Quick news from around the Web.
"How the White House thwarted FCC's chief on new Internet rules. http://on.wsj.com/18OZRbi via @WSJ" --@FierceWireless
> BT has inked a formal deal to buy EE for around $19 billion. Article
> Major U.S. hospitals are embracing Apple's HealthKit technology. Article
> Swatch will launch a smart watch in the next few months. Article
> Xiaomi is holding a press event in San Francisco Feb. 12, but it is not entering the U.S. smartphone market. Article
> BlackBerry won a patent-infringement court victory against Typo Products. Article
> Google may be more closely regulated under the FCC's new net neutrality rules. Article
Wireless Tech News
> Declaring "the Rise of the Machines" in announcing the "world's first" global standards for M2M development, the oneM2M standards organization this week unveiled standards that are designed to serve as building blocks for machine-to-machine (M2M) and Internet of Things (IoT) applications that interwork going forward. Article
> NTT Communications is testing information sharing between smartphones and digital signage using technology based on the WebSocket and WebRTC protocols. The test, conducted at a shopping mall/resort in Chatancho, Okinawa Prefecture, Japan, will continue until the end of February. Article
> Huawei and China Unicom Guangdong Branch (Guangdong Unicom) say they've deployed the world's first Atom Router for commercial use. Article
Telecom News
> Verizon is close to reaching a deal to sell off wireline assets that are worth $10 billion to Frontier Communications, reports Reuters, citing a person familiar with the talks. Article
> Windstream has taken another step forward with realigning its top management team by naming Joseph Harding as its new EVP and CMO for its enterprise business. Article
Cable News
> Speaking at Charter Communications' fourth-quarter earnings call Thursday, company president and CEO Tom Rutledge said stringent Title II-oriented regulation likely to be passed by the FCC won't have a material impact on the cable industry. Article
> As the cable industry assess the broader impact of strict Title II regulation of the Internet, one significant factor already appears likely: interconnection deals, such as the one Comcast notoriously carved out with Netflix last year, could go away. Article
And finally… According to a new report, only a third of mobile users in the United States will pay for an app this year. Article