ST-Ericsson may cut 600 jobs globally to further reduce costs, said the joint venture between Ericsson and chip maker STMicroelectronics. The cost-cutting plan is intended to save $115 million annually. The savings will come from cuts in operating expenses and spending, along with an “extensive” research and development efficiency program, the company said.
Radio industry sales for 2009 will reach $13.3 billion, BIA/Kelsey projected. That’s a 19 percent drop from last year, it said in its quarterly Investing in Radio Market Report. It projects overall radio industry sales to bounce back slightly next year, reaching $13.5 billion “Radio has strong brand equity in local markets, the economy is slowly coming out of recession, the industry continues to show strong listenership levels with teens and younger adults and the possible introduction of FM radio receiving chips in cellular phones” will all help boost performance next year, said Vice President Mark Fratrik.
A new committee of the Telecommunications Industry Association is working on standards that will allow smart devices to interoperate with one another, with networks and with monitoring systems, Cheryl Blum, TIA’s vice president for standards and technology, told us.
The European Commission closed antitrust proceedings against Qualcomm as telecom companies dropped their four-year old complaints against the U.S. mobile chip supplier. Qualcomm is still appealing a ruling against it in Japan. Ericsson and Texas Instruments said they withdrew their complaints Tuesday. But Ericsson said it will keep talking with competition authorities around the world about Qualcomm’s licensing practices. The EC began in 2005 an investigation into whether Qualcomm was charging too much in its licensing agreements. Nokia and Broadcom, the two major complainants, have since settled their own licensing and intellectual property cases against Qualcomm. Nokia agreed to pay Qualcomm a multi-billion dollar settlement. Qualcomm agreed to pay Broadcom nearly $900 million. Qualcomm has maintained throughout that its research and development investments have produced “technological advances, greater choices and lower prices.” The company couldn’t be reached immediately for comment.
The FCC is looking at ways to spur more research and development as it develops its National Broadband Plan, commission officials said at a workshop Monday. The effort may include outreach and more emphasis on rules on enabling research, they said. Industry executives warned that the U.S. is falling behind in doing basic research, and that this could hurt U.S. competitiveness.
The FCC is looking at ways to spur more research and development as it develops its National Broadband Plan, commission officials said at a workshop Monday. The effort may include outreach and more emphasis on rules on enabling research, they said. Industry executives warned that the U.S. is falling behind in doing basic research, and that this could hurt U.S. competitiveness.
To standardize smart technologies, including smart devices and grids, TIA began a Smart Device Communications (SDC) Engineering Committee, created through its member companies. The committee, TR-50, will speedily produce “a ubiquitous protocol” for communicating with smart devices used in industries like manufacturing, medical, building automation/home automation, transportation, entertainment, semiconductor, communication and energy distribution, TIA said. The SDC Committee will consider use cases that include monitoring, as well as remote changing of both read and write functions.
Initial discussions by some at the FCC of moving TV stations off HD signals to standard definition in order to reallocate spectrum for wireless broadband are a “non- starter,” NAB President Gordon Smith said. “We will fight that fiercely,” he told a Media Institute lunch in Washington Tuesday. Stopping HD would be like going back to analog over-the-air TV, he said. “Stay tuned” for the NAB’s position on the issue, since the commission has yet to publicly promulgate a radio wave reuse proposal, Smith said.
A late push by broadcasters to insert FM chipsets into cellphones (CD Nov 13 p11) threatens to derail efforts to develop an emergency alert system for wireless, CTIA warned the FCC in comments on the National Broadband Plan notice on public safety issues. CTIA said the Commercial Mobile Service Alerts Advisory Committee already considered and rejected using FM chipsets for emergency alerts. Public safety groups, meanwhile, offered some additional advice on how first responders may use a national wireless network if one is eventually put in place.
Radio company CEOs told FCC members that putting FM receivers in cellphones would help public safety (CD Nov 10 p12). “Broadcasters want to work with the cellular industry to ensure widespread availability of FM radio on mobile handsets,” said a handout from the meetings Tuesday with all FCC members except the chairman. “Technical obstacles to incorporating FM chips in mobile handsets have been overcome” and their inclusion “should be a critical component” of creating a commercial mobile alert system. Heads of Citadel Broadcasting, Clear Channel, Cumulus Media, Emmis, Entercom and three other companies also said they supported a digital radio power increase compromise between National Public Radio and the licensor of HD Radio technology, according to an ex parte filing. “They urged the Commissioners to act quickly to adopt the recent proposal agreed upon between iBiquity and NPR for an interim, across-the-board power increase.” The Media Bureau is working on an item.