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It’s Been a Rough Month in Mountain View – Google/Alphabet has repeatedly defended itself from a wide range of criticisms over the last month. Starting with the awkward and tense departure of Dropcam’s founder from Nest Labs and culminating in a weak earnings report and criticism over its lobbying efforts in Washington, the firm is likely getting used to fending off attacks and bad press. Google enlisting members of Congress it funded with campaign contributions to defend itself from EU regulators is just the latest story line from a month that Eric Schmidt and Larry Page would like to forget.
Read More: Alphabet Earnings Disappoint as Google Ad Clicks Cost Less
Read More: Google Under Scrutiny Over Lobbying Influence on Congress and White House
Read More: EU Hits Google with Second Antitrust Charge
Read More: FTC Extends Probe into Google’s Android
Read More: Here’s How Google’s Waze Can Reportedly Be Used to Stalk Drivers

Things Weren’t Much Better in Cupertino – Despite resolution of the San Bernardino iPhone case, Apple had a pretty bad week as sales of iPhones dropped for the first time ever and led to an 8% hit in Apple’s stock price. The news follows last week’s reports that BMW and Mercedes withdrew from Apple’s car platform project over data ownership disputes. While the iPhone decline was expected, the hit to a new stream of product development is likely one that will be felt more down the road.
Read More: Why Apple’s Stock Fell Off a Cliff Today
Read More: BMW, Mercedes End ‘Titan’ Car Project Negotiations with Apple

T-Mobile Continues to Do Things Their Own Way and Make Money – The number three wireless carrier in the US turned a profit in the first quarter of 2016. Led by charismatic CEO John Legere, the carrier did away with customer contracts and offered all-you-can-eat streaming services on its platform to great criticism from rivals and analysts. At least in the short run it looks like the new business model is paying off as T-Mobile added more than two million new customers in the first three months of the year. The boost is available cash will further enable it to aggressive bid for spectrum in the 2016 FCC spectrum auction that got underway in late March.
Read More: T-Mobile Shows that Being the Un-Carrier Doesn’t have to Mean Being Unprofitable

FCC Spectrum Auction Could Make or Break Wireless Companies (and Internet of Things Companies) – The Federal Communications Commission is in the midst of a massive auction of spectrum that will enable the next generation of wireless communication and devices. T-Mobile, Verizon and AT&T will not only be competing with each other, but with many newcomers looking for spectrum. Because the spectrum up for auction is at the low end (in the 600Mhz) it is superior for penetrating walls and structures. While owning spectrum at the low end (700Mhz) has been a huge win for Verizon and AT&T in the past, you can bet that the new spectrum will be a hot commodity as Internet of Things companies look to gobble up the type of spectrum that will work well in residential and industrial applications that mandate a strong signal that can travel through dense structures.
Read More: Why You Should Care About The FCC Spectrum Auction
Read More: How the FCC’s Massive Airwaves Auction Will Change America — and Your Phone Service

Featured CXOTalk video of the week: Episode 38: Maryfran Johnson, Editor-in-Chief, CIO Magazine

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