Clearly terrified at the process of losing four solid months of its 3G license's duration (which still runs for another 13 years, by the way), the UK's Office of Communications has now confirmed that O2 has stood up, acted like a carrier for once in its life, and taken responsibility for its wrongdoing. Obligations tied to the sale of the UK's 3G licenses back in 2000 stipulated that all buyers must reach 80 percent population coverage by December 31, 2007; Vodafone, T-Mobile, Orange, and 3 all managed to do that, but O2 was caught with its pants down at 75.69 percent. Ofcom showed leniency and extended O2's deadline out to June of this year, which was just enough for the carrier to get its act together and bring its coverage over the minimum. Meanwhile, US 3G coverage is an embarrassing shadow of the impressive numbers that even the slacker carriers there have managed to put up, so don't feel too bad for yourself, O2, we still love ya.

[Via Coolsmartphone]

Well, that's not much of a vote of confidence for Microsoft's own products, now is it? Despite the fact that Silverlight for Mobile development is well underway, Windows Mobile's patron saint has decided to license Adobe's Flash Lite and Reader LE packages directly and make them available to WinMo licensees straight from the mothership. Though Adobe's press release says that availability on specific devices will be "confirmed later," we imagine that it'll be a no-brainer for virtually every ODM to sign right up to offer the goods -- just ask any Nokia N95 8GB owner how cool the in-browser Flash support is.

[Via Mobility Site]

So the UK's Ofcom (that's Office of Communications, for those not in the know), in awarding its coveted 3G licenses, required that those five licensees all cover at least 80 percent of its population by December 31, 2007. Four of those five companies -- Vodafone, T-Mobile, Orange, and 3 -- were able to meet that deadline; meanwhile, O2 has been holding down last place with a measly 75.69 percent blanketed with its high speed data, which leaves the Telefonica subsidiary about 2.5 million Britons short of its obligation. So when a government body is dealing with a huge, multinational corporation that's failing to hold up its end of the bargain, you'd think that there'd be some massive fine levied, right? Not exactly. First of all, Ofcom's extending O2's deadline out to the end of June, and if they're still not at 80 percent, the penalty will be to reduce the term of O2's 3G license by a mere four months. Oh, and the license doesn't even expire until 2021. Way to put your foot down, Ofcom.

We first got wind of AMD's wishes to boost the graphical prowess of handsets way back in February of this year (and saw it reaffirmed in March), and now it seems that the firm is making it happen. Apparently, AMD has agreed to license "cutting-edge graphics core technology to Qualcomm" for next-generation chipsets. The deal will reportedly bring AMD's Unified Shader Architecture (introduced in the Xbox 360) to Qualcomm's Mobile Station Modem chipsets, which both firms hope will boost the adoption of 3D gaming and graphic-intensive applications on mobiles. Sadly, we're still left to wonder when we'll see a device actually take advantage of the horsepower, but at least it's in motion.

[Via ExtremeTech]

As quickly as wireless devices are obsoleting and replacing landlines in developed nations, needless to say, it's going down even quicker in a country where the landline infrastructure has been largely destroyed by war and a lack of investment. Less than 4 percent of Iraqis rock wired phones, relying almost exclusively on a cellular infrastructure currently being serviced by three short-term contracts awarded by the US in 2003. Those contracts are about to expire, though, making way for three longer-term licenses that'll be good for 15 years. Bidding started at $300 million plus 18 percent revenue sharing with the Iraqi government; when all was said and done, the licenses sold for a princely total of $3.75 billion. The winners were Kuwait's Mobile Telecommunications and Asiacell along with Iraq's own Korek Telecom, all three of which already operate networks in the country. Should be a smooth transition, then -- for the sake of subscribers, let's try to keep billing issues to a minimum, shall we?

Remember the joy that the AWS auctions brought us? The thrills, chills, intrigue, and ultimately the huge dollars that were raked in by the FCC? Well, grab your popcorn an' soda because the stage is being set for the same brouhaha in Canada. The Honorable Maxime Bernier – the Minister of Industry announced the launch of a public consultation on a framework for said auction in the 2 GHz band (read: Advanced Wireless Services). In total, 105 MHz of bandwidth will be available for auction; to put that in perspective – the AWS auction was for 1122 licenses covering an 90 MHz chunk of 3G spectrum, this auction will be for more spectrum, with an unknown quantity of licenses and far fewer subscribers. Bear in mind, this is only a consultation and is the first in many steps before this auction is truly ready to start. This could be terribly slow going because in Canada, we live for committees, consultations, and inquiries. If the event is anything like the 161-round nail biter covered in the late summer – you can be 100 percent sure that we will not be there covering any of the action.

[Via HowardForums]

We don't know what all the issues are in getting Nokia and patent holding company Qualcomm to come to terms on a new CDMA / WCDMA licensing agreement to supersede the one expiring this April, but we'd like to see that go down soon so, you know, Nokia doesn't have to stop making phones or anything silly like that. The companies fortunately agree, suggesting that they may call in an independent third party to arbitrate their dispute. We suspect the impasse has something to do with Qualcomm's "give us more money" versus Nokia's "no," so the arbitrator should have the trivial job of working one up and one down a bit, right?

Remember the news that a Korean government-appointed panel had recommended revocation of LG Telecom's right to 3G on the 2GHz band? Well, it happened. Interestingly, investors think this is great news for the company, pushing its stock sharply upward on the news -- possibly because the technology for which the license was issued has failed to become a commercial success. LG Telecom now looks to instead deploy EV-DO rev. A on the more widely-accepted 1.8GHz band, but at any rate, Korea takes their 3G deployments seriously -- per regulation, the government is now pressing for CEO Nam Yong's removal.

[Via Mobile Magazine]

As the saying goes, "You snooze, you lose." Such is the case for LG Telecom, Korea's 3rd-largest carrier behind SK Telecom and KTF, which purchased a license to deploy 3G services on the 2GHz band in 2001 for 1.15 trillion won ($1.2 billion, give or take), but has yet to do anything with said license. According to the terms of the license agreement, the services had to be in place by the end of last month, and an advisory board has subsequently given the thumbs-up to Korea's Ministry of Information and Communication to yoink the license. LG Telecom's CEO, Nam Yong, has said that deploying 3G at 2GHz would be counter to market trends and they'd like to upgrade their 1.8GHz network instead, but it appears the heart-of-stone MIC is going ahead with the revocation nonetheless. And here's the real kicker: Korean law stipulates that any company failing to make good on a 3G rollout remove its chief executive. Oh, but don't you worry about Mr. Nam; rumor has it he'll likely land comfortably somewhere within LGT's corporate parent -- you guessed it -- LG Electronics.