TelecomLive April-2020

[ News Bytes ] www.telecomlive.com 9 Telecom LIVE April 2020 access to some of their infrastructure for up to nine years to address EU antitrust concerns. This included making available between 400 and 630 sites annually in towns with more than 35,000 people to allow rivals to provide current and future mobile and fixed telephony services. The deal includes a network sharing agreement and a partnership to roll out 5G infrastructure jointly across Italy. The EU has accepted this offer as condition for approval. Apple to pay up to $500 mn to settle US lawsuit over slow iPhones Apple Inc has agreed to pay up to $500 mn to settle litigation accusing it of quietly slowing down older iPhones as it launched new models, to induce owners to buy replacement phones or batteries. The preliminary proposed class-action settlement requires approval by US District Judge Edward Davila inSan Jose, California. It calls for Apple to pay consumers $25 per iPhone, which may be adjusted up or down depending on how many iPhones are eligible, with a minimum total payout of $310 mn. The lawyers plan to seek up to $93 mn, equal to 30 pc of $310 mn, in legal fees, plus up to $1.5mn for expenses. Apple denied wrongdoing and settled the nation- wide case to avoid the burdens and costs of litigation. The settlement covers US owners of the iPhone 6, 6 Plus, 6s, 6s Plus, 7, 7Plus or SE that ran the i O S 1 0 . 2 . 1 o r l a t e r operating system. It also covers US owners of the iPhone 7 and 7 Plus that ran iOS 11.2 or later be fore December 21 , 2017. Consumers contended t h a t t h e i r p h o n e s ' performance suffered after they installed Apple software updates. They said this misled them into believing their phones were near the end of their l i f e c y c l e s , r equ i r i ng replacements or new batteries. Apple attributed the p r o b l ems ma i n l y t o temperature changes, high usage and other i s s u e s , a nd s a i d i t s engineers worked quickly a n d s u c c e s s f u l l y t o address them. Following an initial outcry over slow iPhones, Apple apologized and lowered the price for replacement batteries to $29 from$79. Shyam Telecom seeks approval to delist shares Domestic telecom gear maker Shyam Telecom said it has sought share- holders' approval for delisting of its shares. The promoters, who hold around 74 pc stake in the company, have written to the board for delisting of shares as it will provide operational flexibility to the firm, full ownership to the promoters and reduce c o s t o f c omp l i a n c e incurred by a listed entity, it said in regulatory filing. Th e c omp a n y h a d posted a loss of Rs 1.35 cr for the quarter ended Dec 2019, compared to a profit of Rs 57 lakh in the same period a year ago. WhatsApp takes step toward spyware lawsuit after Israeli company no-show WhatsApp has taken a step toward wining its widely publicized lawsuit against the NSO Group after the Israeli spyware merchant failed to show up in court, according to a notice of default entered in Northern District of California. WhatsApp sued NSO in October after finding evidence that the hacking firm had abused a flaw in the Facebook Inc-owned messaging app's popular chat program to remotely h i j a c k h u n d r e d s o f smartphones. NSO said in response t h a t Wh a t s Ap p h a d "prematurely moved for default before properly serving NSO with the lawsuit" and that "this default notice will not stand." Govt can't slap GST on license fee: Com- panies drag taxman to court A g r o u p o f s ma l l companies have filed a writ petition in the Goa bench of the Mumbai High Court challenging government's right to charge indirect tax for doing its duty. The writ petition challenges GST payable on license fees cha r g ed t o t e l e c om, mining companies and casinos. The companies are challenging a circular i s s u e d u n d e r G S T framework that provides for levying GST on license f ees r ece i ved by the