The FCC Office of Engineering and Technology published a guide on its rates for handling applications for approval of equipment and experimental licenses as of Tuesday. “This Fee Filing Guide is considered a reference guide to identify and describe the fee filing requirements for the Office of Engineering and Technology,” OET said Tuesday. “It is meant to be a handy reference of the services and requests for FCC actions that are subject to a fee.”

Weakening consumer spending for PCs, tablets and smartphones will dampen overall information technology revenue for the 2015-2020 forecast period, said an IDC report Monday. Consumer purchases generated nearly a quarter of IT revenue in 2015, it said. Stronger momentum will come from financial services and manufacturing, it said, and healthcare is expected to remain the fastest-growing industry, with a five-year compound annual growth rate of 5.7 percent. Commercial segments rather than consumer sales will drive moderate growth for the tablet market, said IDC. Worldwide revenue for IT products is projected to grow from $2.4 trillion this year to more than $2.7 trillion in 2020, said the research firm.

Fitbit introduced the Fitbit Charge 2 and Fitbit Flex 2 wristbands, it said in a news release. Charge v2 adds health and fitness tools, smart notifications, a larger display and interchangeable bands, said the company. Retailers include Amazon.com, Best Buy, Brookstone, Dick’s Sporting Goods, Nordstrom, REI, Target and Verizon. In its Blaze smartwatch line, Fitbit announced new features that will be available via a September software update including extended smartphone notifications.

Verizon Wireless announced LTE Advanced service promising 50 percent faster peak wireless data speeds in 461 cities. There’s no additional cost to customers for the software, which combines multiple channels to shoot data over the network more quickly, said Verizon in a Monday announcement. Verizon LTE Advanced uses carrier aggregation, which combines two or three channels of bandwidth into one larger channel to send data sessions over the most efficient route using a combination of 700 MHz, AWS and PCS spectrum, Verizon said. Customers will continue to experience typical download speeds of 5-12 Mbps, said the carrier, but two-channel carrier aggregation has shown peak download speeds of up to 225 Mbps, and three-channel carrier aggregation provides logged speeds greater than 300 Mbps.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit affirmed a lower court ruling saying cellphone cases imported by OtterBox are classifiable in the tariff schedule as generic “other” articles of plastic, dutiable at 5.3 percent, rather than as containers subject to a 20 percent duty rate. A three-judge Federal Circuit panel agreed last week with a year-old U.S. Court of International Trade decision that the cellphone cases don't meet most of the four criteria for classification as containers under heading 4202 -- organizing, storing, protecting and carrying -- and are also dissimilar from such containers because they're designed to allow use of the cellphone while inside the container.

FCC rule changes to streamline siting of small cells under the National Historic Preservation Act (see 1608080061) took effect Monday, said the agency in that day's Federal Register.

The FCC shouldn’t ignore concerns of small businesses on ISP privacy rules, said Competitive Carriers Association President Steve Berry in a Friday news release. “As the FCC works to establish new privacy rules, the opportunities and challenges of small providers must be considered.” Berry said CCA represents nearly 100 competitive carriers and nearly 200 vendors and suppliers, most of them small businesses: “It is critical that policymakers understand the consequences and costs that new privacy requirements can place on often resource-constrained small businesses.”

The FCC Wireless Bureau designated Key Bridge as a database manager charged with developing and managing a database of link registrations by commission licensees in the 71-76, 81-86 and 92-95 GHz bands. Key Bridge’s term as a database manager extends through Dec. 9, 2019, and is renewable by the commission, said the order in docket 13-291. “We reserve the discretion to designate additional managers or change the current designations of Key Bridge and other Database Managers at a later date if circumstances indicate that such action is warranted.” Key Bridge is also a data manager for the TV white spaces, the bureau noted. The firm “has established that it is qualified to serve as a database manager for the 70/80/90 GHz bands and … the public interest is well served by designating Key Bridge to be a database manager,” the bureau said.

The FCC Public Safety Bureau again extended the freeze on accepting new 800 MHz applications along the U.S.-Mexico border, now through Feb. 1. In March, the bureau extended the freeze through Wednesday (see 1603010042). “This extension is needed to preserve vacant channels for licensees re-tuning their systems according to the Bureau’s updated band plan for licensees operating along the border with Mexico,” said the Friday public notice. “As of this date, many Mexico border region licensees have yet to complete their system re-tunes. Accordingly, to preserve currently vacant channels for use by these licensees and avoid potential licensing conflicts, we extend the freeze on the acceptance of non-rebanding applications for 800 MHz licenses” in regions along the border. The freeze covers the five National Public Safety Planning Advisory Committee regions along the U.S. border with Mexico and stations located within 70 miles of the borders of these regions, the PN said.

The city of Berkeley, California, said CTIA cited outdated authority to argue the FCC doesn’t require providers to warn about the possible danger of RF exposure. CTIA is challenging in the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals the city’s cellphone warning ordinance for RF emissions. From 2001 to 2014, the FCC only encouraged RF exposure disclosures, but after 2014, it became a requirement, the city said Thursday in a surreply (in Pacer). "After a period of voluntary disclosure, the FCC now requires cell phone manufacturers to include in their manuals the same kind of information Berkeley would require retailers provide at the point of sale." CTIA acknowledged the requirement in the 9th Circuit and other courts, Berkeley said. Regardless, CTIA shouldn’t be able to make the argument because court precedent says parties can’t raise new arguments in reply briefs and courts can’t consider new arguments on appeal, Berkeley said. The court struck the city’s earlier attempt to strike the CTIA argument from the record (see 1608120062). CTIA didn’t comment Friday.