Stories from Abroad

CTIA, a trade group representing top US wireless providers, disagreed with European and Asian counterparts over alleged security threats from Chinese equipment maker Huawei. A Feb 14 release from GSMA, a London-based wireless industry group, urged European lawmakers not to ban Huawei as a supplier.

A new report from Cisco says that by 2022, fifth-generation (5G) cellular networks will power as many as 9 percent of mobile data connections across North America, compared with 4 percent in Asia. The report underscores the substantial work that countries like China face as they seek to out-develop Western nations.

British Members of Parliament have called for a regulator to police content on social media sites, financed by a new levy on tech companies, and an inquiry into the effect of disinformation on past electoral contests. Concluding an 18-month long investigation into “fake news”, disinformation and political campaigns, the House of Commons Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Committee also accused Facebook of “intentionally and knowingly” violating data privacy laws and said it should be the subject of a probe by the competition and data watchdogs.

Facebook removed more than 100 ads paid for and posted by The Trump Organization after Facebook mistakenly classified them as political in nature and requiring payment disclosures. Advertisements for the Trump International Hotel in Washington, DC,  the Trump National Doral golf course in Miami, and the Trump Turnberry Resort in Scotland were among the 117 ads removed from Facebook. Those ads have returned to Facebook after the network was notified by Scotland's national newspaper The Scotsman that some Trump property posts had been labeled as political.

As China and the West race for 5G dominance, two digital powers with very different approaches to technology are staking out their corners. One side, championed in China, is a digital landscape where mobile payments have replaced cash. Smartphones are the devices that matter, and users can shop, chat, bank and surf the web with one app. The downsides: The government reigns absolute, and it is watching—you may have to communicate with friends in code. And don’t expect to access Google or Facebook. On the other side, in much of the world, the internet is open to all.

The concept of “zero rating”—or the process of an internet service provider exempting certain content from broadband usage caps—has been controversial for several years now.

The US is now in a winner-take-all race with China for dominance in 5G, artificial intelligence and quantum computing. Dr. Graham Allison, a specialist in national security at Harvard said, "The story beneath the story is the Great Rivalry between a meteorically rising China and a ruling US. The very idea that a Chinese company could displace the US as No.

This report offers an analysis of the past two and a half years of net neutrality enforcement in the European Union. We examine the current situation on the telecom market in Europe with a particular focus on differential pricing practices (e.g. zero-rating). This report aims at informing the debate on the ongoing reform of Europe’s net neutrality framework in light of the new moaile network standard 5G.

An indictment unsealed on Jan 28 claims that telecommunication equipment vendor Huawei stole trade secrets from Bellevue (WA)-based T-Mobile USA and then obstructed justice when T-Mobile threatened to sue Huawei in US District Court in Seattle.

The Justice Department announced criminal charges against Huawei, the world’s largest communications equipment manufacturer, and one of its top executives — a move likely to intensify trade tensions between the US and China. A 13-count indictment filed in New York City against Huawei, two of its affiliated firms, and its chief financial officer, Meng Wanzhou, accuses Huawei and an affiliate of bank fraud and wire fraud. The company is also charged with violating US sanctions on Iran and conspiring to obstruct justice related to the investigation.