Verizon-Broadcom deal allows continued imports
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InfoWorld - Broadcom&#160;and Verizon Wireless have reached a deal that will allow Verizon to continue importing and selling phones that are the subject of continuing litigation between Broadcom and Qualcomm.
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(InfoWorld) - The U.S. International Trade Commission barred the import of future models of phones using Qualcomm third-generation chips, marking a blow to the vendor in itsÂ ongoing intellectual property battle with Broadcom. New models of phones and personal digital assistants that hit the market after Thursday and that include certain Qualcomm chips can't be imported to the U.S., according to the order. The Commission decided to limit the ban to forthcoming phones because banning all phones with Qualcomm chips would have been against public interest and could hurt the economy and U.S. consumers, it said in a statement. The decision to only focus on future devices was a compromise. Banning all phones would be a "great burden" to companies that may not have enough other products to choose from, the ITC said. However, banning only the chips and not actual phones wouldn't offer much relief to Broadcom as not many chips are imported. The compromise was designed to be acceptable to companies that buy the phones while still offering relief to Broadcom, the ITC said. The move follows aÂ Commission finding late last yearÂ that Qualcomm had infringed on a Broadcom patent that relates to power management. The patented technology helps save battery life when a mobile phone can't find a wireless signal. Broadcom has said that essentially all third-generation EV-DO (Evolution-Data Optimized) and WCDMA (Wideband Code Division Multiple Access) phones use it. The ban follows a hearing before the ITC that happened on May 21. During the hearing, Broadcom and Qualcomm were allowed to argue the merits of a ban. Broadcom asked the commission to ban all handsets with Qualcomm's WCDMA and EV-DO chips, excluding smartphones, PDAs, and laptop cards. Qualcomm asked the commission to consider the effect such a ban would have on consumers and emergency response agencies. The ban is effective immediately and becomes final in 60 days. The ITC case is just one of many between the two companies in their ongoing argument over patent violations. Last week,Â a jury found that Qualcomm had infringed on three other Broadcom patents, awarding Broadcom $19.6 million in damages. Qualcomm plans to challenge the ruling. The companies have also recentlyÂ dismissed other patent infringement cases against each other. Qualcomm faces legal challenges from other camps as well,Â an indication of how much these companies believe is at stake in the wireless industry. Qualcomm is separately embroiled inÂ a series of legal maneuvers with Nokia, which claims that the chip maker charges too much in licensing fees. A licensing agreement between the two expired in February, and they have yet to hammer out a new one.
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Verizon Wireless has agreed to buy wireless spectrum licenses covering 23 US markets from bankrupt NextWave Telecom Inc. for $3 billion in a deal that would boost Verizon&#39;s capacity in several major markets.
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Verizon Wireless, a joint venture of British telecom giant Vodafone Group PLC and Verizon Communications Inc., said late Thursday that it agreed to purchase all of NextWave Telecom Inc.
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Verizon Wireless has agreed to pay US$3 billion to buy the remaining spectrum of a bankrupt wireless firm, allowing Verizon to expand its network capacity in big markets such as New York and Los Angeles.
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(InfoWorld) - Verizon Communications' Business unit will expand its business-level data platform to parts of Europe and the Asia Pacific region this year, the company said Tuesday. Verizon Business' Converged Packet Architecture (CPA) combines IP (Internet protocol) and traditional data onto one common network-access interface, with the goal of allowing customers to more easily order bandwidth or make other changes. CPA is "broadband on demand" for businesses, said Joseph Cook, Verizon Business' vice president for global network engineering and planning. With the CPA interface, customers can order bandwidth ranging from 512Kbps to 1Gbps, he said. Verizon is pushing into Europe and Asia-Pacific because many multinational corporations have offices there, and they want the same data services available as in the U.S., Cook said. Verizon Business is focused on becoming a top carrier for multinational corporations worldwide, company officials said. In Europe, Verizon Business will deploy CPA in 19 cities this year, including London, Frankfurt, Paris, Vienna, Amsterdam, Warsaw, Dublin, Madrid, Brussels, and Zurich. In the Asia-Pacific region, Verizon Business is deploying CPA in five locations this year: Hong Kong, Tokyo, Singapore, Melbourne, and Sydney. Verizon Business also continues CPA deployment in the U.S. It now serves 37 cities, and by the end of the year, will add nine more, including New Orleans, Louisiana; Orlando, Florida; and Memphis; and Nashville, Tennessee. CPA supports legacy and newer services including IP, Private IP, Ethernet, private line data, voice traffic, Ethernet Virtual Private Line and Virtual Private LAN Service. It provides a single packet-access connection via an Ethernet interface at speeds up to one gigabit per second, often called GigE. Customers can also use CPA to migrate from older time division multiplexing (TDM) hierarchy to a packet-based technology. Some traditional network access plans require separate lines for voice, video, data and Internet, and require specific bandwidth contracts. CPA, instead, converges all applications on a single carrier-class packet access network and improves operating efficiency, Verizon Business said. MCI, which wasÂ acquired by VerizonÂ in January 2006, launched its CPA service in July 2004. Analysts praised the move, saying it would help business customers move to packet-based services.
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Verizon Communications Inc. VZ.N  said on Monday it would buy long-distance telephone company MCI  Communications Inc. MCIP.O in a deal worth $6.75 billion,  giving Verizon a foothold in the market for serving large  corporations.
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Verizon Communications Inc.  said on Tuesday it signed a multiyear deal with Westell Technologies  to sell a phone that integrates a high-speed Internet modem and wireless networking.
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(InfoWorld) - The U.S. International Trade Commission has denied a request by Qualcomm Inc. to stay an ITC ban on the importation of some Qualcomm chips and cell phones into the U.S. while the company continues its appeal in a patent infringement case filed against it by Broadcom Corp. The ITC found in an eight-page ruling issued Thursday that Qualcomm failed to meet a "four-prong test" applied in courts trying to determine whether to grant preliminary injunctions. The test was also used in this particular case by a U.S. federal court and requires that Qualcomm prove: a likelihood its appeal will succeed; that irreparable harm will be done to it if the stay is not imposed; that "issuance of a stay would not substantially harm other parties"; and "that the public interest favors a stay." After reviewing arguments and also hearing from other companies in the same market, the ITC found that Qualcomm didn't meet the requirements of the four-prong test. The ITC issued the ban on June 7 after hearings on the matter. The ban applies to some future mobile phones using Qualcomm 3G (third-generation) chips after the ITC found that Qualcomm infringed on one Broadcom patent. A jury in U.S. District Court for the Central District of California in Santa Ana found in late May that Qualcomm infringed on three other Broadcom patents and awarded Broadcom US$19.6 million in damages. A few hours before the ITC ruling came out, the head of the CTIA cellular industry association sent a letter to U.S. President George Bush urging him to toss out the ban, contending that it will "freeze innovation" for U.S. wireless networks and hinder industry efforts to improve emergency 911 services. The intervention of a president would be rare in such an instance, but even if Bush does not act as the CTIA has requested Qualcomm can appeal the ITC ban to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. As would be expected, Broadcom hailed the ITC decision, with its Senior Vice President and General Counsel David A. Dull saying in a statement that "the protection of intellectual property is essential to American competitiveness and innovation ... particularly in this age of advanced technology and huge worldwide consumer demand for electronic devices and equipment." He further noted that "the burden of resolving these matters rests squarely with Qualcomm." No word yet on the matter from Qualcomm, which is based in San Diego and so no one there was available to comment Friday morning U.S. Eastern Time. Â
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Buying USinternetworking lets the telecom giant reach out and touch managed services.
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The U.S. International Trade  Commission has denied Qualcomm Inc.'s  request to stay  an order banning imports of new phone models with Qualcomm  chips the trade agency said infringe a Broadcom Corp.   patent, Broadcom said on Friday.
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The deal with Verizon, which requires approval of the FCC, the US Bankruptcy Court and antitrust regulators at the US Justice Department, comes after a settlement reached in April resolving all disputes between the company and the FCC, the main creditor
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Verizon Wireless introduced an unlimited calling plan with no roaming or long-distance fees for $99.99 a month, an offer that could spark a price war among carriers.
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Dual-mode handsets will be able to connect to the company's worldwide Wi-Fi network on the cheap.
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The U.S. government on Thursday  picked AT&T , Level 3 , Qwest , Verizon   and Sprint Nextel  for a contract worth up to $20  billion over 10 years to improve its telecommunications  services.
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Verizon said it has agreed to provide co-branded versions of Windows Live products to its DSL and FiOS high-speed customers. The agreement is an expansion of a prior one between the two companies that has existed since April 2002.
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NEW YORK, November 5  - Verizon Wireless, a joint venture of Verizon Communications (VZ.NYS) and Vodafone Group, has reached an agreement to acquire all of NextWave&#39;s airwave spectrum licenses for about $3 billion.