The FCC is right to look at whether some educational broadband service licensees are pocketing or using for political advocacy much of the money that they receive instead of for educational purposes, American Enterprise Institute visiting fellow Shane Tews blogged Thursday. Commissioner Brendan Carr raised the issue before an FCC vote reallocating the 2.5 GHz band (see 1907050034). “It is questionable whether any of this is legitimate activity for an EBS licensee,” Tews said: “The regulation says EBS license recipients must be ‘an accredited institution or ... a government organization engaged in the formal education of enrolled students or to a nonprofit organization whose purposes are education and providing educational and instructional television material.’ It also notes the licensee should have a connection to the local community and neighborhood schools, with special requirements on licensees that are not themselves schools or are not local.”

Mobile wallet solutions provider Dynamics seeks an import ban on Samsung smartphones with the Samsung Pay feature, it said in a Section 337 complaint filed with the International Trade Commission. Dynamics says the Samsung mobile devices, which include the Galaxy S8, S9 and S10, copy its patented technology for magnetic multifunction emulators and near-field communication technology for executing financial payment transactions. Dynamics asked the ITC to issue a limited exclusion order and cease and desist order banning import and sale of infringing Samsung devices. Samsung hatched a scheme at January 2012 CES to steal the trade secrets of Dynamics and embed the stolen technology in at least 10 models of Galaxy smartphones since the S8, alleged Dynamics in a July 12 complaint (in Pacer) in U.S. District Court in Manhattan (see 1907120024).

NTIA Thursday sent guidance to executive branch departments and agencies for reviewing current spectrum frequency assignments, as directed in last year’s presidential memo on “Developing a Sustainable Spectrum Strategy for America’s Future.” The document examines current spectrum use in two bands. NTIA earlier sought information on future needs, requiring all federal agencies to submit planning documents that include estimates of their needs in 15 years (see 1904230061). NTIA said it's initially requiring agencies to review two bands: 3100-3550 and 7125-8400 MHz. “The enclosed guidance establishes a process for agencies to review their current data and provide additional information, support, and assistance regarding their assignments and usage of spectrum,” NTIA said: “In furtherance of the objectives of the Presidential Memorandum, NTIA is requiring that agencies review frequency assignment data in an initial set of bands and provide additional, specified data fields in order to validate the accuracy of existing data and further quantify spectrum use.” NTIA plans to use the information “to develop spectrum use contours for these initial bands and any additional bands, to estimate the extent to which each system uses its assigned spectrum,” the agency said. NTIA said some of the information may be made publicly available “as appropriate and consistent with security guidelines.”

Sprint and T-Mobile have very different strengths that should play together well if they’re allowed to combine, said Kathryn Weldon, technology analyst at GlobalData, in a report Wednesday. T-Mobile’s culture “is certainly unique -- it has been a marketing powerhouse, gaining consumer subscribers every quarter and rarely letting up its momentum, with new benefits, services, promotions and ‘freebies,’” Weldon said: “Sprint knows much more about the business market, especially the mid-market and large enterprise segments. It deserves to lead the business services group within the new company and follow its plans for converged wireline wireless sales.”

Verizon's 5G Ultra Wideband mobility service is now available in parts of four more cities -- Atlanta, Detroit, Indianapolis and Washington, said the carrier Wednesday. Customers need one of five new handsets available from Verizon to take advantage of the new service, it said. It plans to offer 5G in parts of 30 cities by year-end, it said.

NextNav executives urged the FCC to act on a proposed rule requiring carriers meet a new vertical location (z-axis) accuracy metric for indoor wireless calls to 911. But the company said using the data to determine a floor number of the caller isn’t possible with current technology. “There is no uniformity in the height of each floor level in different buildings and many buildings have unique floor numbering systems (such as skipping the 13th floor) that cannot be taken into consideration absent extensive mapping of every building in a covered area,” NextNav said in a meeting with Public Safety Bureau staff: “Regardless of the precision of the vertical location information, the current requirement of a horizontal location fix within 50 meters does not provide sufficient accuracy to reliably place a wireless caller in a particular building.” Commissioners approved a Further NPRM in March (see 1903150067). Among those at the meeting were NextNav Executive Chairman Gary Parsons and CEO Ganesh Pattabiraman, said a filing posted Wednesday in docket 07-114.

The P2P Alliance fired back at consumer and public interest groups that recently asked the FCC to deny the alliance’s petition for clarity that peer-to-peer text messages to cellphones aren't subject to Telephone Consumer Protection Act restrictions (see 1907120056). The National Consumer Law Center led the filing. “More than a year after the filing window closed, NCLC submits its ex parte urging the Commission to reject the Petition, albeit without citing to any Commission precedent in support of its positions,” said the filing posted Wednesday in docket 02-278. “Contrary to NCLC’s assertions, P2P texting messaging platforms enable two-way text communications that require a person to manually send each message one at a time and involve significant discretion by the sender regarding the substance, timing, and recipients to whom the sender transmits a message.” The messages aren’t automated, the alliance said: “The many staff members and volunteers for non-profit and other groups who spend their valuable time engaging in meaningful, highly personal two-way conversations using P2P platforms would be rather surprised to learn about NCLC’s characterization of their efforts as ‘a miniscule and fictional element of human involvement for the sole purpose of evading the consumer protections of the TCPA.’” National Consumer Law Center Senior Attorney Margot Saunders told us P2P isn’t unique and the FCC shouldn’t treated it as such. “The law is that calls and texts sent in systems that have the capacity to send automated texts are covered,” she said: “You don’t look at exactly how each call and text is sent. … The FCC does not have before it sufficient information to evaluate those systems.”

The 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals will hear oral argument Sept. 3 in a Freedom of Information Act suit, the court said Tuesday. The suit, in docket 18-2819cv, accuses the Commerce Department of improperly denying documents about a nationwide wireless network contract awarded to AT&T. Argument is to start at 10 a.m. at the Thurgood Marshall U.S. Courthouse in New York City.

Incumbent 39 GHz licensee short-form applications, to be submitted in preparation for upcoming FCC Auction 103, are available to the public, said a notice in Tuesday’s Daily Digest. The auction, to start Dec. 10, will be the FCC’s third of high-band spectrum for 5G. “FCC Form 175-A applicants and other interested parties may view submitted FCC Form 175-A applications by searching for them in the Commission’s database on the Commission’s website,” said the notice in docket 14-177 by the Wireless Bureau and Office of Economics and Analytics.

The FCC asked for comment on a July petition by engineering company Robert Bosch (see 1907020073), seeking partial reconsideration of the March spectrum horizons order. Bosch said the FCC should have allocated more spectrum for unlicensed use above 95 GHz. The agency approved the order 5-0, despite quibbles by Commissioners Jessica Rosenworcel and Geoffrey Starks (see 1903150054). Oppositions are due Aug. 15, replies to oppositions Aug. 25, in docket 18-21, said a notice set for Federal Register publication Wednesday.