The Aerospace Industries Association and members updated the FCC on the group’s 2018 proposal for rules allowing use of the 5030-5091 MHz band for drones (see 2110130044), in a call with an aide to Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel. “AIA ... reinforced its understanding that the 5030-5091 MHz band is the only spectrum in the U.S. dedicated exclusively” to drone command and control, said a filing posted Wednesday in RM-11798. AIA said it “anticipates current and future regulatory needs for the movement of people and of sizable payloads.” Aura Networks, Boeing, Collins Aerospace and Lockheed Martin were among participants.
IBM bought Sentaca to strengthen its cloud consulting business. "Our goal is to help modern networks thrive in an open, hybrid cloud environment that will bring edge and 5G to life," said John Granger, senior vice president-IBM Consulting, Tuesday.
The Consumer Product Safety Commission will host an online test and evaluation forum March 31 at 9 a.m. EDT on consumer products using AI and machine-learning technologies, said Friday’s Federal Register. The forum “will focus on existing testing and evaluation capabilities and the need to establish an adequate methodology to determine if AI/ML-related technologies contribute to an unreasonable risk that could injure consumers,” said CPSC. Those interested in presenting information at the forum should register by Feb. 25, all others by March 21, it said.
The “continuous 5G migration in more regions” will be a big 2022 growth driver for MediaTek, the largest smartphone SoC maker, CEO Rick Tsai told a Q4 call Thursday. MediaTek expects global 5G smartphone penetration to exceed 50% of handsets this year, he said. The 5G penetration rate in China is the highest at 80%, and “we expect 5G unit growth to mainly come from other regions,” he said. With MediaTek’s “early readiness” of 5G modems for Wi-Fi 6E, “we have been able to penetrate the notebook market successfully,” said Tsai. Its partnerships with Intel and Advanced Micro Devices “helped us build a strong designing pipeline with all major global OEMs,” he said. MediaTek estimates more than 2 billion devices sold globally in 2021, including smartphones, smart TVs, notebooks and tablets, used MediaTek, said Tsai. It forecasts its total addressable market will grow to $140 billion in 2024 from $80 billion in 2021, he said.
Energous received regulatory approval for its 1W WattUp PowerBridge transmitter from Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada, the wireless charging company said Wednesday. In addition to sending power, WattUp PowerBridge transmitters can be a data link for connected IoT devices such as sensors, electronic shelf labels, trackers, IoT tags and batteryless devices, the company said.
Commerce’s Sept. 24 request for information into the global semiconductor shortage (see 2109230038) found semiconductor demand “continues to far outstrip supply,” reported the department Tuesday. “Median demand for chips highlighted by buyers was as much as 17% higher in 2021 than 2019, and buyers aren’t seeing commensurate increases in the supply.” Secretary Gina Raimondo blogged that it's “essential that Congress move swiftly” to pass the U.S. Innovation and Competition Act. The median inventory of semiconductor products highlighted by buyers fell to fewer than five days in 2021 from 40 days in 2019, said Commerce. Inventories are even smaller in “key industries,” like broadband, it said. The agency will “capitalize” on the data gleaned from the RFI “to engage industry on node-specific problem-solving in the coming weeks,” said the report.
T-Mobile users sampled by Opensignal were connected to 5G 36.3% of the time, compared with 22.5% of the time for AT&T and 10.5% for Verizon, said a Monday report. T-Mobile also beat the other two on the reach of their 5G networks. AT&T and Verizon were roughly tied and beat T-Mobile on the “5G Video Experience” seen by customers. Verizon was tops on “5G Games Experience.”
Virtual- and augmented-reality hardware and accessory sales in the five weeks ended Christmas more than doubled over the 2020 period, NPD reported Thursday. "Consumers continue to look for unique entertainment experiences,” said analyst Ben Arnold, amid "challenges consumers faced in securing popular gaming consoles.”
Comcast and the Team Gleason Foundation are collaborating on the latest version of Comcast's Xfinity Adaptive Remote to give customers with disabilities control of Xfinity devices with assistive technology, they said Wednesday. The latest update adds the ability to assign custom buttons that execute an action or voice command of the customer’s choosing. They gave as examples toggling closed captions, searching for sports events and accessing the view from the connected front door camera. Team Gleason Foundation, founded by former New Orleans Saints player Steve Gleason after his diagnosis with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, focuses on improving life for people living with ALS through technology and equipment.
Apple generated 22% of Q4 global smartphone shipments on strong iPhone 13 demand; Samsung followed at 20%, said a preliminary Canalys report Tuesday. Supply chain problems and COVID-19 limited overall shipment growth to 1%. Apple had “unprecedented” iPhone sales in mainland China on “aggressive pricing,” said the research firm. Though Apple’s supply chain is “starting to recover,” it was forced to cut production in Q4 due to shortages of key components, but supply chain disruptions affected low-end vendors the most, said analyst Nicole Peng. “Component manufacturers are eking out additional production, but it will take years for major foundries to significantly increase chip capacity.” Smartphone brands are responding by tweaking device specifications in response to available materials, approaching emerging chipmakers to secure new sources for ICs, focusing product lines on best-selling models and staggering new product releases, she said: Bottlenecks won't ease until the second half.