CTIA has real concerns about statements in the fact sheet the FCC released on its pending Lifeline overhaul order, officials with the group said in a series of meetings at the FCC. The fact sheet was released when Chairman Tom Wheeler circulated a Lifeline order last week for a vote at the agency’s March 31 meeting (see 1603080024). “The Commission’s proposal to ‘flash cut’ mobile wireless [voice] services to an ‘unlimited’ minimum offering this year appears to disregard affordability as a primary objective of the Lifeline program,” CTIA said, according to a filing. “The record and general market offerings demonstrate that ‘unlimited’ mobile wireless voice plans are substantially more expensive than the $9.25 Lifeline subsidy.” The proposal appears to move the program away from technological neutrality, CTIA warned. “By eliminating support for mobile wireless voice services while maintaining support for fixed wireline offerings, the proposal appears to violate … principles of competitive and technical neutrality,” the group said, saying many low-income people need their wireless devices to call 911 in an emergency. The FCC would be better off launching a discussion of Lifeline rules involving all major stakeholders, CTIA said. An inclusive process “could lead to agreement on a path forward to reach the Commission’s goals of unlimited Lifeline voice minutes and greater adoption of broadband services, on a reasonable timeline that will avoid flash cuts and loss of critical services for millions of low-income people,” the group said. CTIA met with aides to Commissioners Mignon Clyburn and Jessica Rosenworcel. The filing was posted Wednesday in docket 11-42.

The global wireless charging market will reach $9.4 billion by 2020, growing at a 33 percent compound annual rate, a Technavio report said Tuesday. Wireless charging growth is being driven by rising awareness of wireless power technology among consumers and increased adoption for industrial and health care applications, especially in the U.S., Technavio said. Market leaders are Integrated Device Technology, Intel and Qualcomm. U.S. OEMs such as Duracell Powermat are investing heavily in R&D infrastructure projects in shopping malls, transportation stations and restaurants, and CE vendors Apple, Google and Microsoft are investing significantly in wireless charging, it said. Google parent Alphabet plans to test its wireless charging technology for autonomous electric cars, analyst Sunil Kumar Singh said.

In what it called a “ho-hum refresh,” IHS estimated the Samsung Galaxy S7 smartphone costs about $255 to build. The U.S. version of the S7, with 32 GB memory, has a bill of materials (BOM) of $249.55, or $255.05 with manufacturing cost, IHS said. The phone sells at Verizon for $672. Apple’s 16 GB iPhone, by contrast, has a $187.91 BOM and retails for $649, IHS said. In the refresh, the S7 received “a case of small refinements,” analyst Andrew Rassweiler said. “The Galaxy S7 is the upgrade Samsung had to do, but there’s not a lot of trailblazing happening on the device.”

Broadcom officials explained their support for a proposal to allocate the upper 30 MHz of the U-NII-4 band (5895-5925 MHz) exclusively for dedicated short range communications, while allowing unlicensed to share the rest of the band, in meetings with FCC officials. Broadcom met with aides to the FCC commissioners and with Julius Knapp, chief of the Office of Engineering and Technology, said a filing in docket 13-49. In a second filing posted Tuesday, Broadcom said it also met with FCC officials about high-frequency spectrum, particularly a proposal to allocate the 64-71 GHz band for Wi-Fi and other unlicensed use. Broadcom said it met with aides to all the commissioners except Mignon Clyburn.

The FCC should act quickly to reallocate the four high-frequency spectrum blocks the agency identified for mobile broadband in an October NPRM (see 1510220057), said representatives of the Information Technology Industry Council and members Ericsson and Intel in a meeting with an aide to Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel. ”We reiterated the need for quick action on the four bands identified in the NPRM, and particularly the 28 GHz band,” said a Monday filing on the meeting in docket 14-177. “Expedient action will ensue U.S. leadership in the millimeter wave bands.”

The Minnesota FirstNet project team emphasized during its kick-off meeting the need for an aligned outreach strategy that includes all regions of the state, the network said in a Monday blog post. FirstNet representatives met with cabinet-level executives and the entire Minnesota FirstNet project team in a successful single point of contact engagement kick-off meeting Feb. 25, the post said: The meeting allowed the state and FirstNet to connect on recent progress, issues and activities. It also lets the group talk through the targeted outreach strategy for the state, identifying key stakeholders and associations to reach in the coming months to prepare for the delivery of the state plan and the state’s support of the governor’s decision, FirstNet said.

The American Bankers Association wants a single change to the FCC's August declaratory ruling on Telephone Consumer Protection Act rules (see 1506180046), it said in a filing in docket 02-278. The change is to a condition on exemptions for time-sensitive calls and text messages, “limiting the exemption to the wireless telephone number provided by the customer of the financial institution,” it said. The association also cited “the harmful impact that the provided number condition has had on the ability of financial institutions to make time-sensitive calls and texts pursuant to the exemptions,” ABA said.

Carriers are privacy-conscious, said wireless associations in news releases issued Thursday after the FCC confirmed a net neutrality privacy NPRM was circulating (see 1603100037). CTIA members “remain committed to robust privacy protection for their customers” and have “proactively implemented strong data privacy and security programs,” CTIA said. It said rules depend on the ultimate decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit on whether the FCC correctly reclassified wireless broadband as a common-carrier service in last year’s net neutrality order. As FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler has said, “the FTC’s long-standing privacy framework has ​effectively protected consumers throughout the Internet services market including, until recently, the broadband industry,” said Debbie Matties, CTIA vice president-privacy. “By adopting the FTC framework, the FCC would allow the continuation of a dynamic marketplace that supports the emergence of innovative new business models and consumers would have meaningful privacy protection.” Competitive Carriers Association President Steve Berry said CCA signed an ISP letter proposing privacy rules (see 1603010069). “CCA agrees that all carriers, wireless and wireline, should have strong privacy practices, which is why wireless companies have policies and procedures in place to safeguard their consumers’ privacy,” Berry said. “Nevertheless, we welcome the opportunity to discuss our proposal and comment on the NPRM.”

Representatives of Samsung met with various FCC officials to discuss the company’s interest in high-frequency spectrum, said a filing posted Friday in docket 14-177. Samsung officials, including John Godfrey, Samsung Electronics America senior vice president-public policy, and Robert Kubik, Samsung Electronics director-public policy, engineering and technology, met with aides to Chairman Tom Wheeler and Commissioners Mike O’Rielly and Ajit Pai, the company said. “The parties discussed Samsung’s support for the Commission’s proposal to make spectrum above 24 GHz available for 5G,” it said. “Samsung noted its support for establishment of a regulatory framework for provision of mobile services in the 28 GHz (27.5-28.35 GHz), 39 GHz (38.6 to 40 GHz), and 37 GHz (37 to 38.6 GHz) bands. Samsung also urged the Commission to make development of a regulatory framework for the millimeter wave spectrum bands a priority.”

Audio-Technica U.S. countered CTIA's arguments against its reconsideration petition seeking relief from FCC rules on out-of-band emissions (OOBE) limits for wireless mics in the TV band. Instead, A-T said the FCC should approve the European Telecommunications Standards Institute standard without modification. CTIA said in a February filing (see 1602290059) that its opposition was based on “extensive testing information provided by CTIA and its members.” CTIA’s arguments rely on tests by engineering consultant V-Comm “to contend that even more stringent OOBE limits for wireless microphones are necessary to protect 600 MHz licensees from harmful interference,” the wireless mic company said. “A-T disputes this contention, and notes that wireless microphone industry representatives and others have called both the V-Comm methodology and results into question in this proceeding.” The filing was made in docket 12-268.