Telecom Daily
Welcome to Faulkner's Telecom Daily. We publish Monday through Friday, updating top stories as events warrant.
Friday, May 14...
Samsung Becomes Latest Major Player to Pull Out of MWC 2021
Samsung revealed that it will not be
attending the in-person Mobile World Congress (MWC) in Barcelona, Spain this
summer. The company pulled out of the event with a statement that read, in part,
"the health and safety of our employees, partners and customers is our number
one priority, so we have made the decision to withdraw from exhibiting in-person
at this year’s Mobile World Congress." The GSM Association, which runs the MWC
shows, currently plans to hold the in-person event on June 28. However, several
major vendors have already pulled out, with Sony, Nokia, Ericsson and Google
also revealing they will only attend the event virtually. A spokesperson from
the event organizer told Engadget that
they "respect that planning in a pandemic is complicated," and concluded by
saying "Samsung will adapt their presence to virtual for MWC21 and we look
forward to seeing them in person 2022." It remains unclear if the GSMA will end
up following suit with its 2020 attempt at an MWC event, which was eventually
canceled when nearly all of the major vendors declined to attend.
Motorola Teams with GuRu Wireless for OTA Wireless Charging Tech
Motorola announced a new partnership with
a company called GuRu Wireless under which it plans to bring "over-the-air,
wirelessly powered" devices to market. The technology would make it possible to
charge compatible devices wirelessly with a range of several feet, far larger
than the few millimeters gap current wireless charging options typically max out
at. Motorola demonstrated a similar technology earlier this year, but did not
disclose this partnership at the time. While the technology is promising,
Motorola and GuRu's press release remained quite vague about when, or if, it
may become publicly available to consumers.
Ericsson to Pay Nokia 80 Million Euros to Settle Corruption Incident
Ericsson revealed that it has reached a
settlement with Nokia over damages associated
with a claim the company made over Ericsson’s violations of the US Foreign
Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA). The settlement stems from an incident in which
Ericsson was investigated by the US Department of Justice (DOJ) and US
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) for criminal charges relating to "books
and records and internal controls violations of the FCPA in five countries
including in Djibouti and a guilty plea to one instance of bribery in Djibouti."
While Ericsson had already largely resolved the issues with the aforementioned
US authorities, Nokia still held a civil claim against the company over the
incident. To resolve this, Ericsson expects to make a EUR 80 million cash
payment to Nokia, to be made in three installments over the next three years.
Ericsson claims this will help it to avoid "uncertainty, risk, expense, and
potential distraction from business focus associated with a potentially lengthy
and complex litigation."
...Michael Gariffo, Faulkner Information Services
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