CTIA said 16 participating wireless companies have successfully fulfilled the wireless industry Smartphone Anti-Theft Voluntary Commitment. “In doing so, the authorized user may choose to disable or enable the anti-theft solution at any time,” CTIA said Tuesday. “By granting authorized users access to the pre-installed anti-theft tools, consumers’ phones and personal data are more secure.” FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler had pressed industry to make the commitment (see 1506110037). “CTIA and its members understand that smartphone theft remains a serious problem and that anti-theft tools only work if adopted widely," Wheeler said in a statement. "I applaud the wireless industry’s steps to make anti-theft tools accessible and available for consumers."

T-Mobile's Binge On customers can now stream video from more than 100 video services without touching their high-speed data bucket, T-Mobile said Tuesday in a news release. Subscribers have already streamed more than 765 million hours of video using the zero-rated Binge On service, the carrier said. ABC, Apple Music, the Big Ten Network, Dish Anywhere and the Disney Channel are among the providers now participating in Binge On, T-Mobile said. The FCC is investigating whether the service violates net neutrality rules (see 1604260054). T-Mobile cited comments from a number of smaller video providers happy to be part of Binge On. “We want our programming and the opportunity to watch the programming easily in front of as many people as possible,” said David Moffly, CEO of Baeble Media. “Binge On removes one of the significant negative barriers everyone encounters when viewing video on their mobile devices -- ‘How much of my data plan is this going to chew up?’”

Making effective use of spectrum is key to effectively fighting forest fires, said NTIA Associate Administrator Paige Atkins Monday in a blog post. So far in 2016, there have been more than 31,000 wildfires over nearly 3 million acres of land, Atkins wrote. “These fires aren’t bound by borders, so cooperation between local, state and federal agencies is key,” she said. “NTIA, which manages federal spectrum use, sees cooperation as a cornerstone of its approach to getting the most out of the nation’s limited spectrum resources. Demand for spectrum is ever increasing -- federal agencies are developing more complex wireless systems to better perform critical missions, and industry is using spectrum to fuel a wireless revolution, connecting smartphones, tablets and other devices and objects at faster and faster speeds.”

The wireless network of the future may be very different from the networks of today, former FCC Chairman Reed Hundt said in a letter he plans to file with a presentation at the FCC. Some 5G networks “might be owned and operated by the carriers we know today. Indeed these firms may be the best at deploying 5G networks,” Hundt wrote. “But the network architectures of 5G will vary according to the uses of those networks. They will be versioned to specific ends. … Like so many markets, the ability to learn about customers is now an essential feature of retailing, and translating that to network deployment we can see that homogeneous, one size fits all networks are the past. In the future every end use will get the network architecture optimally suited for it.” Hundt has done work for Ligado Networks, which is seeking to convert satellite spectrum to terrestrial use for wireless broadband. Hundt said he plans to file the letter and presentation in docket 14-177. The fifth generation of wireless is a game changer, Hundt said. The FCC “faces the challenge and opportunity of helping to shape a new network -- a combination of digitization, phased array antenna breakthroughs, new forms of managing electromagnetic waves, signal processing on a finger nail sized chip, distributed data centers housing more information than any book-lined library, sensors and beacons operating on the bare suspicion of battery power, and many other inventions.”

A June 30 FCC order tweaking Part 5 experimental radio service rules (see 1607010023) is to take effect Aug. 24, based on a notice to be published in Monday's Federal Register. The revised order makes medical device manufacturers eligible for medical testing experimental licenses.

Sprint filed a response to questions posed by the FCC Wireless Bureau on the carrier's proposed swap of PCS and AWS-1 licenses with U.S. Cellular (see 1607070042). The carrier redacted all information it offered the FCC in the public version of the filing. The swaps include spectrum in 49 counties in all or parts of 14 cellular market areas in parts of Illinois, Kansas, Michigan, Virginia and Washington, the FCC said in a notice on the deal.

The smartwatch category showed its first year-over-year decline in Q2, down 32 percent to 3.5 million units, due to a falloff in Apple Watch shipments, said an IDC report. It attributed Apple’s falloff to 1.6 million shipments in Q2 to high comparables from the initial launch quarter of the Apple Watch. Improvements to the watch aren’t expected until later this year, analyst Jitesh Ubrani said Thursday. Next-generation smartwatches “will appeal to a broader market, ultimately leading to a growing market," said analyst Ramon Llamas. IDC expects the category to return to growth next year, he said.

The Pokémon Go craze shows the importance of the recent FCC order providing high-frequency spectrum for 5G (see 1607140052), said Bret Swanson, visiting fellow at the American Enterprise Institute’s Center for Internet, Communications and Technology Policy. “The FCC is not often celebrated for its timeliness and foresight,” Swanson said in a blog post Friday. “The last few years have been among its darkest. But we offer congratulations when due. Just as Pokémon GO was demonstrating the need for more wireless capacity, the FCC was voting unanimously on a spectrum proposal that could dramatically expand commercial US airwaves and enable the next generation of 5G wireless devices, networks, and applications.” It's only a game, “but it shows the power and possibility of geolocation and the Internet of Things in other realms,” he said.

The National Public Safety Telecommunications Council said the FCC should err on the side of safety in the fight over sharing the 5.9 GHz band between Wi-Fi and proponents of dedicated short-range communication (DSRC) systems designed to curb vehicular accidents (see 1607080037). In reply comments, NPSTC supported the auto industry. It's an umbrella group that represents 16 public safety organizations. Unlicensed National Information Infrastructure (U-NII) operations already are allocated 580 MHz of spectrum at 5 GHz outside the DSRC band, NPSTC said. “In contrast, the 5.850-5.925 GHz band under consideration for sharing is the only spectrum allocated for DSRC operations.” There are use cases where public safety could make use of the band, the filing said. Public safety agencies could transmit a warning message to motorists to detour around a major accident, NPSTC said. “A public safety vehicle such as a fire truck, ambulance or police car travelling on an interstate or major highway to an incident could warn motorists in its path that it is approaching.” Or an emergency vehicle could use the band to alert other first-responder vehicles, such as an alert sent between two fire trucks approaching the same intersection from different directions. “DSRC technology has tremendous potential to enhance safety for the motoring public, including that of firefighters, law enforcement officials and emergency medical personnel heading to an incident to help save a life,” NPSTC said. “This potential can be realized only if the DSRC spectrum is not subjected to interference by unlicensed operations.” Replies were due Friday in docket 13-49.

T-Mobile US plans its quarterly earnings call Wednesday, it said Thursday. That will make T-Mobile the last of the four major wireless carriers to report. The call starts at 10:30 a.m. EDT and listeners can offer questions via text, Twitter or Facebook, T-Mobile said in a news release. “Similar to past quarters, prepared remarks will be kept to a minimum in order to provide more time for free-flowing dialogue with analysts, investors, media and consumers.”