The FCC July NPRM proposing changes to rules for its evaluation and approval of RF devices is raising concerns for some members of the public, concerned the new rules would limit their ability to modify devices they purchase. Initial comments on the NPRM are due Oct. 9, but dozens of short comments were posted in recent days in RM-11673. The FCC approved the NPRM July 17 and it was released four days later (see 1507210072). “Please do not prevent users from installing firmware on their own wireless devices,” wrote Hannah Howard of Los Angeles. “It's their right, and it benefits everyone, as users often patch security holes left open by the manufacturers.” John Chiasson of Pensacola, Florida, offered similar comments. “Wireless networking research depends on the ability of researchers to investigate and modify their devices,” he said. “Americans need the ability to fix security holes in their devices when the manufacturer chooses to not do so.” Trevor Best of Battle Ground, Washington, said the proposed rules would “so severely restrict user innovation and freedom as to stagnate creativity and new innovations that have often been driven by end users modifying open systems.”

One month in, the Samsung Pay digital wallet platform is off to "a successful start” in South Korea, having amassed more than $30 million in “accumulated transaction volume” through Sept. 20, the company said in a Wednesday announcement. Samsung Pay accounted for more than 1.5 million “total transactions,” 60 percent of them completed through the Galaxy Note5 smartphone, it said. The company estimates that 10 percent of Samsung Pay’s “active users” performed transactions on the service daily in the first month. Samsung Pay launches Monday in the U.S., with plans soon to bring the service to the U.K., Spain and China, Samsung said.

GIV Mobile, a wireless service provider, started YourWirelessCompanySucks.com to help consumers choose a carrier, the company said in a Tuesday news release. "YourWirelessCompanySucks.com brings consumers up to speed about the many benefits of GIV Mobile and shows how every plan provides a great value for the price," said Omar Abhari, GIV Mobile senior vice president-operations.

Intel joined Verizon's 5G Technology Forum, in which several companies are collaborating to develop and field test 5G services (see 1509080062), the companies said in a joint news release Wednesday. Intel will aid in the development of 5G standards and conduct testing to optimize end-to-end mobile broadband and IoT devices and network infrastructures, the companies said. Intel will begin working in Verizon's 5G sandbox environments in both San Francisco and Massachusetts, and is developing its own test beds in Oregon, California and other locations, the release said.

The FCC Wireless Bureau Wednesday denied a waiver request by Mobile Relay Associates to operate on frequency pairs 454/459.009375 MHz, 454/459.990625 MHz and 454/459.996875 MHz in Clark County, Nevada. The bureau also denied similar requests submitted by others while MRA’s request was pending. The frequencies are located between spectrum assigned to other services, including Industrial/Business Pool (I/B) frequencies, the bureau said. “The Commission designates different frequency bands for different radio services in order to consolidate similar uses and separate incompatible operations,” the bureau said in its order. “Inserting I/B operations between blocks of non-I/B spectrum could frustrate the purpose of the Commission’s spectrum management policy and practices.”

Verizon representatives stressed the importance of certainty to carriers during the incentive auction, in a meeting with Gary Epstein, chairman of the FCC Incentive Auction Task Force, and others at the agency. The Verizon officials also asked about the type of information the FCC will provide on impairments and how granular it will be, among other questions, a filing in docket 12-269 said. “We stressed the importance of providing forward auction bidders with file formats as soon as possible so that bidders can understand how the FCC plans to present data during the auction,” Verizon said. “We urged the FCC to conduct multiple simulations and mock auctions. Bidders should have the opportunity to become familiar with the FCC’s auction software so that they can effectively express demand through the variety of bid options available in the incentive auction.” Verizon CEO Lowell McAdam said last week that the carrier is “likely” to bid in the auction, scheduled to start next year (see 1509170044).

Getting the rules right on when operations start after a wireless company buys a license in the TV incentive auction is critical, CTIA said in meetings on the eighth floor at the FCC. The wireless association recommended that the FCC find that operations “commence” when the licensee begins either market or site commissioning tests, which CTIA said is a compromise proposal. Under that definition “low-power television and unlicensed users of the UHF band will be able to remain in operation in the 600 MHz band even after it is reallocated and licensed to others, while 600 MHz licensees will gain access to their licensed spectrum as necessary to ‘commence service,’ including the pre-requisite market and commissioning testing steps that must precede a commercial launch,” CTIA said. Secondary users could continue to “utilize the mobile wireless band in the vast majority of areas beyond the market testing stage, until pre-commercial launch testing necessitates the use of the mobile wireless band for mobile wireless service.” CTIA officials met with staff from the offices of commissioners Jessica Rosenworcel, Ajit Pai and Mike O’Rielly, CTIA said in a filing posted in docket 12-268.

Wireless Innovation Forum Spectrum Sharing Committee steering group members met with officials from the FCC Office of Engineering Technology and Wireless Bureau to discuss an update of the group’s activities, said a filing posted Tuesday in docket 12-354. Questions raised at the meeting dealt with the FCC’s work on the 3.5 GHz shared spectrum band, the group said. Alcatel-Lucent, Federated Wireless, Google, Motorola Solutions, Nokia Networks, Qualcomm and Verizon were represented.

U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia Judge Richard Leon agreed to hear oral argument in Klayman v. Obama Oct. 8, at 2 p.m., said Larry Klayman, one of the plaintiffs and chairman of Freedom Watch, in a news release. Klayman and co-plaintiffs filed a renewed motion for a preliminary injunction and request for oral argument Monday. Leon’s decision to hear the case comes after the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit decided to send the case back to Leon and allow the plaintiffs to prove their records were collected by the NSA (see 1508310042). The D.C. Circuit ruled that the plaintiffs failed to prove their individual phone records were collected by the NSA, so their Fourth Amendment rights weren't violated and they weren't harmed. Because the plaintiffs’ phone service was provided by Verizon Wireless and not Verizon Business, which the government had admitted to surveilling, the D.C. Circuit said plaintiffs hadn't proven their constitutional rights were violated. But since Klayman and his co-plaintiffs argued their case, The New York Times obtained government-released documents through a Freedom of Information Act request that purport to show that Verizon Wireless records were collected under Section 215 of the Patriot Act. Leon will hear the case in Courtroom 18 on the sixth floor of the U.S. District Court in the D.C. Courthouse.

PCIA supported a request by M2M Spectrum Networks asking the FCC to open a proceeding to examine rules that would allow business/industrial/land transportation (B/ILT) licensees to provide for-profit service to B/ILT eligible companies. In April, the Wireless Bureau turned down an application by M2M to use the 900 MHz spectrum to offer a third-party service providing machine-to-machine communications (see 1504130062). M2M subsequently asked the FCC to launch a rulemaking, and the bureau asked for comment in August. Initial comments were due Monday in RM-11755. “M2M’s proposal is consistent with the Commission’s prior commitment to flexible use of the 900 MHz B/ILT MHz band, and will allow the spectrum to be put to more innovative and efficient use,” PCIA said. “By reaffirming its commitment to flexible use of the … band, the Commission will create opportunities for new and existing service providers to introduce new, valuable niche services.” But the Enterprise Wireless Alliance and other groups raised concerns. EWA said other spectrum is already available for the kind of “proprietary narrowband technology” proposed by M2M. The Utilities Telecom Council said the proposal “threatens to prevent” utilities and other critical infrastructure companies “from being able to license any additional 900 MHz channels to meet their communications needs.”