Apple shipped 14.2 million units of the iPhone 6s in Q2, compared with only 8.3 million units shipped of Samsung’s Galaxy S7 Edge, making the 6s the world’s top-selling smartphone model in the quarter, Strategy Analytics said in a Tuesday report. Overall global smartphone shipments in Q2 grew only 1 percent to 341.5 million units, said the research firm. “Smartphone [sales] growth is sluggish at the moment due to ongoing economic volatility worldwide, high ownership penetration in most major countries, and a lack of new innovation from device manufacturers.”

Samsung launched a “product exchange program” for U.S. Galaxy Note7 owners to immediately turn in their devices for a free replacement, after the widely reported fire hazard that prompted the company to halt sales and recall the smartphone a month into its introduction (see 1609020010). In addition to exchanging a current Note7 for a replacement, owners can turn in their Note7 for a Galaxy S7 or S7 Edge, plus a replacement “of any Note7 specific accessories with a refund of the price difference between devices,” Samsung said in a Friday statement. The U.S. subsidiary also is offering, as a “gesture of appreciation,” a $25 gift card or wireless-carrier billing credit when choosing a Galaxy S7 family device or the Galaxy Note7 within the exchange program, it said. “While there have been only a small number of reported incidents, Samsung is taking great care to provide customers with the support they need. Samsung has identified the affected inventory and stopped sales and shipments of those devices,” Samsung Electronics America said in a Friday statement. Samsung’s Korean parent said it’s aware of only 35 incidents globally of Note7 fires, but wasn’t specific about the cause, other than to attribute it to a “battery cell issue.” A Q&A statement Friday from Samsung U.K. described the defect in slightly more detail, saying it resulted from “an overheating of the battery cell” when the phone’s “anode-to-cathode came into contact which is a very rare manufacturing process error.” The anode is the terminal through which electrical current flows in from the outside, and the cathode is the terminal where current flows out. The Q&A addresses Korean news reports identifying Samsung SDI as the source of the faulty batteries, but sidesteps giving a clear answer. "To meet market demands, we are working with multiple suppliers," Samsung U.K. said of the Samsung SDI reports. "Unfortunately we will not be able to confirm this as we work with several suppliers. We are currently working with all of them to protect our customers’ safety first and foremost."

Fitbit and Garmin were the big winners, Apple the clear loser, in Q2 shipments of wearable devices, IDC reported. Global wearables shipments jumped 26.1 percent in Q2 to 22.5 million units, despite a 56.7 percent decline in Apple Watch unit volume, IDC said. Smart wearables “are still struggling to find their place in the market," it said Tuesday. Fitbit shipments jumped 28.7 percent to 5.7 million units, giving it a 25.4 percent market share, 11.4 percentage points better than Xiaomi, its closest competitor, said the industry researcher. Garmin shipped 1.6 million devices, a 106.7 percent increase, putting it into a virtual tie with Apple with a 6.9 percent market share, IDC said.

Public Knowledge hopes an Office of Management and Budget review of a National Highway Traffic Safety Administration NPRM on vehicle-to-vehicle systems (see 1609010077) won’t slow FCC work toward allowing Wi-Fi in the 5.9 GHz band, Senior Vice President Harold Feld told us. “It's true that if OMB rejects the NHTSA proposed mandate, it makes life a lot easier for the FCC,” Feld emailed us Tuesday. “That would be a clear and unambiguous statement. ... But even if OMB approves NHTSA's proposal, it doesn't change the basic equation that we ought to have sharing where possible without causing harmful interference to life & safety services.”

The FCC Office of Engineering and Technology approved a waiver for Kyma Medical Technologies to start selling a medical imaging and diagnostic device. The uCor 3.0 is designed to monitor patients with congestive heart failure but required a waiver for unlicensed ultra-wideband (UWB) devices. The waiver covers rules for definition, measurement procedure, permissible frequency range and coordination, OET said in a Tuesday order. “The device employs a very low power RF signal that is directed into the patient’s torso via a small transmitter that is temporarily attached to the skin,” OET said. “Signals from the uCor propagate through the chest and lungs and reflect back from the heart. Data collected by the uCor is transferred via standard wireless interface over the internet and on to a data center where it can be analyzed by a healthcare provider.” After taking comment on a waiver request, OET said it found that granting the waiver wouldn’t undermine FCC rules. “The uCor device is functionally equivalent to other types of UWB imaging devices contemplated under the rules and that the risk of interference from the uCor device will be no greater than from other such UWB imaging devices,” the order said.

New T-Mobile and Sprint rate plans appear to test the limits of FCC net neutrality rules, said CCMI telecom consultant Andrew Regitsky in a Tuesday blog post. Regitsky cited new plans by T-Mobile and Sprint that charge more for better data connections. For example, Sprint launched its “Unlimited Freedom” plan in mid-August, with limits on video, music and gaming streaming, he said. Later, the carrier added the “Unlimited Freedom Premium” plan, “which is $20 more a month and allows for higher quality streaming than the original offering,” he said. “What are the FCC’s options?” Regitsky asked. “If the Commission stays on its current course, it would most likely not take any formal action against T-Mobile or Sprint but instead would hold informal meetings to warn them off these plans. If those carriers persist, only then would the Commission be likely to begin a formal complaint process. Of course consumer groups can pressure the Commission to take action.” Sprint emailed in response: "The FCC's open internet decision encourages giving customers the opportunity to choose plans with different performance options. Allowing customers to select plans that have performance options tailored to different needs or different classes of applications is good for consumers, net neutrality, and mobile competition."

Ericsson said tests it concluded in August on LTE-unlicensed and Wi-Fi showed the two services can safely coexist. Ericsson filed the results at the FCC in docket 15-105. “Results of our testing of channel selection, reselection and co-channel operation demonstrate that LTE-U will fairly coexist with Wi-Fi,” the company said. “The channel selection and reselection tests demonstrate that LTE-U channel selection is an extremely effective coexistence procedure, even in extremely dense deployments. The co-channel testing demonstrates that LTE-U has no more impact on a Wi-Fi end user’s experience than another Wi-Fi Network.” In the report itself, Ericsson said LTE-U, using a small amount of 5 GHz spectrum, can provide up to a 135 Mbps speed increase over LTE. LTE-U is likely to be especially helpful in supporting indoor data traffic, the report said. “LTE on the unlicensed band serves as a secondary carrier and provides bursts in the data speed to increase the delivery speed of the data payload.” The LTE-U secondary cell serves only downlink traffic, the report said: “LTE-U has been designed to achieve fair sharing between LTE and Wi-Fi and other technologies within the 5 GHz band, to benefit all users. The goal is to impact Wi-Fi end users experience no more than an additional Wi-Fi network would do on the same channel.” The FCC is pushing Wi-Fi and LTE-U advocates to work together on coexistence testing (see 1608040060).

CTIA asked the FCC for an extra 30 days to file replies on a Further NPRM proposing changes to Part 4 network outage reporting rules. The association and other industry groups opposed changes in the initial comment round (see 1608290045). Comments are due Monday. Initial comments were “voluminous and addressed a wide variety of technical and other issues raised by the Commission’s proposed revisions to the outage reporting rules,” CTIA said. “Providing stakeholders additional time beyond the current 15-day reply period will allow for review of these extensive initial comments, consideration of the varied proposals therein, and the development of more robust replies and a more useful record.” The FCC also allowed only 10 business days to craft replies, part of which includes CTIA’s annual conference in Las Vegas this week, CTIA said. The filing was posted in docket 15-80.

Sprint pushed various business data service regulatory proposals in meetings and filings at the FCC last week. Sprint argued for business data services "reforms" to achieve FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler's wireless objectives, outlined its recommendations for a "competitive market test" and "Ethernet benchmark remedy," and provided BDS declarations from its chief economist and a former FCC chief economist in four submissions in docket 16-143 posted Tuesday through Thursday.

T-Mobile representatives explained the carrier’s work with the government on the Space-Ground Link Subsystem “and associated coordination requirements” as it deploys in the AWS-3 bands. The explanation came in a meeting with FCC staff. Among those at the meeting was Julius Knapp, chief of the Office of Engineering and Technology, said a filing in docket 13-185. “We acknowledged T-Mobile’s obligation to successfully coordinate its operations with the Department of Defense in advance of commencing commercial service and addressed potential concerns related to possible operational changes after a mutually agreed upon plan had been approved by the parties,” T-Mobile said. “To address those concerns we noted that should either entity (licensee or incumbent) make changes to its network outside the parameters to which the agreement was granted, that entity must work with the other to revise the coordination agreement to reflect the revised operations.”