China Unicom Americas wants 30 more days, until June 23, to respond to an FCC show cause order. The agency is considering revoking authorizations of four companies with ties to China, including CUA (see 2004240046). “The Order requires CUA’s response to address 16 specific items,” the company said in a filing posted Thursday in docket 20-110: “Many of these requests seek detailed information and explanations.” China Telecom Americas also requested till June 23. The International Bureau extended that filing deadline Thursday to June 8.

Operating profit in Sony Electronics Products & Solutions took an estimated 35.1 billion yen ($327.8 million) hit from COVID-19 in the fiscal year ended March 31. “Of all our businesses, we expect the EP&S segment to be impacted the most from the coronavirus,” said Chief Financial Officer Hiroki Totoki in a virtual Tokyo briefing Wednesday. The stock's American depositary receipts closed down 4.3% at $62.78. Components suppliers in Malaysia and the Philippines “reduced their operations, causing a delay in the production of some of our products due to component shortages,” said Totoki. “On the demand side, due to the closure and shutdown of retail stores globally, retail sales have decreased significantly. The severity of the impact on a geographical basis is changing frequently, but deterioration of market conditions in Europe is currently the most severe.” EP&S sales for the year declined 14% to 1.99 trillion yen ($18.6 billion), said Totoki. Sony sold 3.2 million smartphones for the year, down about half from a year earlier. Q4 sales were 400,000 handsets. Market share leader Samsung sold 295 million smartphones in 2019.

China Unicom Americas (CUA) is a separate legal entity following U.S. laws, and authorizations shouldn’t be revoked because of broader international concerns, China Unicom Chairman-CEO Wang Xiaochu said in a letter to the five FCC commissioners. All subsidiaries “must operate in compliance with the laws and regulations of the jurisdictions in which they operate,” Wang said in a filing posted Tuesday in FCC docket 20-110. The FCC is considering revoking the authorizations of four companies with ties to China, including CUA (see 2004240046).

The U.S. needs a clearer strategy for leading 5G and artificial intelligence standards setting to counter China’s growing tech leadership, technology experts said. The Trump administration should define a strategy and work with allies to set global standards, the experts said, or risk forcing its companies out of global markets because of restrictions placed on China. “We're behind. I can't say it enough to U.S. legislators,” said Nicol Turner Lee, a Brookings Institution fellow, speaking during a Friday webinar hosted by the think tank. “That should be disconcerting to companies who will be told by the U.S. that they cannot do business [in China] even though there are other European companies that can.” At the center of the issue is China’s dominant presence at global standards setting bodies for emerging tech, said Sheena Chestnut Greitens, nonresident Brookings fellow. International bodies are seeing more rules written by Chinese companies, she said. “About half of the standards that [China has] proposed have been adopted by the U.N. as the global standard,” Greitens said, noting those standards include facial recognition technology. U.S. restrictions on Huawei blocked the U.S. from participating in bodies in which the company is a member, although the Commerce Department drafted a rule to address the ability of U.S. companies to participate in 5G bodies (see 2004290066). The White House declined to comment Monday, referring us to the State Department Bureau of Economic and Business Affairs. The bureau wouldn't provide an on-the-record comment.

NTIA is seeking comments and recommendations on priorities that best advance international communications and information policies at ITU, as the U.S. develops proposals and positions for the 2020 World Telecommunication Standardization Assembly. WTSA-20 will be in Hyderabad, India, Nov. 17-20. NTIA said it’s working with the State Department, which is “leading and coordinating” the preparation process. Comments are due June 8 in docket 200504–0126, said Friday's Federal Register. NTIA’s “principles and objectives” for WTSA-2020 align with the Thump administration’s 2017 national security strategy, “which affirmed that ‘the United States will advocate for open, interoperable communications, with minimal barriers to the global exchange of information and services,'" NTIA said. The U.S. is focused on furthering a multistakeholder approach to internet policy and increasing organizational effectiveness and reducing duplication at ITU, NTIA said. Other U.S. goals include increasing U.S. presence and influence in the ITU-telecom (ITU-T) sector and improving ITU-T processes, procedures and transparency, NTIA said.

Chinese smartphone imports to the U.S. recovered somewhat in March after setting record lows in February, said Census Bureau data accessed Wednesday through the International Trade Commission. China’s supply chain was in lockdown for much of February during the COVID-19 outbreak. Factory production resumed in mid-February. U.S. importers sourced 7.16 million smartphones from China in March, up 23% from February, when the 5.81 million smartphones shipped to America was the lowest monthly Chinese volume since Customs and Border Protection began tracking the category in 2007. Chinese smartphone imports in March were 38% fewer than the 11.69 million handsets sent here in the same 2019 month. Q1 Chinese smartphone imports of 23.9 million were 37% below the volume in Q1 2019. Q1 smartphone imports from all countries declined 32% from a year earlier to 35.97 million handsets.

The FCC asked China Telecom Americas (CTA) for clarity on the company's motion for 30 extra days, until June 23, to respond to an April 24 show cause order (see 2004240046). Executive branch agencies, led by DOJ, recently recommended the FCC revoke CTA's U.S. authorizations for international telecom services. Asking for more time, the company said “in some cases, the scope of the information required to respond to the questions is unclear” and it's seeking clarity from the bureau chiefs involved, said Monday's letter by the International, Wireline and Enforcement bureaus: “We are taking the extension request under advisement pending receipt of any such clarification request.” The letter asks the company to respond by May 11. The carrier said in a filing posted Monday the FCC should disclose “any and all” Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act-related information “obtained, or derived information related to CTA in the Commission’s possession.”

The Commerce Department drafted a regulation on U.S. companies participating in 5G standards-setting bodies involving Huawei. The rule is being discussed internally, said Matt Borman, deputy assistant secretary for export administration, at the department’s Information Systems Technical Advisory Committee meeting. Borman said the rule “will go a long way” toward addressing concerns from lawmakers and industry. Stakeholders said export controls hinder U.S. participation in standards-setting bodies, potentially ceding 5G leadership (see 2004100017). “That's what this draft reg is looking to get at,” Borman said Wednesday. “We certainly don’t want a situation where U.S. companies refrain from participating and then leave the standards field open to Huawei and other companies.” Commerce's Bureau of Industry and Security is continuing to process license applications for exports to Huawei, Borman added. “There's still a review as to whether additional regulatory steps will be taken vis-a-vis Huawei,” he said. “Those are still kind of under review internally.”

The Americans for Free Trade coalition wants the Trump administration to defer due dates for all federal duties and import fees payable through June, it wrote the White House and members of Congress Tuesday. Doing so would “immediately free up billions of dollars of working capital for American companies,” it said. “This cash is even more important for companies that have had to close their doors because of stay-at-home orders, leaving them with little to no revenue to make ends meet. Companies facing urgent liquidity issues need their duty payments deferred in order to succeed when the economy reopens.” More than 470 companies signed the letter, including Audio Control, Fossil, GameStop, JL Audio, Jasco Products and Voxx. CTA was among seven tech groups also signing, including ACT|The App Association and CompTIA. The White House didn’t comment.

Comments are due May 8 at the International Trade Commission on Sharp’s April 21 complaint (login required) alleging Vizio and its suppliers, Xianyang CaiHong Optoelectronics Technology and TPV, violate five Sharp LCD patents, says Tuesday’s Federal Register, docket 337-3451. Sharp seeks limited exclusion and cease and desist orders banning imports of the allegedly infringing products. None of the proposed respondents commented Monday.