Android Wear watches can now be used with iPhones, Google said in a company blog post Monday. The new release allows consumers with an Android watch to pair it with an iPhone 5, 5c, 5s, 6, or 6 Plus running iOS 8.2 software or higher, Google said. The new iOS compatibility is available for the LG Watch Urbane, but all future Android Wear watches will support iOS, it said.

Comments are due Sept. 30, replies Oct. 15, on a July 8 rulemaking notice seeking comment on changes to FCC Part 5 experimental radio service (ERS) rules. The FCC made some changes to the rules on experimentation involving medical devices in the July order accompanying the NPRM (see 1507080050). The Further NPRM proposed to modify the rules “to permit experimentation for RF-based medical devices, if the device being tested is designed to comply with all applicable service rules in Part 18 (Industrial, Scientific, and Medical Equipment), Part 95 (Personal Radio Services), Subpart H (Wireless Medical Telemetry Service), or Part 95, Subpart I (Medical Device Radiocommunication Service).” A notice in Monday’s Federal Register set the comment dates. The FCC created the experimental license program “to reduce regulatory delay and uncertainty and to promote innovation,” the July order said, saying a license is granted for a five-year term allowing the licensee to “conduct multiple unrelated experiments within a broad range of frequencies.”

A recent order by the FCC on a vanity call sign for an amateur radio operator shows the agency is paying attention on even small issues, Fletcher Heald lawyer Mitchell Lazarus said in a blog post. Joshua Babb, “seeking both brevity and his initials,” applied for four vanity call signs ending in JB, Lazarus wrote. The FCC turned him down on each. But then the licensee for W3JB, John Birch, died. Babb applied, claiming to be a nephew of the deceased licensee. He got the call sign. The FCC took a second look, asking Babb for documentation showing he was Birch’s nephew. “The FCC deduced that Mr. Babb was claiming Mr. Birch to be his great-great-uncle -- a relationship missing from the list of exceptions,” Lazarus wrote. “Documentation or not, this would not have made Mr. Babb eligible for W3JB until after the two-year waiting period, when he would probably have to had to take his chances in a lottery.” The FCC last week proposed to take away W3JB and restore Babb’s original call sign, KD7HLX, giving him 30 days to object. The order is intriguing on several levels, Lazarus said. “It shows that even the simplest-seeming FCC functions are subject to unexpected complications,” he wrote. “It shows the FCC staff is more alert than Mr. Babb, at least, gave them credit for. It shows a surprising degree of tolerance toward Mr. Babb’s seemingly blatant misrepresentation (about being Mr. Birch’s nephew) that could have landed him in prison for five years. And, in the end, it shows that family connections really do matter.”

FirstNet logged more than 400 attendees for its second industry day last week (see 1508270049), CEO Mike Poth said Monday in a blog post. “As we discussed at Industry Day, FirstNet will only be successful if the business model provides services that public safety personnel want to adopt, proves financially attractive to a potential contractor or contractors, and meets FirstNet’s programmatic goals, including Congress’ requirement that FirstNet become financially self-sufficient.” Poth reminded industry that the network starts with $6.5 billion in contracts to award as it builds out. The public safety market is vibrant, he said. “The core public safety communications market of police, fire, and emergency medical services has millions of users, generates billions of dollars in revenue per year, and is poised for growth with the priority and preemption services that FirstNet plans to enable,” Poth said. “The non-public safety market is likely several multiples larger than that, and data traffic is projected to grow by almost five times over the next several years.” FirstNet noted in a tweet that as of Monday, staff is working in new space in FirstNet’s Reston, Virginia, headquarters.

It took the FCC Wireless Bureau nearly a year to issue an order approving applications filed by AT&T Mobility and KanOkla Telephone Association to assign AT&T two of KanOkla's 700MHz licenses in two local markets, said a blog post by Free State Foundation President Randolph May. The applications were unopposed. "It just shouldn't take that long," wrote May. "We all know the story about the tortoise and the hare. The FCC's job is not to make the tortoise look good so often." The bureau's order appeared in Friday's Daily Digest. The agency had no comment.

Mobile Future continued its support of the FCC review of a 2011 declaratory ruling on data roaming, in a letter posted Friday in docket 05-265. AT&T and Verizon have filed the applications for review. Carriers and their trade groups are seeking "unfair" advantages by pushing for low data roaming rates, said Mobile Future. Sprint, T-Mobile and the Competitive Carriers Association "continue their efforts to gain unfair, undeserved and unwarranted competitive advantages through rent-seeking and regulatory arbitrage," it said. Mobile Future and CCA filed letters downplaying the claims of the other (see 1508170049). In its most recent letter, Mobile Future said Sprint and T-Mobile pledged to expand certain mobile services in unserved or underserved areas, but "there is no evidence that they will actually build or invest in rural America."

AT&T told the FCC its proposed buy of eight wireless licenses from Agri-Valley Communications in Michigan will help it become a better competitor while still being subject to competitive constraints. Responding to questions from FCC staff, AT&T said its buy of six lower 700 MHz C-block licenses and two lower 700 MHz B-block licenses didn't involve any subscribers in the affected areas. "As such, this transaction will not lead to an increase in market concentration or decrease the number of entities providing service to customers in these markets," AT&T said in a partially redacted filing posted Thursday in docket 15-181. "Verizon Wireless, Sprint, T-Mobile, and DISH all have substantial spectrum holdings in these markets and will continue to provide a competitive constraint post-transaction. The proposed transaction will allow AT&T to become a more effective competitor because it will allow AT&T to deploy a higher quality 4G LTE network in these markets than it would be able to deploy in the absence of this transaction." Petitions to deny are due Sept. 11, oppositions Sept. 21 and replies Sept. 28.

Verizon ranks highest in network quality among U.S. wireless providers in the mid-Atlantic region in the J.D. Power 2015 Wireless Network Quality Performance Study, said a carrier news release. The company's network performance was significantly higher than the industry average in all six regions nationwide for all three quality categories: calling, messaging and data, it said. January through June, nearly 49,000 wireless subscribers across the U.S. were surveyed about their experiences with their last 10 calls, messages, emails and Web connections on their mobile devices, the carrier said.

Mobile devices are reshaping the audio market, with smartphones and tablets expected to be 83 percent of all media-enabled device shipments by 2018, an IHS report said Thursday. The increasing popularity of Deezer, Pandora, Spotify and other streaming music services, along with a shift to on-the-go listening, is driving the increase in music consumption on smartphones and tablets, IHS said. Total connected audio devices in use are expected to reach 267 million units by the end of 2018, from 58 million units in 2014, IHS said. “With the shift to an Android-dominated mobile-device market, audio manufacturers are steadily moving away from the wired-only and Apple-only connections of old, in favor of wireless connectivity as an agnostic and consumer-friendly way to connect their products to tablets and smartphones,” said Paul Erickson, IHS senior analyst.

T-Mobile, the Competitive Carriers Association’s largest member, joined the group’s Data Services Hub, CCA said Thursday. T-Mobile joins more than a dozen rural and regional carriers in the strategic partnership aimed at expanding data and voice roaming capabilities for members, CCA said. “The Hub, powered by Transaction Network Services, … provides a technical and business framework for simplifying LTE and other next generation data connectivity and roaming needs among participating operators,” CCA said. “The Hub also enables competitive carriers to work cooperatively to expand and improve consumer access throughout the country.” The hub “enables better collaboration with smaller carriers which will ultimately help T-Mobile extend our voice and data roaming capabilities even further,” said Dirk Mosa, T-Mobile senior vice president-corporate development and roaming.