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Updated Every four years, the United Nations' International Telecommunication Union (ITU) stages a Plenipotentiary Conference at which member states decide how the organization will steer the development of communications technologies. The event is usually only of interest to telco and policy wonks.But this year's event has become a geopolitical football – and possibly a turning point for internet governance – thanks to the two candidates running in an election for the position of ITU secretary-general.The US has put forward Doreen Bogdan-Martin for the gig. She's an ITU veteran with years of experience working with global telecoms regulators. She also believes...

The annual conference is hosted by Great Wall Club (GWC), a group comprised of executives from Chinese companies such as Tencent and their Silicon Valley counterparts. This collaboration, however, poses a national security threat and runs the risk of intellectual property theft and espionage per the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). Tencent, for example, has been characterized by the U.S. State Department as a “tool of the Chinese government” with “no meaningful ability to tell the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) ‘no’ if officials decide to ask for their assistance,”and is among the bevy of Chinese companies banned or on track...

Apple unveiled its iPhone 11 line up Sept. 10, rolling out three variants: the iPhone 11, iPhone 11 Pro and iPhone 11 Pro Max... Sales of the iPhone have been robust in the months of September and October, Bloomberg reported, citing internal calculations based on data released by the China Academy of Information and Communications Technology, or CAICT. CAICT is a unit of China's Technology Ministry. Apple reportedly sold 10 million iPhones in September and October, a 6% year-over-year increase. The CAICT report said Chinese domestic smartphone shipments came in at 34.6 million units in October, representing a 4.5% drop,...