Categoria: HardwareSoftware

Rows with the US monitor

Two consulting firms hired to help the United States police ZTE Corp’s compliance with trade sanctions have resigned, according to Reuters.

ZTE agreed earlier this year to pay a nearly $ 900 million penalty and open its books to a U.S. monitor as part of a guilty plea for illegally shipping goods to Iran and North Korea.

Guidepost Solutions and Larkin Trade International were hired in June by Texas lawyer James Stanton to help assess the company’s compliance with US export control and sanctions laws, and reduce its risk of future misconduct.

In late August, the two firms parted ways with the monitor after clashing over his approach to the job.

Reuters could not work out the exact reasons for the departure, but it seems Stanton initially restricted the consultants’ access to ZTE documents and officials, hindering their ability to help monitor the company, one of the people said.

It thinks some of the problems with efforts to monitor ZTE, unreported to date, are rooted in how a US judge set up the policing programme in March.

US District Judge Ed Kinkeade presided over the ZTE sanctions case because the Justice Department filed the plea agreement between the United States and ZTE in his court in Texas, where the company’s headquarters are located.

Kinkeade took the unusual step of having the agreement rewritten to put Stanton, a civil and personal injury lawyer, in charge of monitoring ZTE’s compliance with US export controls.

Stanton had little experience in US trade controls. The order naming him was sealed, leaving additional logic for the judge’s decision unclear.

ZTE and the Justice Department felt compelled to agree to Kinkeade’s choice and the changes to the monitorship agreement. This was because the plea had already been negotiated and filed in the judge’s court and a temporary license allowing ZTE to obtain the U.S. made goods – crucial for the company’s output – was about to expire.

Stanton has to issue three reports, the first of which is due in January, on ZTE’s compliance with US trade rules. The reports will help determine whether the company is liable for an additional fine of $ 300 million or, worse, should lose its access to the US market.

Stando a fonti ben informate, AGCOM starebbe per approvare in via ufficiale un “atto di indirizzo” con cui chiederà agli operatori di telecomunicazioni di mettere gli utenti nelle condizioni di scegliere liberamente il modem router.

In attesa di conoscere il contenuto del documento elaborato dall’Autorità, la decisione che AGCOM avrebbe assunto è indubbiamente un fatto positivo.
Certificare la libertà nell’utilizzo di apparati acquistati in proprio dagli abbonati, significa indurre gli operatori ad aprire i propri servizi e a consentirne l’impiego anche con i dispositivi che non siano i modem router forniti dietro versamente di un canone mensile di noleggio oppure venduti al cliente a fronte dell’attivazione della connessione a banda larga/ultralarga.

La mente corre subito ai servizi VoIP su fibra: TIM, ad esempio, non fornisce le credenziali SIP per utilizzare la fonia con modem router di terze parti di fatto obbligando gli abbonati che desiderassero maggiori funzionalità a collegare un altro router “in cascata”: Modem Telecom: come configurarlo e come affiancarlo a un router.
È stato poi ampiamente dimostrato che l’utilizzo dell’account SIP di TIM è possibile anche con apparati diversi da quelli forniti dall’operatore: VoIP su fibra TIM con un altro modem VDSL.Ecco quindi che le nuove disposizioni AGCOM potrebbero finalmente aprire il mercato eliminando tutti i paletti sino ad oggi imposti dai provider.
Resta da vedere se il provvedimento sancirà esclusivamente la cosiddetta libertà di modem (tema più volte portato in Parlamento dal deputato Ivan Catalano: Libertà di modem: gli operatori di telecomunicazioni dovranno rispettare le norme) oppure obbligherà anche gli operatori di telecomunicazioni a presentare offerte che non prevedano la fornitura di modem router in abbonamento.

Numbers down but the margin keeps Apple in clover

The numbers for the iPhone X are well down on what was expected with only 30 million units sold in the fourth quarter of 2017 and the figure is expected to drop slightly in the first quarter of 2018.

 This number was dug up by Digitimes which has been asking its chums in the semiconductor packaging and testing service industry.

The sources pointed out that the pre-orders for the iPhone X in some markets such as Taiwan, the US and Singapore, are not as strong as expected.

The poor iPhone X performance is unlikely to hurt Apple much. The markup on the phone is so high that Apple is still coining it in.  However, it does show that there is still a general slump in things Applish. 

Because of the iPhone X’s weak performance, the upstream supply chain has been rumoured that Apple is planning three new smartphones for 2018 with two using OLED displays and one LCD display, and the 3D sensing functionality may be more broadly used in these devices.

Apple is also rumoured to adjust its pricing for iPhone devices in early 2018 and has even started preparing a prototype iPhone with the support of pre-5G features.

Whether or not that will be enough to save the iPhone, is hard to say.  People are generally starting to wake up that the iPhone is behind in technology terms and price.

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