Google to Support Mobile Content Not Based on Accelerated Mobile Pages

Today’s topics include Google working on an alternative to Accelerated Mobile Pages and 5G leadership being at the center of a regulatory review of Broadcom’s bid for Qualcomm.

Google is working on an alternative to its Accelerated Mobile Pages format requirement for websites that want prime placement for their content in mobile search results. AMP is an open-source protocol for tweaking website content so it loads and runs faster on mobile devices.

Malte Ubl, the company’s lead for the AMP Project, said Google is now working on supporting mobile web content that’s not based on AMP technology. However, the content will still need to follow specific, but as yet undetermined, web standards and meet a set of performance and user experience metrics.

The current standards include a Feature Policy mechanism allowing developers to enable or disable specific web browsers, Web Packaging to bundle website content and Paint Timing that allows developers to capture key metrics during page load.

In Broadcom’s increasingly contentious bid to acquire chip-making rival Qualcomm, it is 5G networking that has drawn the attention of U.S. regulators and lawmakers. Their concern is that reducing Qualcomm’s role in 5G networking would give China a technological and market advantage.

Aimen Mir, deputy assistant secretary of investment security for the Treasury Department, said Broadcom officials indicate the company will take a “private-equity” approach to Qualcomm, reducing long-term investments such as R&D. This would weaken Qualcomm’s leadership in 5G innovation and would prove to be a U.S. national security threat, Mir said.

Broadcom President and CEO Hock Tan responded by saying “any notion that a combined Broadcom-Qualcomm would slash funding or cede leadership in 5G is completely unfounded.”