The U.S. and the E.U. agreed to address digital trade barriers as part of a joint statement released Thursday. The agreement laid out in more detail the informal arrangement made between President Donald Trump and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen at an impromptu summit in July.
China's State Administration for Market Regulation (SAMR) disputed proposals in the FCC’s “bad labs” Further NPRM in a filing posted Wednesday in docket 24-136 (see 2508190051).
Canada's Rogers on Tuesday unveiled Rogers Satellite, its direct-to-device service. It said that a beta version of the service is available free to all Canadians and that the service -- which currently supports texting, including text-to-911 -- will expand to support apps, data and voice service. It said the beta trial will end in October and then be available at no additional cost for Rogers Ultimate Plan subscribers and $15 monthly for other Canadians. Rogers told us Wednesday it's taking a multi-vendor approach regarding low earth orbit satellite services, with the launch of Rogers Satellite coming via SpaceX's Starlink. It said it plans to work with other satellite-to-mobile vendors, including Canadian ones, as the technology advances.
German entertainment conglomerate RTL Group will purchase Comcast's Sky Deutschland, the two companies announced Friday. They said the deal combines Sky's sports rights with RTL's entertainment and news brands, as well as their RTL+ and WOW streaming services. The combination will give RTL a total of 11.5 million paying streaming subscribers, it said. RTL is paying $176 million cash plus a variable consideration of up to $442 million tied to its share price performance. Regulatory approvals are expected in 2026, the companies said.
ITU Council members voted Thursday to hold the 2027 World Radiocommunication Conference in Shanghai. The U.S. had also offered to host, but its bid was seen as a long shot (see 2506250005). The ITU told us that 25 out of 48 ITU Council members voted in favor of Shanghai, 17 against, with five abstentions and one invalid vote. It said the decision now requires the concurrence of a majority of ITU member states.
Deutsche Bahn, Germany’s four major carriers and other companies are partnering on a venture seeking high-speed Wi-Fi on trains, Ericsson said Thursday. Those participating in the GINT XT project are providers Deutsche Telekom, 1&1, O2 Telefonica and Vodafone; Vantage Towers; infrastructure manager Regio Infra Nord-Ost; the German Aerospace Center; and Ericsson as the 5G network technology provider.
Policymakers worldwide face a number of decisions as they address the expiration of spectrum licenses, analysts at Analysys Mason told investors this week. "One choice is whether to re-assign mobile spectrum licences [sic] that have been in the market for some time for legacy (for example, 2G/3G/4G use) through a new award mechanism,” said the U.K.-based firm. “Another option is to renew licences to existing holders (possibly with new licence conditions aimed at further investment and/or other coverage improvements that are beneficial to end users).”
The U.K.’s Office of Communications announced Tuesday a consultation about letting Starlink use the 71-76 GHz and 81-86 GHz bands for its connectivity services. Under the SpaceX proposal, the company would have authorization to use the E-band frequencies at three gateway sites in the U.K. The band is currently unavailable for gateway use in the U.K., but SpaceX is seeking to alleviate capacity constraints it faces there, Ofcom said. Granting the licenses would let Starlink increase the capacity of its services. Comments are due June 27.
Ericsson and Vodafone collaborated on "a new era of tunnel connectivity” with the deployment of multiband mobile radio antennas in the Arlinger Tunnel near Pforzheim, Germany. The deployment “marks the first operational use of Ericsson’s advanced antenna technology from Ericsson Antenna System, precisely engineered to deliver robust and stable 5G coverage in tunnel environments subject to high levels of vibration and air pressure changes,” Ericsson said Friday.
A municipal court in Prague ruled that the Czech Republic's blanket collection of its citizens' communications metadata is illegal and contravenes the EU ePrivacy directive.