Global smartphone shipments have declined 0.1% in Q3, to some 302.8 million units, according to IDC. Shipments in China fell 6.3% year-on-year, which is the tenth consecutive quarterly decline for the country. Europe, Japan, and the US all declined, but MEA, Latin America, and the rest of the APAC region grew. Wells Fargo has reported that the fear of environmental penalties due to lead in the cabling of AT&T and Verizon networks has been overblown, as testing from the EPA has not yet found any sites that require remedial action. Initially, the headline figure was $60 billion. AT&T has selected Ribbon Communications to provide it with network routing appliances, as part of its copper-to-fiber migration. The Neptune IP Router is…