Nova Labs received $200 million in funding from investors led by Tiger Global and Andreessen Horowitz for its Helium Network, which offers “decentralized wireless networks powered by crypto incentives,” CEO Amir Haleem blogged Wednesday. “The funding will enable Nova Labs to invest in the Helium ecosystem through hiring additional development resources, accelerating continued wireless protocol support, and building new applications on top of the Helium Network,” Haleem said. In October, Dish Network became “the first major carrier to utilize the Helium Network’s crypto incentive model,” he said: “Today, telecommunications companies like Deutsche Telekom, Liberty Global, NGP Capital back Nova Labs as investors.” The network “consists of more than 682,000 Hotspots built by third-party manufacturers” and is “used daily by companies ranging from titans of the Fortune 500 to local businesses,” he said.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit declined a request for a panel rehearing of a February decision upholding the FCC's 2021 changes to over-the-air reception devices (OTARD) rules in a case brought by Children’s Health Defense (see 2202110059). The brief order was issued Wednesday, two days after appellants sought rehearing (see 2203280056).

Southern Linc asked the FCC for a waiver until April 3, 2026, to deploy z-axis technology for providing vertical location information for wireless 911 calls throughout its network. The carrier said it’s the only Tier III non-nationwide provider required to meet a deadline of Sunday because it serves customers in a top 25 market. Southern Linc’s “limited resources as a smaller Tier III provider, and the unavailability of a compliant vertical location solution altogether present unique and unusual factual circumstances that make full compliance with the applicable deployment deadlines unfeasible,” said a filing posted Wednesday in docket 07-114.

Mobile money transactions hit a record $1 trillion last year, reported GSMA Wednesday. “The industry enjoyed a substantial increase in the number of registered accounts, up 18% since 2020 reaching 1.35 billion globally,” it said: “The volume of person-to-person transactions were up to more than 1.5 million every hour.” Mobile money transactions are playing an especially important role in low- and middle-income countries, GSMA said. Merchant payments “were instrumental in the growth of the mobile money industry in 2021” nearly doubling to $5.5 billion in transactions monthly, GSMA said.

Representatives of the 5G for 12 GHz Coalition discussed changing the rules for the band so it can be used for 5G, in meetings with aides to FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel and Commissioner Geoffrey Starks. The coalition “explained that its efforts to encourage the Commission to open up the 12.2-12.7 GHz band for two-way terrestrial, 5G mobile service, and opportunistic use continues to gain support from a wide array of policy thought leaders, public interest groups, and service providers,” said a filing posted Tuesday in docket 20-443. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit’s December decision upholding the FCC’s 6 GHz order (2112280047) “reaffirmed the Commission’s authority as primary spectrum regulators and leading experts to assess interference and rejected arguments that spectrum sharing should be prohibited unless zero interference is found,” the coalition said.

FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel and NTIA Administrator Alan Davidson met Tuesday to discuss spectrum coordination, the first of what they promised in February will be monthly meetings (see 2202150001). A joint task force also started meetings, aimed at updating the 2003 memorandum of understanding between the two agencies. The two discussed a national spectrum strategy, the use of mid-band and millimeter wave for 5G and advanced networks, and the FCC’s pending receiver standards notice of inquiry, the FCC said. “A partnership requires clear communication, open doors, thoughtful listening, and mutual respect,” Rosenworcel and Davidson said in a joint statement: “Our agencies have very compatible and complimentary roles in American spectrum policy making. Congress has been clear about NTIA’s statutory role as manager of the federal government’s use of spectrum and the FCC as the independent agency responsible for non-federal spectrum policy.” Under the old MOU, the FCC and NTIA chiefs had agreed to meet twice yearly.

Liberty Strategic Capital will spend about $525 million to buy Zimperium, a mobile device threat defense platform, said the buyer Tuesday. Liberty is the cybersecurity-focused private equity startup run by former Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, who will become Zimperium’s chairman when the transaction closes in Q2. SoftBank, a Zimperium investor since 2017, will continue as a minority investor. Zimperium will be Liberty's fourth cybersecurity buy, it said.

Rexing agreed to pay a $75,000 fine and implement a compliance plan for allegedly marketing vehicle-dash cameras that hadn’t been authorized by the FCC. Rexing sells aftermarket vehicle dash cameras and accessories, the bureau said Tuesday. An investigation found the company didn’t seek FCC equipment authorizations until July 2020, four years after it started marketing the devices.

The Open RF Association completed the “initial phase” of a study determining RF power levels used in 5G handsets “to help the industry better optimize data throughput performance and ultimately improve battery life,” said the consortium Tuesday. Its founding members are Broadcom, Intel, MediaTek, Murata, Qorvo and Samsung. All contributed data and analyses to the study -- done by Signals Research Group -- which the consortium will use “to create a histogram showing RF power levels used in 5G handsets under real-world network conditions,” it said. The findings will be shared with consortium members in June, it said.

Analysis shows that “a constant refrain often heard in the broadband debate” that U.S. internet speeds are slower than in other nations isn’t true, the Phoenix Center said in a report released Tuesday. “As with fixed broadband, the most consistent result is that download speeds for mobile wireless broadband in U.S. cities are, on average, faster than in other nations and often materially so,” said Phoenix Center Chief Economist George Ford. “The U.S. mobile wireless industry is providing globally exceptional broadband services,” he said. The study looked at speeds in 98 countries and found average download speeds in the U.S. are in the top 15%.