News around the industry is a fairly mixed bag in these times of domestic economic uncertainty. Research in Motion (RIM), maker of Blackberry smartphones, has renewed a multi-year patent license agreement with Nokia in which they are required to pay an up-front payment plus cyclic royalties for use of Nokia's wireless technology patents.

The deal apparently covers use of GSM, WCDMA and CDMA2000 patents. Earlier this year Nokia settled a long patent battle with mobile chipmaker Qualcomm, agreeing on a 15-year deal which included a one-time payment of $2.2 billion.

In the mean time AT&T has announced its decision to eliminate 12,000 jobs, or about 4 percent of its total workforce, to cope with an economic downturn, a changing business mix and a more streamlined organizational structure.
The company also plans to reduce its 2009 capital spending from this year's levels and actual spending plans are being finalized. AT&T said it would provide details in late January.

The move follows AT&T's April announcement of cutting 4,600 jobs, mostly in management, as well as a three-year plan disclosed at the end of last year to cut 10,000 jobs.