The FCC denied Indigo Wireless’ challenge to the Enforcement Bureau’s assessment of a $39,000 forfeiture against the carrier for alleged failure to meet hearing-aid compatible handset requirements for 2009. “Upon review of the Application for Review and the entire record, and finding no basis ... to modify the Bureau’s decisions, we conclude that Indigo Wireless has failed to demonstrate that the Bureau erred,” the FCC said in an order released Thursday.
CTIA urged the FCC to put Chairman Tom Wheeler’s theories on competition to the test and decide the agency need not impose tough new net neutrality rules on wireless. “Since early in his tenure, Chairman Wheeler has touted ‘competition, competition, competition’ and espoused a ‘see-saw’ theory of regulation, whereby the need for FCC intervention decreases if facts and data show that a market is competitive,” CTIA said in a Thursday letter to the agency. Wireless really is more competitive, CTIA said: “Any new open Internet rules should recognize the undeniable differences in the competitive landscape between fixed and mobile broadband.”
Qualcomm shares closed down 8.6 percent Thursday at $70.58 on the company’s disclosure in its 10-K SEC filing the previous evening that it’s the subject of two new regulatory investigations into its competitive practices. The FTC notified the company Sept. 17 that it has launched a probe into Qualcomm's licensing business, including a possible "breach" of its commitment to license its technology on fair, reasonable and nondiscriminatory terms, the 10-K said. Then on Oct. 15, the European Commission notified Qualcomm it was investigating the company’s sales and marketing of its baseband chipsets and possible irregularities in its use of rebates and other "financial incentives," the filing said. "We are fully cooperating with these agencies and believe our practices comply with the laws of our countries, but given that these matters are in their early stages, it is difficult to predict what, if anything, will come of them," CEO Steve Mollenkopf said on an earnings call Wednesday. The two new probes are in addition to a year-old investigation by China’s National Development and Reform Commission that Qualcomm may have violated Chinese anti-monopoly laws, the 10-K said. As key mobile technologies are increasingly becoming adopted into new categories, Qualcomm is "well-positioned" to exploit "these evolving opportunities," Mollenkopf said. Citing Gartner estimates that more than 8 billion smartphones will be sold globally through 2018, Qualcomm sees the smartphone as "representing the largest technology platform on which to innovate and drive upgrade opportunities," he said. "We believe the smartphone will be central to the growing number of connected things around us, and our focus is on aligning our resources to continue to capture these opportunities." Qualcomm is "very pleased with our design activity in the premium tier" of smartphone components, including "flagship devices" like the Snapdragon 805, Qualcomm’s first processor to offer "system-level Ultra HD support and 4K video capture and playback," he said.
The FCC Consumer and Governmental Affairs Bureau sought comment an October petition from the American Bankers Association asking the agency to exempt certain time-sensitive informational calls, which are placed with no charge to the called parties, from the Telephone Consumer Protection Act’s restrictions on automated calls to mobile devices (see 1410140162). Comments are due Dec. 8, replies Dec. 22, the bureau said Thursday: “We seek comment on the issues raised in the Petition, including whether the exemptions requested in the Petition allow the financial services industry to reduce privacy and security risks proactively so that fraud, data security breaches, and identity theft are less likely to occur in the first place.”
The American Radio Relay League (ARRL), which represents amateur radio operators, raised concerns about an FCC proposal to stop sending paper copies of licenses and authorizations to commission licensees. Instead, the agency would consider the electronic version of a license stored in the Universal Licensing System (ULS) as the official FCC document, making paper records available only upon request, ARRL said in a filing in docket 14-161. The change is part of FCC process reform efforts. “The Amateur Radio Service, with more than 730,000 licensees holding active licenses, is composed of individuals,” ARRL said. “Even club licenses are issued to individual trustees. These are not businesses which have regular interaction with the Commission’s ULS or CORES [Commission Registration System] databases and the majority of them have no regular need to use either one.”
The Enterprise Wireless Alliance said the FCC should reconsider a decision rejecting a request to allow the processing of applications proposing the assignment of spectrum from Maritime Communications/Land Mobile (MCLM) to companies that plan to use it in support of critical oil and gas and electric utility operations. The FCC was right to approve processing of an application for the assignment of spectrum from MCLM to Southern California Regional Rail Authority (SCRRA) for use in Positive Train Control, EWA said. “Critical health and safety aspects of oil, gas and electric utility company operations amply justify comparable relief,” said the filing posted by the FCC Wednesday in docket 13-85. “As with SCRRA, their ‘business needs’ are inextricably intertwined with their ability to deliver these vital services safely, efficiently, and in compliance with the multitude of public safety-related Federal mandates to which they are subject.”
The FCC Wireless Bureau sought comment Tuesday on a request by Breitling USA for a waiver of commission rules for its dual band emergency Watch called Emergency2. The device, intended for use on land, can be used to transmit a distress signal on 406.0-406.1 MHz for communication with the Cospas-Sarsat satellite system and a lower-powered homing signal on frequency 121.5 MHz, the bureau said. Absent a waiver, the device could not be certified under Part 95 of FCC rules, the bureau said. Breitling requests waiver of manual control, battery and labeling requirements in the Radio Technical Commission for Maritime Services (RTCM) standard for such personal locator beacon (PLB) devices. “Breitling states that incorporation of a PLB into a wristwatch casing as opposed to a conventional hand-held device renders certain requirements in the RTCM standard irrelevant or infeasible, but argues that the Emergency2 provides the offsetting advantage that it is always immediately at hand and ready to operate, with no added risk of harmful interference to others,” the bureau said. Comments are due Dec. 4, replies Dec. 19.
“By any measure” the 800 MHz rebanding is “reaching its final stages,” Sprint said in a filing in FCC docket 02-55. All but 16 of the 55 NPSPAC regions have been completely rebanded, Sprint said. The biggest gaps are in Washington State and the five regions, from Texas to California, along the Mexican border, Sprint said. Only four other licensees have not been fully reconfigured, the carrier said. The rebanding has been in progress since 2004 when the FCC approved its landmark order intended to address interference issues between Nextel and public safety (see 0407090122). Nextel later combined with Sprint.
Sprint’s Q2 earnings report (see 1411030060) Monday was met with generally negative reaction from analysts, in emails to investors Tuesday. The quarter was the first under new CEO Marcelo Claure. Sprint said in August that Claure was replacing longtime CEO Dan Hesse (see 1408070044). With continuing subscriber losses and worsening churn, Sprint is at “the start of a long process,” UBS said. Sprint lowered its EBITDA guidance, and “EBITDA trends were much worse than expected,” New Street Research said. “Sprint’s turn-around will clearly come at a higher cost than investors realized. We continue to believe Sprint is expensive, even if you assume a strong recovery in sub growth. The problem isn’t turning around the business; it is the balance sheet.” Canaccord Genuity said the results' biggest implication is “the long-awaited turnaround story will take yet more time for it to manifest itself in the form of a sustainably higher stock price.” Sprint is a company in search of a strategy, MoffettNathanson said. “SoftBank’s prior strategy of network superiority has been scaled back dramatically,” the analyst firm said. “But to what, exactly? Their new plan to fully build out their 2.5 GHz spectrum in just a handful of cities (‘three to five’) is a seemingly sensible admission that they have neither the inclination nor the money to blanket the country with a network built of small cells and high frequencies.”
Representatives of CTIA stressed the importance of the FCC wrapping up work on a rulemaking on converting site-based cellular coverage areas to geographic market areas based on each licensee’s currently authorized Cellular Geographic Service Area, in a meeting with Erin McGrath, aide to Commissioner Mike O’Rielly. “This proposal will immediately reduce the administrative burden on both licensees and Commission staff, without prejudicing any party or the public,” said a filing posted Monday in docket 12-40. The industry officials also “highlighted” the importance of cellular licensing being brought into more harmony with flexible licensing used in other bands. “The parties explained that carriers are beginning to deploy LTE network technologies in cellular spectrum, making prompt resolution of these issues particularly urgent,” said CTIA.