News for hackers. Stuff that matters.

A comment on EU lawmakers snub Apple's pleas, vote to push for charging cable standard. Parent comment

Re:EU lawmakers snub Apple's pleas, vote to push for chargin... by ClumsyPilot on Friday January 31, 2020 @09:37PM (#22208226)
I am not sure I understand your argument "my toaster does not have a standard connector, so neither should my iphone"? I mean, maybe they should, or maybe none cares to regulate toasters. Or maybe its only relevant to portable electronics, so laptops should have them but toasters shouldn't.

Think a bit broader - if apple wants to introduce a new phone communication standard, like 5g but different? It can't - frequencies are allocated for a specific purpose, and none will give you any for a proprietary protocol only you control.

This is not such a revolutionary idea if you look at a broader picture

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:EU lawmakers snub Apple's pleas, vote to push for chargin... by scarface74 on Friday January 31, 2020 @10:36PM (#22208471)
If Apple introduced a phone that didn’t comply with the 5G standard it wouldn’t be able to interoperate and would be less useful.

But the government didn’t mandate that iMessage had to be compatible with SMS (even though it is somewhat) nor did they mandate that AirDrop had to interoperate with a standard.

Should the government also mandate a standard messaging protocol must be used or that it has to work with SMS?

Should FaceTime be forced to be interoperable?

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:EU lawmakers snub Apple's pleas, vote to push for chargin... by ClumsyPilot on Sunday February 02, 2020 @08:23PM (#22220701)
Apple would not even be allowed to sell a phone that had a standard it invented in house, as it would cause interference with other radio equipment.

Radio frequencies are some of the most strictly regulated things on the planet, and misusing them will land you in jail in most countries.

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:EU lawmakers snub Apple's pleas, vote to push for chargin... by scarface74 on Sunday February 02, 2020 @08:44PM (#22220788)
The right to use radio frequencies are auctioned by the government. If Apple bought the rights to use the frequencies it could do whatever it wanted with them.

For instance, Sprint had WiMAX for 4G before they had LTE, two carriers have GSM and two have CDMA. The government didn’t mandate the protocols nor did they force the carriers to use the same protocol or the phone makers to support both.

You also had the proprietary Nextel push to talk.

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:EU lawmakers snub Apple's pleas, vote to push for chargin... by ClumsyPilot on Monday February 03, 2020 @06:50PM (#22230707)
Government absolutely do care what you do with the frequencies. The UK government auctioned 5G frequencies for a specific purpose. It took great pains to clear these frequencies, they weren't just lying around unused.

All the protocols you listed are open for adoption by various manufacturers. Apple absolutely would not be allowed to use them for a private protocol they keep to themselves. Airwaves are a public good, not private property. They even come with coverage obligations.

https://www.ofcom.org.uk/about-ofcom/latest/media/media-rele...

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:EU lawmakers snub Apple's pleas, vote to push for chargin... by scarface74 on Monday February 03, 2020 @08:34PM (#22231458)
But yet, we have an existence proof that a cellular carrier in the US - Sprint - had its own 4G protocol - WiMAX - that was only supported by Sprint

https://www.rcrwireless.com/20160401/opinion/worst-week-bold...

Not only that, even before Sprint acquired Nextel, Nextel was using the spectrum it had for its own proprietary wireless protocols and it wasn’t Big Government that killed either initiative - it was people exercising their own free will not buying Nextel phones and later WiMAX phones.

Most would link Sprint’s WiMAX decision back to its acquisition of Nextel Communications, which wrapped in 2005, and brought with it a significant load of 2.5 GHz spectrum licenses with specific build out dates. Nextel prior to being acquired had been testing various IP-based mobile broadband technologies, including various proprietary ones like Flash-OFDM and TDD-UMTS, as well as WiMAX and HSDPA.

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:EU lawmakers snub Apple's pleas, vote to push for chargin... by tripzilch on Monday February 03, 2020 @09:37AM (#22224435)
> Should the government also mandate a standard messaging protocol must be used or that it has to work with SMS?

Wait, are there places in the EU where is SMS is still that popular?

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:EU lawmakers snub Apple's pleas, vote to push for chargin... by scarface74 on Monday February 03, 2020 @08:32PM (#22231441)
Is this the new version of the old Slashdot meme - “Does anyone still watch TV? I haven’t owned a TV in 15 years.”

https://www.smseagle.eu/2017/03/06/daily-sms-mobile-statisti...

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:EU lawmakers snub Apple's pleas, vote to push for chargin... by tripzilch on Tuesday February 04, 2020 @05:44AM (#22234180)
No I'm genuinely asking whether and where SMS is still that popular in the Europe (your link talks about US and "worldwide"). I know many/most people in the US use SMS text for messaging.

But as far as I'm aware in Europe everybody is on WhatsApp, Telegram or something similar that uses data. But maybe I'm wrong and there's still some holdout EU country still texting, that is why I asked. But they generally all have pretty good data plans.

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:EU lawmakers snub Apple's pleas, vote to push for chargin... by scarface74 on Tuesday February 04, 2020 @06:03AM (#22234276)
You did see the part about 4.2 billion people use SMS daily? What’s the likelihood that that doesn’t include the EU.
[ Parent | on HN ]