5 things to know today …
1. AT&T’s plan to swap spectrum with Telefónica in Mexico has been approved by the Mexican government. The Federal Telecommunications Institute authorized AT&T to use the 1.7/2.1 GHz band in certain areas of Mexico, according to Reuters. Telefónica will be able to use the 1.9 GHz band formerly licensed to AT&T.
Mexico has been a major focus for AT&T, which purchased Mexican carriers Iusacell and Nextel Mexico within the last year. The leading carrier in Mexico is América Móvil, which is controlled by billionaire Carlos Slim.
2. Apple CEO Tim Cook is standing firm in support of encryption. Last night on “60 Minutes,” Cook said giving the U.S. government “backdoor” access to mobile devices was not the best way to thwart terrorism. The comments were recorded before the Paris attacks. However, Cook has reportedly said what happened in Paris has not changed his opinion.
3. Mobile operators saw revenue rise for the first time in a year, according to Strategy Analytics. But year-on-year revenue rose just 0.1%, while global mobile data traffic increased 71% year-on-year. Revenue declined for operators in North American, Western Europe and Central America, and rose for operators in Asia, the Middle East and Africa.
4. China Mobile plans to bring voice over LTE to more than 260 Chinese cities in 2016. The world’s largest carrier reportedly plans to deploy more than 100,000 LTE base stations. China Mobile’s LTE vendors include Huawei, ZTE, Nokia, Alcatel-Lucent (now owned by Nokia), Ericsson and Datang Mobile.
5. Ericsson and Russia’s Mobile Telesystems will cooperate on “5G” research. The two companies signed a memorandum of understanding covering spectrum studies and the building of a test system. Russian carriers have already deployed “4G,” but widespread commercial deployment of 5G is not expected until 2020.
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