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posted by Fnord666 on Sunday May 05 2019, @07:47PM   Printer-friendly
from the cell-tower-on-park-place dept.

The US Justice Department on Thursday asked for a hearing on Qualcomm's possible punishment if a California judge agrees with the Federal Trade Commission and declares the chipmaker to be a monopoly -- largely because it's worried about competition in 5G.

In a statement of interest filed in US District Court in San Jose, California, the DOJ's antitrust division asked that "in the event that the court finds liability on any of the FTC's claims, the court should order additional briefing and hold a hearing on issues related to a remedy." The DOJ said that the court should carefully consider what remedy to carry out because it's worried about the US' position in the race to 5G.

"There is a plausible prospect that an overly broad remedy in this case could reduce competition and innovation in markets for 5G technology and downstream applications that rely on that technology," the US wrote. "Such an outcome could exceed the appropriate scope of an equitable antitrust remedy. Moreover, it has the distinct potential to harm rather than help competition."

The US stressed, though, that it hasn't taken a position on the merits of the FTC's claims.

Qualcomm declined to comment. The FTC didn't immediately respond to a request for comment.

[...] After years of work on 5G networks, hyped as the life-changing foundation for augmented reality, telemedicine and other tech trends, the super-fast wireless technology is being rolled out. Carriers are turning on their networks, and virtually every major Android handset maker has touted plans to launch a 5G device this year. The vast majority of those devices will use 5G modems from Qualcomm.


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