Apple and Samsung have implemented “positive security measures” to secure fingerprint data collected from smartphones, but more work remains, said a Friday release from Sen. Al Franken, D-Minn. Franken asked both companies -- Apple last fall, Samsung in May -- for information about the security measures for Apple’s Touch ID and Samsung Galaxy S5’s fingerprint scanner (CD May 15 p15). “What I got was mostly good news,” Franken said of the responses from Apple (http://1.usa.gov/1u0uLq0) and Samsung (http://1.usa.gov/UfY9rR), both released Friday. “Both companies encrypt and isolate fingerprint data on their devices and have designed their systems so that fingerprint data cannot be removed from those devices, either in person or over the Internet.” Franken highlighted areas he believes need improvement. “Both companies have not taken any further steps to prevent criminals from bypassing fingerprint readers with a spoofed print,” he said. “That problem needs to be fixed, since fingerprint readers are becoming a gateway to a range of powerfully sensitive information.” Apple and Samsung had no immediate comment.

The FCC shouldn’t adopt new tower siting rules that “would restrict opportunities for government and industry to collaborate on creative, innovative solutions to difficult siting challenges,” city government leaders from two Colorado cities -- Arvada and Thornton -- told FCC Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel and her senior legal adviser, David Goldman, during a meeting Tuesday, Kissinger Fellman lawyer Kenneth Fellman said in an ex parte posted Friday. Fellman, Arvada City Council member Bob Fifer and Colorado Communications and Utility Alliance President Todd Barnes, communications director for Thornton’s city government, told Rosenworcel and Goldman that there are multiple examples of “creative wireless facilities siting” in Colorado and Washington, the ex parte said. A “one-size-fits-all rule” is inappropriate for defining a “substantial change in physical dimensions” of a tower or base station, Barnes and Fifer said. The officials also urged the FCC to allow local courts to handle any violations of the new tower siting rules because many jurisdictions don’t have the financial resources to retain counsel in Washington or to travel there to “defend local decisions” (http://bit.ly/1tfhztg).

Assist 123, a Las Vegas-based carrier, agreed to pay $1.3 million to resolve a cramming investigation, the FCC said Wednesday. The FCC said the company allegedly billed wireless customers for a Concierge/Directory Assistance subscription text messaging service they didn’t want or authorize (http://bit.ly/1nbEgyQ). The FCC received more than 2,600 pages of complaints and inquiries from consumers “who alleged that they were repeatedly charged for subscription services that they had never authorized, including directory assistance, movie and theater listings, restaurant locator service, driving directions, news and financial information, and lottery results,” the agency said. The FCC said this is the third cramming action it has taken this week, along with a proposed $7.62 million fine against Optic Internet Protocol Monday and a proposed $1.6 million fine against Net One International released Tuesday.

European drug maker Novartis will license Google’s “smart lens” technology for “all ocular medical uses,” Novartis said in a Tuesday news release (http://bit.ly/1ylO6AR). “Google’s key advances in the miniaturization of electronics complement Novartis’s deep pharmaceuticals and medical device expertise,” Novartis said. “Novartis aims to enhance the ways in which diseases are mapped within the body and ultimately prevented.” The company said it will focus on two areas: diabetic patients and those with presbyopia, the diminishing ability to focus on near objects.

The FCC asked the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit to reject long-standing challenges to the commission’s 800 MHz rebanding order filed by James Kay and Charles Guskey. “Neither Guskey nor Kay has standing to litigate,” the FCC said. “Neither Guskey nor Kay holds any 800 MHz licenses. Not surprisingly, then, their papers in this Court do not (and cannot) establish that they have suffered any concrete injury caused by the FCC’s orders restructuring the 800 MHz spectrum band.” The Monday pleading was in Case No. 06-1076 (http://bit.ly/1nDghYi). The FCC issued the landmark rebanding order in 2004 to address interference issues for public safety in the 800 MHz band.

Sprint and T-Mobile are developing a plan to jointly raise some $10 billion to spend in the TV incentive auction, reported The Wall Street Journal Tuesday, citing unnamed sources (http://on.wsj.com/1meWCZG). Sprint parent SoftBank is widely expected to make a play to buy T-Mobile. One industry analyst told us it’s unclear how the agreement would work if any proposed deal is ultimately rejected by regulators. “Sprint and T-Mo begged for and got unjustified bidding preferences,” said Preston Padden, executive director of the Expanding Opportunities For Broadcasters Coalition, via email. “Now they propose a joint collusive bid. This is world class ‘gaming’ of the regulatory process.” T-Mobile and Sprint were not commenting. Sprint and T-Mobile were active proponents of spectrum aggregation rules limiting spectrum purchases by AT&T and Verizon in the auction (CD May 15 p4).

Comments are due Aug. 29 on a joint proposal by NTIA and the FCC for a program that would test advanced spectrum sharing technologies in a model city, after a notice was published in the Federal Register Tuesday (http://1.usa.gov/1l0zsqg). The model city program was initially recommended by the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology. The program could “facilitate large-scale sustainable facilities for systems-level testing in real-world environments across multiple frequency bands, potentially including selected federal and non-federal frequency bands,” the agencies said. Responses to the notice will determine “whether NTIA and/or the FCC may need to undertake additional actions or initiate formal proceedings,” the notice said. Comments to the FCC should be filed in docket 14-99.

After a monthslong search, T-Mobile US said Tuesday Andy Levin was named senior vice president and head of the Washington, D.C., office, replacing Tom Sugrue, who retired in April. Levin is former general counsel at Clear Channel, which he left four years ago. More recently he has been a managing partner at Traveling Light Partners. He’s also a former House staffer and Verizon veteran. After Sugrue left, T-Mobile did an extensive search for a replacement, industry officials said. The appointment is effective July 21. T-Mobile Vice President Kathleen Ham has been filling in as acting head of the D.C. office.

FCC wireless location accuracy rules shouldn’t cover underground mass transit systems “until a test bed proves that suitable indoor location systems, specifically proven in the underground mass transportation environment, are commercially available, cost effective, and technology and air interface neutral,” said Transit Wireless’s comment posted Monday in docket 07-114 (http://bit.ly/1rb4Nyb). Transit said it’s building out a distributed antenna system covering “the nation’s largest mass transportation infrastructure,” the New York City subway system. The company cited the “lack of record regarding current indoor location technologies for their effectiveness and accuracy in the underground mass transportation environment.” Also filing in the docket, the National Association of State EMS Officials, National Association of EMS Physicians, National Association of EMTs and National EMS Management Association urged the FCC to impose indoor location accuracy standards on carriers. “Accurate location information can assist in finding indoor callers quickly, and improved response times translate directly to improved medical outcomes in life-threatening cases,” the groups said (http://bit.ly/1jIcA4c).

Dish Network spectrum is valuable for Verizon, wrote New Street Research analysts in an email to investors Sunday. With 38 percent of industry revenue and just 16 percent of industry capacity, Verizon has a tremendous amount of value at stake if capacity utilization were to approach 100 percent, they said. Verizon should increase its share of industry capacity slightly in the upcoming FCC spectrum auctions, and “Dish is the only asset that would meaningfully narrow the gap,” they said. Dish may have lost two near-term options with AT&T’s plan to buy DirecTV “and the path to value realization may be less clear as a result,” they said. “The intrinsic value of Dish’s assets is unchanged,” New Street said. The most compelling transaction for both affected parties would be for Verizon to acquire Dish, said the analysts.