The FirstNet board and the board's committees scheduled a combined meeting Wednesday, says Thursday's Federal Register. The meeting will be open to the public via teleconference and WebEx only, 10 a.m.-1 p.m. EDT, FirstNet said.

Futuresource expects Apple to continue to hold the “pole position” in the wireless headphone category, said the researcher Wednesday. Wireless had 31 percent of all in-ear product revenue in Q1, said Futuresource. “Apple AirPods maintained their dominance of the true wireless scene, compelling competitors to introduce lower-priced products” below $150 at retail, it said. The overall headphones market totaled 79.1 million units globally in Q1, with retail revenue topping $4 billion, it said. “Brands are “enthusiastically” adding features to their headphone models, and that helped drive in a 17 percent rise in average selling price in Q1 from the same quarter a year earlier, said Futuresource: “Across all categories, the highest price increase is in over-ear products, due to the impact of noise-cancelling and wireless technologies.”

The FCC Public Safety Bureau sought comment Wednesday on how well the voluntary wireless resiliency framework proposed by CTIA and the major wireless carriers in 2016 is working. The FCC approved the framework in a December 2016 order (see 1612210008). At the time, some parties expressed concerns a voluntary approach wasn’t strong enough. “Our goal is to ensure that this voluntary industry commitment to promote resilient wireless communications and situational awareness during disasters is robust and effective,” the bureau said in a public notice. “The Bureau seeks public comment on potential methods of measuring the effectiveness of the Framework, determining the extent of the Framework’s use, and further promoting awareness of the Framework. We also seek comment on ways to further facilitate improvements to the Framework, including by soliciting voluntary commitments from backhaul providers to address processes and best practices for information sharing for network restoration and coordination during disasters.” Comments are due July 16, replies July 31, in docket 11-60.

High-tech companies proposed a mitigation strategy to address concerns about interference in the 6 GHz band to protect incumbents while opened for unlicensed use. “We propose that the Commission adopt a robust framework for preventing harmful interference to FS [fixed service] incumbents,” the companies said in docket 17-183. The framework should include “comprehensive ex ante interference protection through an automated frequency coordination process” and a “remediation tool to assure incumbents that, in the highly unlikely event that they experience harmful interference from a 6 GHz … device despite automated frequency coordination, the interference can be stopped and prevented from recurring.” The framework will protect fixed satellite service operators through antenna pointing rules, the companies said. Apple, Broadcom, Cisco, Facebook, Google, Hewlett Packard Enterprise, Intel, Microsoft, Qualcomm and Ruckus Networks signed. “Our companies’ understanding of the dynamics present in the 6 GHz band has benefited greatly from this record, and from our exchanges directly with incumbents,” they said. “We appreciate their good faith efforts to work collectively to find a way to improve broadband access for more Americans while avoiding harmful interference.” Meanwhile, Verizon reported meeting Wireless Bureau and Office of Engineering and Technology staff where it “reiterated its conditional support for unlicensed use of the 5.925-6.425 GHz band, as long as the Commission adopts rules that protect the tens of thousands of existing microwave links and future microwave deployments in the band.”

The “colossal” IoT opportunity will drive wireless technologies to 55 percent of connectivity IC shipments this year, said IHS Markit Tuesday. “Massive IoT use cases requiring long battery life, deep coverage and mobility are fueling demand for cellular and low-power wireless.” Bluetooth and Zigbee are “entrenched in the home automation and consumer electronics segments,” and wireless in future years also will have “a huge impact on industries such as healthcare,” it said. IHS pegs 5G as the top wireless technology to watch, it said. “The move to 5G will trigger significant investment across the value chain from 2020 to 2030, with $2.4 trillion in capital expenditures during this time frame,” it said. The first 5G deployments will address enhanced broadband use cases, “but industry, not humans, will be the chief 5G driver,” it said. “Most growth in new subscriber connections will come from industrial use cases rather than consumer markets.”

The global smartphone applications processor (AP) market declined 5 percent in 2017 to $20.2 billion, Strategy Analytics reported. The top five companies in revenue were Qualcomm, Apple, MediaTek, Samsung LSI and HiSilicon, it said, with Qualcomm gaining share to finish the year at 42 percent revenue share. Apple had 22 percent and MediaTek 15 percent. The research firm estimated 64-bit smartphone AP shipments grew 15 percent, to 88 percent of total smartphone AP shipments, up from 71 percent in 2016. Analyst Sravan Kundojjala called 2017 a “very challenging year for low-cost and high volume players MediaTek and Spreadtrum,” which had sharp shipment declines due to slow road map progress and a steep decline in 3G AP demand. Qualcomm flagship and mid-range APs gained “strong acceptance” in 2017, said SA.

Exploiting the unique “form factor” with flexible OLEDs in smartphones or tablets, such as with devices with foldable screens, would be the “most important” way to boost the current low factory “utilization” and poor production yields for those displays, said Display Supply Chain Consultants CEO Ross Young on a Tuesday webinar. “The flexible nature of these products adds some functionality, or a cool factor,” to justify their premium positioning, said Young. Price is the “biggest impediment” to the adoption of flexible OLED displays, he said. Flexible OLEDs cost four times as much as LCD displays fashioned from low-temperature polycrystalline silicon, said Young. “It’s very risky for smartphone brands to adopt these high-priced components.” “Foldable” smartphones or tablets would be the ultimate differentiator, he said. “If you could fold your tablet, and have it serve as your phone, you could see display sizes growing to seven inches or eight inches, or even nine inches.” Despite the “many challenges,” he said that “it appears that production is going to start in small quantities by the end of this year."

Ericsson forecast 20 percent of global mobile data traffic will be on 5G networks in 2023, with 3.5 billion IoT cellular connections then. The first commercial deployments of 5G are likely this year, with 50 percent of U.S. mobile subscriptions expected to be on the standard in five years, the company said Tuesday. “The forecast for cellular IoT connections has nearly doubled since November,” Ericsson said. “New massive IoT cellular technologies … are fueling this growth.”

Somos, the toll-free numbering administrator, said the FCC got things right in a declaratory ruling and Further NPRM on toll-free texting. The agency released the ruling Tuesday. The FCC “took a big step today to ensure the integrity of Toll-Free and protect consumers from fraud,” said a Somos news release. “Consumers want to communicate more and more via messaging. Businesses want consumers to have confidence that, when they text a business’s Toll-Free Number, that the text is delivered to the intended recipient. The FCC’s action is the first step toward a vibrant, efficient, and trustworthy texting-to-Toll-Free system.”

The FCC shouldn’t rush a requirement that carriers be able to include multimedia in wireless emergency alerts, CTIA and T-Mobile said in replies on a Public Safety Bureau record refresh (see 1805290059 and 1805300010). “The record suggests that alert originators are not consistently or widely using embedded references to expand the capabilities of WEA to support multimedia content within the intended design and purpose of WEA,” CTIA said in docket 15-91. “The record demonstrates the significant technical and operational challenges of directly supporting multimedia content within WEA messages that would require fundamentally restructuring the WEA system.” Though other WEA features “may ultimately prove beneficial and viable, further study is required to evaluate the impact of such changes to the existing WEA infrastructure and ensure that good intentions do not jeopardize the stability of this valuable alerting tool,” T-Mobile said.