Two task teams set up by FirstNet’s Public Safety Advisory Committee on identity, credential and access management (ICAM) and on local control have completed reports, PSAC Chairman Harlin McEwen said Wednesday. The ICAM report recommends that the barrier to entry in the initial stage of FirstNet “be kept low by leveraging existing public safety information security policies and procedures,” McEwen said in a blog post. “As the ICAM framework progresses to the later stages, resulting in greater access to public safety data, the responsibilities of the agencies and the public safety users increase. The final stage results in an interoperable federated identity solution for public safety.” The second report said local control of FirstNet’s Priority and Pre-emption Framework should “rarely, if ever, be necessary,” McEwen said. “In these rare situations, it is envisioned to be coordinated with FirstNet.”

A National Advertising Review Board (NARB) panel recommended that T-Mobile better disclose to consumers the terms of the company’s “Ditch and Switch” campaign. The panel said the language that T-Mobile uses in the ad on how a consumer would be reimbursed “was not sufficiently conspicuous and did not adequately explain how the reimbursement program worked,” said an NARB news release. AT&T had complained, NARB said. “A majority of the panel determined that, to properly qualify these claims and avoid an erroneous message, it is necessary to clearly and conspicuously disclose in the body of the advertisement that the ‘pay off’ comes as a trade-in credit and prepaid card." NARB said in a response that T-Mobile said it would "take the panel’s ‘recommendations into account in formulating its future advertising.’” T-Mobile didn't have further comment.

The FCC Consumer and Governmental Affairs Bureau sought comment Wednesday on a petition by the Mortgage Bankers Association for an exemption from the prior express consent requirement under the Telephone Consumer Protection Act for autodialed or prerecorded “mortgage servicing” calls to wireless phones. MBA cited in particular calls that aren't charged to the called party and don’t contain an advertisement or constitute telemarketing, the bureau said. “MBA notes that the TCPA authorizes the Commission to exempt autodialed or prerecorded calls to wireless numbers when the called party is not charged, subject to conditions designed to protect consumer privacy, and that the Commission has exercised this authority with respect to certain communications made by package delivery services, healthcare providers, and financial institutions,” the bureau said in a public notice. “MBA states that mortgage servicing calls are required by various federal and state requirements, and are of critical importance to mortgage borrowers.” Comments are due Sept. 2, replies Sept. 19 in docket 02-278.

The Enterprise Wireless Alliance asked the FCC to respond to a June 26, 2015, petition from Spectrum Networks Group (SNG) asking the agency to order show cause why the 900 MHz licenses of 19 licensees shouldn't be revoked. EWA said it coordinated some of the applications for those licenses. "EWA has been advised by certain members whose licenses were the subject of the Petition that they received inquiries from the FCC regarding the SNG allegations in late summer or early fall of 2015 and that they responded by the FCC-specified deadline,” EWA said. “These members have received no further communications from the FCC regarding the disposition of these matters.” EWA said it doesn't take a position on how the FCC should rule. “However, it does urge the FCC to take whatever action it deems appropriate as promptly as possible,” the letter said. “Most of these licensees are small businesses for which regulatory uncertainty is particularly difficult. It may be that some of the factual situations are complex and will require substantial time to resolve, but EWA would expect that others are not complicated and that the FCC could reach a decision in a year or perhaps even less.” EWA sent the letter to Wireless Bureau Chief Jon Wilkins.

Competitive Carriers Association President Steve Berry spoke with FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler to make the case that the agency must address business data services (BDS) as part of a bigger push on 5G. Berry was a top lieutenant to Wheeler when the latter was president of CTIA. “The Chairman and I discussed that BDS are critical inputs into competitive carrier networks and will become even more important as carriers work to densify their networks in anticipation of 5G and the technologies it will support,” Berry wrote. “Backhaul costs represent a large percentage of most competitive carriers’ network operating expenses. These costs will increase exponentially as carriers build out more cell sites to meet existing and growing network demands and to deploy 5G.” Competitive carriers rely on some time-division multiplexing services for backhaul, Berry said. "These services will have limited to no use in a 5G world. Instead, I described that carriers need backhaul capable of supporting the load that 5G will require." The filing, in docket 16-143, wasn't posted by the FCC at our deadline.

AT&T Mobility reached tentative agreement on a healthcare contract with 42,000 union workers represented by Communications Workers of America, the organizations said Wednesday. CWA members must still vote to ratify the agreement. The process usually takes several weeks, with informational meetings for members taking place ahead of the actual vote, a CWA spokeswoman emailed. Summarizing the proposed agreement, CWA highlighted reduced premium costs for 20,000 employees hired after 2014, lower rates for single employees with dependent children, popular HMO plans with lower contribution rates for Puerto Rico employees and a new “Option 2” plan with lower premium costs. AT&T won’t comment on details of the tentative agreement until it’s presented to CWA members for vote, the carrier said in a news release. Last month, CWA members refused to ratify a June tentative agreement (see 1607150027). The current benefits contract expires Dec. 31. CWA “accomplished our main goal, which was to put health care benefits bargaining back in the regional bargaining agreement process and to make health care affordable for all Mobility workers,” said CWA District 1 Vice President Dennis Trainor in a statement. Wages, pension and work rules for union-represented Mobility employees are negotiated under separate contracts.

New America is concerned about parts of the Wi-Fi Alliance’s proposal for coexistence testing of Wi-Fi and LTE-unlicensed, said Michael Calabrese, director of the Wireless Future Program. WifiForward, a pro-Wi-Fi coalition, praised the release, but the Evolve Coalition has said progress has been too slow (see 1608020054). “Consumer advocates are heartened to hear the Wi-Fi Alliance has completed its LTE-U coexistence test plan,” Calabrese said in a Wednesday statement. “However, it is alarming to hear that compromises on the test plan within this industry group could leave 50 percent of Wi-Fi connections at risk of disruption from LTE-U. It is also unfortunate that cellular industry proponents of using LTE on unlicensed spectrum are now threatening to pull back from Wi-Fi coexistence testing they initially proposed and supported.” The FCC must ensure that ITE-U devices pass “the entire test” and can coexist with Wi-Fi, he said.

Samsung launched the Galaxy Note7 Tuesday, touting the smartphone’s iris-scanning biometric authentication, 5.7-inch screen with Corning Gorilla Glass 5 and high-dynamic-range playback of streamed content. In a research email, IHS said the Note7 demonstrates Samsung's desire to be a “technology leader in smartphones” and will act as a premium showcase to boost margins, define strategy and increase brand appeal. Samsung picked IDT’s Wireless PowerShare wireless-charging “architecture” for the Galaxy Note7, IDT CEO Gregory Waters said on a Monday earnings call.

Widespread use of the TV white spaces for accessing the internet is getting closer to reality, Microsoft said in a paper filed at the FCC. “The building blocks are falling into place for a globally scalable marketplace for devices capable of dynamically accessing unused TV white space spectrum,” the paper said. “Numerous standards have been developed including the IEEE’s 802.11af standard for Wi-Fi in the television white space spectrum and the IEEE 802.22 standard for wide area networks. Each of these advances is creating opportunities for vendors to begin product development.” Microsoft cited early deployments around the world. Mediatek demo'd its first tri-band 5 GHz, 2.4 GHz and TV white spaces device based on the 802.11af Wi-Fi standard in a trial in Glasgow, Scotland, Microsoft said. “Several companies have announced plans to manufacture devices incorporating MediaTek’s first generation 802.11af chipset.” Paula Boyd, Microsoft director-government and regulatory affairs, discussed the paper with Matthew Hussey, associate chief of the FCC Office of Engineering & Technology, said a filing in docket 04-186.

Verizon named Ronan Dunne, former CEO of O2 UK, executive vice president and group president of Verizon Wireless, effective in September. For the past eight years, Dunne was CEO of O2 UK, the No. 2 U.K. wireless carrier, and a member of the executive committee of parent Telefonica SA, Verizon said in a Tuesday news release. He “will be responsible for all aspects of Verizon Wireless’ operations, including marketing operations, wireless operations, network operations, customer care and digital operations,” Verizon said. Dunne will report to John Stratton, Verizon president-operations.