T-Mobile and Sprint representatives met with FCC officials Thursday to discuss conditions on their proposed deal, industry officials confirmed Friday. While the two carriers have been at the FCC many times in the year since the proposal was announced, industry observers have been waiting for signs that conditions were on the table. “For the first time since the merger announcement, we see signs that the prospects for federal approval of the T-Mobile/Sprint deal improving,” New Street’s Blair Levin told investors Friday. “Normally, companies seeking to merge usually try to obtain a sign-off from the DOJ first and would not go to the FCC unless they have a high level of comfort that the DOJ is conceptually on board with approval and a framework for conditions.” A second possibility, less likely, is the companies are seeking FCC approval apart from any decision by DOJ, Levin said. Also last week, the Communications Workers of America slammed an April 16 letter from T-Mobile disputing points CWA had made on the company buying Sprint. “When T-Mobile doesn’t like the message, it tries to shoot the messenger,” CWA said in FCC docket 18-197. “Rather than respond to the merits of the points CWA raised in its letter dated March 22, 2019, the company dodges the issues, creates strawmen, and makes baseless credibility arguments. As it has done throughout this proceeding, T-Mobile uses highly inflammatory language to try to vilify those who bring forward facts it does not like.” T-Mobile said then, “CWA’s latest letter continues its campaign of half-truths, unsound methodology, and outright misrepresentations in this proceeding.”

More than 11.2 million “light vehicles” equipped with “some form” of vehicle-to-everything (V2X) telematics systems will be produced globally in 2024, and will be 12 percent of the total “fleet,” said IHS Markit Thursday. It forecasts V2X systems will be embedded in roughly 15,000 vehicles this year, increasing at a 277.5 percent compound annual growth rate through 2024. Demand for safer roads and fewer vehicular fatalities will be a “major driving force for the implementation of enhanced connectivity,” said IHS. “In the debate over which technology V2X should be based on, dedicated short-range communications (DSRC) solutions lead the global automotive V2X market in the near term as it represents a proven technology with chips for system implementation readily available from several semiconductor companies.” U.S. leadership in DSRC took a blow two weeks ago when Toyota America told the FCC it would "pause its deployment" for lack of automotive industry cooperation and the uncertain "regulatory environment" around the 5.9 GHz band (see 1904290148). Now, the FCC may propose, perhaps this summer, a proceeding to look at sharing DSRC spectrum with W-Fi (see 1905150053).

FCC Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel raised concerns on why the commission has put off an NPRM on the 5.9 GHz automotive safety band for a month, after the Department of Transportation asked for a delay (see 1905150053). “We need more Wi-Fi,” Rosenworcel tweeted Thursday: “We need more Wi-Fi," she typed seven times. "So how about the @FCC speed up its review of the possibilities of more Wi-Fi in the 5.9 GHz band instead of slowing it down?” The band is one of the key ones being looked by the FCC for Wi-Fi and other unlicensed use.

Sprint’s first two 5G devices are the LG V50 ThinQ 5G and HTC 5G Hub and they launch in Atlanta, Dallas, Houston and Kansas City May 31, said the carrier Thursday. They roll out to Chicago, Los Angeles, Phoenix and Washington in the next few weeks. On a news-media tour in New York last week, a company spokesperson told us at launch, the carrier plans to cover about 1,000 square miles initially in its 5G footprint. Commenting on the different flavors of 5G carriers have promoted, the spokeswoman said, “We’re launching the real 5G, not fake 5G.” Data speeds will improve by 100 times, she said, with “much improved latency times” enabling vehicle-to-vehicle communication for autonomous driving, remote surgery and mobile gaming. The HTC hub, a Sprint exclusive at launch, is targeted to homes and small businesses, and can enable non-5G devices such as laptops, tablets, phones and TVs to “experience the speed of 5G,” delivering “smooth” 4K video streaming, “virtually buffer-free” gaming, and advanced 4G LTE hotspot connectivity for up to 20 users. As an entertainment device, it can replace a Wi-Fi router and eliminate unnecessary cables, said Sprint. It’s capable of delivering up to 60 frames per second 4K video on compatible TVs and supports Android and PC games.

The major national wireless carriers told FCC Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel they are no longer selling location information from customers. Rosenworcel posted letters she had received from AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile and Verizon, in response to her questions. “The FCC has been totally silent about press reports that for a few hundred dollars shady middlemen can sell your location within a few hundred meters based on your wireless phone data,” Rosenworcel said Thursday. “That’s unacceptable. I don’t recall consenting to this surveillance when I signed up for wireless service -- and I bet neither do you.” Sprint is “currently only using one location aggregator to provide [location-based service] to two customers with a public interest -- a provider of roadside assistance for Sprint customers, and a provider that facilitates compliance with state requirements for a lottery that funds state government,” the carrier said. The others reported they’re out of or exiting the business. “Except for four roadside assistance companies, Verizon terminated its location aggregator program in November of 2018,” the provider said: “Verizon terminated the arrangements with the four remaining companies at the end of March 2019.” Rosenworcel said the public deserves answers. “It is chilling to think what a black market for this data could mean in the hands of criminals, stalkers, and those who wish to do us harm,” she said.

Aviation Spectrum Resources asked for limited waiver of sections 87.173(b) and 87.263(a) of FCC rules to allow use of two 25 kHz channels in the 136.000-136.4875 MHz band for data link communications using FCC-licensed aeronautical en route service stations. “This will improve safety, efficiency, capacity, predictability, and resiliency of American aviation, consistent with the FAA’s Next Generation initiative to modernize the air transportation system,” said an undocketed petition posted Wednesday.

CTIA representatives met with an aide to FCC Chairman Ajit Pai on a recent report by the wireless industry’s National Emergency Address Database (see 1904290195). “Member companies are committed to enhancing the location accuracy of wireless 9-1-1 calls, particularly indoors, for Public Safety Answering Points,” the association filed in a document posted Wednesday in docket 07-114. “CTIA expressed support for a shared goal among the Commission and the public safety community to enhance 9-1-1 location accuracy, particularly for 9-1-1 calls placed from indoor locations, using the most technologically feasible and effective approach.”

T-Mobile opposed giving Verizon a waiver so it can adopt a temporary, 60-day lock on 4G LTE handsets to ensure bona fide customers are purchasing the handsets. Verizon faces special restrictions because of the rules for the 700 C-block spectrum the carrier bought in a 2008 auction (see 1903050057). “Verizon does not demonstrate a sufficient nexus between the relief it seeks and the fraud it seeks to prevent,” T-Mobile said in comments posted Wednesday in docket 06-150. “Any change to Verizon’s obligation must be as a result of a change to the Commission’s rules.”

Members of the P2P Alliance met with Chairman Ajit Pai asking him to move forward on the group's request that the FCC clarify that peer-to-peer text messages to mobile phones aren't subject to Telephone Consumer Protection Act restrictions (see 1805040028). “P2P texting allows organizations to communicate with students, employees, neighborhood residents, voters, and customers through individualized, manually-sent, person-to-person text messages ... and permit real-time, two-way communications between the sender and the recipient,” the group said, in a filing posted Wednesday in docket 02-278. “Each text message is individually and manually sent from a single sender to a single recipient.” The coalition also discussed “the key role fulfilled by P2P texting in rendering aid to Houston, Texas residents affected by Hurricane Harvey last year,” the filing said. Hustle CEO Roddy Lindsay and Gerrit Lansing, co-founder of Opn Sesame, were among attendees. Pai Wednesday unveiled other TCPA-related steps (see 1905150041).

The Trump administration rightfully takes a strong stand against Huawei's controlling 5G, Adonis Hoffman, chairman of Business in the Public Interest, blogged Tuesday for The Media Institute. “Huawei is not your garden-variety Chinese company in the same vein as Tencent, Alibaba, or Baidu,” Hoffman said. “By many credible accounts, Huawei is a corporate extension of the Chinese government.” Huawei “has been accused of stealing technology from Cisco, Nortel, and T-Mobile,” he said. Huawei didn’t comment. It says it doesn't spy (see 1905100070).