WASHINGTON-The House Science subcommittee on technology will hold a hearing this Thursday to address third-generation wireless technology, an issue that appears to be mushrooming into a major trade dispute between the United States and Europe.
The witnesses who will testify before the panel, headed by Rep. Connie Morella (R-Md.), are John Major, executive vice president of Qualcomm Inc.; Bo Piekarski, vice president of business development and strategic marketing at Ericsson Inc.; Jessie Russell, chairman of the Telecommunications Industry Associations’s wireless communication division; and Oliver Smoot, executive vice president of the Information Technology Industry Council.
U.S. policy makers are concerned that Qualcomm and other American wireless equipment manufacturers could lose out to Sweden-based Ericsson and Finland-based Nokia Corp. in the international standards-setting process for 3G.
The United States is expected to submit multiple 3G proposals to the International Telecommunications Union in Geneva this month.
