Democratic 2020 presidential hopeful Andrew Yang said he will “initiate a robo-calling text line” aimed at eliminating them, if he's elected. “If you receive a robo-call that you feel was a waste of your time, simply forward the number that called you to” the proposed robocall “investigations line (800-ROBOCAL),” Yang's campaign said Friday in a policy proposal. “The FCC will follow up with the company that called you. If the FCC receives numerous complaints about a particular company, they will issue significant fines. This will quickly discourage companies from adopting marketing tactics that customers find unpleasant or unwelcome.” Leaders of the House and Senate Commerce committees say they're nearing a compromise to marry elements of House and Senate-passed anti-robocall bills (see 1909250063).

Four public interest groups told the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia it should reject the deal DOJ worked out with T-Mobile, Sprint and Dish Network allowing T-Mobile to buy Sprint. DOJ needs clearance from the court. Public Knowledge, Consumer Reports, the Electronic Frontier Foundation and New America’s Open Technology Institute raised concerns Friday. DOJ’s “Competitive Impact Statement ably describes why the proposed merger between Sprint and T-Mobile would substantially lessen competition for retail mobile wireless service,” they said. DOJ agreed to the deal “not because it has devised a set of conditions that it can demonstrate will reliably preserve the competition that exists today, or that would increase competition beyond its current level. Instead, it has put forward conditions that, at most, and only if all goes well, might bring back a semblance of the current level of competition some years from now,” they said in docket 1:19-cv-02232.

Commercial mobile service providers may join an end-to-end wireless emergency alerts test planned by Arizona’s Maricopa County Department of Emergency Management with the state and Arizona Public Service, the FCC Public Safety Bureau decided in docket 15-91. The department plans up to two tests on Nov. 13 at about noon and 12:30 p.m. MST, concurrently with regularly scheduled siren tests for the local nuclear power plant, the bureau said Thursday. “It is prudent, in the presence of a nuclear power plant in Maricopa County, to help educate the public about WEA and improve the proficiency of local emergency management officials in sending WEA messages to the public.”

The Enterprise Wireless Alliance told the FCC concerns remain about opening the 6 GHz band to sharing with unlicensed devices. EWA “represents many licensees of 6 GHz microwave systems that are concerned about the possibility of interference to their operations from unlicensed devices,” said a Wednesday filing in docket 18-295. “Some of those operations involve ‘public safety’ concerns as these 6 GHz microwave systems may be essential to the safe operations of refineries, mines, factories, and other locations with inherently hazardous conditions. Many others are used by licensees engaged in the broad array of enterprise activities.”

The FCC Wireless Bureau modified the temporary freeze on accepting some applications for changes to operations in the 900 MHz band. The FCC has had a freeze since last year (see 1809130064) as it probes future use (see 1708070043). “Anterix in its Request states that many 900 MHz band incumbents were in the process of upgrading or replacing their systems when the freeze was announced, and that these incumbents wish to construct on frequencies outside of the proposed broadband segment,” said an order on docket 17-200. “The 900 MHz freeze should be modified to provide greater flexibility for incumbents to relocate out of the proposed broadband segment. The purpose of the freeze is to preserve the current landscape of authorized operations in the band while the Commission considers potential rule changes.” Staff said “the future availability of the 900 MHz band will not be jeopardized by allowing an incumbent to exchange frequencies in a manner that does not increase that incumbent’s net number of licensed frequencies and is consistent with the Commission’s proposed band realignment.” Meanwhile, Anterix representatives met Giulia McHenry, acting chief of the Office of Economics and Analytics, about broad interest in 900 MHz private broadband. Anterix also spoke with Umair Javed, aide to Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel.

The Wireless ISP Association told an aide to Chairman Ajit Pai the group hopes the FCC soon will waive requirements that 3650-3700 MHz licensees complete the transition to Part 96 citizens broadband radio service rules by April 17 (see 1812040002). That deadline “would not allow many WISPA members to complete the transition in time given delays in equipment certifications,” WISPA said in docket 18-353, posted Thursday: “The upcoming winter months will make hardware change-outs more challenging.” The agency sought comment on the request, made by WISPA and the Utilities Technology Council last year. CTIA and NCTA opposed blanket waiver (see 1812260035).

Executive Vice President Brad Gillen and others from CTIA met FCC Chief of Staff Matthew Berry and Aaron Goldberger, an aide to Chairman Ajit Pai, on the agency’s regulatory framework for giving public safety answering points vertical location information for wireless calls to 911. Carriers' June comments supported a 3-meter standard for indoor wireless 911 calls but warned technological challenges remain (see 1906190011). “CTIA reiterated the wireless industry’s on-going commitment to enhancing wireless 9-1-1 location accuracy, particularly indoors, and provided a status update on the nationwide wireless providers’ efforts to meet the Fourth Report and Order’s vertical location requirements,” said a filing posted Thursday in docket 07-114. “CTIA reviewed the nationwide wireless providers’ significant efforts to work across the wireless ecosystem to deliver actionable vertical location information to PSAPs [public safety answering points] during a wireless 9-1-1 call. However, CTIA noted that third-party adoption and scalability issues remain substantial challenges to National Emergency Address Database (NEAD)-based dispatchable location solutions.”

CTIA supports unlicensed operations in part of the 6 GHz band, “but only with a rigorous interference protection framework” that guards against harmful interference from Wi-Fi devices, it filed, posted Wednesday in docket 18-295, Automatic frequency coordination (AFC) must be a requirement for all users, the group said. CTIA met with Chief Julius Knapp and others from Office of Engineering and Technology. High-tech companies (see 1910080036) pushing for sharing “have not shown that low power indoor devices or very low power indoor/outdoor devices will operate without interfering with incumbent primary 6 GHz licensed operations absent AFC control,” the association said. Some lobbyists hope Congress will take up 6 GHz legislation (see 1910090051).

Wells Fargo’s Jennifer Fritzsche sees industry enthusiasm about the citizens broadband radio service, after the firm held a conference on the topic Tuesday. “Enthusiasm for the spectrum and its multifaceted use cases was shared by many participants representing different layers of the ecosystem,” the analyst told investors Wednesday. “We believe we are in the early innings in learning how CBRS spectrum and shared use deployment model will revolutionize wireless network deployments in the future. As one of the few mid-band spectrum [bands] now available for commercial use, CBRS has garnered the attention of service providers (i.e.: wireless and cable) but also new players like technology companies and enterprises for their own specific use cases.”

IPhone overwhelmingly remains the smartphone of choice among U.S. teens, Piper Jaffray reported Tuesday. The company canvassed 9,500 teens with an average age just under 16, and found 83 percent owned an iPhone and 86 percent expect one will be their next phone. They spend 37 percent of their daily video consumption on YouTube, with Netflix closely behind at 35 percent. Amazon holds the majority of “online shopping mindshare” at 52 percent, 13 times higher than No. 2 Nike.