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One more thing about UOIP[Unified Online]
This will get You started on Your research:
http://oddballupdate.com/2012/11/docsis-3-0-channel-bonding-and-you/
"These folks also suggested a solution: get a DOCSIS 3.0 modem. At first I thought that was hogwash, since we’re only on the Standard tier and we don’t have any need for the DOCSIS 3.0 technology that would deliver the speeds offered by Time Warner’s 30-50 megabit tiers. But I was soon to learn an important lesson: no matter what speed tier you subscribe to, CHANNEL BONDING — a DOCSIS 3.0 technology — is your friend."
Some of You may get this too late to react?
$$$$ UOIP $$$$
This is a gift to all My friends that read this board.
UOIP bought ChanBond last year.
Chanbond holds the patent that every Cable company uses for high speed internet.
UOIP has taken all of those Cable companies to court and I believe there will be a huge settlement.
This is a Penny stock and there is always a Gamble with them.
I have held this stock for over 14 years now...and the CEO looks to have finally got it right.
This is the Yahoo Finance report:
https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/UOIP?ltr=1
Up 200% Thursday and 170% Friday..
Be careful here.
If this happens to work out great for UOIP..then Let me know someday if any Of You capitalized on this endeavor.
I bought more shares twice on Friday!
GLTA
And the Squabble continues.
Apple Stops Paying iPhone Royalties, Escalating Feud With Qualcomm:
https://www.yahoo.com/finance/news/apple-stops-paying-iphone-royalties-151259661.html
"Apple has stopped paying its iPhone manufacturers for royalties owed to Qualcomm for the first quarter, Qualcomm said on Friday. Apple sued Qualcomm in January, saying that the royalties were excessive, and will now be withholding payments until the legal battle is resolved.
The escalation forced Qualcomm to slash its financial forecast for its current quarter to account for the loss of about $500 million of lucrative royalty revenue. Qualcomm developed and owns the rights to many cellular and mobile phone communications technologies and its royalty division brings in 80% of its pre-tax profit. On the iPhone, Qualcomm’s licensing agreements are with Apple’s manufacturers directly, who in turn charge Apple.
Qualcomm’s revenue in the second quarter will total $4.8 billion to $5.6 billion, $500 million less than the company forecast almost two weeks ago, when it reported results for the first quarter and said it wasn’t sure if Apple would continue paying royalties, which also cover iPads with mobile chips. Adjusted earnings per share will be 75 cents to 85 cents, down from the earlier forecast of 90 cents to $1.15 (Qualcomm starts its fiscal year at the end of September, so the revised forecast covers the company’s third fiscal quarter of 2017)."
Is Interdigital headed back to $100 Bucks per share?
https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/IDCC?ltr=1
Only time will tell.
InterDigital Announces Financial Results for First Quarter 2017
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/interdigital-announces-financial-results-first-123000522.html
"First quarter 2017 total revenue was $94.5 million, compared to $107.8 million in first quarter 2016. The decrease was primarily attributable to the elimination of seasonality related to Apple shipments as a result of the fixed-fee agreement signed in fourth quarter 2016. That seasonality, driven by new product launches, had previously resulted in higher per-unit revenue in first quarter. The decrease in first quarter total revenue was partially offset by revenue from our fixed-fee agreement with Huawei, signed in third quarter 2016.
First quarter 2017 operating expenses of $60.6 million were relatively flat compared to $59.4 million in first quarter 2016.
Net income1 was $33.8 million, or $0.93 per diluted share, compared to $28.1 million, or $0.79 per diluted share, in first quarter 2016. This increase was driven by a discrete first quarter 2017 tax benefit associated with vesting of stock-based compensation.
In first quarter 2017, the company recorded $25.9 million of cash used by operating activities, compared to cash generated of $19.6 million in first quarter 2016. The company used $33.9 million and generated $10.0 million of free cash flow2 in first quarter 2017 and first quarter 2016, respectively. These decreases in cash generated were primarily due to the timing of cash receipts under new fixed-fee agreements. Ending cash and short-term investments totaled $886.1 million."
BlackBerry is getting a huge refund from Qualcomm after a royalty dispute:
http://www.theverge.com/2017/4/12/15270006/qualcomm-blackberry-arbitration-815-million-royalties?yptr=yahoo
"Qualcomm has to return nearly $815 million to BlackBerry for royalties the Canadian smartphone maker overpaid between 2010 and 2015.
The decision was made out of court as part of a binding arbitration agreement. Qualcomm says it disagrees with the decision, but the agreement is locked in and unable to be challenged. Interest and attorney fees will also be added the total.
The dispute was over royalties BlackBerry paid in advance to Qualcomm, seemingly for use of Qualcomm products or patents. BlackBerry argued that there was suppose to be a cap on those royalty payments that didn’t get applied at the time, while Qualcomm argued that BlackBerry’s payments were supposed to be nonrefundable.
Qualcomm’s licensing business is having a bad year
While the specifics of what BlackBerry is being refunded for remain fairly unclear — Qualcomm says it’s for sales of “subscriber units,” and BlackBerry declined to elaborate further — the settlement shows Qualcomm getting hit from yet another side in what’s turning into a global fight against its patent business.
Qualcomm is currently in a heated and escalating legal battle with Apple, which is suing the chip maker in three countries on claims it overcharged for patents. (Qualcomm filed a countersuit yesterday, complaining that Apple... made it look bad.) At the same time, the US Federal Trade Commission has a lawsuit out against Qualcomm for anti-competitive practices involving its licensing agreements.
It’s not clear exactly how much that ties into what’s happening here with BlackBerry, but the end result is yet another hit to Qualcomm’s licensing business. That’s looking to be an increasingly big problem: while Qualcomm is generally known for its chips, most of its profit comes through patent licensing — and this year, that profit source looks to be at risk.
Correction: Most of Qualcomm’s profit comes from its licensing business; this article previously stated that most of Qualcomm’s revenue came from licensing. Qualcomm’s products and services division accounts for more revenue"
Equinix to Expand Further, Declares $1 Billion Plan for 2017:
https://www.yahoo.com/finance/news/equinix-expand-further-declares-1-131701943.html
"It seems that the data center major, Equinix Inc. EQIX, is firing on all cylinders to expand its business across different regions. Following last year’s initiatives, the company recently announced an aggressive expansion plan for 2017.
In this regard, the company has targeted approximately $1 billion non-recurring investment this year, which will include opening of new International Business Exchange (IBX) data center and expansion across some of the existing data centers.
Equinix plans to open five new IBX data centers in Sao Paulo, Frankfurt, Amsterdam, Silicon Valley and Washington D.C. — bringing the total to 155 — this year. Apart from this, the company intends to make expansion at 14 of its existing data centers.
The $1-billion targeted investment plan also includes pending acquisitions – IO UK's data center operating business in Slough, UK, and ICT-Center AG’s Zurich-based data center operating business in Switzerland. Additionally, last month’s buyout of 34.5 acres of land in Ashburn for a total consideration of $34.5 million is part of Equinix’s recently announced investment plan.
Expansions in important markets and consolidation of facilities in the existing ones have been part of Equinix’s core strategy. The company has been consistently striving to boost the revenue base as well as profitability through technological upgrades to attract more clients.
Notably, last year, the company made more than $4.5 billion investment, which includes opening of data center, expansion of colocation space and the acquisition of Telecity. The company currently operates 150 data centers across 21 countries and 41 metros globally."
https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/EQIX?ltr=1
Note:
Should have bought this stock over 16 Years ago when I had the chance.
Oh, well.
Intel Buys Mobileye in $15.3 Billion Bid to Lead Self-Driving Car Market:
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/13/business/dealbook/intel-mobileye-autonomous-cars-israel.html?_r=0
"In the world of driverless cars, household names like Google and Uber have raced ahead of rivals, building test vehicles and starting trials on city streets.
But when it comes to what is under the hood, an array of lesser-known companies will most likely supply the technology required to bring driverless cars to the masses. And in a $15.3 billion deal announced on Monday, Intel moved to corner the market on how much of that technology is developed.
The chip maker’s acquisition of Mobileye, an Israeli company that makes sensors and cameras for driverless vehicles, is one of the largest in the fast-growing sector and sets the stage for increasing competition between Silicon Valley giants as well as traditional automakers over who will dominate the world of autonomous cars.
The likes of Google and Uber have already invested billions of dollars in their own technology, signing partnerships with automakers like Chrysler and Volvo and sending test vehicles onto the road in a bid to cement their place in the industry. The sector is estimated to be worth $25 billion annually by 2025, according to Bain & Company, a consulting firm."
Apple's next iPhone will have a curved screen
Rival Samsung will be the initial supplier of OLED screens for Apple's 10th anniversary iPhones
http://www.business-standard.com/article/technology/apple-s-next-iphone-will-have-a-curved-screen-117030100066_1.html
Nvidia shares at a 3-month low as hedge funds short the stock like crazy:
https://www.yahoo.com/finance/news/nvidia-shares-at-a-3-month-low-and-as-hedge-funds-short-the-stock-like-crazy-175053414.html
"Shares of Nvidia (NVDA), which gained over 200% in 2016, are now trading at a three-month low after a 9% drop on Thursday.
This drop in shares of the chipmaker came after a downgrade of the stock from Romit Shah at Nomura, who cut his rating to Reduce from Buy and put a $90 price target on shares. Early Friday, the stock was little-changed and trading just above $100 per share.
Earlier this month, Nvidia shares also appeared on Goldman Sachs’ latest roundup of the stocks hedge funds are shorting the most. As of January 31, about 7% of Nvidia’s market cap, or $4 billion worth of stock, was being sold short. This made the stock the second-most shorted by market cap among hedge funds tracked by Goldman.
Among stocks in the top-10 most shorted by hedge funds tracked by Goldman, only Caterpillar had 5% or more of its total float sold short. This means, simply, that as a percent of the shares outstanding, Nvidia shares are being most aggressively bet against among the biggest hedge fund shorts out there.
Short-seller Andrew Left at Citron Research, who back in late December said he was short shares of Nvidia, said Friday he covered his position as the stock is now trading closer to his $90 price target.
In an interview with CNBC on Thursday, Shah said the real concern for Nvidia in the coming quarters is revenue growth in its core gaming business decelerating faster than Wall Street expects. This business accounts for about 60% of the company’s revenue."
Is It Too Late to Buy InterDigital Stock?
https://www.fool.com/investing/2017/02/21/is-it-too-late-to-buy-interdigital-stock.aspx
"Here is a timeline of some of the big announcements in the last six months that led to the company's great year:
•Aug. 17, 2016: IDCC signs expanded patent license agreement with Sharp Corporation to cover 4G technology.
•Sept. 6, 2016: Huawei signs a multiyear license agreement with IDCC for 3G and 4G wireless tech and ongoing joint research.
•Sept. 22, 2016: IDCC's board of directors increases the quarterly dividend to $0.30 from the previous $0.20.
•Dec. 15, 2016: Apple and IDCC enter a patent license agreement covering Apple's sales of cellular and wireless products.
•Dec. 20, 2016: IDCC acquires Hillcrest Labs, which makes sensor processing tech for smart TVs, virtual reality devices, and smartphones.
•Jan. 23, 2017: IoT Evolution magazine gives IDCC a 2016 Connected Transportation Award for its work on smart city and transport data collection initiatives.
InterDigital gearing up for another round
The developer and licensor of new tech has received much benefit as of late from work it completed in years past, specifically around its patents on 3G and 4G wireless networks. While this has fueled growth up to this point, the company has had its engineers hard at work on Internet of Things (IoT) and next-generation mobile-network technologies.
The IoT movement has already begun as billions of connected devices, spanning from industrial sensors to consumer electronics, have been sold. However, the trend toward an increasingly connected world is just getting started, with some estimates saying the number of connected things will triple in the next few years. InterDigital was recognized several times last year for its work on technology governing things like connected vehicles and connection-enabling device-development platforms.
Though an increasing number of devices are getting hooked up to the internet, cracks in the foundation have been recognized, specifically around security issues, speed, and reliability of the current iterations of wireless technology like 4G. Enter the next generation in wireless capability, dubbed 5G, which is now being developed and tested for deployment to consumers within the next few years. InterDigital has been working to build solutions for the future network, technology it will be able to patent and license to clients in the future as the IoT movement spreads.
As technology evolves, demand for InterDigital's past work on things like 3G and 4G will eventually dwindle away, so its current work is important to ensure its long-term viability. After the past year's big jump, though, the forward price-to-earnings ratio based on next year's estimates is at 30, implying investors are quite confident in the company's ability to grow."
Sierra Wireless Delivers a Solid Beat:
https://www.fool.com/investing/2017/02/10/sierra-wireless-delivers-a-solid-beat.aspx?source=yahoo-2-news&utm_campaign=article&utm_medium=feed&utm_source=yahoo-2-news&yptr=yahoo
What happened with Sierra Wireless this quarter?
On an adjusted basis, which adds perspective by excluding items like stock-based compensation and acquisition expenses, Sierra Wireless' net income was $8.8 million, or $0.27 per share, up from $2.5 million, or $0.08 per share in the same year-ago period.
By comparison, Sierra Wireless' latest guidance called for revenue of $157 million to $166 million and adjusted earnings per share of $0.13 to $0.19.
On a segment basis:
OEM solutions revenue grew 11.2% year over year, to $163 million, as demand normalized as expected with key existing customers and programs, and new programs continued to ramp.
Enterprise solutions revenue grew 27.1% year over year, to $21 million, including the first full quarter of contributions from GenX, which was acquired last August. The enterprise team also won deals during the quarter in "several of its key targeted segments."
Cloud and connectivity services revenue was flat on a year-over-year basis, at $6.8 million, primarily including recurring service contracts, but climbed modestly year over year on a constant currency basis.
Adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization increased 146% year over year, to $15.5 million.
Based on generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP), gross margin in the fourth quarter was 42.2%, up from 31.1% in the same year-ago period primarily due to a favorable $14.4 million reduction in cost of goods sold resulting from a change in estimate of Sierra Wireless' IP royalty obligations.
Adjusted (non-GAAP) gross margin was 34.3%, up from 31.2% in the fourth quarter of 2015.
Ended the year with cash and equivalents of $102.8 million, down $9.2 million from the end of Q3 due to a combination of capital expenditures, the completion of Sierra Wireless' Blue Creation acquisition in November, and share repurchases.
Integration of Blue Creation is under way, and Sierra Wireless has already begun introducing Blue Creation products to select customers and channels.
Sierra Wireless won its second 4G connected car program with Volkswagen.
Enjoyed the strongest design win momentum of the year in the fourth quarter for the cloud and connectivity segment, including strong momentum in business unit deal collaboration; 50% of cloud and connectivity wins originated in either the OEM or enterprise business units.
Up over $6 Bucks Today!
Which Chipmaker is a better Pre-earnings buy?
NVIDIA or Sierra Wireless:
https://www.fool.com/investing/2017/02/08/better-buy-sierra-wireless-vs-nvidia-corporation.aspx
"Chipmakers Sierra Wireless (NASDAQ:SWIR) and NVIDIA (NASDAQ:NVDA) both posted massive gains over the past year. Sierra rallied nearly 70% over the past 12 months, while NVIDIA soared about 350%. But should investors expect either stock to continue climbing this year? Let's take a closer look at their core businesses, growth trajectories, and valuations to find out.
What do Sierra Wireless and NVIDIA do?
Sierra Wireless is the world's top manufacturer of 2G, 3G, and 4G embedded modules and gateways, which integrate into its cloud and connectivity services. Sierra is often called a "pure play" on the growing Internet of Things (IoT) market, since its chips connect IoT objects to the cloud and each other. To broaden its portfolio, Sierra acquired smaller wireless connectivity companies like AnyData, Maingate, Mobiquithings, and GenX Mobile over the past few years."
Venture firm Trident Capital raises $300 million for cyber security startups:
https://www.yahoo.com/news/venture-firm-trident-capital-raises-300-million-cyber-135003541--sector.html?ref=gs
By Heather Somerville
SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) -" Silicon Valley venture firm Trident Capital Cybersecurity said on Wednesday it had raised $300 million for a fund to invest in cyber security startups - a sign of the growing importance of securing computer systems amid concerns over state-sponsored hacks.
The fund is one of the largest in the venture community dedicated to cyber security. The $300 million sum is double what Trident Capital had set out to raise, an indication that investors see cyber security as not only crucial but also lucrative.
The market for cyber security products and services was $81.6 billion in 2016 and will grow by 10 percent annually until 2021, according to research firm Gartner.
Trident previously had invested across industries with past investments including home rental site HomeAway and travel search site Kayak. The new fund will focus exclusively on cyber security deals, said Don Dixon, co-founder and managing director of the Trident fund.
While many venture capitalists have taken an interest in cyber security, few firms are exclusively dedicated to the industry. Trident will make about eight investments each year for the next few years, Dixon said, choosing from among about 400 cyber security companies raising early-stage financing rounds."
Equinix Acquires IO UK's Data Center Business:
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/equinix-acquires-io-uks-data-090000705.html
Eric Schwartz, president, EMEA, Equinix:
"London remains a global economic engine, with leading enterprises and cloud service providers making it a primary hub for IT infrastructure. Adding additional interconnection and capacity in this market enables local and international customers to leverage Platform Equinix to meet their changing business needs – whether that is to connect to networks, clouds, or financial markets – Equinix is the place to be."
Note:
Equinix is the Premier "Cloud" Leader Worldwide.
JMHO
Dow over 20,000 Now:
https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/%5EDJI?ltr=1
Nasdaq Looking great again for Technology Stocks:
https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/%5EIXIC?ltr=1
InterDigital Announces Date for Fourth Quarter and Full Year 2016 Results:
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/interdigital-announces-date-fourth-quarter-213000279.html
WILMINGTON, Del., Jan. 30, 2017 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- InterDigital, Inc. (IDCC), a mobile technology research and development company, today announced that the company will release its fourth quarter and full year 2016 financial results before market open on Thursday, February 23, 2017. InterDigital executives will host a conference call that same day at 10:00 a.m. Eastern Time to discuss the company's financial performance and other company matters.
For a live Internet webcast of the conference call, visit www.interdigital.com and click on the link to the live webcast on the Investors page. The company encourages participants to take advantage of the Internet option.
For telephone access to the conference, call (877) 795-3638 within the United States or +1 719 325-4908 from outside the United States. Please call by 9:50 a.m. ET on February 23 and give the operator conference ID number 1701762.
An Internet replay of the conference call will be available on InterDigital's website in the Investors section. In addition, a telephone replay will be available from 1:00 p.m. ET February 23 through 1:00 p.m. ET February 28. To access the recorded replay, call (888) 203-1112 or +1 719 457-0820 and use the replay code 1701762.
WiLAN gets day in court w/ Ericsson for patent infringement
Thursday 19 January 2017 | 09:33 CET | News
Licensing group WiLAN said that a ruling by the appeals court in Florida means the group will be taking Ericsson to court for the infringement of three patents related to LTE technologies.
The dispute goes back to 2006 when WiLAN accused Ericsson of infringing four patents relating to wireless standards. The group intended to take Ericsson to court over three of the patents (8,229,437, 8,027,298 and 8,249,014) related to LTE technologies but a Florida federal judge cancelled the trial, set to take place on 26 May 2015. At the time, the court said that two of the patents had not been infringed and that the third patent was invalid. The appeals court in Florida has now overturned this ruling, finding that the 8,229,437 patent should not have been found invalid and the 8,027,298 and 8,249,014 patents should not have been found non-infringed as there are material disputes of fact.
The Court of Appeals also affirmed the Florida District Court's ruling that Ericsson was not entitled to most favoured licensee treatment on the three patents at issue based on a 2007 Agreement between WiLAN and Ericsson. WiLAN CEO Jim Skippen said the ruling paves the way for a trial to begin against Ericsson.
https://www.telecompaper.com/news/wilan-gets-day-in-court-w-ericsson-for-patent-infringement--1180128
Qualcomm licensing business, Apple deal attacked in FTC’s antitrust lawsuit:
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/qualcomm-licensing-business-apple-deal-attacked-in-ftcs-antitrust-lawsuit-2017-01-17?siteid=yhoof2&yptr=yahoo
"An antitrust lawsuit filed by the Federal Trade Commission against Qualcomm Inc. puts a dark cloud over a chip company that had managed to battle back from a steep stock drop.
Qualcomm QCOM, -4.02% derives the bulk of its profits from licensing its technology, but that business has been under attack by regulators off and on for more than 10 years. In 2015, a whopping $975 million fine and royalty rate cut in China emboldened regulators world-wide. In December, South Korea fined Qualcomm $853 million for antitrust violations, saying that it used its position as a key chip supplier as a tool to convince mobile phone makers to agree to unfair terms.
On Tuesday, just days before the Donald Trump administration takes over, the FTC alleged that Qualcomm is using anticompetitive tactics to “maintain its monopoly in the supply of a key semiconductor device used in cellphones and other consumer products.” It also alleged that Qualcomm, in a manner similar to past behavior by chip giant Intel Corp. INTC, +0.03% INTC, +0.03% gave Apple Inc. AAPL, +0.81% “rebate payments” of royalties, conditioned upon Apple’s exclusive use of Qualcomm processors in its devices."
The Nevada sun will power Tesla's gigantic 'Gigafactory'
https://www.yahoo.com/news/tesla-gigafactory-powered-massive-rooftop-162148807.html
"Since kicking off the project in 2014, Tesla has claimed its massive “Gigafactory” near Reno, Nevada, will be the largest lithium-ion battery cell manufacturing facility in the world, and that it will achieve that feat using renewable energy. Now we have some idea of the scale of Tesla’s commitment to that.
Tesla began producing battery cells at the Gigafactory earlier this month, and gave a tour to investors to show it off. A document handed out to investors on that tour, obtained by Electrek, mentions a huge rooftop solar array for the factory, along with additional solar panels installed at ground level.
“We will be using 100-percent sustainable energy through a combination of a 70 MW solar rooftop array and solar ground installations,” the Tesla document said. “The solar rooftop array is ~7x larger than the largest rooftop solar system installed today,” it said. Whirlpool has a 10-MW array on the roof of a distribution center in Perris, California, and there is reportedly an 11.5-MW rooftop array in India."
BTW:
Revlis is either out of Town or on leave.... temporarily from this Board.
Sent me a message concerning this about 3 weeks ago.
He should be back very soon!
Note:
I must admit the Dividend that Shareholders receive from IDCC is most generous.
Problem is...One must own a Freight train Full of shares to benefit from this Payout.
Bulldzr:
Interdigital Stock Jump on Apple Deal A Bit Too Much, Says B. Riley:
http://blogs.barrons.com/techtraderdaily/2016/12/16/interdigital-stock-jump-on-apple-deal-a-bit-too-much-says-b-riley/?mod=yahoobarrons&ru=yahoo&yptr=yahoo
________________________________________________
I got an e-mail early the morning that the above IDCC News broke and was thinking about getting shares of IDCC.
I called Investor Relations:
It wasn't Lawrence Shay but another name I recognized.
I got Him on the First Ring surprisingly.
We had a lengthy talk about Apple Paying Per Unit Royalty for 3G.
He told Me candidly that Interdigital Got/Gets a Lump Sum Payment from The Big Phone makers[Apple was mentioned specifically] and a per unit Royalty fee from the Smaller Smart Phone manufacturers.
I thanked Him for His time and Hung up the phone.
I sent this message to Revlis the same morning and told Him what I/R told me.
I then told Revlis that the Lump Sum 3G Royalty from Apple and Samsung was the reason I sold all MY IDCC shares over 3 years ago.
Without the Per Unit Royalty I felt ...that as a shareholder of IDCC I was getting the Shaft.
Qualcomm gets the Per Unit 3G Royalty from both Apple and Samsung.
Since then I have moved on to the Hottest Sector in the Stock market and now I am Making Money.
I was/am not a Trader and I lost a lot of hard earned Money by buying and Holding Interdigital for over 10 Years waiting patiently for the Per Unit 3G Royalty.
I will never invest in IDCC Stock again within My Lifetime.
I am 72 years Old and Now I am placing My bets on one sector in the Stock market.
Mostly Canadian Stocks where Medical Marijuana is legal.
I can tell You that because this is a Non-Specific Stock Board.
Just like when Alcohol prohibition was lifted in the 1920's
Once in a Lifetime!
Have a great Day tomorrow and all the ones after that.
Your IHUB Friend.
G/Buddy
Hello Revlis and Goodbuddy. Are you two still invested in IDCC? We have had a pretty good run... what is your opinion on it continuing?
What the Nokia-Apple Lawsuit Means for the Streaming Industry:
If Nokia's standards infringement lawsuit prevails over Apple, the costs could be steep to any company relying on H.264 or even HEVC.
Here are the issues at stake:
By Jan Ozer
Posted on December 30, 2016
"On December 21, 2016, Nokia sued Apple for infringing eight patents related to H.264 encoding and decoding. By its terms, the complaint makes clear that Apple’s usage of H.264 is generic, and that similar infringement claims could be made against any products with an H.264 encoder or decoder without a license with Nokia. Though a quick glance at prior cases make the stakes appear minor, a more reasoned analysis leads to the conclusion that the costs to Apple, and others using H.264, could be very significant.
By way of background, this suit is only one in a flurry between the parties. According to a Nokia press release, “Across actions in 11 countries, there are now 40 patents in suit, which cover technologies such as display, user interface, software, antenna, chipsets, and video coding.” For its part, Apple is suing Nokia and related parties for antitrust, essentially alleging that Nokia is attempting to extract excessive fees from Apple. Obviously, the H.264 related suit is most pressing for the streaming industry.
Reasonable and Non-Discriminatory Obligations
When standards are formulated, standards bodies like the ITU require all contributors to agree to license the technology royalty free, or on reasonable and non-discriminatory (RAND) terms and conditions, which prevents any single contributor from blocking commercialization by demanding too high a price, or unfair terms against a competitor or other party. If a contributor refuses to agree with either the royalty-free or RAND alternative, its technology won’t be included in the standard.
In the complaint, Nokia declared that it had agreed to license on RAND terms. If the Court finds Nokia’s patents are valid, and that Apple did infringe, one key issue becomes the RAND value of those patents. One case that the court will undoubtedly consult is Microsoft v. Motorola, decided in 2013, where Microsoft alleged that Motorola breached its RAND obligations.
In that case, Motorola claimed that Microsoft infringed three H.264-related patents and demanded RAND compensation, which they asserted equaled 2.25 percent of sales of Windows, PCs running Windows, Xbox, and other products, amounting to over $4 billion dollars. In its finding of fact, the court explained that when setting RAND royalty rates, courts consider the value of the patents to the standard, and the value of the standard to the product. This means every RAND determination is separate and distinct.
In the Motorola case, the court considered other licensing arrangements entered by Motorola, but also comparables like the $0.20/unit royalty charged by MPEG LA for a pool that represents thousands of worldwide patents from 38 different companies. The court set the H.264 FRAND rate at 0.555 cents per unit ($0.00555), which amounted to around $740,000 in H.264 royalties per year. Note that the total award was reported at $1.8 million per year, but about 60 percent of that was for 802.11 patents also considered in the case (see page 207). To add insult to injury, the court ruled that Motorola did breach its RAND obligations and awarded Microsoft $14.5 million in damages. Correctly or incorrectly, this finding created the impression that the costs associated with H.264 patents not in the MPEG LA pool, such as the Nokia patents, would be very low.
Motorola Not Binding
I spoke with David Long, a practicing patent attorney and editor of the Essential Patent blog about this impression, and how much the facts of the Motorola case control the potential awards in this case. He responded that since all RAND calculations are unique the Motorola case “would not be binding as a data point. While the court would certainly consider the MPEG LA royalty rate, it would likely place a higher priority on actual licensing deals between Nokia and other independent third parties.”
That’s because in previous cases, plaintiffs have argued that royalties offered by patent pools are often poor benchmarks for the actual essential value of the patent. In an article entitled Apportionment, FRAND Royalties, and comparable licenses after Ericsson v. D-LINK, author J. Gregory Sidak explained why. (Note that FRAND stands for fair, reasonable, and non-discriminatory, which is often used interchangeably with RAND).
“First, the royalties from a patent pool may provide an inadequate benchmark to calculate a FRAND royalty if the pool’s participants have a business model that significantly differs from the SEP holder’s business model. For example, companies that are active in the downstream market might prefer to recover their investment in research and development through the services offered on a standard-compliant product, such as an app for on-demand video streaming offered on a smartphone, rather than through licensing fees...Patent pools are also not useful benchmarks for determining a FRAND royalty because they often reward contributors on the basis of the number of contributed patents, rather than the patents’ relative value.”
For these reasons, Long expects Nokia to argue that actual commercial licensing arrangements with third parties are more relevant than MPEG LA rates. I sent an email to Nokia asking for financial details about these other agreements, which are not provided in the complaint, but did not hear back. If the case goes to trial expect these details to become absolutely central to Nokia’s award claims.
The Nokia Wrinkle
Beyond Nokia not being bound by the rates set in the Motorola case, Nokia is also claiming that because the H.264 standard defines a decoder and not an encoder RAND licensing limitations don’t apply to the encoding-related patents. Here’s a snippet from the Nokia complaint.
“The H.264 Recommendation specifies the implementation of decoders and specifically defines the 'decoding process' as ' he process specified in this Recommendation | International Standard that reads a bitstream and derives decoded pictures from it.' It does not, however, specify the implementation of encoders. In fact, it specifically defines 'encoder' as 'an embodiment of an encoding process,' and then defines 'encoding process' as 'a process, not specified in this Recommendation | International Standard, that produces a bitstream conforming to this Recommendation | International Standard.' Id. at 6 (emphasis added)). As a result, since encoder implementations are not specified under the H.264 Standard, claims covering such encoders are not essential under the Common Patent Policy, and thus any such claims are not subject to a RAND commitment under that Policy.”
This distinction doesn’t appear to have been raised in the Motorola case which did involve encoding-related patents. I asked Long about Nokia’s distinction, and he explained that RAND applies when a court finds patents “essential to the standard.” In Nokia’s favor is the fact that the H.264 spec does define the decoding process, as noted above. Against the claim would be the simple fact that H.264 decoders would serve no essential purpose without encoded streams to decode. Either way, it’s a finding of fact for the court to make.
Long did point out that under general-purpose (eg. Non-RAND) patent law, all royalties must be reasonable, but that if the encoding-related patents were not limited by RAND, Nokia could discriminate against Apple and raise the price, perhaps because Nokia plans to re-enter the smartphone market where Apple is a prominent competitor. This all could prove irrelevant if Nokia simply tries to recover the same rates paid by other parties, but could be used to claim a higher royalty if the court agrees that encoder-related patents are not limited by RAND restrictions."
http://www.streamingmedia.com/Articles/Editorial/Featured-Articles/What-the-Nokia-Apple-Lawsuit-Means-for-the-Streaming-Industry-115511.aspx
AT&T will test 5G with DirecTV this year:
http://money.cnn.com/2017/01/04/technology/att-5g-directv/index.html?iid=ob_article_footer
"AT&T (T, Tech30) announced Wednesday that it plans to begin testing its faster 5G network for streaming videos through DirecTV Now in Austin households.
The trial, expected to take place in the first half of 2017, will test how well the next-generation wireless network handles "heavy video traffic," according to a company announcement.
AT&T says its 5G service has hit speeds of up to 14 gigabits per second in lab tests, significantly faster than the current 4G network. That would cut the delay for streaming or downloading movies and shows over a wireless connection. (Disclaimer: AT&T agreed in October to buy Time Warner, the parent company of CNN. The deal is pending approval by regulators.)"
CES 2017: The top trends in new TVs
https://www.yahoo.com/finance/news/tv-news-ces-2017-120931816.html
"UHD, also known as 4K for its almost 4,000 pixels of horizontal resolution, offers a much finer picture than mere HDTV. But unless you get a screen larger than 55 inches or so, the additional detail will vanish when viewed from across the room.
An upgrade to UHD called HDR, short for “high dynamic range,” provides a discernable difference even on smaller displays: a wider range of colors. The difference is obvious, especially with scenes like sunsets and sunrises that involve a large degree of contrast.
HDR stopped being a niche variation of UHD at last year’s CES but still came at a price premium. At this year’s show, the HDR tax looks set to shrivel. Most vendors aren’t talking prices yet, but the Chinese vendor TCL — a leading supplier of TVs with built-in Roku media-player software — said it will sell a 50-inch UHD HDR set for $500."
Amazon’s Alexa stole the show at CES in a bid to become the Internet of Things[IOT] operating system:
https://www.yahoo.com/news/m/7acfcac3-7c32-3cfe-99a0-2fefee1b1d4e/amazon%E2%80%99s-alexa-stole-the-show.html
Alexa –
"Amazon's artificial intelligence (AI) voice assistant rival to Apple's Siri and Google Assistant – was everywhere. The U.S. e-commerce giant integrated Alexa with a number of devices and products including Ford cars, LG's new refrigerator, and Huawei's Mate 9 smartphone.
Previously, Alexa was only on Amazon's own Echo speaker and just a handful of devices. But Amazon's Alexa push is the company's attempt to become an operating system (OS) for the so-called Internet of Things (IoT), just as Google Android and Apple iOS have done with mobile."
Equinix Appoints Robert Busz as Managing Director for Poland:
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/equinix-appoints-robert-busz-managing-100400893.html
"With almost 20 years of experience in management and business development within telecommunications and data management organisations, Robert will use his knowledge to drive Equinix’s commercial growth in Poland. In his new role, Robert will be responsible for implementing Poland’s local strategy and direction, building on the strength of Equinix’s commercial and operational success at EMEA and global levels.
Robert has played an integral role in Poland’s telecommunications and network operations industries since 1999 and has years of experience in developing local strategies that enhance global corporate objectives. Most recently, he was Sales Director for CEE, Russia and CIS at the American telecommunications and internet service provider, Level 3 Communications. Prior to that, Robert was Sales Development Director CEE at Swedish telecoms multinational, TeliaSonera International, now Telia Company."
Intel Experts Share Insights on Tech Trends for 2017 and Beyond
Intel is inventing foundational technologies for amazing new experiences from merged reality to 5G communications and from autonomous driving to artificial intelligence. As 2016 draws to a close, we asked five Intel leaders, many new to the company, for their thoughts on these tech trends that will shape the future of Intel and our industry. Here are some of their insights:
In 2017, AI-powered systems will go from exploration to adoption in the enterprise
The digitization of nearly everything has produced mountains of data. More data than human beings can consume, synthesize and put to use. But, with artificial intelligence technologies (cognitive computing and deep learning, as examples), we’re gaining the ability to more effectively understand, interpret and act on all that information.
Gayle Sheppard, who joined Intel with the acquisition of cognitive computing company Saffron Technology, believes 2017 will be the year that AI-enabled decision systems move from exploration to enterprise adoption across a variety of industries. Saffron unifies what Sheppard calls “more chaotic, unstructured data” with manicured enterprise data to surface insights from patterns impossible to see before. This capability helps industries such as financial services improve the detection and prevention of fraud or helps retailers individualize product recommendations to achieve better outcomes for their customers. Artificial intelligence, she said, will ultimately give all of us intelligent assistants for our professional and personal lives.
circle-gayle-sheppard“With AI we have the opportunity to move beyond traditional thinking about decision-support systems to build systems that see, hear, understand and collaborate with us to help make decisions faster, more relevant and better informed.” – Gayle Sheppard, general manager of Saffron Technology
3-D collaboration will emerge as a driving use case for AR/VR
Today, augmented and virtual reality (AR/VR) are most commonly associated with gaming or entertainment. While these uses will undoubtedly gain in popularity, another potential “killer app” for AR and VR has more in common with the rise of spreadsheets, word processing and e-mail. According to Remi El-Ouazzane, chief executive of Movidius, a company Intel acquired in 2016, workplace collaboration is likely to propel the adoption of augmented reality (or what Intel calls “merged reality”).
“Companies today are bound by two-dimensional collaboration,” El-Ouazzane said. But, with merged reality, “you immerse yourself in an environment where, for example, engineers at different sites around the world could walk around an engine, working together as if physically in the same place at the same time.”
To get us there, computers will need to process visuals with the speed and accuracy of the human eye. That’s where Movidius comes in. The company was founded with the bold vision of giving sight to machines. Its leading vision processing unit combined with Intel® RealSense™ depth-sensing technology is a powerful combination toward realizing that vision. “In merged reality, we are confronting two worlds, the actual world we can see with our eyes and a computer-generated world. The display where those synthetic elements are rendered needs to be good enough for your brain to accept them as being real,” said El-Ouazzane.
circle-remi-el-ouazzane“Augmented reality is nothing less than tricking the brain to believe that synthetic elements and real elements can coexist.” – Remi El-Ouazzane, chief executive of Movidius, an Intel company
Function will overtake form in automotive
Intel is dedicated to transforming the future of driving and designing the next generation of advanced driver assist systems and autonomous driving solutions. Intel’s General Manager of the Automated Driving Solutions Division, Kathy Winter, joined Intel from Delphi where, in 2015, she was credited with achieving the first cross-country drive by an autonomous vehicle.
In 2017, she expects more autonomous cars on the road, gathering data to pave the way for the broad adoption of safe and reliable autonomous vehicles. Winter says the technology industry is accelerating the pace of innovation in the automotive industry, and changing how we value cars.
circle-kathy-winter“What you’re seeing is a change in the industry with less focus on what vehicles look like and more focus on what can they do.” – Kathy Winter, Intel vice president; general manager, Automated Driving Solutions Division
With function trumping form, the industry is ripe for the many foundational computing and communications technologies Intel offers. Another Intel business unit with compelling technology for the future of transportation is Intel’s Programmable Solutions Group (PSG), formerly Altera. PSG General Manager Dan McNamara says that because field programmable gate arrays (FPGAs) can be customized and reprogrammed on the fly, they are a great fit for many of the specialized computing tasks automated driving requires.
In 2017, he expects to begin shipping a new automotive-grade Arria 10 FPGA that offers the highest performance processing by an FPGA at 20nm and will give automakers a head start on their ADAS systems.
circle-dan-mcnamara“The autonomous driving revolution provides not only an increase in driver and pedestrian safety, but an interactive experience for the driver that will continue to evolve. We are focused on providing automakers with scalable technology to meet their customers’ needs.” – Dan McNamara, Intel vice president; general manager, PSG
In 2017, 5G prototypes start to take shape
Unlocking the true potential of automated driving requires a reliable, robust and pervasive wireless network. These requirements are the basis of 5G networks, which are expected to become available starting in 2020, though trials are already underway.
Rob Topol, General Manager of 5G business and technology within Intel’s Communications and Devices Group, expects these 5G trials will pick up steam in 2017. One big advancement will be the prototype devices used for testing. “You will see us move from testing with larger trial platforms, to using more mobile and segment-specific form factors,” Topol said. While 5G form factors will, ultimately, be limitless, that’s a sure sign of progress.
Unlike 4G wireless, which largely focused on making smartphones faster, industry leaders look to 5G to provide the higher data rates (1-20 Gbps), lower latency and capacity needed for the blossoming Internet of Things (IoT), new service models and immersive new experiences. It’s an ambitious undertaking that’s well underway.
circle-rob-topol“Without 5G, the Internet of Things will not reach its potential.” – Rob Topol, general manager of 5G business and technology, Communications and Devices Group
We’ll be talking more about these future trends when the industry convenes at CES next week. You can stay up-to-date with related Intel news and activities in our CES 2017 newsroom, including a livestream of our CEO’s press conference. On Jan. 4 at 4 p.m., Brian Krzanich will immerse you in virtual reality to experience how Intel technology is extending far beyond consumer electronics to define almost every aspect of our lives and transform industries.
We hope to see you there. Happy New Year!
Thanks Rev.
Have a good time whether it's business or Pleasure.
goodbuddy post
This Bill is probably the most important thing to Happen to Interdigital in a Long Time:
https://www.congress.gov/bill/114th-congress/senate-bill/2607
Includes the Internet of things[IOT] to come:
https://www.infoq.com/news/2016/05/digit-act-iot-policy-framework
JMHO
Good find. I will be away for ten days in January. It could be longer. I hope not.
South Korean Antitrust Regulator Fines Qualcomm $865 Million:
http://abcnews.go.com/Business/wireStory/south-korean-antitrust-regulator-fines-qualcomm-865-million-44426191
"The FTC said Qualcomm allegedly used its dominant position in the modem chip market to force handset makers to pay license fees for a broad set of patents under terms it set unilaterally and to coerce handset makers into signing licensing contracts.
The fine, the biggest ever levied by the antitrust regulator, "will restore fair competition in the mobile communications industry," Shin Young-sun, secretary general at the Fair Trade Commission, told reporters at a briefing.
Qualcomm rejected the ruling, saying it plans to appeal it in court.
Qualcomm made $25.1 billion in 2015 from collecting patent royalties and selling modem chips. South Korea, home to the world's largest smartphone maker Samsung Electronics, accounts for about 20 percent of its global revenue."
This Bill is probably the most important thing to Happen to Interdigital in a Long Time:
https://www.congress.gov/bill/114th-congress/senate-bill/2607
Includes the Internet of things[IOT] to come:
https://www.infoq.com/news/2016/05/digit-act-iot-policy-framework
JMHO
Tata Elxsi showcases advanced automotive technology solutions at CES 2017
Las Vegas: Tata Elxsi will be unveiling its latest automotive technology solutions driven by emerging industry requirements for cyber-security, safety, comfort & user experience at the Consumer Electronics Show - CES 2017, Booth No. 6223, Las Vegas Convention Centre.
Tata Elxsi, a global design and technology services company and a leader for automotive electronics and software engineering services, is showcasing key solutions addressing Autonomous Vehicle, Connected Infotainment, Automation, IoT and Artificial Intelligence at CES 2017.
Key solutions being showcased at CES 2017 include:
Autonomous vehicle and ADAS
Autonomai: Tata Elxsi’s advanced autonomous vehicle middleware platform, with deep learning and AI capabilities, is designed to help OEMs and system suppliers build, test and deploy customizable autonomous vehicle applications.
Autonomai’s modular architecture comprises of perception, guidance navigation & control and drive-by-wire systems. It includes algorithms for key aspects such as lane, vehicle & pedestrian detection, path planning, sensor fusion, object tracking, GPS/INS based vehicle state estimation, 3D mapping and localization.
Autonomai supports integration of a combination of sensor technologies such as LiDar, Radar, Ultrasonic sensors and Mono/Stereo cameras to suit customer requirements. It comes pre-integrated with extensive validation datasets, and support for AI and deep learning to enable the autonomous vehicles of the future.
Technologies for connected car
e-cockpit is Tata Elxsi’s connected cockpit software solution that integrates Instrument Cluster, Head Unit, Heads Up display and ADAS on a single system-on-chip, driving ECU consolidation while supporting advanced features such as fast boot, 3D animated dials and support for a wide set of HMI tools including QT, GL Studio and Kanzi.
This solution uses hypervisor to allow separation of critical and non-critical functions, and integrates ASIL-B compliant functionality for key vehicle information and ADAS applications.
The connected car showcase also includes GENIVI 10.0 compliant infotainment architecture with enhanced cyber-security and OTA capability, and telematics and IoT related engineering and services for vehicle health management and value-added services.
Tata Elxsi’s V2X Emulator provides real-time emulation of both car-to-car and car-to-infrastructure scenarios for real-time traffic and wireless channel conditions. The tool emulates multiple on-board and roadside units, allowing OEMs and suppliers to extensively test and validate their ECUs and systems in a lab environment, which would otherwise be very difficult, expensive, and unsafe to recreate in road testing.
Test Automation
Tata Elxsi is showcasing a full suite of test automation solutions for IVI & ADAS.
AutomaTE is Tata Elxsi’s advanced vision based test framework for fully automated HMI validation for instrument cluster and infotainment units.
VEDAS is a comprehensive, powerful ADAS HILS test system design for validation of ADAS functions that involve sensors such as radar, ultrasonic and imaging cameras.
AUTOSAR:
Developed in collaboration with a world-leading German OEM, Tata Elxsi is showcasing its industry-first AUTOSAR 4.2.x tool chain running on Linux & Windows operating systems. This comprehensive AUTOSAR tool chain supports System Design, Network Modelling, SWC Generation, BSW, RTE configuration and code generation for AUTOSAR version 4.2.
Testing the internet of things: making the IoT work
WHITE PAPER / DEC 2016 / IOT
As the "internet of things" takes off, companies have a wide range of wireless technologies from which to choose and a number of use cases that make up the IoT. This white paper from RCR Wireless explores some of the challenges related to testing the IoT, as well as a market status update on expected IoT growth and testing trends seen in IoT development.
http://www.interdigital.com/white_papers/testing-the-internet-of-things-making-the-iot-work
Massively densified networks -- Why we need them and how we can build them
WHITE PAPER / DEC 2016 / 5G
Today's networks have an atomic, discrete architecture, but as technology develops and more users and devices become a part of the equation, they are evolving into more user-centric and pervasive networks. Senza Fili and RCR Wireless come together to present this white paper on why densifying networks is a growing need and how we can optimize them to accommodate major traffic growt?
http://www.interdigital.com/white_papers/massively-densified-networks
Driverless vehicles will need to be programmed with a clear and agreed set of rules for decision-making, according to research from UK Autodrive.
The report ‘The Moral Algorithm’ highlights concerns over the so-called “trolley problem” – where a vehicle must choose between hitting defined individuals – may have been exaggerated as autonomous vehicles (AVs) will never be programmed to make such distinctions.
The report recommends that harmonised regulations will be needed for other decisions, such as when it is permissible for a car to break the rules of the road, or determining the level of assertiveness required when a vehicle interacts with other road-users.
Produced by UK Autodrive’s legal partner Gowling WLG, the research provides eight recommendations including; the development of a policy regarding how the moral algorithm will operate in terms of major safety situations, a programme of public education and consultation, and creating an independent regulator to balance the legality, safety and commerciality issues surrounding autonomous vehicles.
“As with any complex new technology, AVs cannot be specifically programmed to respond to every possible scenario. This simply isn’t practical when a machine is expected to interact with humans, in a complex environment, on a day-to-day basis. AVs will drive to the speed limits and will not be distracted from the task of safe driving; they will make practical decisions based on their programming, but they cannot be expected to make moral decisions around which society provides no agreed guidance. To allow AVs to demonstrate their capacity for practical decision-making in complex environments, and to begin to establish public trust through contact, the first step is allowing testing in relatively simple and well-defined environments.”
- Tim Armitage, UK Autodrive Project Director, Arup
The Arup-led consortium, UK Autodrive is the largest of three consortia currently trialling automated vehicle technology to support the introduction of self-driving vehicles into the UK. 'The Moral Algorithm' report follows 'Are you data driven?' published earlier in the year.
Today Arup in the Netherlands received the official recognition certificate by ProRail in their category of 'engineering firms'.
As of today Arup is recognised engineer for rail carrying as well as non-rail carrying civil structures and designer for utility structures for the purpose of Integrated Contracts.
"We are absolutely delighted to be recognised by ProRail. This certificate means that Arup can now design for projects like the 'ZuidasDok' and the 'Theemswegtracé'. For years our infrastructures team has worked effectively for clients like Rijkswaterstaat, for example the renovation of eight steel bridges. We look forward to delivering similar successes to ProRail."
– Sabine Delrue, Business leader Infrastructure, Arup, the Netherlands
The certificate was handed out by Elso Free and Geke Wessselink by ProRail, in the presence of Cem Budak, our Europe Rail Leader.
"Receiving this certificate is very important to us, and we joyfully welcome Cem Budak to the awarding. We exchange a lot of knowledge and expertise in our international network of colleagues and this is an excellent opportunity to strengthen our relationships, internally and externally ."
– Sander den Blanken, Group Leader Arup in the Netherlands
Arup joined clients Yapi Merkezi Insaat Ve Sanayi A.S and SK Engineering & Construction Co. Ltd. to celebrate the official opening of the Eurasia Tunnel to the public.
Also known as the Istanbul Strait Road Tube Crossing, the 5.4km long crossing, which includes 3.4km of twin-decked road running beneath the Bosphorus seabed along with 9.2km of approach road improvements on both sides of the Bosphorus, will connect two continents and the European and Asian sides of Istanbul, Turkey.
Arup has been working on the award-winning project since 2009 providing technical advisory, environmental monitoring and traffic audit services to the institutions funding the project during the procurement and construction stages.
“100,000 vehicles per day will be using the Tunnel comfortably without being affected from the weather conditions outside. We will from now on be ignoring all those news articles such as 'the ferries stop operation due to the storm', 'the traffic stops on the bridge due to fog', etc. Thanks to the Eurasia Tunnel, uninterrupted land transport between the two sides of Istanbul has become possible independently from the climate conditions outside.”
— President Recep Tayyip Erdogan
“We are very proud to have been associated with the delivery of this major road tunnel project which is the first intercontinental road tunnel in the world. This important connection brings two continents together, reduces congestion in and around Istanbul and improves the journey times between Kazliçesme and Göztepe.”
— Nigel Hailey, Project Director at Arup
Peraso Demonstrates the Power of WiGig® at CES 2017
December 22, 2016
Unprecedented speed and increased bandwidth enable a host of new applications
Click HERE for the full copy of this article.
LAS VEGAS, NV and TORONTO, ON, December 22nd, 2016 – Peraso Technologies Inc., a leader in Wireless Gigabit (WiGig®) chipsets, will be demonstrating multiple 802.11ad applications, including 4K wireless gaming and wireless networking at CES 2017. The demonstrations are based on Peraso’s Wi-Fi CERTIFIED WiGigTM W110 USB 3.0 adapter, and their recently announced W120 WiGig phased array chipset.
By using the 60 GHz band, WiGig-enabled products will provide a new level of wireless interactivity in bandwidth-hungry applications such as gaming and VR. 2017 is set to be an important year in the evolution of this technology with product announcements arriving as early as Q1. WiGig boasts extremely high data rates of more than 5x that of 802.11ac, solving congestion issues often associated with typical Wi-Fi.
Peraso will be featuring the following WiGig applications during CES 2017:
- Multi-gigabit 802.11ad wireless connectivity
- Multi-vendor 802.11ad access point interoperability
- 4K WiGig wireless display and gaming
- WiGig wireless docking
“CES 2017 will be an important event to showcase the impressive speed and power of WiGig, with demonstrations in a host of exciting applications,” said Ron Glibbery, President and CEO of Peraso Technologies. “We see WiGig as a fundamental communications technology in virtually all consumer electronic devices over the next 3 – 5 years.”
Peraso is currently in production with WiGig IC solutions addressing both the consumer electronics market, as well as outdoor devices in the 60 GHz wireless infrastructure space. Their WiGig certified ICs will be in businesses and homes in 2017 via routers, docking stations, USB adapters, backhaul and more.
Peraso’s WiGig chipsets and solutions will be on display at the Westgate Las Vegas, CES 2017 – Jan 5th – 8th, and at Pepcom’s Digital Experience event on January 4th at the Mirage Hotel in Las Vegas. To arrange a private demonstration, please contact: mdenicola@perasotech.com.
BIO-key Debuts Wearable Fingerprint Reader for Windows, Micro USB Fingerprint Reader for Android and Biometric Padlocks at CES Las Vegas, Jan. 5 - 8 in Booth #2317
Accesswire AccesswireDecember 22, 2016
LAS VEGAS, NV and WALL, NJ / ACCESSWIRE / December 22, 2016 / BIO-key International, Inc. (BKYI), an innovative provider of biometric software and hardware solutions will debut several innovative products that expand its suite of fingerprint biometric solutions at the Consumer Electronic Show (CES) Thursday, January 5th - Sunday, January 8th in Las Vegas - Booth #2317 (Hilton, Tech East - Westgate). BIO-key will also host a CES investor briefing Friday, January 6th at 2:00pm PT (details below).
At CES BIO-key will unveil:
FreePass™ a wearable, mobile USB fingerprint reader for Windows that is ideal for users that want to employ biometric security and convenience on multiple devices.
View photos
FreePass gives customers the freedom to bring their identity from device to device without entering passwords or PINs.
To view image, please click here: https://www.accesswire.com/uploads/BIOKEY1.png
The TouchLock™ line of fingerprint biometric padlocks, including TouchLock BLE™ a Bluetooth enabled model that can be operated with a smartphone. TouchLock eliminates the need to enter a combination, which can be easily compromised or the need for a key which is inconvenient, especially if misplaced or lost.
View photos
TouchLock protects customer's belongings with the convenience of one touch biometric security.
To view image, please click here: https://www.accesswire.com/uploads/BIOKEY2new.PNG
SidePass™ a compact, square, mobile and durable touch reader for Windows.
View photos
SidePass replaces your password or PIN and provides one touch instant access to your device, websites, files and applications using your biometric.
To view image, please click here: https://www.accesswire.com/uploads/BIOKEY3.PNG
Q-180 Touch, a Micro USB compatible fingerprint reader for Android devices.
Nokia sues Apple for infringing Technology Patents:
http://www.cnbc.com/2016/12/21/nokia-sues-apple-for-infringing-technology-patents.html?__source=yahoo%7Cfinance%7Cheadline%7Cheadline%7Cstory&par=yahoo&doc=104180898&yptr=yahoo
"Nokia said on Wednesday it sued Apple for allegedly violating 32 of its technology patents.
The company said it filed several complaints against Apple in Germany and the United States. Nokia said since agreeing to a license covering some patents in 2011, Apple has declined subsequent offers to license its technology, which it said are used in many of Apple's products."
Nice find Rev:
Great News for Interdigital Communications.
JMO
Mobile Edge Computing (MEC) Market – Global Industry Analysis, Size, Share, Growth, Trends and Forecast 2016 – 2024
Mobile edge computing (MEC) is a platform used to deploy services inside the radio access network (RAN) to enhance user knowledge. It provides a capability that empowers workers to improve latency sensitive services. In other words, MEC is a platform used to bring an IT service and cloud computing environment to support content suppliers and application developers. Some of the notable characteristics of this environment includes high frequency range and ultra-low latency as well as real-time access to radio network data, which are consequently utilized by the applications. MEC platform enables mobile operators to make an exclusive mobile capability, which helps in reducing burden on network structure and bring a novel scalable solutions for the customers. MEC have the capability to hasten the distribution of media services by distributing content straight from the base station, which considerably improves the consumer experience in aspect of high data traffic growth. This technology allows administrators to well adapt traffic to the dominant radio circumstances, improve network efficiency and enhance service quality.
Download Research Brochure PDF@ www.transparencymarketresearch.com/sample/sample.php?flag…
MEC is an important part of edge computing and is applied on several frameworks including machine to machine (M2M), big data analytics and network security. The MEC server would be installed on the sites such as 3G radio network controller (RNC), LTE macro base station and multi-technology cell collection site. The MEC model has been developed with an aim to attract virtualization technology to permit virtual function execution on this disseminated MEC platform. It helps in enhancing network architecture valuation and distribution cloud to further introduce 5G network architecture in the real environment.
The global mobile edge computing market is experiencing growth owing to factors such as base station evaluation, growing awareness about 5G networks, enabling faster content delivery, fog computing and low latency and virtualization and server. Also, cell aggregation point, IT and telecom network convergence, high volume servers and edge cloud and data transferability are major factors which would swell the MEC market to grow.
The major factors which hamper the global mobile edge computing market include lack of managerial and analytical talent as well as gathering and storage issues. Furthermore, the lack of development of new technologies in emerging markets is hindering the MEC services adoption due to absence of technical knowledge and infrastructure availability.
Moreover, the rapidly growing demand for technology based services is subsequently impelling the growth of the mobile edge computing market. Currently, the MEC growth is fueled by growing demand in developed countries, specifically in western markets such as Europe and North America. The emerging regions are comparatively slow in adopting the MEC platform, and are anticipated to fuel the growth of MEC market in the coming years.
The global mobile edge computing market can be segmented on the basis of applications and end-use. By applications, the MEC market is segmented into location services, video analytics, internet-of-things (IOT) connectivity, environmental monitoring, optimized local content, augmented reality, offloading and data caching. Further, On the basis of end-use, the MEC market is segmented into education, gaming, healthcare, public safety, connected vehicles and location based services. MEC is also expected to produce a new environment, which helps in the growth of the various end-use markets over the coming years.
The market for global mobile edge computing market is highly fragmented with the presence of players such as IBM Corporation, Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd., Integrated Device Technology, Inc., Nokia Corporation, ETSI, Parallel Wireless, Inc., Juniper Networks, Inc., Vodafone Group, PeerApp, Vasona Networks, ADLINK Technology Inc., and Intel Corporation.
Browse Full Report@ www.transparencymarketresearch.com/mobile-edge-computing-…
UK 5G Report Reveals “Significant Shortfall in Existing Infrastructure to Meet Future Aspirational Requirements”
NIC report produced by InterDigital and others highlights existing UK mobile network coverage, capacity gaps, high-priority improvements for 5G deployment
Company Release - 12/20/2016 9:17 AM ET
LONDON and WILMINGTON, Del., Dec. 20, 2016 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Findings from a new report from the National Infrastructure Commission (NIC), created in conjunction with InterDigital (NASDAQ:IDCC), has identified the necessary actions that the UK government must prioritize if it is to deploy 5G effectively. The report, entitled “5G Infrastructure requirements for the UK,” recommends a significant schedule of work to be undertaken to overcome issues with existing UK mobile network coverage and capacity. This includes making recommendations for planning changes and spectrum regulation to meet 5G requirements.
The study outlines four key inhibitors currently plaguing existing UK 2G, 3G and 4G infrastructure that, unless addressed, will prevent 5G meeting expectations:
Greater scrutiny must be placed on improving mobile coverage on parts of UK motorways and major ‘A roads’ – Existing fiber network infrastructure that exists along major routes must be released to improve mobile network coverage. This includes better access to gantries, bridges and road signs for the deployment of mobile equipment
The UK must find ways of deploying mobile infrastructure alongside major rail links – Greater emphasis must be placed on deploying fiber trackside, including ‘pre-equipping’ new rail track being laid and giving consideration to allocating dedicated wireless frequencies purely for the benefit of rail passengers
Issues related to cell densification, resulting interference and spectrum management must be overcome to deliver optimal 5G in and around major UK cities – A significant increase in the number of small radio cells (located on street furniture, small masts, walls etc.) is needed to meet the performance requirements of future networks in urban areas
Significant steps must be taken to overcome poor mobile coverage in rural areas of the UK – This follows a commitment from UK operators to overcome financial restrictions and invest in mobile infrastructure to fill existing ‘not spots’
Dirk Trossen, Principal Engineer, InterDigital Europe, stated: “The latest NIC report is aimed at focusing the attentions of all stakeholders tasked with making the UK 5G-ready a reality. It is also intended to showcase the wealth of untapped infrastructure already in place, but not being utilized, to accelerate UK 5G deployment. As a major global economic power, the UK has a real opportunity to take the lead and demonstrate how existing networks can be leveraged, regulatory challenges overcome and technical issues resolved to ensure 5G is a success.”
The National Infrastructure Committee is a central agency, recently formed by the UK government, to oversee necessary investment as well as policy oversight, when it comes to critical national infrastructure. InterDigital’s involvement in the creation of the NIC report was a direct result of a competitive government tender. InterDigital, along with key partners LS Telcom and WHP Telecoms Ltd, led a 5G technology readiness evaluation, conducting interviews with key stakeholders to evaluate the current core 5G technologies like SDN, NFV and MEC. These findings were incorporated into the report’s wider understanding on barriers and needed actions for areas such as local planning, site planning and acquisition.
InterDigital is well-positioned to contribute to the design of 5G, having played a central role in defining global wireless standards for the industry. It is among the leading contributors to the standardization process for LTE (Long Term Evolution) and LTE-Advanced, various IEEE 802 groups as well as ETSI TC M2M and RRS. Currently, InterDigital’s 5G R&D team has a strong focus on innovation in areas that include air interfaces, networks, M2M/IoT, spectrum sharing and services enabled by 5G networks.
The full NIC report, “5G Infrastructure requirements for the UK – LS Telcom report for the NIC,” can be viewed here.
http://ir.interdigital.com/File/Index?KeyFile=37213130
InterDigital Announces Acquisition of Sensor Processing Technology Pioneer Hillcrest Labs
Rockville, MD company’s technology found in Smart TVs, gaming systems, smartphones, virtual reality systems, consumer robots and many more devices
Company Release - 12/20/2016 9:15 AM ET
WILMINGTON, Del. and ROCKVILLE, Md., Dec. 20, 2016 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- InterDigital, Inc. (NASDAQ:IDCC), a mobile technology research and development company, today announced the acquisition of Hillcrest Labs, a pioneer in sensor processing technology. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.
Hillcrest Labs was founded in 2001 by Dan Simpkins, a technology entrepreneur with a proven track record of success. The company has innovated in the area of Smart TV, and their Freespace® sensor processing technology has broadened to encompass virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) systems, gaming systems, wearable devices, smartphones, robotics and other categories. Hillcrest Labs has won significant industry recognition, including multiple CES Innovations Honoree awards and inclusion in PC World’s 100 Best Products.
“Hillcrest Labs is driving some of the foundational innovation in sensors and sensor fusion, a technology that is already important today, and poised to become pervasive in a broad range of consumer electronic products including smartphones, AR and VR systems, wearables, and service robots, among others,” said William J. Merritt, President and CEO of InterDigital. “Their customer base features some of the top electronics companies worldwide, and adding them to the InterDigital team broadens our offering for mobile devices and accelerates our technology footprint in markets that are adjacent to our existing position.”
“InterDigital is an excellent partner for Hillcrest Labs, providing us with the resources and scale necessary to drive our market penetration in our existing markets while also enhancing our ability to pursue exciting new segments where our technology can add value,” said Dan Simpkins, Founder, Chairman and CEO of Hillcrest Labs. “For more than a decade, Hillcrest Labs has been a technology pioneer and market leader and today’s announcement is the culmination of years of innovation and dedication from our remarkable team. InterDigital’s own track record as an innovator on the global technology stage is closely aligned with our vision and we look forward to working together.”
Hillcrest Labs’ customers have included electronics giants like LG, Lenovo, ZTE, Coolpad, LeEco, Sony and others. The company has also developed an intellectual property portfolio of more than 235 granted patents and pending applications. The Hillcrest Labs team of approximately 40 employees will remain based in Rockville, MD as part of the InterDigital team.
http://ir.interdigital.com/File/Index?KeyFile=37213064
What the MEC? An Architecture for 5G
WHITE PAPER / DEC 2016 / MEC, 5G
MEC is a foundational network architecture concept, which will help 5G networks live up to their potential as “living networks”, while delivering significant capability gains required for IoT, enhanced mobile broadband, virtual reality, self-driving vehicles, and more. This e-book will review key aspects of MEC architecture and answer some common questions about considerations for the future.
http://www.interdigital.com/white_papers/what-the-mec-an-architecture-for-5g
Reality Check: What’s the deal with voice over Wi-Fi?
By Narayan Menon, CTO/EVP Engineering & Founder, XCellAir on DECEMBER 20,
Voice over Wi-Fi can be a compelling option for mobile operators and cable providers, but a strong deployment model is critical for service quality.
Voice calling over mobile networks has been around for a long time, so why is there so much discussion in the industry around voice over Wi-Fi? The big deal with VoWi-Fi is that it’s fast becoming a critical tool in operators’ armory for both cable and cellular operators alike. It has moved from a nice-to-have status to being considered a necessity by several operators – but why?
VoWi-Fi has created a paradigm shift in the way mobile carriers can provide indoor voice coverage. Operators can offset spotty cellular in-home coverage by running voice calls over Wi-Fi. Better indoor coverage means improved call completion rates and call quality in the home, facilitating a better customer experience and increasing customer retention.
There are other benefits for mobile carriers too. Wi-Fi has been used by mobile operators to offload data when users have Wi-Fi access. Offloading reduces the amount of data being carried on cellular bands, freeing bandwidth for other users. With VoWi-Fi, voice will similarly be offloaded onto Wi-Fi networks, further liberating cellular capacity.
VoWi-Fi can also be exploited to facilitate lower cost roaming, allowing subscribers to make cheaper voice calls while traveling abroad. Operators can offer the same set of services to users whether they are on Wi-Fi or LTE. And mobile operators can do all this while leveraging their core network investments, using voice-over-LTE infrastructure to provide the service.
VoWi-Fi becomes even more critical for cable operators. For them, it’s the main course, not an appetizer or side dish. These companies are increasingly seeking to get into the mobile wireless business – starting with Wi-Fi in the home and expanding externally with outdoor access points, filling in gaps in wide-area coverage with mobile virtual network operator relationships. It’s essentially an “in-to-out” strategy. For these players to offer a quad-play service, VoWi-Fi becomes critical since Wi-Fi is the wireless asset they have access to. And MVNO arrangements can be expensive, so it makes great sense for these carriers to keep their users on Wi-Fi as much as possible.
This is the world of operator-provided VoWi-Fi, different from voice-over-IP apps that have been around for a while – such as Skype, Viber, WhatsApp and the like. While these apps run over-the-top and enable calling via dialers built into the apps, operator-provided VoWi-Fi can use the native dialer built into the mobile device, giving the user a consistent look-and-feel whether making a call over a cellular network or over Wi-Fi. Calls are also made using users’ regular mobile phone numbers as opposed to an app-specific user id.
To make a VoWi-Fi call, you need a capable device, access points and a core network. Many popular smartphone brands support Wi-Fi calling, and in some cases service providers have issued standalone Wi-Fi phones. The access point can be a retail router or an operator-supplied access point. The problem with a user-purchased router is the service provider may not be able to manage the quality of voice calls delivered over it – in essence it becomes a best-effort service for the user. Many operators are preferring to supply their own access points, ones they will be able to manage in order to shape the service delivered to the user. The core network is typically IP multimedia subsystem-based and can also be used to deliver VoLTE if the operator is also a cellular provider.
Delivering high-quality voice is key to the success of VoWi-Fi – voice has been around for a while and users expect no less. There are three metrics that significantly impact voice quality: latency, jitter and packet loss. High latencies can cause echo and interactivity issues. It is generally accepted that a delay in excess of 150 milliseconds causes noticeable difficulty in carrying on a conversation. Jitter compounds this issue. Packet loss results in voice clipping, skips and garbled speech. Latency, jitter and packet loss can be impacted by three issues in a Wi-Fi system – congestion, interference and coverage.
Let’s take congestion first. Wi-Fi embraces a resource sharing philosophy where all manner of devices – stations, access points, etc. – contend for the resource democratically, on equal terms. When one device is using a channel, others on the channel wait. Even in a perfectly behaved network, if a large number of devices congest a channel, a long line of waiting devices can build up. The result? Each device has to wait longer for its turn to transmit and latencies rise dramatically. This is akin to a choked motorway.
And if the network isn’t quite as well behaved, devices can step on one another to create interference. For example, in a dense network, two access points may not hear each other and may therefore simultaneously transmit data on a channel. A client device that can hear both access points can end up getting both transmissions, one clobbering the other. This can be worse than a slow traffic lane – this is more like a traffic accident. In voice quality terms, interference can result in high packet error rates and packet loss, which can cause clipped and garbled speech, and even call drops.
Coverage is the other make-or-break factor. If the calling device is in a part of the house that sees a weak Wi-Fi signal from the access point, voice quality will be affected. And the coverage situation changes as the user moves around the house, complicating the issue further. There’s no point in having a clear Wi-Fi channel if you don’t have the coverage to access the capacity. The highway might be carrying light traffic, but that doesn’t help if access to the highway is in poor condition.
Surmounting these issues will require intelligent radio frequency management solutions that maximize the quality of services such as VoWi-Fi. The ability to move access points and client devices to cleaner channels in the face of congestion or interference becomes critical. It’s like changing from the crowded right lane on a highway to a less congested middle lane. Clever use of bands and management of power to limit interference are as important.
Simplicity has been the name of the Wi-Fi game from its very beginning. From the outset Wi-Fi has been designed for low cost, lightweight operation, simple interoperability and ease of deployment. It has been designed with connectivity as the primary goal. Wi-Fi doesn’t inherently come with tools to manage congestion, interference and coverage, which means radio management solutions will need to come in “behind the back of Wi-Fi” to ensure services like VoWi-Fi work well.
Editor’s Note: The RCR Wireless News Reality Check section is where C-level executives and advisory firms from across the mobile industry share unique insights and experiences.
http://www.rcrwireless.com/20161219/opinion/reality-check-whats-the-deal-with-voice-over-wi-fi-tag10
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