FCC finalizes $1.9bn compo deal for telcos forced to rip'n'replace Huawei, ZTE gear

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ZTE intros 'cloud laptop' that draws just five watts of power

The catch: It hooks up to desktop-as-a-service and runs Android – so while it looks like a laptop ...

Laura Dobberstein Fri 24 Jun 2022 // 00:45 UTC

Chinese telecom equipment maker ZTE has announced what it claims is the first "cloud laptop" – an Android-powered device that the consumes just five watts and links to its cloud desktop-as-a-service.
Announced this week at the partially state-owned company's 2022 Cloud Network Ecosystem Summit, the machine – model W600D – measures 325mm × 215mm × 14 mm, weighs 1.1kg and includes a 14-inch HD display, full-size keyboard, HD camera, and Bluetooth and Wi-Fi connectivity. An unspecified eight-core processors drives it, and a 40.42 watt-hour battery is claimed to last for eight hours.
It seems the primary purpose of this thing is to access a cloud-hosted remote desktop in which you do all or most of your work. ZTE claimed its home-grown RAP protocol ensures these remote desktops will be usable even on connections of a mere 128Kbit/sec, or with latency of 300ms and packet loss of six percent. That's quite a brag.

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SpaceX: 5G expansion could kill US Starlink broadband

It would be easier to take this complaint seriously if Elon wasn't so Elon

Brandon Vigliarolo Thu 23 Jun 2022 // 21:21 UTC

If the proposed addition of the 12GHz spectrum to 5G goes forward, Starlink broadband terminals across America could be crippled, or so SpaceX has complained.
The Elon Musk biz made the claim [PDF] this week in a filing to the FCC, which is considering allowing Dish to operate a 5G service in the 12GHz band (12.2-12.7GHz). This frequency range is also used by Starlink and others to provide over-the-air satellite internet connectivity.
SpaceX said its own in-house study, conducted in Las Vegas, showed "harmful interference from terrestrial mobile service to SpaceX's Starlink terminals … more than 77 percent of the time, resulting in full outages 74 percent of the time." It also claimed the interference will extend to a minimum of 13 miles from base stations. In other words, if Dish gets to use these frequencies in the US, it'll render nearby Starlink terminals useless through wireless interference, it was claimed.

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FCC: Applications for funds to replace Chinese comms kit lack evidence

Well you told us to rip and ... hang on, we're not getting any money?

Dan Robinson Thu 16 Jun 2022 // 15:01 UTC

The saga of the US government's plan to rip and replace China-made communications kit from the country's networks has a new twist: following reports that applications for funding far outstripped the cash set aside, it appears two-thirds of such applications lack adequate cost estimates or sufficient supporting evidence.
The US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) informed Congress that it had found deficiencies in 122 of the 181 of the applications filed with it by US carriers for funding to reimburse them for replacing telecoms equipment sourced from Chinese companies.
The FCC voted nearly a year ago to reimburse medium and small carriers in the US for removing and replacing all network equipment provided by companies such as Huawei and ZTE. The telecoms operators were required to do this in the interests of national security under the terms of the Secure and Trusted Communications Networks Act.

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Canada bans Huawei and ZTE from 5G networks, citing national security risks

Ban on shopping from September, rip and replace order with 2024 deadline

Laura Dobberstein Fri 20 May 2022 // 05:30 UTC

The Canadian government has joined many of its allies and banned the use of Huawei and ZTE tech in its 5G networks, as part of a new telecommunications security framework.
“The Government is committed to maximizing the social and economic benefits of 5G and access to telecommunications services writ large, but not at the expense of security,” stated the Government of Canada.
Companies using equipment or managed services from the two Chinese companies have been until 28 June 2024 to stop operating or remove the equipment.

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US tweaks requirement for investors to dump Chinese tech stocks

Stockholders can keep shares in Huawei, SMIC, and Inpsur - they're just not allowed to sell

Simon Sharwood, APAC Editor Tue 7 Jun 2022 // 04:15 UTC

The United States last week quietly eased its ban on investors holding stock in, or otherwise profiting from, Chinese companies that are felt to have ties to China's military.
The ban was first imposed by president Donald Trump with a 2020 executive order that forbade US-based individuals or entities owning shares in private Chinese companies identified as offering support to China's military, intelligence, and security agencies, by auditing their "development and modernization."
President Biden later issued a similar order of his own.

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India probes ZTE and Vivo over finances, sparking Chinese protests

Clever asymmetrical economic warfare makes Beijing very uncomfortable

Simon Sharwood, APAC Editor Wed 1 Jun 2022 // 05:00 UTC

India's government has reportedly started probes into the local activities of Chinese tech companies Vivo and ZTE, prompting a rebuke from China's foreign ministry.
As was the case when Indian authorities seized $725 million from Chinese gadget-maker Xiaomi, the investigations focus on possible irregular financial reporting that may amount to fraud, according to newswire Bloomberg's original report on the matter.
A Bloomberg reporter asked about the state of the investigations at the daily press conference staged by China's Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which produces a transcript of each day's event.

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Huawei claims it’s halved the time needed to build a 1,000-rack datacenter

Promises modular kit gets you up and running in six to nine months, with AI-powered ops to make it efficient

Simon Sharwood, APAC Editor Fri 27 May 2022 // 05:15 UTC

Huawei has entered the datacenter construction business with an offering that it claims can be built in half the time required by competing methods, then run more efficiently.
The prosaically named “Next-Generation Datacenter Facility”, as depicted in a video posted to Chinese social media, employs suspiciously-shipping-container-sized modules stacked into a larger building.
In the video, a pre-school girl and her father use Lego to assemble a cube-shaped building. The scene cuts to film of a very similar building under construction in the real world, before the director makes sure the metaphor can’t be missed by morphing the Lego and actual buildings, as depicted below.

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Leica and Huawei terminate trading agreement amid US sanctions

German optics giant jumps ship to make smartphone cameras for Xiaomi instead

Laura Dobberstein Tue 24 May 2022 // 11:06 UTC

Huawei's long established trading relationship with Leica to integrate the German camera maker's technology into its phones is over, the companies have confirmed.
From February 2016, all Huawei flagships were slated [PDF] to have Leica-developed lenses and branding.
The Reg was generally quite impressed by the combined products over the years.

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US carriers want to junk three times more Chinese comms kit than planned

FCC budget to rip and replace Huawei and ZTE kit was $1.9B. It received $5.6B of applications

Simon Sharwood, APAC Editor Mon 7 Feb 2022 // 03:32 UTC

The United States Federal Communications Commission has revealed that carriers have applied for $5.6 billion in funding to rip and replace China-made communications kit.
The applications were made under the Secure And Trusted Communications Reimbursement Program, which offers to reimburse carriers with under ten million subscribers to ditch kit from Chinese manufacturers Huawei and ZTE. The FCC and Congress want them to do so because the USA fears made-in-China comms kit contains backdoors that Beijing could exploit to either eavesdrop on communications or cut them off entirely.
Replacing made-in-China products with kit designed by American firms is supposed to be a route to improved national security.

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Will Chinese giants defy US sanctions on Russia? We asked a ZTE whistleblower

Just look at Ericsson and ISIS, Ashley Yablon says

Simon Sharwood, APAC Editor Mon 28 Mar 2022 // 07:00 UTC

If ZTE and other Chinese giants defy bans on selling American technology to Russia, it will be because they can't help but chase the revenue, says Ashley Yablon, the whistleblower whose evidence led to ZTE being fined for willfully ignoring the US ban on exports to Iran.
Yablon is a lawyer who, after working in senior roles at Huawei USA, in late 2011 became general counsel at Chinese telco kit-maker ZTE's US operations. Within months of starting the job, he encountered documentation detailing how ZTE sold its own and US-sourced technology to Iran in contravention of export bans.
ZTE asked him to defend the indefensible, and Yablon chose instead to blow the whistle. In May 2012 he told FBI agents of his experiences and let the bureau access his work laptop. The subsequent investigation led to ZTE being fined $900 million with another $300 million suspended – at the time the US government's highest-ever penalty.

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