Sprint representatives made their case for revised special access rules, in a meeting with FCC General Counsel Jonathan Sallet and others at the agency, said a filing posted Friday in docket 05-25. “We discussed the importance of the special access proceeding to wireless competition and the need to release the data the FCC has collected in a timely fashion,” Sprint said.

Roughly two-thirds of parents and 56 percent of students plan to do most back-to-school shopping at mass merchandisers, and 85 percent of respondents expect their back-to-school shopping to be in brick-and-mortar stores, said a Market Track survey done last week. Mobile shopping is showing continued growth with 27 percent of respondents having made back-to-school purchases on a mobile device, while 40 percent have or will use their devices to compare prices and hunt for discounts, the report said. The online survey canvassed 1,000 adult consumers responsible for back-to-school shopping for children.

FirstNet operations in fiscal year 2014 were financed by NTIA capital contributions of $24.3 million, said a report by Acting Chief Financial Officer Kim Farington, posted by FirstNet Friday. FirstNet also paid out $900 million to buy assets, the report said. Operating expenses were up 43 percent over the previous year, reflecting a larger staff and activities “to execute the Strategic Roadmap and create the internal capability required to support FirstNet’s mission,” the report said. “The clean audit opinion demonstrates the hard work by our talented and dedicated financial team,” Farington said in a news release. “They have been working diligently to implement strong policies and business practices, and to resolve complicated financial management issues associated with a newly established federal agency. Further, the effort has proven the soundness of the overall health of FirstNet’s financial management capabilities, driven by strong leadership commitment and partnerships within the Department of Commerce.” The report said FirstNet owns one class of “intangible asset,” the license for the 700 MHz D-block. “Under current law, the spectrum license is not tradable or exchange able in any market and any measure based on potential cash flow would be purely speculative,” the report said. “Therefore, FirstNet has not recognized in its financial statements any value related to the spectrum license granted by the FCC.” The report also said that during the fiscal year FirstNet took possession of a donation of microwave and LTE equipment from the City of Charlotte, North Carolina.

T-Mobile became the third wireless carrier to support FM chip activations in its smartphones, NextRadio said Friday. Activating the FM chip, already built into every smartphone sold in America, “allows users to download the NextRadio app and engage in a visually compelling, interactive experience with local radio stations, without the data charges and battery drain of streaming,” NextRadio said. Word of T-Mobile’s endorsement for FM chip activations came in a tweet from CEO John Legere that NextRadio publicized, in which he said the carrier “will push our OEM partners to support” the move. Sprint has supported FM chip activations in smartphones for years, while AT&T added its support for FM chip activations last month (see 1507280054). Virtually all the FM chip activations to date have come in Android smartphones. Apple has remained the biggest holdout on FM chip activations in its iPhones, but through no "lack of effort" from Sprint to win Apple over, NextRadio told us at the NAB Show in April (see 1504140047). As for any possible change since in Apple's resistance, "Apple does what they want but the more carriers asking, the more Android phones supporting FM radio and the more consumers asking for NextRadio can only help get Apple’s attention," NextRadio President Paul Brenner emailed us Friday. "We are ready to talk to them any time about the power of local radio." Apple representatives didn't comment.

A group of wireless carriers objected to a provision in the June FCC Lifeline order (see 1506180029) establishing “a uniform snapshot date for Lifeline reimbursements going forward.” The eligible telecom carriers (ETCs) said under the rule they would sometimes have to provide service to Lifeline customers but not get compensated. “The new rule takes a snapshot of an ETC’s Lifeline subscribers as of the first of the month and provides reimbursements for the previous month’s service based on the number of subscribers in the snapshot,” the ETCs said in their petition for reconsideration. “To remedy the injustices described herein, the rule need only be modified to add to the snapshot count any subscribers de-enrolled in the previous month that received Lifeline service during that month.” The petition was the second wireless recon petition filed at the FCC. CTIA is challenging a different aspect of the rules (see 1508130048). Wireless ETCs American Broadband and Telecommunications, Assist Wireless, Easy Telephone, iWireless, Telrite, Telscape Communications and Total Call Mobile signed the petition. “Most egregiously,” ETCs wouldn't be reimbursed for service in the month of December for all subscribers that fail to recertify their eligibility annually because Universal Service Administrative Co. requires all such subscribers to be de-enrolled by Dec. 31, the filing said. “Annual recertification is the largest single de-enrollment event in the Lifeline program. Annual recertification failure rates vary by carrier from 10 to 50 percent.”

SGS chose Spirent’s multiple input multiple output (MIMO) over-the-air (OTA) technology to prepare its lab for the CTIA certification process, said a Thursday news release from Spirent. The Spirent MIMO OTA technology is in full support of the CTIA MIMO OTA test plan v1 and uses the Spirent VR5 Channel Emulator to enable the conditions required to evaluate a device operating in MIMO mode, it said. It said SGS is an authorized CTIA lab for OTA testing for a number of North American wireless carriers and has been a long-term partner with Spirent for augmentation of a global navigation satellite system OTA testing.

SoftBank made an additional investment in Sprint, buying nearly 23 million more shares for $86.9 million, giving SoftBank 79.99 percent ownership of the U.S. carrier, SoftBank said in a Thursday announcement. Last week, SoftBank CEO Masayoshi Son said that at one point he had grown disillusioned with the U.S. market and considered selling the Japan’s company’s stake in Sprint, but had had a change of heart (see 1508040054). “It has not been a fun few months for Sprint,” said Wells Fargo analyst Jennifer Fritzsche in a note to investors. “Regardless of the fact if Masa wanted to sell or didn't is irrelevant at this point, in our view. Between his stock purchase yesterday (8/12), comments on the last earnings call and offering a clear incentive to his CEO to drive this stock price higher -- he (and SB) are now fully engaged it seems. It still has much wood to chop admittedly, but we believe it is taking the steps to make this turn.”

The Telecommunications Industry Association and the Information Technology Industry Council jointly asked the FCC to extend the comment deadline on a July NPRM proposing changes to rules for the agency’s evaluation and approval of radio frequency devices (see 1507210072). Comments are currently due Sept. 8, replies Sept. 17. “A 30-day extension to the comment deadline and a 15-day extension to the reply comment deadline are in the public interest to allow key industry stakeholders to develop meaningful, substantive responses to the extensive and technical questions raised by the Commission in this proceeding,” the associations said Wednesday. CEA separately sought a two-week extension of the deadline for filing initial comments and a three-week extension of the reply comment deadline. “This is a complex and technical area,” CEA said. “As a trade association, CEA requires sufficient time to coordinate with its member companies, which, in turn, must coordinate internally to review and develop responses to the Commission’s proposals.” The filings were in docket 15-170.

CTIA asked the FCC to reconsider two “discrete” aspects of updated Lifeline program rules approved in June (see 1506180029). CTIA asked the FCC to reconsider declarations that Section 222(a) of the Communications Act “imposes a duty of confidentiality upon carriers, other than with respect to Customer Proprietary Network Information” and that Section 201(b) “imposes a duty upon carriers to implement data security measures.” The petition for partial reconsideration “seeks reconsideration solely with respect to the scope of the Commission’s authority under those two subsections of the Communications Act,” CTIA said Thursday. “CTIA’s member companies protect the privacy and security of wireless consumer information because consumers deserve and expect it,” General Counsel Tom Power said in a statement. “Members also abide by a wide array of state and federal privacy regulations. But in attempting to craft new data security rules specific to the Lifeline program, the FCC relied on the wrong laws to create additional regulation not authorized by Congress. The FCC’s fractured approach to data security is why CTIA supports even-handed regulation focused on the nature of the information, not the identity of the company holding it.”

The FCC Enforcement Bureau released a pleading schedule Wednesday on a roaming dispute between NTCH and Verizon (see 1505080011). Under the schedule, Verizon must file supplemental discovery information by Monday. The final due date is Oct. 23, when NTCH is to file its reply brief.