The $224.80 cost to build the iPhone 7 ($649) is $36.89 higher than IHS' analysis of the iPhone 6s performed in December, the analytics company reported. The bill of materials cost for the iPhone 7 is in line with IHS teardowns of recent high-end Samsung smartphones, said analyst Andrew Rassweiler. Expansion to 32 GB base storage density, from 16 GB, is only the second time Apple has stepped up base storage in the iPhone, he said. Overall memory cost “puts pressure on the bill of materials costs -- and therefore margins,” Rassweiler said. Apple eliminated segmented antenna bands, which means the company is pushing all radio-frequency paths to the ends of the phone, due to the aluminum unibody construction and design, said analyst Wayne Lam. “This design limitation may force Apple to go back to an all-glass design again so that they can fit in 4x4MIMO LTE antennas and more features like wireless charging in the next iPhone iteration.”

Liberty Global and CableLabs joined the MulteFire Alliance consortium, Liberty said in a news release Wednesday. MulteFire's main focus is ensuring future LTE mobile standards are compatible with shared and unlicensed spectrum, with its current push involving 3rd Generation Partnership Project-based mobile wireless standards, Liberty said. Other members include Qualcomm, Intel, Nokia and Ericsson, said the alliance website.

The FCC established a pleading cycle Wednesday on the proposed sale of a lower 700 MHz B-clock and lower 700 MHz E-block license from Club 42 to Bluesky. “Applicants maintain that the proposed transaction would provide Bluesky with additional spectrum that would enable it to expand coverage and deploy LTE services in Cellular Market Area 733 (American Samoa),” the FCC said. The deal is getting enhanced scrutiny because it would give Bluesky more than one-third of the currently suitable and available below-1-GHz spectrum in two of the five counties covered, the FCC said. Petitions to deny are due at the FCC Oct. 12, oppositions Oct. 19 and replies Oct. 26, said a public notice.

Consumers Union is satisfied that replacement Samsung Galaxy Note7s are safer than their originals, spokesman David Butler emailed us. CU’s affiliated Consumer Reports issued a public appeal Sept. 2 for an official Note7 recall, but Samsung Electronics America only publicly confirmed its “engagement” with the Consumer Product Safety Commission on a recall effort a week later (see 1609150069). CPSC released its recall notice five days after that, saying the action affected about a million Note7s sold in the U.S. from the early August launch through Sept. 15. About 500,000 Note7 replacements arrived in the U.S. for distribution to consumers starting Wednesday, Samsung said Tuesday (see 1609200067). “Part of why it is so important to involve the Consumer Product Safety Commission in a recall is because the agency must review and approve the remedy and fix,” Butler told us. “This is an important protection for consumers, and it provides them with confidence that their product will work as it should moving forward. We believe this is one process that serves consumers well.” Consumer Reports “immediately urged Samsung to initiate an official recall” through CPSC when “news broke that the phone was catching fire” because companies that work with the agency “and follow its process are doing the right thing for consumers,” Butler said. “While certainly there are aspects of the CPSC's statute that could be strengthened” to prod companies to immediately work through the commission process, “this current situation reinforces why companies should go through the CPSC in the first place,” he said. Samsung representatives didn’t comment Wednesday.

T-Mobile has picked up almost a million subscribers in Q3 so far from its three national competitors, AT&T, Sprint and Verizon, it said Tuesday in a news release. “All three wireless carriers tried to match Un-carrier signature moves this quarter, like getting rid of overages and introducing unlimited data plans, but as usual, they came up short,” said CEO John Legere. “Our Q3 results so far have surpassed Q2 in postpaid phone and prepaid nets, and we are adding customers from ALL of the other guys at an increasing rate.” Legere also released a flurry of tweets about the early results. “We’ve surpassed Q2 in postpaid phone & all prepaid net adds!” he said in one. “Who knew the competition was so generous!” Legere also tweeted that FCC Commissioner Mignon Clyburn, in Seattle for the Competitive Carriers Association conference, had visited his company's headquarters in nearby Bellevue, Washington.

Some 3 billion people remain unconnected worldwide and another 2.4 billion are connected only to voice and simple text services, GSMA said in a report. The IoT “is developing rapidly, but the level of penetration remains low,” GSMA said. The report is on industry progress on sustainable development goals. SDG 1 focuses on “eradicating poverty, providing equal access to economic resources, and building the resilience of the poor,” and SDG 9 seeks “resilient infrastructure, sustainable and inclusive industrialisation, and innovation.” This "first-of-its-kind report offers critical insights into the transformative impact of the mobile industry on individuals, societies and economies around the world, in developed and developing markets,” said Mats Granryd, GSMA director general.

Privacy issues for drones and how to address them will be the focus of the FTC's Oct. 13 event on unmanned aerial systems, said the commission, releasing a detailed agenda Tuesday. Commissioner Maureen Ohlhausen will open the half-day event, which will feature academics, privacy advocates from the Electronic Frontier Foundation and Electronic Privacy Information Center and industry representatives from AirMap, Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International, DJI, Drone Manufacturers Alliance, Precision Hawk and the Small UAV Coalition. The 1-4:30 p.m. event will be at FTC's Constitution Center at 400 7th St. SW.

The FCC Public Safety Bureau approved a waiver, signing off on Puerto Rico’s late filing of its “substantial service” showing for its license for 700 MHz state channels under call sign WPTZ852. Rules require state channels to certify they were providing or prepared to provide substantial service to one-third of their population or territory by June 13, 2014, the order said. The commonwealth missed that deadline and filed two waiver requests, the bureau said. “Finally, on May 19, 2016,” Puerto Rico filed the required showing, the bureau said. “Puerto Rico states that its interim substantial service filing was late because the original employee assigned to the project no longer works for the Commonwealth so it had to contract a ‘new person’ to ‘finish the supervision of this project.’” Puerto Rico also said its radio system provides service to more than 33 percent of its population and territory and was built before the original 2014 deadline, the bureau said: Granting the waiver would serve the public interest.

Samsung Electronics America estimates about 500,000 units of replacement Galaxy Note7s have arrived in the U.S. and will be ready for distribution starting Wednesday to consumers who want to trade in their originals under the voluntary recall program worked out with the Consumer Product Safety Commission (see 1609150069), the company said in a Tuesday statement. A refund option also is available under the recall for Note7 owners who don't want a replacement. A CPSC notice Thursday said about a million Note7 devices sold in the U.S. would be affected by the recall, which the agency said was precipitated by 92 reports of the device overheating or catching fire. Samsung also announced the rollout of a software update for new Note7 devices. The software updates will display a green battery icon on the status bar on the top right hand of the screen, Samsung said. The green icon indicates consumers have a new Galaxy Note7 with an unaffected battery, it said. "For those not heeding" the recall notice, a separate software update also "will be pushed to all recalled devices," it said. "Once installed, users will be prompted with a safety notice that urges owners to power down and exchange their recalled device. The notice will appear every time a user powers up or charges their device."

Intracom joined the Competitive Carriers Association as an associate member, said a company release Monday. Intracom said StreetNode, its FCC-compliant 4G small-cell backhaul solution operating at 28 GHz and 60 GHz using software-defined radio, facilitates small-cell system deployment "on lamp posts, at bus stops and on walls incorporating unique features such as auto-aligning and zero-touch provisioning." John Tenidis, marketing head of Intracom's wireless solutions portfolio, said the company will use its CCA membership to collect feedback from regional carriers.