The FCC rejected an appeal of a Wireline Bureau decision that denied a request of USCOC of Cumberland and Hardy Cellular Telephone (both U.S. Cellular units) to waive USF high-cost support filing deadlines. Rules 54.809(c) and 54.904(d) required eligible telecom carriers receiving interstate access support and interstate common line support to make certain certifications every year. While they've now been largely superseded by new rules under the 2011 USF and intercarrier compensation transformation order, the FCC said, U.S. Cellular in 2008 sought a waiver from the previous deadlines but was denied by the bureau and filed an application for review by the full commission. In its unanimous order Wednesday in docket 08-71, the FCC said the company failed to establish any grounds to overturn the bureau decision. U.S. Cellular didn't comment Thursday.

IHS sees nearly 21 million autonomous vehicles being sold globally by 2035, the firm said in a Tuesday forecast. “This is a substantial increase from previous estimates, and is influenced by recent research and development by automotive OEMs, supplier and technology companies who are investing in this area,” IHS said. It also based the new forecast “on a wave of recent developments and investments in this sector of the market, as well as activity within various regulatory environments,” it said. The U.S. market is expected to see “the earliest deployment of autonomous vehicles as it works through challenges posed by regulation, liability and consumer acceptance,” IHS said. Deployment in the U.S. will begin with several thousand autonomous vehicles in 2020, but grow to nearly 4.5 million vehicles by 2035, it said. In fashioning a market for autonomous vehicles, IHS “expects entirely new vehicle segments to be created, in addition to traditional vehicles adding autonomous capabilities,” it said. “Consumers gain new choices in personal mobility to complement mass transit, and these new choices will increasingly use battery electric and other efficient means of propulsion.”

Fast charging, wireless charging and augmented and virtual reality functionality will be the top three smartphone “technologies and capabilities whose developments and transformations” through 2017 that no vendor can “ignore,” Gartner said Wednesday in an online Q&A with its research director, Roberta Cozza. Though the “current appearances” of AR and VR are new, “better display technology, improvements in sensing and tracking hardware and software for things such as motion, gesture, head and eye tracking, and real-time graphics will increase interest and adoption,” Cozza said. Burgeoning developments in 360-degree and depth-sensing imaging “will provide enhancements to and the availability of environmental mapping capabilities,” she said. “In addition, 3D and 360-degree imaging devices can further accelerate this trend.” Head-mounted displays using AR and VR are expected to sell 40 million units by 2020, “which provides the highest revenue opportunity, together with smartwatches,” she said.

An FCC rule to collect information for Form 611-T related to eligibility for designated entity benefits under spectrum auction bidding rules was approved by the Office of Management and Budget and will take effect July 8, said a commission summary of the rule published in the Federal Register Wednesday.

The FCC pleading cycle was set on petitions for reconsideration on revised Part 15 rules to permit unlicensed national information infrastructure devices in the 5 GHz band. Oppositions to the petitions are due June 23 and replies July 5, said a commission notice published Wednesday in the Federal Register. The petitions to revise out-of-band emission limits were filed by two auto groups -- the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers and Global Automakers (see 1605090052) -- and by the Wireless Internet Service Providers Association in docket 13-49.

Sprint’s stock price is on the rebound, but there are plenty of reasons for investors to have doubts, said Craig Moffett, analyst at MoffettNathanson, Wednesday in a blog post. “Obviously, no company can borrow its way out of debt. But Sprint has successfully pulled off a series of clever financial engineering maneuvers that have provided additional liquidity, and at a generally lower cost of borrowing than that of Sprint’s existing debt,” Moffett wrote. But Moffett questioned some of the numbers, particularly recent write-downs based on property, plant and equipment (PP&E). In a recent 10-K filing, Sprint revealed an “astonishing” $256 million write-down on leased devices, “part of a huge $487 [million] loss on disposals of PP&E in Fiscal 2015, which accelerated throughout the fiscal year,” he said. The leasing loss number “gives one pause,” he said. At a $650 average value per leased handset, that translates to 393,000 customers “simply walking off with a Sprint handset at lease inception, without ever making a single payment.” Sprint closed at $3.82 Wednesday, down 9 cents for the day.

The automotive and transportation industries must expand the scope and relevance of 5G cellular connectivity to enable vehicle-to-vehicle and vehicle-to-infrastructure (V2X) communication for future vehicles, said an ABI report Wednesday. By 2025, ABI forecasts, 67 million automotive 5G vehicle subscriptions will be active, and 3 million of those will be low-latency connections deployed primarily in autonomous and driverless cars. ABI said 5G will “unify connectivity” in autonomous vehicles, enabling broadband multimedia streaming, cloud services for vehicle lifecycle management and the capturing and uploading of sensor data. V2X communication will enable “cooperative mobility,” which will allow vehicles to exchange status and event information via reliable, low-latency communication technologies so vehicles proactively can share “critical events happening locally with each other” to ensure safe driving practices, it said. The most promising capability of 5G for automotive applications will be its low latency, potentially as low as one millisecond, but that will require underlying URLL (ultra-reliable low latency) 5G capabilities based on the use of millimeter wave bands, latency reduction techniques and advanced device-to-device (D2D) communication, said ABI analyst Dominique Bonte. Whether those latencies will be achieved will depend on 5G standards and deployment strategies, "but the question is not so much if, but when the industry will embrace the disruptive approach,” said Bonte. Currently, the telecommunications industry is upgrading LTE/4G networks, Bonte said, but it will eventually build new radio access networks (RANs) based on millimeter waves. Bonte gave the second half of next decade as the timetable for RANs when “very low-latency capabilities will be achievable and V2X-enabled smart mobility applications will be possible.”

AT&T sold fewer handset upgrades but more protection since it began selling smartphones at full price without subsidies, said AT&T Senior Vice President Steve Hodges Wednesday at the Baird 2016 Global Consumer, Technology & Services Conference in New York. AT&T previously sold expensive phones at what appeared to be low prices, subsidizing the high cost with higher service rates. But today, customers pay either full price upfront or smaller monthly payments over time. In the live-streamed presentation, Hodges said the increased transparency about price has meant consumers better understand the value of their devices and take more care to extend their lifespans. AT&T had its lowest handset upgrade rate ever in Q1, but the company also sold more cases, screen protectors and handset insurance, he said. “There was this unintended element of people seeing the value and all of the sudden starting to take care of it differently.” But “iconic” phone launches could still sway consumers to buy the latest model, said Hodges. “This is like global warming -- I don't know. It's just a tough one to predict.” Also in the presentation, Hodges said AT&T sees IoT, the Cricket brand and expansion into Mexico as big growth opportunities. Most connected cars are on the AT&T network, he said. Cricket, which targets “low-end” customers seeking value, has strong average revenue per user, he said. And Mexico is a market of 80 million people that also gives AT&T the capability to provide roaming between the U.S. and its southern neighbor, “a powerful proposition,” he said.

The FCC needs a better handle on what uses of the 5.9 GHz band protect the “safety of life” of vehicle drivers, as the agency moves forward on rules for sharing the band between Wi-Fi and dedicated short-range communications (DSRC) systems designed to prevent motor vehicle accidents, FCC Commissioner Mike O’Rielly said Wednesday in a blog post. “Fundamentally, the benefits of allowing unlicensed services in the 5.9 GHz band could be considerable,” O’Rielly wrote. “The proximity to other unlicensed spectrum means the possibility of huge advancements in functionality, including gigabit Wi-Fi. Providing non-safety-of-life DSRC applications the same protection as safety-of-life uses, however, would unnecessarily restrict the use of unlicensed devices, if and when the Commission approves sharing in the band.” The FCC released a public notice last week seeking to refresh the record on the 5.9 GHz band (see 1605260059). Certain potential uses of the spectrum don’t save lives, O’Rielly said, offering a partial list. These include locating and paying for parking, electronic tolling, mapping, navigating or driving directions, advertising, any type of social media or entertainment, or traffic updates, O’Rielly said.

Representatives of Nextlink Wireless explained in meetings with FCC staff their opposition to an FCC proposal to license the 28 GHz band on an unprecedented county-by-county basis. There's broad opposition to the commission’s “novel, never-before-tested county-based proposed licensing scheme,” Nextlink said. The proposal would create “financial and technical burdens” for companies interested in using the spectrum. “Nextlink chronicled the specific financial challenges that county-based licensing would create for an operator in its position to meet substantial service requirements on a county-by-county basis,” said a filing in docket 14-177. “These costs include both capital expenditures and ongoing operating expenditures for each new site Nextlink would deploy within a county.” Nextlink said its upfront costs for each new site would include “the purchase of radios, fiber connectivity, telemetry routers, as well as construction, permitting and real estate fees -- potentially totaling in the tens of millions of dollars.”