle-area startup Syntonic Wireless is announcing that it is now a part of the AT&T effort and plans to launch a sponsored content marketplace that will allow smartphone owners to see a range of available content that won’t count against their monthly data cap.

AT&T Unloads Its Stake in America Movil for $5.6 Billion

AT&T said that it is selling its stake in America Móvil, the large Latin American cell phone company and parent of US prepaid brand Tracfone.

Mexican billionaire Carlos Slim, the primary owner of America Móvil, will pay nearly $5.6 billion for AT&T’s stake, according to a regulatory filing.

“When we announced the DirecTV deal, we said that we would sell our stake in (America Movil) to facilitate the regulatory approval process in Latin America,” AT&T said.

Could Amazon Be the First Major Customer for AT&T’s “Toll-Free” Data Service?

AT&T has been pretty quiet about its plans for “toll-free” data service since announcing its plans at CES in January. With sponsored data, companies foot the bill for certain kinds of data use, meaning it is free for consumers.

AT&T said at the time that it was testing the service with a handful of partners, but has gone radio silent since then. That could change if, as some suspect, Amazon chooses to subsidize some of their customers’ data usage on the smartphone it is introducing.

Amazon could offer its sponsored data as part of its Amazon Prime service, which recently got a $20-per-year price hike in order to cover some of the rising costs with the service. Amazon added a Prime music service that offers subscribers unlimited streaming (though the service lacks most recent releases and has a smaller catalog than other music services).

No-Subsidy Mobile Phone Plans Gaining Steam, With T-Mobile Leading the Way

In the last nine months, some 28 million US customers opted to pay one of the major carriers full price for a smartphone rather than sign up for a two-year contract to get a discounted model, according to a new study.

Of those customers, an estimated eight million switched carriers to get one of the new-style plans, with the lion’s share of the switchers (5.1 million) of those going to T-Mobile, according to research being released later by Consumer Intelligence Research Partners.

Typically, such purchase options come with lower-cost monthly service, the option to upgrade sooner or both. T-Mobile has shifted entirely to such plans, while AT&T offers no-subsidy options with its Next and Mobile Share Value programs and Verizon has its Edge program. Even where customers have a choice to get a subsidized phone, the financing programs appear to be gaining steam.

Will T-Mobile’s Gains Stand in the Way of a Sprint Deal?

[Commentary] Once again, T-Mobile is boasting about how its wireless growth outpaced the rest of the industry combined.

And rarely does a week go by without CEO John Legere touting all of the many ways that his un-carrier is shaking things up. But the question now is whether those market share gains -- and all that bluster -- will actually make it harder for T-Mobile and Sprint to complete a merger that many say the companies need to become a long-term competitor to Verizon and AT&T.

“The answer is 100 percent yes,” said wireless industry analyst Chetan Sharma. “It would have been easier to push through a deal if T-Mobile was weaker than it is today. In an ironic twist of fate, the recent success of T-Mobile has worked against them.”

T-Mobile CFO Says Merger Could Help Put Un-Carrier Approach “On Steroids”

T-Mobile is trying to walk a fine line as it touts the gains it is making as an independent company while still arguing that further consolidation would benefit consumers.

T-Mobile Chief Financial Officer Braxton Carter and marketing chief Mike Sievert said that a potential combination with Sprint or another entity would allow the company to take its “un-carrier” approach to more consumers.

“We believe this is a scale industry,” Sievert said. “It would allow a disruptive player to become even more disruptive.”

Carter said it would be kind of like putting the un-carrier “on steroids.” Regulators in Washington, though, seem opposed to a Sprint-T-Mobile deal, although Sprint and SoftBank have been making the rounds in DC trying to put forward their case for why it could be a good thing.

Jury Has Questions in Apple-Samsung, but Won’t Get the Answers They Want

The jury weighing the Apple-Samsung patent case heard more than 50 hours of testimony, but still has some questions they wish had been answered.

In a series of notes to the court, the deliberating jurors asked for more details on how Apple and Samsung chose the patents they sued over in this case, as well as what Steve Jobs said when Apple first decided to pursue its patent case against Samsung and whether Google was mentioned. They also asked what Samsung’s reaction was when it learned Apple believed it was infringing.

Regardless of Latest Verdict, Samsung Has Already Won the Battle With Apple

The jury is still out on the latest Apple-Samsung patent trial, but Samsung has already won the larger battle.

When the iPhone was introduced in 2007, Samsung’s US smartphone market share was about 10 percent. By mid-2010 it had dropped to about half that level. By 2013, Samsung had more than rebounded, nabbing nearly a third of the US market in some quarters.

For all Apple’s legal victories, including a roughly $1 billion verdict in the last patent trial, Samsung has continued to grow its share of the smartphone market, both in the US and globally.

“We Don’t Think We Owe Apple a Nickel,” Samsung Argues in Closing Argument

Apple has twisted Samsung’s words to make it appear that it was looking to copy the iPhone, but that wasn’t the case, lawyers for the Korean electronics giant argued in closing statements in the companies’ patent infringement case.

The iPhone, Samsung argues, doesn’t even employ at least three of the specific patents for which infringement is claimed in the case.

“You can’t copy if it’s not there,” said Samsung attorney Bill Price, one of four lawyers that will tag-team the company’s closing argument. In the case, Apple has accused a number of Samsung phones and tablets of infringing five patents and argued it is due more than $2 billion in damages.

The pursuit of that large amount is what prompts Apple to talk about copying and stealing, Price said. He also made the case that all Samsung did is what most other phone makers did -- start using Google’s Android to compete with the iPhone. “The Android platform is the world’s alternative to iOS,” Price said.

Appeals Court Ruling Complicates End of Apple v. Samsung, but Jury Still Expected to Decide Case Next Week

The latest Apple-Samsung patent megatrial is nearing its end, with the final witness testimony scheduled to take place.

The two sides have just a few minutes remaining in the 25 hours granted to each to present its case. The jury will get to start early, with the lawyers and Judge Koh sticking around to hash out a bunch of details including final jury instructions and the form that the jurors will use to decide the case.

Judge Lucy Koh released a proposed jury form, but both sides objected to it, saying it could lead to confusion. Each side submitted proposals of their own in early April.

Apple is seeking more than $2 billion in damages, while Samsung says that figure is a “gross exaggeration” and is looking for only a few million dollars on its counterclaim.

Ahead of testimony, the lawyers in the case and Judge Lucy Koh are discussing the impact of a new ruling from the Federal Circuit in a related case involving Apple and Motorola. In particular, that case deals with one of the patents in this case -- the ’647 patent related to “quick links”.

Google Agreed to Pay Some of Samsung’s Costs, Assume Some Liability in Latest Apple Case

A Google lawyer testified that the company, pursuant to its contractual obligations, agreed to take over defense of some of the claims in Apple’s current patent lawsuit as well as to indemnify Samsung should it lose on those claims.

Apple played deposition testimony from Google lawyer James Maccoun, who verified emails in which Google agreed to provide partial or full indemnity with regard to four patents as well as to take over defense of those claims.

Of the four patents Google over which offered to cover at least some costs, two were dropped from the case before the trial began. The two patents that remain in the case, the ’414 and ’959 patents, cover background synchronization and universal search, respectively.

Although Google was seen as a shadow figure in the case -- most of the patents in this trial have to do with functions of Android or Google’s apps -- this was the first evidence shown to the jury that Google is playing a central role in the defense.

Nokia-Microsoft Deal to Close Friday, With a Couple Tweaks

Microsoft said that it expects its deal to acquire Nokia’s phone unit to close soon -- with a couple minor changes. Under the revised deal, Microsoft will no longer acquire Nokia’s Korean manufacturing plant.

Instead, it will take on 21 people working in China that had been part of Nokia’s chief technology office, the rest of which is sticking with Nokia. Microsoft will also manage Nokia.com and Nokia’s social media presence for up to a year following the deal’s close.

Apple, Google, Microsoft, Samsung and Carriers Back Anti-Theft Measures for Smartphones

With several states and municipalities considering various mandatory “kill-switch” laws for mobile devices, the wireless industry announced a voluntary commitment to include new anti-theft technology on phones starting 2015.

The commitment has the backing of the five largest US cellular carriers as well as the key players in the smartphone device and operating system markets, a list that includes Apple, Google, HTC, Huawei, Motorola, Microsoft, Nokia and Samsung.

Those signing the pledge agree that devices going on sale after July 2015 will have the ability to remotely wipe data and be rendered inoperable, if the user chooses, to prevent the device from being reactivated without the owner’s permission. Lost or stolen devices could later be restored if recovered. The carriers also agreed they would facilitate these measures.

EU’s Neelie Kroes on How to Protect Data Without Resorting to Protectionism

EU Commissioner Neelie Kroes gave an impassioned plea for Europe to use the Edward Snowden revelations as a wake-up call and to make offering a more secure Internet something of a competitive advantage.

She also said European regulators should find ways to guarantee more consumer protections while at the same time avoiding rules that would make Europe isolationist. Afterward, Re/code caught up with Kroes to get a few more details on how she imagines that taking shape.

“We are talking about an open Internet, and I am a great believer (in that),” Kroes said in an interview on the sidelines of the CeBit Global Conference. “We need to be absolutely certain that it is not ruled by other ones and in ways that are not fitting in our culture.” Trust, security and privacy are key European values that must be ensured, she said.

Volkswagen: Big Data Doesn’t Have to Mean Big Brother

Given the vast amounts of data that will be collected by the cars of the future, strict protections are needed to prevent government intrusion, the chairman of Volkswagen Group said.

“The car must not become a data monster,” Martin Winterkorn said, at the start of the CeBit trade show in Germany. Car makers already protect drivers from hydroplaning, fatigue and traffic. They must also protect against government misuse of data, he said. “I clearly say yes to Big Data, yes to greater security and convenience, but no to paternalism and Big Brother,” Winterkorn said, according to an English translation of his prepared remarks. He called for a voluntary commitment from the car industry to protect customer data and said his company stands ready to join such an effort.

The data protection concerns voiced by Winterkorn were echoed by government and industry speakers including German Chancellor Angela Merkel and British Prime Minister David Cameron. Merkel called on international efforts to ensure data is protected.

“We are only at the beginning of that road,” she said. “National policies will not suffice.” Winterkorn reassured the car-loving German audience that drivers will retain control, but that autonomous vehicles can play a big role when driving is less than pleasurable, such as when stuck in traffic or looking for parking. Winterkorn stressed that computer giants and automakers need to work together on the technical, logistical and regulatory challenges ahead.

[March 10]