Total Call Mobile asked the FCC to reverse a Wireline Bureau order freezing Lifeline payments to the company “starting in May and for future periods indefinitely.” The order "jeopardizes the Company's ability to continue to provide service to eligible subscribers and thereby threatens the essential communications services of Lifeline subscribers,” Total Call said in the petition for reconsideration. “The purported temporary nature of the Bureau's action does not grant the Bureau special authority in this instance,” the carrier said. “Regardless of the terminology the Bureau used in the order, the Funding Hold Order is a suspension, pure and simple.” Only by following section 54.8 of FCC rules can the agency suspend payments “and the Bureau declined to follow that process,” Total Call said. The Wireline Bureau put payments on hold because of a notice of apparent liability for forfeiture and order resulting from an investigation against Total Call by the Enforcement Bureau (see 1606220073). The notice proposed fining Total Call Mobile $51 million for allegedly enrolling tens of thousands of duplicate and ineligible consumers into the low-income telecom support program (see 1604080032).

The FCC-proposed deadline for wireless carriers to transition from text telephone (TTY) to real-time text (RTT) technology may be “too aggressive for all providers,” the Competitive Carriers Association told the commission. The agency proposed a deadline of Dec. 31, 2017. CCA and other commenters made similar points as the FCC sought comment on an NPRM on the transition (see 1607260020). “CCA and its members are committed to moving to RTT, but need the largest carriers to pave the way for equipment and technology development and deployments,” CCA said. The FCC should extend the deadline by 18 months for non-nationwide carriers, the group said. “Competitive carriers have less ability to influence the technical ecosystem in which RTT will operate, or the device ecosystem necessary to acquire devices with RTT capability.” CCA made its points in a meeting with officials from the Consumer and Governmental Affairs Bureau, said a filing in docket 15-178.

The FCC Enforcement Bureau fined an amateur radio operator $25,000 for allegedly interfering with other amateur operators. The operator, William Crowell of Diamond Springs, California, told us he would fight the fine. The forfeiture represents the full penalty initially proposed for the violation last year, plus $3,000 for continuing violations, the bureau said. The bureau said it responded to multiple complaints of interference, primarily from members of the Western Amateur Radio Friendship Association (WARFA). Bureau field agents investigated. They found Crowell’s amateur radio station “intentionally interfering with other amateur licensees by transmitting on top of other amateurs, and repeatedly interrupting amateurs using noises on the WARFA net, recordings and music, so as to not allow them to transmit on 3908 kHz.11,” the order said. “Between 7:45 P.M. and 9:45 P.M. PDT, on both August 25 and August 27, the Agents ... observed at least a dozen instances, lasting from thirty seconds to at least four minutes each, of Mr. Crowell intentionally transmitting on top of and repeatedly interrupting amateurs on the WARFA net.” The interfering transmissions included racial, ethnic and sexual slurs and epithets, the bureau said. Crowell responded to a proposed fine, saying he was exercising his First Amendment rights of free speech, the order said: “Mr. Crowell argues further that the Bureau characterized his transmissions as jamming or interference because it does not like what he wants to say.” Crowell was cited for the interference itself, not the content of the transmissions, the bureau said. “It is well-established that regulation of radio in general does not violate the First Amendment or Section 326 [of the Communications Act], and courts have made clear that this conclusion applies to the amateur service as well.” Crowell vowed to fight the FCC in court. "I haven't had an opportunity to study the Forfeiture Order very carefully yet, but from what I have seen so far I think it is on very weak legal grounds and represents nothing but more bluffing, bullying and denial of Constitutional rights by the FCC," Crowell emailed us. "I am not going to be paying anything on the Forfeiture Order, and I fully expect to fight it in the U.S. District Court in a trial de novo under Sec. 504 of the Communications Act, if the U.S. Attorney sees fit to file such a suit."

Huawei faces headwinds in its aim to become the top global smartphone vendor in five years, said a Monday ABI Research report. The Chinese smartphone maker rose to the No. 3 global smartphone maker primarily on sales in its home market, but it will need to get a strong foothold in the U.S. and Western Europe to achieve its goal, while creating its own chipsets and Android-based mobile operating system, ABI said. It was helped by the “ongoing collapse” of shipment numbers from brands including BlackBerry, HTC, Sony and Microsoft Lumia, said analyst David McQueen. Android smartphone makers like Samsung tried to develop competing OS platforms and “failed miserably,” he said.

Verizon agreed to pay $2.4 billion to acquire Dublin-based Fleetmatics, a fleet and mobile workforce management company serving small and medium-sized businesses, the telco said in a news release Monday. Friday Verizon closed an acquisition of Telogis (see 1606210069), another fleet management software-as-a-service company, it said. The combination of Verizon Telematics, Fleetmatics and Telogis “will position the combined companies to become a leading provider of fleet and mobile workforce management solutions globally," said Verizon Telematics CEO Andrés Irlando. Fleetmatics has 37,000 customers, 737,000 subscribers and 1,200 employees, Verizon said. The Fleetmatics acquisition is subject to regulatory approvals and closing conditions, including shareholder approval and the sanction by the Irish High Court of the arrangement by which Verizon will buy Fleetmatics. Verizon expects the deal to close in Q4, it said.

Political convention attendees used massive amounts of wireless data last month, Verizon said in a news release Monday. Verizon Wireless customers at the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia used more than 9.3 TB of wireless data over the four-day event in the Wells Fargo Center, Verizon said. Data use peaked on the fourth day with 2.65 TB consumed, it said. At the Republican National Convention one week earlier, customers consumed more than 28.5 TB over four days on the Verizon network at the Quicken Loans Arena and across downtown Cleveland, the carrier said. As in Philadelphia, data usage peaked on Day 4, with a total amount estimated at 7.3 TB, Verizon said.

TP-Link, which sells Wi-Fi routers, agreed to pay $200,000 and to stop marketing routers that don’t fully comply with FCC power level rules, the agency said Monday. The consent decree alleges TP-Link violated Section 15.15(b) of the FCC rules by selling routers that can operate at power levels that exceed their approved parameters on some restricted Wi-Fi channels. “TP-Link cooperated with the Bureau’s investigation and, as part of the consent decree, has agreed to pay a $200,000 fine and implement a compliance program to ensure future compliance with the Commission’s rules and regulations,” the FCC said in a news release. “TP-Link will institute processes to ensure that products imported or marketed in the U.S. are in compliance with the FCC’s rules, remove any noncompliant products from the U.S. marketplace and offer an updated user-downloadable version of software on its website so that affected users can bring their Wi-Fi router into compliance.” The FCC’s approach struck a careful balance, said Travis LeBlanc, chief of the Enforcement Bureau. “While manufacturers of Wi-Fi routers must ensure reasonable safeguards to protect radio parameters, users are otherwise free to customize their routers and we support TP-Link’s commitment to work with the open-source community and Wi-Fi chipset manufacturers to enable third-party firmware on TP-Link routers.” TP-Link didn't comment.

The FCC Wireless Bureau approved AT&T’s buy of two lower 700 MHz B-block licenses from West Carolina (see 1603020060). The licenses cover all or parts of two local market areas in South Carolina, the bureau said. The deal got extra scrutiny because it would increase AT&T’s spectrum holdings in the markets above one-third of the currently suitable and available below-1-GHz spectrum, the order said. “After carefully evaluating the likely competitive effects of AT&T’s increased aggregation of below-1-GHz spectrum in these two local market areas, as well as the other factors ordinarily considered in a case-by-case review, we find that the likelihood of competitive harm is low,” the bureau said. “We find some public interest benefits are likely to be realized, such as increased network quality and a better consumer experience.”

T-Mobile representatives urged the FCC to make information available about vendors that can help broadcasters relocate after the TV incentive auction as part of a public-facing webpage. The T-Mobile representatives met with Gary Epstein, chairman of the Incentive Auction Task Force, and other FCC officials to discuss the importance of an “efficient, phased” process. “To facilitate an efficient information flow regarding resources, T-Mobile suggested the Commission offer broadcast equipment suppliers and broadcast service companies an opportunity to identify their firms’ capabilities on an FCC-hosted webpage in a manner similar to the voluntary, vendor-identification list FirstNet developed during its contracting process,” said a filing on the meeting. “Hosting vendor-provided contact information would not serve as an endorsement of any firm, but would help highlight the number and variety of vendors prepared to support the repacking process.” The filing was posted in docket 12-268.

AT&T put Dolby Audio at the top of its feature list for the AT&T-branded Trek 2 HD tablet that will be in stores Friday. The 8-inch Android tablet will sell for a buck with two-year agreement or $7.50 per month for 20 months with an eligible plan, said AT&T. Other features: Snapdragon 1.5 GHz Octa-core processor, 16 GB storage expandable to 128 GB with a microSD card, 10.5-hour battery life and five-megapixel front and rear cameras.