The future depends on connectivity. From artificial intelligence and self-driving cars to telemedicine and mixed reality to as yet undreamt technologies, all the things we hope will make our lives easier, safer, and healthier will require high-speed, always-on internet connections. The FCC regulates who can use which ranges, or bands, of frequencies to prevent users from interfering with each other's signals. Low-Band Frequencies Bands below 1 GHz traditionally used by broadcast radio and television as well as mobile networks; they easily cover large distances and travel through walls, but those are now so crowded that carriers are turning to the higher range of the spectrum. Mid-Band Spectrum The range of the wireless spectrum from 1 GHz to 6 GHz, used by Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, mobile networks, and many other applications.

The surprise arrest of Huawei Technologies Co.'s Chief Financial Officer Meng Wanzhou is about to impact one of the Chinese company's suppliers in Japan. Yaskawa Electric Corp., which supplies industrial robots for Huawei's smartphone and telecom gear factories, saw all orders for its machines put on hold after the arrest, President Hiroshi Ogasawara said in an interview Wednesday. Of Yaskawa's ¥448.5 billion ($4 billion) in revenue for the fiscal year that ended in February, 23 percent came from China. "My people on the ground in China say that Huawei is turned upside down internally," Ogasawara said. "All kinds of capex deals are temporarily on hold as they figure things out."

A slew of rumours surrounding the Galaxy S10 mean there are few secrets left to reveal about Samsung's highly-anticipated flagship smartphone. One unknown that still remains, however, is the release date and price of the Galaxy S9 successor and its variants. Industry speculation has so far suggested the Mobile World Congress conference in Barcelona on 25 February could be a likely launch date, but a fresh leak claims it could come even sooner. The Galaxy S10 will instead be unveiled at a Samsung event ahead of MWC, with pre-orders beginning from this yet-to-be revealed date. The smartphone will then be released on 8 March 2019.

SHANGHAI – China's ambitious drive to dominate next-generation 5G technology faces a sudden reality check as fears spread that telecom companies like Huawei could be proxies for Beijing's intrusive security apparatus. Fifth-generation mobile communications are the next milestone in the digital revolution, bringing near-instantaneous connectivity and vast data capacity. They will enable the widespread adoption of futuristic technologies such as artificial intelligence and automated cars and factories -- advances China is desperate to lead. With 5G's rollout expected to gain pace in coming years, the race to dominate standards and control security and data traffic underpins much of the current high-tech rivalry between the United States and China, technology experts said. Huawei's status as a leading world supplier of the backbone equipment for telecoms systems -- mostly in developing markets -- gives China an inside track. But analysts say mounting concern over Huawei imperils that lead.

The detention in Canada of Meng Wanzhou, Huawei's CFO and the daughter of its founder, is further inflaming tensions between the US and China. Her arrest is linked to a US extradition request on undisclosed charges, but China says it's a human rights violation and is demanding her swift release. Behind this very public drama is a long-running, behind-the-scenes one centered on western intelligence agencies' fears that Huawei poses a significant threat to global security. Among the spooks' biggest concerns are: The Chinese firm is the world's largest manufacturer of things like base stations and antennae that mobile operators use to run wireless networks. And those networks carry data that's used to help control power grids, financial markets, transport systems, and other parts of countries' vital infrastructure.

Qualcomm's new Snapdragon 855 mobile processor offers a ton of new features that could be potentially enabled on next-generation smartphones--almost too many to list. But we managed to see some of the best in action. After Qualcomm finished announcing the Snapdragon 855, the company opened a pair of demo rooms showing some of the 855's flagship features. Through PCWorld's video team didn't make it to the event, I was able to record video demonstrating some of the new capabilities of the mobile chip, including improved battery life and gaming performance, intelligent audio filtering, and 4K recording with HDR. They all ran on prototype phones with the Snapdragon 855 chip inside. Unfortunately, what we didn't get to see included object identification and replacement, one of the features that taps into the computational aspect of the Snapdragon 855's Spectra image signal process (ISP).

As we hurtle towards 2019, Qualcomm has been busy introducing the world to its latest products that are likely to drive next year's biggest trends. To be clear, there are a lot of highlights here. This is the first mobile processor to support multi-gigabit 5G, and is one of the first chips built on 7-nanometer architecture. The Snapdragon 855 also features (among other things) advances in AI processing and graphics prowess -- let's take a closer look. For all of Qualcomm's talk abut 5G, the 855 is fascinating because it mainly relies on a new, built-in X24 LTE modem, not the Snapdragon X50 5G modem we've heard so much about lately.

But the new Kryo 485 core includes something unusual: a "prime core." Typically, a Snapdragon chip includes four "performance" cores and four "efficiency" cores, the latter optimized for lower power. The Snapdragon 845 uses four ARM A75 cores at 2.8GHz and four A55 cores running at 1.8GHz. Qualcomm says the Kryo 485 within the Snapdragon 855 is 45 percent more powerful. Here are the speeds of each of the Snapdragon 855's Kryo cores. But there are some interesting differences between the 845 and the 855.

BT is removing Huawei technology from the phone networks amid fears that the Chinese government could be using its infrastructure to spy on citizens. The company says it will no longer use Huawei's equipment in its existing 3G and 4G networks, and that it would not use it to build the 5G ones that it is building at the moment. It is just the latest operator to announce that it would not use the Chinese companies equipment amid fears that phone messages they are relaying could be intercepted. New Zealand and Australia have stopped telecom operators using Huawei's equipment in new 5G networks because they are concerned about possible Chinese government involvement in their communications infrastructure. Huawei, the world's biggest network equipment maker ahead of Ericsson and Nokia, has said Beijing has no influence over its operations.

This morning, we have a very important message for you from Tom Cruise and news about the hardware that will be inside many of 2019's most popular phones. It's not a 5G world yet, but we're getting ready, and that might mean adjusting to some very strange notch placements. And a new fingerprint sensor that works from within the display.Qualcomm's Snapdragon 855 chipset will power your next flagship phone It's been clear for a while now that 2019 will be the year of 5G, and it's little surprise that the Snapdragon 855 will support "multi-gigabit" data speeds on 5G networks as they light up around the country. SVP Alex Katouzian also pointed out that the 855 was designed to trounce last-generation chipsets when it comes to AI performance -- we can expect up to three-fold performance gains when it comes to these complex computations. He even detailed a new way to sense fingerprints from inside an all-screen phone: with Qualcomm's new ultrasonic sensor.