5 things to know today
1. AT&T announced a slew of promotions in partnership with Samsung. Customers who purchase the Samsung Galaxy S7 or Galaxy S7 edge through AT&T Mobility’s Next program will be offered a free 48-inch Samsung “smart” TV. In order to qualify for the free TV, customers need to activate a new AT&T wireless account or a new DirecTV account.
The carrier is also offering three lower-priced models within Samsung’s Galaxy line: the Galaxy Express Prime GoPhone, the Galaxy J3 and the Galaxy Express 3. Only the Galaxy Express Prime GoPhone is available now; the others are coming next month.
AT&T Mobility’s Galaxy promos come as rivals Sprint and T-Mobile US are offering deals on Apple’s new lower-priced smartphone, the iPhone SE. Sprint is offering the iPhone SE for free with a two-year contract, and T-Mobile US is offering new iPhone buyers a second model of equal or lesser value for half off. The deal includes the latest iPhone SE, as well as the 6s, 6s Plus, 6, 6 Plus, 5s and 5c and requires customers to sign up for a new line of service.
2. Federal Communications Commission Chairman Tom Wheeler said the agency won’t investigate Netflix for throttling video. Wheeler said the agency does not investigate “edge providers” like Netflix. The FCC’s Open Internet Order, more commonly known as the net neutrality rule, applies to Internet service providers and not to content providers.
3. Brocade Communications is buying Ruckus Wireless in a deal that could be worth up to $1.5 billion, depending on the value of Brocade’s stock at closing. The merger should make Brocade a tougher competitor to Cisco and Hewlett-Packard, both of which have bought Wi-Fi access point providers within the last four years. Cisco bought Meraki in 2012, and HP bought Aruba last year.
4. Reuters is reporting the Egyptian government blocked Facebook’s Free Basics mobile Internet service because the U.S. company was not allowing Egypt’s government to see what Facebook users were doing online. A spokesman for Egypt’s Ministry of Commerce said the Free Basics Service was blocked because it put other competitors at a disadvantage, since consumers did not have to pay for Internet access with Free Basics.
5. India’s government is also worried about U.S. tech giants squeezing out local companies, and Apple is feeling the pain. For the second time, Apple is asking the Indian government for permission to sell used iPhones in India and for the second time the company is meeting resistance. According to Bloomberg, Samsung and other companies that manufacture phones for the Indian market are protesting, saying the country prohibits the import of other used goods like cars and should continue to maintain the same positions for smartphones.
India is the world’s second most populous country after China, which has become Apple’s biggest smartphone market. Apple currently has just 2% of the Indian smartphone market.
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