The FCC should streamline its environmental and historic review process for distributed antenna systems and small cells by “categorically excluding facilities that meet a technology-neutral, volume-based definition,” PCIA officials said in a meeting with Louis Peraertz, aide to Commissioner Mignon Clyburn. “Because these facilities have, at most, a de minimis effect on the environment, the FCC has authority to propose the exclusion,” PCIA said. PCIA reported on the meeting in a filing in docket 13-238, posted by the FCC Monday (http://bit.ly/1k76c0B).

The FCC should waive its “former defaulter rule” and clarify that post-auction payments will be due in early 2015, not in 2014, as it finalizes rules for the AWS-3 auction, said AT&T Vice President Joan Marsh in a meeting with Deputy Wireless Bureau Chief John Leibovitz, said a filing posted by the FCC Monday in docket 14-78 (http://bit.ly/1iO27Uw). All of Marsh’s comments were in keeping with reply comments AT&T filed on the auction rules (http://bit.ly/1pJxHmt), AT&T said. The former defaulter rule requires companies to make larger upfront payments for licenses if they ever defaulted on a license or were delinquent on a debt owed to a federal agency (CD June 3 p1).

The FCC needs to wrap up revised designated entity rules “as expediently as possible” so DEs can bid in the TV incentive auction, said Minority Media and Telecommunications Council board member Jenell Trigg in a meeting with FCC Commissioner Ajit Pai, said an ex parte filing. MMTC released a white paper in February and launched a renewed push for revised DE rules (CD Feb 26 p1). DEs need “adequate time to develop business plans and raise capital” before the auction, said Trigg, a lawyer at Lerman Senter: “DEs need as much lead time as possible to overcome the market entry barriers inherent in this industry.” The filing (http://bit.ly/1voZ05g) was made Friday and posted by the FCC Monday in docket 05-211.

Smartphone ownership has risen to 70 percent of consumers in France, Germany, the U.K. and U.S., from 64 percent a year ago, according to a an “infographic” released by Futuresource as part of its “Living With Digital” research series (http://bit.ly/1luXIEY). It defines an infographic as a “snapshot” of the latest round of Living With Digital research, now in its eighth year, based on interviews just completed with 4,000 consumers in those four markets. Other results: (1) About a third (34 percent) now own a connected TV, up from 23 percent in 2013; (2) Forty-five percent now own a tablet, up from 36 percent last year.

The FCC Wireless Bureau sought comment Friday on a waiver request by the Association of American Railroads (AAR) to permit the use of signal boosters allowing better communications between the fronts and rears of trains. Current rules limit Part 90 signal booster power levels to up to five watts effective radiated power, the bureau said. AAR wants to use boosters with power levels of up to 30 watts in frequencies from 452/457.900 to 452/457.96875 MHz, said a public notice (http://bit.ly/1qjPK4M). AAR filed its request for waiver June 13. AAR argues that “safe, efficient movement of trains” depends on effective communications links between the fronts and rears to monitor speed and brake pressure, operate rear-end brakes and, on trains with distributed power, coordinate the front and rear engines, the bureau said. AAR said “the options currently permitted by the Commission’s rules do not provide sufficient coverage to maintain this communications link on long trains in areas of challenging terrain, such as where tracks make sharp turns around mountain passes or encounter quick inclines and declines along hilly terrain, and trackside signal boosters are needed to maintain the link,” the bureau said. Comments are due July 28, replies Aug. 12, in docket 14-98.

Federated Wireless, which is building a proprietary spectrum access system leveraging “advanced cognitive radio techniques,” said Thursday it has raised $5 million in a series A funding round, backed by parent company Allied Minds (http://bit.ly/1iKLwk1). The company hopes to address “a growing deficiency in spectrum, made scarce by an explosion in use of wireless communications and in particular, video content delivery,” it said.

Android-powered wearable-device owners are “highly engaged” smartphone users who access a variety of apps and use “significantly more data” than average Android users, according to data from Nielsen. Smart watches are a quarter of wearable devices used by Android users, while fitness trackers are 60 percent, Nielsen said. MHealth (mobile health) devices are 8 percent of wearable owners’ devices, Nielsen said. The average Android owner uses 5.61 GB of data a month, while the average Android owner using a wearable Bluetooth device uses 9.49 GB, Nielsen said. The average data usage for wearable-device owners on Wi-Fi networks is 74 percent higher than that of all adult Android users, Nielsen said. In February, 2.5 million Android users owned a wearable device -- such as a fitness tracker or smart watch -- up five times from September, it said. Wearables owners used their devices an average of 14 times during the month, it said. Data was gathered using Nielsen on-device software installed with permission on roughly 5,000 panelists’ Android and iOS smartphones.

The Edison Electric Institute asked the FCC to clarify that Telephone Consumer Protection Act rules don’t prevent electric utilities from using text messages and prerecorded calls to tell customers about outages, information on programs for low-income programs or other information. EEI made a filing Tuesday in docket 02-278 following a meeting between an association official and staff from the Consumer and Governmental Affairs Bureau (http://bit.ly/TmUoQU). Many customers rely on wireless phones as their main point of contact, which could trip TCPA rules, the group said.

The Los Angeles Regional Interoperable Communications System (LA-RICS) asked the FCC to act on a December 2012 petition seeking a waiver of FCC rules so it can launch operations in 700 MHz “reserve” spectrum. The detailed design of its system is to be complete in September and LA-RICS needs to know whether it can use that spectrum, said a filing Tuesday in docket 13-39 (http://bit.ly/Vrtmd8). Without the waiver LA-RICS would have to launch in currently allotted channels, the authority said. Making changes later would “create substantial delays” and significantly increase costs, the authority said. LA-RICS is designed to provide communications for 34,000 first responders in an area with 10 million residents, it said.

T-Mobile welcomes Supreme Court review of T-Mobile South v. City of Roswell, Georgia, a case that takes on tower siting rules, said Kathleen Ham, vice president-federal affairs, Thursday in a blog post. The court last month agreed to hear the case, from the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals (http://1.usa.gov/1mwRFzZ). While the FCC respects “the role of municipalities in the siting process and its actions have been well within the bounds set by Congress, a number of cities and towns across the country continue to find ways to delay or halt altogether the deployment of wireless infrastructure,” Ham wrote (http://t-mo.co/1qeubT8). “Some impose arbitrary restrictions on the number of carriers that can put antennas on a single tower, while others require multiple public hearings for the upgrade and replacement of existing antennas or charge thousands of dollars for a simple permit to switch out copper wires for fiber optic facilities.”