Cumulative shipments of wearables are expected to top 750 million units by 2020, with smart watches 45 percent of all delivered products, said research released Monday by Tractica. It said that by 2020, fitness trackers will be 30 percent of total device shipments and wearable cameras will be 15 percent.

The FCC updated its “Public Safety Answering Point Text-to-911 Readiness and Certification Registry,” the Public Safety Bureau said. The registry lists PSAPs that are ready to receive text-to-911 messages. “Pursuant to the Commission’s text-to-911 rules, covered text providers must begin routing 911 text messages to requesting PSAPs within six months of this notice date,” the bureau said.

FCC rules opening the 3.5 GHz band partly for unlicensed use and for small cells, while protecting the Navy systems already in the band, take effect July 23, said an FCC notice in Tuesday's Federal Register. The exceptions are the parts of the rules that contain information collection requirements that aren't effective until approved by OMB. The FCC said it will publish an update when OMB review is complete. The commission approved an order creating the new Citizens Broadband Radio Service in the 3550-3700 MHz band at its April meeting (see 1504170055). “This document implements a three-tiered spectrum authorization framework in the 3550-3700 MHz band to facilitate a variety of small cell and other broadband uses of the band on a shared basis with incumbent federal and non-federal users,” the agency said.

The FCC got projections right on the explosive growth ahead for mobile data traffic in its 2010 National Broadband Plan, but the government has fallen short in meeting the plan’s goals for making more spectrum available for wireless broadband, CTIA said in a report dated Monday. The plan called for 500 MHz to be reallocated to broadband by 2020, with 300 MHz for mobile broadband by 2015, but only 135 MHz have been cleared, less than half the 300 MHz goal, CTIA said. “Looking ahead, projections predict that mobile data traffic by 2019 will be nearly six times the 2014 amount,” CTIA said. “The U.S. commercial wireless industry cannot meet this explosive growth simply through improved engineering, more infrastructure, and the spectrum that is currently scheduled to come online. Rather, the government, industry, and other stakeholders must come together to find additional spectrum bands that can be repurposed from existing uses to mobile broadband.” CTIA President Meredith Baker said the government needs a plan beyond 2020. “The FCC’s thorough projections of our mobile usage from 2010 to 2014 were extraordinarily close to reality,” she said. “To meet the next wave of exponential growth, it is crucial that the government, industry and other stakeholders work together to find more licensed spectrum opportunities.”

T-Mobile asked the FCC to reject AT&T’s proposed buy of three lower 700 MHz C-block licenses from East Kentucky Network. T-Mobile said the proposed deal points to a larger trend of AT&T and Verizon buying up low-band spectrum. “The Commission has repeatedly acknowledged the dominance of AT&T and Verizon in the market for mobile wireless broadband and the potential for harm to competition resulting from the concentrated power of these two companies,” T-Mobile said. If the deal is completed, AT&T would hold more than one-third of the low-band spectrum in two Kentucky markets, Huntington-Ashland and Lexington-Fayette, T-Mobile said. Verizon also has more than 36 megahertz of low-band holdings in the markets, the carrier said. “No other competitor holds more than 14 MHz of low-band spectrum, and T-Mobile holds no low-band spectrum in any of the Markets.” T-Mobile noted it has only 41,977 subscribers in the Lexington region, or 4 percent market share, while AT&T owns more than half the market. “T-Mobile needs access to low-band spectrum in order to better compete in that area against AT&T’s commanding market share,” it said. T-Mobile “should stop complaining and start investing in rural America,” Joan Marsh, AT&T vice president-federal regulatory, replied in a blog post Tuesday. The purchase gives AT&T spectrum it needs to deploy up to a 10x10 megahertz LTE network in the markets, “which will enable AT&T to offer faster and higher quality services to its rural customers,” Marsh said. “The proposed transaction also has no adverse competitive effects. AT&T will not exceed the Commission’s spectrum aggregation screen and -- because the spectrum at issue currently sits completely fallow and unused -- the deal will not reduce any actual competition.”

T-Mobile attorney Ari Fitzgerald of Hogan Lovells discussed the importance of reserve spectrum in the TV incentive auction with Louis Peraertz, aide to FCC Commissioner Mignon Clyburn, said an ex parte filing in docket 12-269. T-Mobile lost in its push to get the agency to approve a spectrum reserve larger than the current 30 MHz, industry and agency officials said last week (see 1506170052). “I discussed the need to ensure that the spectrum reserve established for the forward auction component of the upcoming Incentive Auction is large enough to avoid the risk of anti-competitive foreclosure by the largest mobile carriers, and urged the Commission to adopt spectrum reserve modifications generally consistent with the petition for reconsideration filed by T-Mobile in this proceeding,” Fitzgerald said.

The FCC Wireless Bureau rejected an application by Northwest Utilities Service Co. (NUSCO) to modify its license for an automated maritime telecom system (AMTS) by adding a new location at Mt. Sunapee, New Hampshire. Mission Broadcasting had objected, saying the new transmitter would cause interference to viewers of its WVNY Burlington, Vermont, which broadcasts on Channel 13, the bureau said Monday. “Mission asserts that there are over 30,000 residences within both the proposed AMTS station's predicted interference contour and the television station's noise limited service contour, and the proposed AMTS station is predicted to cause interference to almost 2,300 residences.” The bureau said that as a result it is dismissing the utility company’s application as defective. NUSCO failed to demonstrate that the site is “the only suitable location” for the new AMTS site, the bureau said.

The FCC established a pleading cycle on C Spire’s proposed buy of three lower 700 MHz C-block licenses from Waller Wireless, covering parts of Mississippi. The licenses cover three cellular market areas and would give C Spire 39-84 MHz of spectrum in total in the markets, as well as 24-49 megahertz of below-1-GHz spectrum, the FCC said Monday. “The Applicants assert that the proposed transaction would allow C Spire to augment its spectrum holdings in the applicable markets, offer improved services, and become a stronger competitor,” the agency said. “The Applicants contend that the additional spectrum would permit C Spire to improve capacity and throughput speeds.” Petitions to deny are due July 22, oppositions Aug. 3 and replies Aug. 10.

The FCC is sowing confusion by consistently failing to find in its annual wireless competition reports that the U.S. wireless market is effectively competitive, said Seth Cooper of the Free State Foundation Monday in a blog post. The FCC Wireless Bureau is seeking comment on the next version of the report (see 1505290049). The FCC’s first seven wireless competition reports didn't include any conclusions on whether the industry was effectively competitive, though the next six reports concluded it was. Reports released under the Obama administration have declined to find the industry competitive. “What's truly misleading is treating tremendous innovation and rapid adoption of new wireless products and services as the basis for refusing to acknowledge the competitive state of the market,” Cooper wrote. “The transformative advancements in wireless are ... unambiguous signs of strong competition. Perceived lack of effective competition offers the basis -- or at least the pretense -- for intrusive government regulatory controls over the market.” The signs of a competitive market are easy to see, he said. “In only a decade, the wireless market has transformed from an analog, voice-centric service into a digital, broadband-centric multimedia service of sophistication and variety,” he said. “Smartphones containing unique mobile operating systems and featuring an abundance of applications now run on high-speed, high-capacity next-generation networks.”

The U.S. is working with the Mexican government on positive train control (PTC) along the border between the two countries, said Mindel De La Torre, chief of the FCC International Bureau, in a Friday blog post. De La Torre reported on recent meetings in Mexico where she was part of the U.S. delegation, “the first high-level spectrum discussion” since Mexico established the Federal Institute of Telecommunications (IFT). The IFT and the FCC have similar responsibilities. The nations agreed to work together on a revised agreement on the use of PTC technology in the 220-222 MHz band along the border, she said. “PTC systems are intended to reduce the risk of rail accidents by enabling real-time information sharing between trains, rail wayside devices, and control centers,” she said. “PTC technology is designed to automatically slow or stop a train in order to avoid a collision or derailment.” The lack of PTC at a section of the track where an Amtrak train derailed in in Philadelphia in May was a contributing factor to the deadly accident, the National Transportation Safety Board said then (see 1505150047). The countries also agreed to work together on a road map, following a 2012 agreement, on reconfiguration of public safety radios in the 800 MHz band. The 800 MHz rebanding has been in progress since 2004 but in regions along the Mexican border has lagged behind the rest of the U.S. (see 1504270023).