FCC Auction Draws $19.8B for 70MHz of Repurposed Spectrum

The FCC's broadcast incentive auction, which concluded last week, attracted bids totalling $19.8 billion (gross revenue) for 70MHz of spectrum for nationwide mobile use.  This is among the highest grossing auctions ever conducted by the FCC.  More than $10 billion of this total will go to 175 broadcasters whose previously licensed spectrum was selected for the incentive
auction. Remaining funds go to the U.S. Treasury.

A total of 50 winning bidders won 70 MHz of licensed spectrum nationwide. A total of 14 MHz of spectrum is available for unlicensed use and wireless microphones. On a nationwide basis, 70 MHz is the most mobile broadband ever auctioned below 1GHz by the FCC. Among the largest winners were T-Mobile, Dish, Comcast, and US Cellular.

The Commission now commences a 39-month transition period to move broadcast stations to new channel assignments.

FCC Chairman Ajit Pai said, “The conclusion of the world’s first incentive auction is a major milestone in the FCC’s long history as steward of the nation’s airwaves. Consumers are the real beneficiaries, as broadcasters invest new resources in programming and service, and additional wireless spectrum opens the way to greater competition and innovation in the mobile broadband marketplace.”

http://www.fcc.gov

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Huawei's Target of $150bn Revenue by 2020 - Part 1

Preamble - Huawei little recognised or understood in western circles of power

Huawei is not very well-known in the U.S. for many historical and political reasons and yet it is already a major, and sometimes the leading, player in most geographical and sectoral electronics equipments markets outside of the U.S. Moreover, if it meets the targets it has set itself (and it has a very good record in that respect) it could be close to becoming the world's largest electronics company within the next five years. There are several reasons for this possibly rather dangerous state of ignorance or denial in the U.S. including the following.

Very low level of business in the U.S.

In its latest 2016 report published March 31st Huawei says that geographical sales last year for a region described as The Americas were just over RMB 44 billion, which is roughly $6.35 billion and only about 8% of its global total. Given that all the countries involved in the Americas, other than the U.S., i.e. Canada, Central America, South America and the Caribbean, contribute almost 14% of global GDP it is easy to see that the figure is quite low even for those countries and sales in the U.S. must indeed be very small, probably just a few hundreds of millions of dollars.

Preamble - Huawei little recognised or understood in western circles of power

Huawei is not very well-known in the U.S. for many historical and political reasons and yet it is already a major, and sometimes the leading, player in most geographical and sectoral electronics equipments markets outside of the U.S. Moreover, if it meets the targets it has set itself (and it has a very good record in that respect) it could be close to becoming the world's largest electronics company within the next five years. There are several reasons for this possibly rather dangerous state of ignorance or denial in the U.S. including the following.

Very low level of business in the U.S.

In its latest 2016 report published March 31st Huawei says that geographical sales last year for a region described as The Americas were just over RMB 44 billion, which is roughly $6.35 billion and only about 8% of its global total. Given that all the countries involved in the Americas, other than the U.S., i.e. Canada, Central America, South America and the Caribbean, contribute almost 14% of global GDP it is easy to see that the figure is quite low even for those countries and sales in the U.S. must indeed be very small, probably just a few hundreds of millions of dollars.

2016 financial results

Core numbers from the Huawei 2016 report (RMB millions) except first column in US$ millions:

	2016 ($m)	2016	2015	2014	2013	2012
Revenue	75,103	521,574	395,009	288,197	239,025	220,198
Operating Profit	6,842	47,515	45,786	34,205	29,128	20,658
Net profit	5,335	37,052	36,910	27,866	21,003	15,624
Cash flow from ops	7,087	49,218	52,300	41,755	22,554	24,969
Cash/short term inv	20,973	145,653	125,208	106,036	81,944	71,649
Working capital	16,736	116,231	89,019	78,566	75,180	63,837
Total assets	63,880	443,634	372,155	309,733	244,091	223,348
Total borrowings	6,451	44,799	28,986	28,108	23,033	20,754
Owner's equity	20,178	140,133	119,069	99,985	86,266	75,024
Liability ratio	68.40%	68.40%	68.00%	67.70%	64.70%	66.40%

(NB: it is worth noting that while the Huawei 2016 accounting results use the standard practice of converting from local currency to dollars at the average rate on December 31, 2016 (defined as RMB 6.9448 to the dollar), the average monthly exchange rate for all of 2016 was actually about RMB 6.643 to the dollar and at that rate Huawei's sales for the year in dollars would have been $78.51 billion, only slightly behind IBM's revenue for the year of $79.9 billion.)

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Intel Developer Forum 2017 is Cancelled

Intel has canceled its annual Intel Developer Forum, which was scheduled for August in San Francisco.

In comments to Anandtech, Intel said the event had simply grown too large especially given its move into autonomous driving and artificial intelligence.

IDF has been held annually since 1997.  A spring IDF 2017 in China was also canceled.

http://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/intel-developer-forum-idf/san-francisco/2017/idf-2017-san-francisco.html

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