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Ofcom helps protect customers against unexpected roaming charges

Ofcom helps protect customers against unexpected roaming charges

UK service providers must notify customers when they connect to a different network

New rules from UK telecoms regulator Ofcom will protect customers when they use their mobile phone on a foreign network. In addition, customers will be alerted if they are inadvertently roaming, perhaps because they're near an international border.
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Global smartphone market is set for recovery, says new forecast

A new forecast from research specialists Canalys shows the smartphone market is set to recover next year. Worldwide shipments declined by 12% last year but that decline is expected to slow to 5% this year.
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Vodafone and Three plan to merge their UK businesses

Vodafone and Three plan to merge their UK businesses

New Hutchison/Vodafone network would be biggest UK operator

Vodafone Group plc and CK Hutchison Group Telecom Holdings Limited have agreed to combine their UK telecommunication businesses, respectively Vodafone UK and Three UK. The merger will create a large new network operator to compete with Virgin Media O2 and EE.
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UK mobile payment service Paym to close in March 2023

UK mobile payment service Paym will close on 7th March 2023. The service, which allowed users to make and receive payments using their mobile phone numbers, was launched in 2014.
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Qualcomm legal action moves forward in the UK

Qualcomm legal action moves forward in the UK

Which? seeks payout for Samsung and Apple smartphone owners

Consumer protection organisation Which? has been given permission by the UK's Competition Appeal Tribunal to represent Apple and Samsung smartphone buyers in a legal case against chip manufacturer Qualcomm.
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Opinion Articles

Friday, October 12, 2012

Congressional warning on Chinese telecoms could prompt retaliation

William Gallo of voanews.com writes:

Analysts say this week's U.S. congressional report that called two Chinese telecoms a threat to national security is likely to prompt China to retaliate against U.S. businesses.

The House Intelligence Committee report warned U.S. companies against doing business with China's largest phone equipment companies, Huawei and ZTE.

Released Monday, the bipartisan report said the telecom giants could use their equipment to spy on the U.S., citing what it described as "a close relationship" with China's Communist Party.

Retaliation

So far, Beijing has only issued stern complaints about the report in official press briefings and state media editorials. But analysts say more moves are likely to come.

"I think it would be surprising if there wasn't retaliation," says Stan Abrams, a Beijing-based corporate IT lawyer. "It might not be tomorrow or next week, but at some point, something will happen and it will be to the detriment of U.S. companies."

Abrams, who is also a foreign investment law professor, told VOA that China's government has a reputation for responding in kind when a country makes a decision it views as antagonistic.

"China's foreign policy and its economic policy in terms of other countries is all about reciprocity. They're very much into a reciprocal type arrangement with other nations," Abrams said.

Consequences

Observers say the stakes are large, and could affect U.S. tech firms that the Commerce Department estimates sold $20 billion in advanced technology to China last year alone.

One U.S. business that could be affected is network equipment company Cisco, a competitor of Huawei that has relied on China for sales. The California-based company this week cut ties with ZTE, saying an internal investigation led it to believe the Chinese firm had re-sold Cisco equipment to Iran in violation of U.S. sanctions.

But Patrick Chovanec , a business professor at Tsinghua University, tells VOA it is tough to say how China would retaliate, given its already restrictive stance toward foreign investment.

"Perhaps they can tighten that up, and perhaps they may selectively retaliate in order to send a signal. But that's really just a continuation of policies that have already existed that prohibit foreign companies and American companies from competing on an even playing field in China," Chovanec said.

Others say that China could also respond indirectly by failing to make progress on other unrelated trade issues that have angered Washington, including currency valuation and intellectual property rights.

Trade war

But analysts do not expect a trade war between the U.S. and China, the world's two largest economies, since China relies on U.S. technology for its infrastructure and U.S. companies depend on Chinese components for their products.

Abrams says he thinks the issue will eventually die down, not least of all because China's Communist Party is busy working on putting the finishing touches on a sensitive once-a-decade leadership transition.

"I don't think China will complain about it for very much longer," he says."China right now has much bigger fish to fry and much bigger domestic concerns."

Originally published on voanews.com

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