APCO disagreed sharply with Federated Wireless arguments that a dynamic spectrum sharing framework, enabled by a spectrum access system, could “expand the use of, and improve the efficiency of, the 4.9 GHz band.” In June 2012, the FCC approved revised rules designed to boost use of the underused public safety band (see 1206140066). Federated urged the FCC in a filing to look to its rules for the 3.5 GHz band as a model for the 4.9 GHz band. “Federated Wireless’s proposal ignores the importance of frequency coordination for public safety,” APCO said in a filing Wednesday. “Clear and interference-free operation is a fundamental requirement of public safety communications.” APCO's 4.9 GHz Task Force “found that this is especially true for this band, given its ability to handle broadband data and thus carry large amounts of sensitive, mission-critical information,” the filing said. The filings are in docket 07-100.

FirstNet’s Public Safety Advisory Committee (PSAC) will discuss “working group and task team updates” in a meeting in San Diego June 6, FirstNet said Tuesday. The meeting is to start at 8 a.m. PDT at the Hard Rock Hotel San Diego, said a notice. The meeting will be streamed, FirstNet said.

Movado Group research recently found that half of U.S. consumers are “not interested” in smartwatches (see 1605270034), but buying intentions are much higher among Chinese, an ABI Research survey found. The research firm estimates nearly two-thirds of Chinese consumers plan to buy a smartwatch in the next 12 months, it said in a Tuesday report. “The heightened demand is due to the wide range of choices that local manufacturers offer consumers, as well as to the products’ affordable pricing, good design, and comprehensive feature set.” Some among the more affluent Chinese consumers regard the Apple Watch and other branded smartwatches “to be a desired status symbol,” it said. ABI found 42 percent of the respondents it canvassed are willing to spend between $150 and $310 on a smartwatch, while 36 percent regard “a reasonable price to be below $150,” and 22 percent are likely to spend more than $310, the firm said: “It is likely that some consumers will gladly pay a higher price for a reputable and customized smart watch, but most will probably choose the cheaper options.”

NTIA is set to publish a notice in Wednesday's Federal Register saying it updated its “Manual of Regulations and Procedures for Federal Radio Frequency Management.” The agency "is releasing an update to the current edition of the NTIA Manual, with which federal agencies must comply when requesting use of radio frequency spectrum,” NTIA said in the notice. The changes are effective with publication.

Qualcomm launched an SoC for wearables Tuesday, at Computex 2016 in Taipei. Features include a power save mode, modem with LTE/3G global band support and integrated applications processor for Linux-based applications that can scale to support voice, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, said the company. Target applications include watches for the “connected kid” and elderly, said Qualcomm, which is collaborating with Aricent, Borqs, Infomark and SurfaceInk with Wear 1100. Qualcomm unveiled a dual-band Wi-Fi chip, with low power, small size and security features designed for connected devices. Qualcomm’s QCA401x features software support for Apple's HomeKit, Google's Weave and the AllSeen Alliance's AllJoyn software framework to help address IoT fragmentation, Qualcomm said. The company also launched a family of tri-radio 802.11ac platforms aimed at boosting home network capacity and optimizing for better consumer Wi-Fi experiences. As connected homes add devices, “Wi-Fi is being stretched to the limit," said Gopi Sirineni, vice president-product management at Qualcomm Atheros.

After years of failing to find effective competition in the wireless industry, the FCC should recognize reality in its upcoming annual report on the state of competition in mobile wireless, Mobile Future said in comments filed at the FCC Tuesday. Put your "analytic coyness aside," the group told the FCC. “Consumer choice has never been greater when it comes to wireless connectivity,” Mobile Future said. “With consumers clearly in charge of the mobile arena, it is time for the Commission to put its demonstrable analytic coyness aside with respect to this report and acknowledge what more than 300 million wireless users see every day: the wireless market is highly competitive; consumers have the freedom to switch providers at any time, pick from an array of devices and tap into millions of choices when it comes to apps and services; and because of this extreme competition wireless is significantly different from other communications platforms.” The comments were filed in docket 16-137. The wireless industry isn’t competitive enough, the Competitive Carriers Association said Tuesday in a news release. “Long-term sustainable competition depends on consumer choices in the marketplace and increased consolidation means fewer choices for consumers,” said CCA President Steve Berry. “It is not only wireless carriers that are affected by consolidation, but also hundreds of companies and small businesses across the country that support and sell to the carriers risk losing business as a result of consolidation. The entire mobile ecosystem is negatively impacted from a lack of competition, and the FCC must conduct targeted intervention to ensure policies encourage, rather than inhibit, competition and innovation.”

T-Mobile said it's getting ready for hurricane season, like other carriers (see 1605260033), in a news release Friday. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration predicted 10 to 16 tropical storms and four to eight hurricanes, including up to four hurricanes rated category 3 or higher. Before any hurricane is forecast to hit the U.S., T-Mobile sets up an engineering command center near the expected impact area so it can rapidly deploy response teams to ensure service interruptions are kept at a minimum, it said. The teams maintain and deploy backup power machines including generators, fuel cells and cells on wheels, it said.

N.E. Colorado Cellular and Union Telephone Co. jointly told the FCC the agency should reject a request by Atlantic Tele-Network (ATN) and SAL Spectrum for a waiver so SAL can benefit from rural bidding credits in the TV incentive auction. ATN, SAL’s parent, has a market capitalization of nearly $1.2 billion, with more than $355 million operating revenue and nearly $17 million in profit last year, the smaller carriers said. SAL “is able to borrow funds at rates not available to small companies,” N.E. Colorado and Union said. “In the upcoming auction, these are significant advantages unavailable to other rural service providers.” The comments were posted in docket 14-252.

Though Movado Group is “well positioned to capture share” in smartwatches, company research shows about half of U.S. consumers “are not interested in smartwatches,” President Ricardo Quintero said on a Thursday earnings call. “We remain balanced in our approach to this segment of the category,” he said. “We believe in the continued long-term opportunities in the non-connected watch category, driven by brand, image design and innovation.” Movado thinks “obviously that wearables and connected watches will have a place in the watch business,” said CEO Efraim Grinberg in Q&A. “But it really helps to build a new category” in smartwatches while bringing “new consumers into the arena who weren’t wearing” traditional watches, he said. “So we actually believe that millennials will go down both paths.” For example, he sees millennials buying “simple fashion watches, and that’s where we’re going with things like our ultra slim collections,” he said. “But they’ll also buy connected watches and we’ll have those offerings as well.” Movado’s research shows that top capability of smartwatches is “time-telling,” he said. It’s “gratifying to know” that consumers are using smartwatches to tell time, in addition to the “notifications and health functions” that are important to people, he said. The industry is “very early in the rollout” of smartwatches, he said. “The technology will continue to improve” in battery life and "the things that watches can do for you,” he said. “What people seem to forget is that when we all started with cellphones, they were about the size of a brick and weighed a pound or two and then progressively got smaller and better and higher quality and better design. So all of that will begin to happen in this category as well.”

Any test deployment of Globalstar's proposed broadband terrestrial low-power service (TLPS) should include protections of and advance options for future public use of Wi-Fi channel 14, Google Director-Communications Law Austin Schlick told FCC Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel aide Johanna Thomas, said an ex parte filing Thursday in docket 13-213. It said Globalstar should be required to publish all the protocols of its network operating system and demonstrate the NOS can exchange spectrum use information with non-TLPS devices without relying on non-public protocols or standards. Globalstar didn't comment Friday.