Wireless Emergency Alerts (WEA) on cellphones should be a “bell ringer” service that alerts users to seek more information about imminent threats, AT&T representatives said in a call with officials from the FCC Wireless Bureau. “WEA is not a purpose-built alert system … and as such policymakers should accept the limitations inherent in the cellular system,” AT&T said in a filing posted in docket 15-91. “The carrier obligations of WEA can only be met by the native broadcast capabilities defined in the standard.” Carriers can offer longer warning messages through LTE, but doing so will take time, AT&T said. “The updated message length for WEA messages will require new handsets and it will take time to standardize, deploy in the core network, modify the interface to [the Integrated Public Alert and Warning System], and get quantities of handsets out to wireless users.” AT&T said that a message length of 280 characters does “seem achievable.”

Law enforcement shouldn't have been able to search or seize Adam Bradley’s telephone records without first obtaining a warrant, Jason Estabrook’s lawyer George Murphy argued Thursday before the Massachusetts Supreme Court. Estabrook was charged with first-degree murder and allegedly was in possession of Bradley’s cellphone before and after the murder. Arguing on behalf of the commonwealth, Jamie Michael Charles said that in order to have a reasonable expectation of privacy, an individual must show interest in the phone. Charles said that since law enforcement knew the time of the murder, it searched a six-hour time frame of Bradley’s phone around the time of the murder, a search that didn't require a warrant. Defendants constantly talk in advance to plan crimes and after to sync alibis and how to get rid of evidence, Charles said. Probable cause wasn't needed because there's no reasonable expectation of privacy in a short-time frame because it doesn’t show patterns such as whether an individual visits a mosque once a week or is cheating on a spouse, Charles said. Murphy said there's no evidence Bradley had his phone on his person. Bradley attorney Daniel Beck said that law enforcement illegally obtained information in order to obtain a statement from his client. The American Civil Liberties Union and Electronic Frontier Foundation have written amicus briefs on the Estabrook v. Commonwealth case, asking the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court to close what they see as a loophole in the state’s warrant requirements for cellphones, which let law enforcement collect cell-site location information for a period of six hours or less without a warrant (see 1504270048).

Comments are due June 5, replies July 6, on the FCC’s previously released NPRM on non-service-initialized phones, the Public Safety Bureau said Wednesday. The FCC sought comment in April on whether to drop a 1996 requirement that cellphones that are no longer in service still be able to make calls to 911 (see 1504020047). Public safety officials asked for the change seven years ago, alerting the FCC about prank calls to public safety answering points, often from teenagers, that can't be traced to the caller (see 0803050126).

CTIA met with the FCC to discuss a 2013 NPRM that proposed tougher rules on updates wireless carriers must file on their networks following major disasters, said a report on the meeting posted Wednesday in docket 13-239 and written by an agency official. “Participants discussed the possibility of developing resiliency indicators that could facilitate communication between communities and their wireless providers about the readiness of commercial networks to survive and/or recover from likely disasters,” the filing said. “The Participants discussed the possibility of alternative forms of informational disclosures that could be used to promote transparency of the wireless resiliency measures that service providers incorporate in various manners today, as suggested in the Notice.” Officials from the Public Safety and Wireless bureaus attended the meeting on the NPRM.

T-Mobile unveiled an initiative Tuesday specifically targeting Verizon customers, trying to get them to switch to T-Mobile. The self-proclaimed “Un-carrier” launched the “Never Settle Trial” offer for Verizon subscribers. Verizon customers get to port their number to a new T-Mobile smartphone “and hold on to their old Verizon phone, just in case,” said a news release. “After the trial, if they love the service and want to join the millions switching to the Un-carrier, T-Mobile will pay off any of Verizon’s Early Termination Fees up to $650 or outstanding device payments when they trade in their phone and get a new one with T-Mobile’s wildly popular Simple Choice plan.” If it doesn’t work out, a customer just has to return the T-Mobile phone within 14 days and T-Mobile will pay any fees for starting back up at Verizon, the carrier said. Verizon had no immediate comment.

How the FCC defines the term “commence operations” will have major implications for the success of the TV incentive auction, CTIA said in comments responding to a March 26 public notice. “It is essential that the Commission adopt a standard that is readily understood by all stakeholders and leaves no doubt as to the regulatory obligations of affected parties.” Among CTIA’s suggestions is that the FCC ensures wireless licensees have access to the spectrum they buy “free from interference, including to test their networks, by tying the definition of ‘commence operations’ to the initial transmission on the spectrum by licensee.” Wireless licensees should also have “primary control” over the notice process, CTIA said. The definition has implications for many other parts of the post-auction transition, the group said. “Before commencing operation wireless carriers must provide 120 days’ notice to Low Power Television [LPTV] and TV translator stations, and must coordinate with the National Science Foundation regarding operations at permanent fixed locations near certain radioastronomy service observatories,” CTIA said. “Critically, the date of a 600 MHz wireless licensee’s commencement of operations triggers the obligation of the secondary users of the 600 MHz band (namely LPTV, TV translator, broadcast auxiliary service, and TV white space device operations) to vacate the band.” The comments were posted Tuesday in docket 12-268.

Innove and AT&T are pairing up through AT&T's Partner Exchange Program to give clients custom, end-to-end telecom services, a news release from Innove said.

The use of in-cell and on-cell touch technologies by smartphone market leaders Apple and Samsung helped drive 47 percent shipment growth in 2014 for such displays, IHS said Monday. In-cell and on-cell embedded touch displays are forecast to be 40 percent of touch module shipments in 2015, up from 36 percent last year, it said. Japan Display also uses hybrid in-cell touch displays in some tier-one phones from LG, Huawei and Xiaomi, IHS said. “The technical touch sensor evolution is changing the face of touch-panel competition,” said Calvin Hsieh, IHS director.

The FCC Public Safety Bureau sought comment on a December petition by the Alaska Wireless Network for a one-year waiver of FCC rules requiring that all covered providers be able to transmit emergency texts to public safety answering points (PSAPs) by the end of last year. Comments are due May 14, replies May 19. AWN claims that it faces “unique financial and technical constraints in meeting the text-capable requirement by the deadline, and that technical issues associated with its deployment of an LTE network currently render it unable to route 911 texts to the appropriate PSAP,” the bureau said Monday. The small carrier also said no Alaska PSAP has requested text-to-911 service and “contends that enforcement of the requirement in this instance would be inequitable and unduly burdensome," the bureau said.

The Enterprise Wireless Alliance and pdvWireless said they filed proposed rules at the FCC on their earlier joint petition for rulemaking seeking a realignment of the Part 90 land mobile radio 900 MHz band. “The realignment would create an allocation to address the broadband needs of critical infrastructure and private enterprise entities, including priority access,” the two said in a Monday news release. The proposed rules ask the FCC to create a single 240-channel license for the 898-901/937-940 MHz band for private enterprise broadband in each metropolitan trading area, they said. Spectrum in the 896-898/935-937 MHz band would continue to be licensed for site-based and geographic narrowband operations and services.