CTIA updated its Smartphone Anti-Theft Voluntary Commitment, responding to a request by FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler, it said Friday. At a June 11 meeting of the FCC Technological Advisory Council, Wheeler said he would ask CTIA to include in its voluntary industry code language that would require consumers to opt out of safeguards that come with their smartphones (see 1506110037). The revised document takes Wheeler’s request into account, CTIA said Friday. “New models of smartphones first manufactured after July 2016 for retail sale in the United States will, if technically necessary, make readily available to the authorized user an option that allows the authorized user to enable or disable the anti-theft solution at any time that the smartphone is connected and is in the authorized user’s possession,” the revised commitment said. The revised commitment “is the latest example of how America’s wireless industry takes on tough issues and works together to develop the best solutions for their customers that balances the needs of users while still providing the flexibility for companies to innovate,” CTIA President Meredith Baker said in a news release. “It’s clear that these initiatives are working since smartphone thefts have declined in cities across the country.” CTIA said it also developed a list of apps “to locate, erase and/or lock, many of which are free, for the various operating systems” and is offering “step-by-step video instructions on how to set up a PIN/password on various mobile devices.” “CTIA and its members understand that smart-device theft remains a serious problem," Wheeler said in a statement. "I am hopeful that this new voluntary commitment will make a meaningful difference for consumer safety." Apple, Assurant, Asurion, AT&T, BlackBerry, Google, HTC America, Huawei Device USA, LGE Mobile Research U.S.A., Microsoft, Motorola Mobility, Samsung Electronics America, Sprint, T-Mobile USA, U.S. Cellular, Verizon and ZTE USA signed off on the anti-theft commitment.

Sprint’s announcement that it won't participate in the TV incentive auction (see 1509280059) shows the Department of Justice was dead wrong in urging the FCC to devise rules for the auction that would guarantee Sprint and T-Mobile came away with spectrum, said Fred Campbell, executive director of the Center for Boundless Innovation in Technology, Thursday in a blog post on the RedState webpage. “Though it’s no surprise, it’s now obvious the country’s federal experts on competition and antitrust matters were wrong in their analysis of Sprint’s alleged need for low-frequency spectrum in order to compete,” he said. A Sprint spokesman responded in an email: “Sprint’s decision to not participate in the 600 MHz Incentive Auction provides no basis for critiquing the FCC’s public policy decisions in establishing the incentive auction structure, rules and procedures... Throughout these proceedings, Sprint consistently advocated for an auction structure with the best chance of promoting competition and thereby spurring wireless broadband innovation and benefiting consumers. The FCC’s auction decisions reflect a fair balancing of these goals along with other public policy considerations in a truly innovative and complex undertaking.”

The Edison Electric Institute fired back against arguments by the National Consumer Law Center (NCLC) and other groups against granting EEI the relief it sought from class-action lawsuits against its members for violating the Telephone Consumer Protection Act. EEI and the American Gas Association said in a February petition that utilities should be able to provide information on planned or unplanned outages, repair work, service cancellation, service restoration and energy efficiency to their customers without risking suits alleging they violated the TCPA (see 1503270020). Allowing the relief requested in the petitions would “legalize many more automated and prerecorded phone calls” to cellphones, NCLC said in comments filed at the FCC last month. “The extent to which this relief should be granted should be analyzed through a filter which examines the impact of so many more calls on the most vulnerable wireless cell phone customers who have limited minutes, especially those low-income customers who rely on the Lifeline program.” EEI countered that the consumer group gets the dynamic of its request wrong. NCLC "just assumes" that energy consumers have little interest in hearing from their electric utilities, EEI said. Electricity isn't an ordinary good or service, the utility group said. “Electricity is a necessity to survive in a modern society: it provides heat, light, and cooling; it is needed to keep food and to cook food; it allows one to connect to the outside world through the internet and through the use of mobile phones; and in rural areas it is often necessary for access to water.” The filings were in docket 02-278.

The Open Technology Institute at New America and Public Knowledge jointly urged the FCC to set aside either one or two vacant TV band channels in every market nationwide for unlicensed use after the TV incentive auction. “The Commission can best optimize the use of TV band spectrum for communication, innovation, job creation, consumer welfare and economic growth more broadly only by ensuring the availability of a substantial number of six megahertz blocks of unlicensed access to TV White Space spectrum in every local market nationwide,” the groups said in a filing posted Thursday in docket 12-268. Wi-Fi generates at least $200 billion in consumer welfare each year in just the U.S., they said. “Yet Wi-Fi never would have flourished without access to a substantial and predictable amount of unlicensed bandwidth in every market nationwide.” Google also backed the proposal. "The preservation of sufficient unlicensed channels is critical to achieving the FCC’s goal of expanding the availability and affordability of unlicensed wireless broadband services, and therefore well worth the small practical impact on broadcasters," the company said.

Sprint said it's raising the price of its $60 unlimited plan to $70 for new customers starting Oct. 16. “At Sprint, we give customers what they want -- and they want the option of unlimited data,” Sprint CEO Marcelo Claure in a Wednesday news release. ”At $70 a month, Sprint still beats the competition. Rather than increase the price without warning, we want to give customers one last chance to take advantage of the $60 rate.” The plan offers unlimited high-speed data, talk and text. Sprint noted that between 2010 and 2014, U.S. mobile data traffic climbed 947 percent.

The FCC Consumer and Governmental Affairs Bureau sought comment on a petition by Colorado-based Broadnet Teleservices asking the FCC to decide Telephone Consumer Protection Act restrictions don't apply to calls made “by or on behalf of federal, state, and local governments when such calls are made for official purposes.” Broadnet raised the issue in a Sept. 16 petition to the FCC. Absent clarification from the FCC “citizens that rely on their wireless phones as their primary, or only, means of telephone communication will be deprived of important opportunities to engage with their government that wired citizens currently enjoy,” Broadnet said. “Receiving calls from the government with important information is not the type of harm from which Congress was attempting to shield consumers.” Comments are due Oct. 29, replies Nov. 13, in docket 02-278, the bureau said in a Wednesday public notice. The FCC has taken a tough stand on the TCPA, approving an order and declaratory ruling in June that industry critics said would expand the number of TCPA-related law suits (see 1506180046).

Competitive Carriers Association President Steve Berry and CCA members complained about the potential side effects of what's expected to be an unusually long quiet period before and after the TV incentive auction, said a filing at the FCC. FCC Wireless Bureau Chief Roger Sherman has reassured the industry repeatedly that the FCC will soon provide a road map on permissible discussions and other activities under the agency’s anti-collusion rules (see 1509160057). The “breadth and duration” of the rules “will significantly deter ongoing business activities in the wireless industry, and worse, quell participation in the Incentive Auction by both reverse and forward auction applicants,” the CCA representatives warned. CCA said the quiet period could last as long as a year. “If the Commission cannot reduce the length of the quiet period, it is imperative for the FCC to clarify the scope of the rules and to ensure that their application is as narrowly tailored as possible,” CCA said. “At the very least, the Commission should clarify that the scope of disclosures that need to be made pursuant to the anti-collusion rules is intended to be narrowly tailored to agreements relating to the licenses being auctioned, allow forward auction participants to continue operational agreement negotiations after the quiet period has commenced, and provide additional guidance regarding what agreements would be considered ‘solely operational.’” The group met with officials from the Wireless Bureau and the Incentive Auction Task Force, said a filing posted Wednesday in docket 12-268.

Google unveiled two new versions of its Nexus phone, both of which use the Marshmallow mobile platform. The Nexus 6P is the first all-metal-body Nexus phone, built in cooperation with Huawei and crafted from aeronautical-grade aluminum, Google said in a Tuesday blog post. It starts at $499. The Nexus 5X is an updated version of the popular Nexus 5, developed in cooperation with LG, Google said. It starts at $379. They're available for pre-order on the Google Store from several countries, including the U.S., the U.K. and Japan, and come with a free 90-day subscription to Google Play Music, the company said.

The FCC set the comment dates on a proposal to amend rules to provide railroad police with access to public safety interoperability and mutual aid channels. In a May 2014 petition, the National Public Safety Telecommunications Council asked the FCC to make railroad police eligible to use public safety interoperability channels (see 1509010044). Comments are due in docket 15-199 Nov. 13, replies Nov. 30. The dates were set in a Tuesday notice in the Federal Register.

If FirstNet moves forward with a request for proposal based on its draft RFP template, there's a “high risk” it won't succeed, public safety consultant Andrew Seybold said Tuesday in a commentary carried by trade publication Urgent Communications. “A partnership is not an acquisition of widgets,” he wrote. “It is made up of two or more entities that believe, by partnering, they can accomplish together what neither could accomplish on its own.” FirstNet’s success is based on its ability to negotiate deals with industry, he said. Network service is not just a product, wrote the consultant. “The real issue is whether the final RFP will be conducive to finding partners, or if it will be just another federal-procurement document demanding product and imposing penalties, if that product is not delivered on time and in working order.”