For busy people, a recap of last week's industry news:
Companies and Products
The FCC approved AT&T's $48.5 billion acquisition of DirecTV, with the proviso that AT&T build out fiber to 12.5 million customers. AT&T is now the biggest pay TV company, with 26 million subscribers in the U.S. and 19 million in Latin America.
Freescale's RF revenue was $177 million in Q2, 4 percent below Q1 and 48 percent above last year's Q2. The sequential decline reflected "slowing wireless capital expenditure spending in major markets including China."
![Freescale RF revenue](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CKoWAGMWgAAg8YB.jpg)
Continental will use Freescale's 77 GHz radar chipset on their next generation short and mid-range automotive radar.
As an example of differing perspectives, Europe is embracing Huawei while the U.S. sees the firm as a security threat. The Wall Street Journal counts 15 deals in Europe so far this year, which is almost as many as Huawei secured in 2014.
In yet another 5G announcement, Keysight and NTT DOCOMO are collaborating on millimeter wave, massive MIMO, new air interfaces, and ultra broadband.
Lockheed Martin will acquire Sikorsky Aircraft for $9 billion. They also announced a "strategic review" of their own IT and technical services businesses.
More on the possible acquisition of Micron by Tsinghua Unigroup of China: Micron sources told Reuters they do not believe the deal would get U.S. regulatory approval.
NXP introduced a 300 watt CW LDMOS power transistor for the 2.4 GHz ISM band. The plastic packaged PA achieves 58 percent drain efficiency and 17 dB gain.
Pasternack released six millimeter wave detectors that cover 26.5 to 110 GHz in the standard waveguide interfaces (WR-28 to WR-10).
Following Qualcomm's third profit warning, the company announced a 15 percent reduction in staff as well as a review of their corporate structure (read this as whether to break the company apart).
Skyworks reported fiscal Q3 revenue of $810 million, up 6.3 percent sequentially, 38 percent compared with the same quarter last year, and above guidance.
![Skyworks revenue trend](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CKrpu4IWoAACCnU.jpg)
Responding to a question from Alex Guana of JMP Securities during the earnings call, Skyworks CEO Dave Aldrich explained the company's success.
Strut failure is the hypothesis for the loss of SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket, just 139 seconds after launch.
Reporting Q2 earnings, Verizon said the wireless business had 109.5 million cellular retail connections at the end of the quarter, and their LTE network carried 87 percent of the wireless data traffic.
Markets and Technology
China's Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) released telecom metrics for the first half of 2015. 4G subscribers reached 225 million, and 360 billion SMS messages were sent.
The FCC will apparently block the $3.3 billion "small business" discount that Dish engineered during the AWS-3 spectrum auction.
Despite our desire to be connected anywhere, NIMBY (not in my back yard) is our feeling when it comes to cellular antennas — even for small cells. So operators have become creative. Is this a bird house? No, it's a Vodafone booster, designed to improve coverage to the countryside.
![Vodafone booster](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CKeC1PzWcAAKvMM.jpg)
Confused by all the groups working on 5G? Nokia Networks compiled this list of players and what they're doing.
When street lights become sensors in the Internet of Things, the mall can tell you where to park.
The first government approved drone delivery in the U.S. was for a trial to deliver medicine to a rural Virginia clinic.
Is this one of the options on the Apple Watch? Hat tip to @WillWhittow on Twitter.
![](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CKwREKBVAAA1vOY.jpg)
Have a good week.