Ina Fried

Commissioner Mignon Clyburn of the Federal Communications Commission says every route should be pursued to restore network neutrality rules, from the courts to Congress. But she didn't say which she thought would be most likely to succeed because she thinks "it's important for all of the sectors and these points and these avenues to be addressed," she said.

When it comes to the four major carriers, everyone says they are going to be first with 5G. It's always a race to be first with a new generation of technology (and to claim being first, which isn't always the same thing.) The stakes are extra high — both within the U.S. and on the global stage, with China, Korea, Japan and others all looking to be ahead of the game. Expect even more noise (and therefore more confusion) when the cellphone industry's big conference, Mobile World Congress, starts Feb. 26 in Barcelona, Spain.

While the tech industry as a whole started speaking out against President Donald Trump’s travel ban over the weekend, one segment has been noticeably silent: The big telecommunication firms.

There hasn’t been a peep from AT&T, Verizon, Sprint or T-Mobile, and there could be a clear reason why. Each of those firms really wants big things from the Trump administration and doesn’t want to risk angering the new president. Sprint and T-Mobile are seen as highly likely to seek approval for some sort of merger, while AT&T is in the midst of trying to buy Time Warner. Verizon, which has already made several deals, is seen as a potential buyer of a cable company or other major player that would require regulatory approval. All four would also like to see the Federal Communications Commission pull back on overall regulation, including the most aggressive parts of net neutrality.

As president-elect, Donald Trump has continued to use his Android device as his primary means for both keeping in touch with associates and expressing his displeasure with news outlets and “Saturday Night Live.” But experts say that, as president, Trump really needs to use something a whole lot more secure.

We’ve asked the transition team what kind of smartphone Donald Trump intends to use when he assumes the Oval Office on Jan 20 and have yet to get a response. Trump won’t have to figure this out on his own. There’s even an agency specifically tasked with supporting the president’s telecommunications needs, the White House Communications Agency. And the Secret Service, which has to protect the president, is likely to weigh in as well. As to whether government agencies can force Trump to give up his current phone, it’s complicated. Trump may resist technical security measures imposed on him by the Secret Service. However, by law, their protection of the president is mandatory and cannot be declined.

Apple is indeed investing some of its cash in a SoftBank fund that has won praise from President-elect Donald Trump for promising to put $50 billion into US tech companies. “Apple is planning to invest $1 billion in SoftBank’s Vision Fund,” Apple said. “We've worked closely with SoftBank for many years and we believe their new fund will speed the development of technologies which may be strategically important to Apple.” The move could help the company get some goodwill from Trump, who has criticized the company for its privacy stance and called on the company to start making iPhones in the US, something that is unlikely to happen.

After failing to strike a new deal with Apple, Nokia is suing the iPhone maker for patent infringement in both Germany and the US. The two companies had a deal in 2011 that covered some Nokia patents, but Nokia says efforts to reach a broader pact have gone nowhere. “Nokia has created or contributed to many of the fundamental technologies used in today's mobile devices, including Apple products,” Nokia patent head Ilkka Rahnasto said in a statement. “After several years of negotiations trying to reach an agreement to cover Apple's use of these patents, we are now taking action to defend our rights."

One of the big concerns in the phone industry has been just how agressive Nokia might be in pursuing large patent claims now that it is no longer in the phone-making business. (New phones are being introduced under the Nokia brand, but through a brand licensing deal, not because Nokia itself is selling phones.) Nokia’s remaining business is largely focused on making network equipment, though its smaller Nokia Technologies unit has a mission to both innovate in new areas and license the company’s brand and vast patent portfolio.

Another big security flaw in Android highlights just how messed up the Google ecosystem still is when it comes to security. This one, known as Quadrooter, was disclosed in recent days by security software maker Check Point. Quadrooter affects a whole host of top-end Android devices running one of Qualcomm’s Snapdragon chips. That means hundreds of millions or even a billion devices could be at risk, including top-end models such as the Samsung Galaxy S7, HTC 10 and LG G5 and even Google’s latest Nexus devices and security-focused devices like BlackBerry’s Priv and Silent Circle’s Blackphone.

The problem is there are still so many hands in the pot when it comes to updating Android. Google updates its software, but device makers have to tailor it for their phones — and sometimes they get their software not from Google, but from chipmakers like Qualcomm. And then sometimes mobile carriers want to do their own testing to make sure they aren’t inadvertently introducing other problems onto their network. All that means the time from when a flaw is identified or disclosed to when it is fixed is longer than it should be, sometimes leaving hundreds of millions of phones vulnerable for weeks or months.

Verizon is announcing that it is nearly ready to offer nationwide calling over its LTE network, but the reality is this is just the start of a long process.

Eventually, the addition of voice-over-LTE will allow for higher-quality calls, quicker connection and easy video chats. But because those features require both parties to be on Verizon, have a compatible phone and opt-in to LTE calling, very few such calls will be made initially.

At some unspecified point, VoLTE calling will become the default. Even further down the road -- probably not until at least 2016 -- Verizon will start selling phones that only support LTE. And while the initial service is limited to calling fellow Verizon members, lab work is under way to eventually let people call among different LTE networks.

T-Mobile clarified that it has no plans to broadly throttle its unlimited data customers, but is reaching out to a small number of customers using the service in violation of company policies.

In particular, T-Mobile is calling people using the service to run a full-time Web camera or a server, or using their phones for large-scale peer-to-peer file sharing, to let them know that such practices aren’t allowed. That memo, T-Mobile’s Chief Marketing Officer Mike Sievert said, was misinterpreted by some to mean some sort of broad throttling of heavy users.

He stressed that for customers paying for totally unlimited service on their phone, T-Mobile means unlimited.

With T-Mobile adding customers and suddenly becoming the target of a surprise buyout offer, it’s easy to think the company might not need Sprint after all. But the truth is that few options other than a sale to rival Sprint will help T-Mobile thrive over the long term.

Because AT&T and Verizon are so much bigger than T-Mobile, only a partner or owner with deep pockets could help it topple its powerful rivals.