U.S. Cellular said it signed an agreement with Vertical Bridge Holdings to sell the company 595 towers for about $159 million in markets divested by the carrier. The deal is expected to close in the Q1, U.S. Cellular said Thursday. The carrier plans to use the money for “long-term investments that position U.S. Cellular for future growth opportunities,” said CEO Kenneth Meyers. Vertical Bridge CEO Alexander Gellman said: "Many of these sites are in locations that would be very difficult to replace."
NTIA released an update Thursday to its Manual of Regulations and Procedures for Federal Radio Frequency Management, which took effect immediately, said a notice in Thursday's Federal Register. “The NTIA Manual is the compilation of policies and procedures that govern the use of the radio frequency spectrum by the U.S. Government,” the agency said. “Federal government agencies are required to follow these policies and procedures in their use of spectrum.”
A New York City project to offer free Wi-Fi hotspots at converted payphone sites shows the dangers of “virtual redlining,” Public Knowledge Senior Vice President Harold Feld told FCC officials, said a filing in docket 14-28. “The decision by commercial providers to limit prioritized service to wealthier communities and to avoid communities of color because of racial stereotypes, is a very real concern,” Feld said. The Wi-Fi hotspots are supported by advertisers, and “advertisers prefer wealthier eyes,” he said. “As a result, all of the 2,500-plus locations in Manhattan are high speed, giving the borough with 20 percent of the city’s population fully 65 percent of all the fast kiosks. Meanwhile, the Bronx will get speedy Wi-Fi at 361 kiosks -- just 6 percent of the fast Wi-Fi stations in the city.” Feld said the New York example points to the dangers of paid prioritization. “If carriers decide to offer commercial businesses the opportunity to reduce cost by limiting prioritization to specific markets on the basis of zip code, census block, or other geographic demarcation, we can anticipate that -- as with the NY City public wifi experience -- businesses will avail themselves of this opportunity,” he said. The New York City Franchise and Concession Review Committee recently held a hearing on the CityBridge consortium’s plan to install a Wi-Fi hot spot system in place at up to 10,000 obsolete payphone booth sites across the city (see 1412040056).
While several recent letters urge the FCC to approve a declaratory ruling sought by T-Mobile on data roaming agreements (see 1405280042), none of the arguments is new, AT&T said in a filing. “The facts in T-Mobile’s Petition actually show that data roaming is widely available at commercially reasonable rates, that those rates have been declining rapidly, and that the Commission’s rules are working,” AT&T said. “The record thus confirms that the Commission’s 2011 Data Roaming Order struck the proper balance between ensuring that data roaming is available and maintaining incentives for build-out and robust facilities-based competition.” The Competitive Carriers Association said in a recent letter to the FCC there's broad support for the T-Mobile petition. “Each entity represented by the T-Mobile Petition Supporters agrees that the data roaming market is broken, and that a grant of the T-Mobile Petition would vastly improve the data roaming market, which in turn would help allow carriers to provide competitive services to consumers,” CCA said. The filings are in docket 5-265. AT&T also weighed in with a Wednesday blog post on the topic. If T-Mobile "has a beef," it should "file a complaint," AT&T said.
Ford launched Sync 3 in-vehicle entertainment and communications system Thursday, promising faster performance, more “conversational” voice recognition, an intuitive touch screen similar to that of a smartphone and a simplified graphical interface. The company said it drew from 22,000 customer comments and suggestions in creating the third-generation platform, along with information from focus groups, surveys and competitive analysis. The system is optimized for hands-free operation, but the new touch screen delivers an experience similar to using a smartphone or tablet with gestures including pinch-to-zoom and swipe, it said. The display offers a bright background and large buttons with “high-contrast fonts” for daytime use, and at night it switches automatically to a dark background to help reduce eye fatigue and minimize reflections, Ford said. To reduce on-screen complexity, the home screen offers a choice of zones, navigation, audio and phone, and the system prioritizes the control options customers use most, the company said. Phone contacts are searchable via a finger swipe, and users can look up points of interest or addresses with a search box. The new voice recognition system cuts down on the number of steps required to carry out a command, Ford said. A user can name a song, artist, album or genre to bring up a song from a connected smartphone, no longer having to identify a category, the company said, and to switch to SiriusXM or terrestrial radio, users say the name of the station or station number. New features in AppLink enable users to control compatible apps using voice commands or buttons on screen, and AppLink automatically discovers streaming music service apps such as iHeartRadio Auto, NPR One, Pandora, Spotify, SiriusXM and Stitcher, Ford said. In the case of a "significant' accident, a Bluetooth-connected phone is used to dial 911, alerting first-responders to the vehicle’s location. With Sync 3, additional information is relayed, including if airbags were deployed, where damage occurred to the vehicle and the number of safety belts detected in use to help emergency call takers dispatch the appropriate resources to the scene, Ford said.
The AWS-3 auction has to be seen as a huge success, with $43 billion in provisionally winning bids made so far, FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler said in a news conference Thursday after the agency’s meeting. “When the auction was first conceived, the expectation was it would be maybe $12 [billion], maybe $16 billion.” The reserve price was set at only $10.6 billion, he noted: “This auction will certainly raise enough to fully fund FirstNet, pay for the relocation of existing spectrum users and make a significant" contribution towards deficit reduction. It also makes 65 MHz available for wireless broadband, he said.
NAD said it added Rhapsody to its BluOS platform for Bluesound wireless music systems. Bluesound’s U.S. customers will be offered a two-month trial subscription for Rhapsody Premier, which they can sign up for through the NAD BluOS controller app, the company said Wednesday. Rhapsody boasts a library of 32 million songs. The premier subscription is $9.99 per month for unlimited access to music, personalized radio suggestions, song-skipping capability and the ability to play music on mobile devices, PCs and home audio gear.
After a disappointing Samsung Q3 earnings report, which saw mobile division sales plummet 74 percent (see 1410300033), the company announced Wednesday that effective Jan. 1 it's combining Samsung Electronics America and Samsung Telecommunications America into a single U.S. organization comprising consumer electronics, mobile and enterprise business. According to a statement, integrating the two organizations into a single Samsung Electronics America “will give customers and partners the advantage of a single point of contact.” In the new organization, Gregory Lee will continue as president and CEO of Samsung Electronics North America, and Tim Baxter has been named president and chief operating officer of the new, integrated Samsung Electronics America, Samsung said. The new organization will focus on “aggressive growth in new strategic initiatives,” Samsung said, and by bringing together all of the company’s branded consumer and enterprise business operations, it will “better serve” U.S. customers through “strengthened business operations and collaboration across market segments.” A single organization will provide “expanded career development and mobility programs for Samsung’s growing workforce,” the company said. U.S. offices in Ridgefield Park, New Jersey; Richardson, Texas; and San Jose, California, will continue to operate, it said. Questions to Samsung on possible layoffs, areas of focus for the new organization and any changes to Samsung's smartphone business weren’t immediately answered.
The FCC said it will provide more time for comments on key incentive auction NPRMs -- on Part 15 unlicensed operations and wireless mics. The FCC had been under industry pressure to delay the filing deadlines (see 1412080075). Comments were due Jan. 5, replies Jan. 26. The new deadlines are Feb. 4 and Feb. 25. “We believe that extensions of the comment and reply comment deadlines will provide parties with an opportunity to more fully analyze and respond to the complex technical issues raised in the Notices, thus allowing development of a more complete record in these proceedings,” the FCC said Wednesday.
The record breaking AWS-3 auction is a win for public safety, paying for the startup costs of FirstNet, and for the government, because part of the proceeds will go toward deficit reduction, CTIA President Meredith Baker said in a blog post Wednesday. Consumers are also winners, she wrote. The auction also makes a good case for future auctions, Baker said. “This is the first major spectrum auction since 2008, and serves as an important affirmation of the wireless industry’s demand for spectrum,” she wrote. “This auction also reinforces our understanding of the need for licensed paired spectrum, especially when it is substantially cleared and internationally harmonized. While CTIA applauds the FCC’s recent efforts in the area of unlicensed and lightly-licensed spectrum models, this auction shows there is no true substitute for exclusively-licensed spectrum for the wireless industry.”