The FCC Public Safety Bureau said LoJack can file one application to modify national stolen vehicle recovery system authorizations operated by different police agencies. The company said it needs to change terms of licenses as they move from wideband to narrowband to allow higher power levels. It asked to make a single master, not 53 for different areas. The bureau said in Thursday's Daily Digest it sought comment but got none: “We find it administratively efficient to grant LoJack’s request.”

FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr supported a recently launched review of industry’s wireless resiliency cooperative framework (see 1811060052). Earlier, he blogged about his visit to the Florida Panhandle following Hurricane Michael (see 1811060055). “In the immediate aftermath … thousands of power company crews and contractors worked to restore power, which, unfortunately, often resulted in significant cuts to fiber and other communication lines,” he said.

C Spire wants the FCC to reject T-Mobile buying Sprint, meeting FCC officials, said a Thursday filing in docket 18-197 not yet posted. “The post-merger structure of the wireless market will adversely affect competition. Three dominant carriers of roughly equal size will have the ability and the incentive to coordinate prices in both the retail and wholesale markets, particularly because the wireless market is mature and the demand for wireless services is inelastic,” C Spire said. “T-Mobile has admitted that the primary goal of New T- Mobile will be to maximize its profits and shareholder value. Economic theory compels the conclusion that it can best accomplish this goal by engaging in parallel conduct as to retail and wholesale pricing rather than by competing aggressively by lowering its prices.” C Spire officials met with aides to the commissioners other than Chairman Ajit Pai, and with the staff team reviewing the transaction. T-Mobile and Sprint didn't comment.

InnoPhase is in final stages of developing products based on its digital radio architecture to improve battery life of Wi-Fi, LTE and other IoT wireless device protocols by two to eight times, it said Wednesday: Multiprotocol wireless products are in field testing, production slated for early next year. IoT products based on its PolaRFusion “can cut the cord and be battery-based,” the company said.

NextNav executives urged the FCC to move quickly to adopt a Z-axis metric for accurate vertical location of wireless calls to 911, meeting Public Safety Bureau staff. “The public safety community has repeatedly made clear its desire for and need of accurate vertical location in urban markets, and a sufficient technical record exists for the Commission to immediately adopt a z-axis metric of 3 meters as an alternative to the dispatchable location requirement,” said a filing posted Tuesday in docket 07-114.

T-Mobile offered the FCC additional evidence supporting its proposed buy of Sprint, filing a report by Cornerstone Research, posted Wednesday in docket 18-197. “The merging parties’ rationale for the proposed merger is to combine complementary T-Mobile and Sprint assets so as to better compete with the two historical leaders, AT&T and Verizon,” the report said. “The merging parties expect that the New T-Mobile network will provide better performance for more consumers than the T-Mobile and Sprint standalones, with higher network quality and lower marginal costs.” Much was redacted. T-Mobile said it filed the same report at DOJ, also reviewing the deal.

A coming folding phone is "just the beginning" of a product road map that includes rollable and stretchable displays, said Justin Denison, Samsung senior vice president-mobile product marketing, at its event in San Francisco Wednesday. He demonstrated the device open, as a tablet, and then closed as a smartphone “that fits neatly inside your pocket.” The Infinity Flex display was one of four trademarks Samsung applied last week at the Patent and Trademark Office (see 1811050016). Mass production of generation one will begin in coming months, Denison said. The two displays follow users from one to the other in a "continuity mode." Google's Glen Murphy, director-UX, announced Android support, including via application programming interfaces.

NCTA, the American Cable Association and National Public Safety Telecommunications Council raised concerns -- posted Wednesday in docket 18-284 -- on Metrom Rail's proposal to operate ultrawideband positive train control systems in the 3.272-5.014 GHz band (see 1809200041). Metrom plans to initially deploy in the Boston area with the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority, in the New York City area with the New York City Metropolitan Transportation Authority and in Southern California with the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority. NCTA and ACA cited concerns about protecting the 3.7-4.2 GHz C-band: “Thousands of receive-only earth stations operated by NCTA and ACA members in this band receive television programming by listening for faint signals transmitted from satellites operating over 35,000 km above the earth. The ‘link margins’ of these signals are narrow, leaving little room for error and rendering them highly susceptible to harmful interference.” NPSTC raised concerns about "potential interference to the public safety 4.9 GHz band from the applicant’s implementation" and said the FCC should only a waiver with conditions to protect that band. Metrom said the request didn’t generate any opposition, at least in initial comments: That "illustrates the non-controversial nature of the Waiver Request and thus clears the way for its expedited processing and approval.”

With the “first instances” of 5G services rolling out this quarter, 2019 is expected to be a “seminal year” for wireless, with 5G handsets beginning to hit the market, enabling consumers “to experience 5G technology firsthand,” said IDC Tuesday. Though the “full breadth” of 5G's potential will take several years to arrive, IDC expects the total fifth-generation and related network infrastructure market to expand at a 118 percent compound annual growth rate, reaching $26 billion globally in 2022.

Regulators should make significant new harmonized mobile spectrum available for 5G, including 80-100 MHz of contiguous spectrum per carrier in “prime 5G mid-bands” and upward of 1 GHz per operator above 24 GHz, GSMA reported. Questions are especially relevant headed into next year’s World Radiocommunication Conference, GSMA said Tuesday. “Our 5G future depends heavily on the decisions governments are making in the next year as we head into WRC-19,” said Brett Tarnutzer, GSMA spectrum head. “Without strong government support to allocate sufficient spectrum to next generation mobile services, it will be impossible to achieve the global scale that will make 5G affordable and accessible for everyone. ... This hinges on governments focusing on making enough spectrum available, not maximising auction revenues.” The Free State Foundation urged the FCC to act to open the L and 5.9 GHz bands for 5G "with dispatch looking towards repurposing this band for the use of unlicensed Wi-Fi services,” FSF said of the latter band, which is also attracting tech industry attention (see 1811050030).