Regulatory OK prospects for T-Mobile buying Sprint seem “relatively dim” even with Assistant Attorney General Makan Delrahim’s recent comments that there’s no magic number of carriers (see 1806050018), MoffettNathanson analysts said Thursday. Odds remain fifty-fifty, with the deal’s Herfindahl-Hirschman Index measure of market concentration playing an important role, they said. It’s “partially true” the companies together make a stronger competitor to AT&T and Verizon, but “counter-arguments are just as compelling,” including the industry’s high HHI and concerns about foreign investment, spectrum ownership and the wholesale market, they said. DOJ may be reviewing how Sprint/T-Mobile may affect prices of smaller wireless companies that buy wholesale access from the carriers, Reuters reported Thursday.
IHS Markit expects the first foldable active-matrix OLED smartphone displays to “hit the market this year,” said Jerry Kang, senior principal analyst, in a research note Tuesday. They will be a miniscule portion of flexible AMOLED shipments in 2018, rising to 6 percent in 2021, said Kang. Smartphone brands plan to use the new foldable displays mainly in larger-sized premium devices, said Kang. Their “transformable” displays will “combine the usability of smartphones and tablets,” he said: The first smartphones with foldable displays will likely command steep prices that “could be a barrier to adoption.”
Adoption later this month of the 5G Standalone New Radio standard will accelerate the work toward 5G implementation, blogged Intel's Reza Arefi, director-spectrum strategy, next-generation and standards group, Tuesday. He said Intel is working with manufacturers to develop prototypes and test global interoperability, which will translate the standard into technical reality. He said the standard "will create a universal technological foundation" of global interoperability, helping manufacturers get to economy of scale.
Comments on an NPRM on proposed service rules for the 2.5 GHz band will be due July 9, with replies Aug. 6, says Thursday's Federal Register. The FCC in May adopted the NPRM, which contemplates such actions as an incentive auction (see 1805100053).
Public safety officials should drive what gets developed for their national wireless network, FirstNet Chair Sue Swenson said in prepared remarks Tuesday for the Public Safety Broadband Stakeholder Meeting in San Diego. "It’s time to build the ‘cars’ that will drive on that information super highway. … That marketplace needs focus and prioritization.”
The IEEE Standards Association formed IEEE 802.11 study groups for Wi-Fi in “vehicular environments” and for broadcast services, said the organization Monday. The V2X (vehicle-to-everything) study group will explore ways to “leverage more recent 802.11 technologies to address new applications of wireless access in vehicular environments, where new requirements for higher throughput, improved reliability and efficiency, and/or extended range are anticipated,” it said. The broadcast services study group will explore “new use cases for simultaneously broadcasting local information” over IEEE 802.11 without the need for broadcast recipients “to actively connect to an access point, and to do so with enhanced security features in place,” it said. Uses can include transmission of information at shopping malls and airports, and traffic updates, emergency information or data from IoT devices, it said. Both study groups are in their “initial stage” and are encouraging broad “stakeholder participation,” it said.
Common Sense was among those backing Apple's time management features in iOS 12, announced Monday. Users can view a dashboard to see time they spend with apps and websites, said Apple. "We’re offering our users detailed information and tools to help them better understand and control the time they spend with apps and websites, how often they pick up their iPhone or iPad during the day and how they receive notifications,” said Craig Federighi, senior vice president-software engineering. Tools in the new Screen Time feature let users manage device time, and Apple expanded the Do Not Disturb feature for mobile devices in bedtime mode, which dims the display and hides all notifications on the lock screen until morning. This shows it's "possible to make tech products work better for all of us,” said Common Sense CEO James Steyer. He quoted industry figures saying kids and teens spend six to nine hours a day in front of digital screens and said management of notifications will cut down on distraction and make it easier to remind kids to put down their devices. The features will be available this fall, Apple said. The company announced a health records application programming interface for developers and researchers to create an ecosystem of apps that use health record data to manage medications, nutrition plans and diagnosed diseases. The Health Records feature lets patients of more than 500 hospitals and clinics access medical information from various institutions organized into one view on their iPhone. Health data is encrypted on the iPhone and protected with the consumer’s iPhone passcode, Apple said. When consumers elect to share their health record data with trusted apps, the data moves directly from HealthKit to the third-party app and isn't sent to Apple’s servers, it said.
Matryx bowed a Qi wireless phone charger dubbed HoverCharge that can be used flat or displayed as a stand. The charger offers 7.5 watts for supported iPhones and 10 watts for supported Android devices, said the company. The mount uses epoxy-based rubber rather than magnets or metal plates that can interfere with near-field communication payments or cause damage to a phone, said the company. Preorder price of the Kickstarter-backed charger is $19, with shipments set to begin in late July at $59.
That roughly a third of all wearable devices now include cellular connectivity “has allowed new use-cases to emerge," as "telcos around the world have rejoiced as the inclusion of cellular has opened another revenue stream," IDC reported Monday. Apple was the big winner in wearables for Q1, as Apple Watch shipments grew 13.5 percent from a year earlier on success of cellular-connected products launched into additional global markets for the first time, said the researcher. Its share in the overall wearables market rose to 16.1 percent from 14.3 percent. A consumer “shift” away from “basic wearables” and toward “smarter" devices caused global shipments of wearables to increase 1.2 percent in Q1, vs. 18 percent.
The FCC Public Safety Bureau waived the 800 MHz Wave 4 application freeze along the U.S. border with Mexico to permit Arizona’s Maricopa County to operate on 10 National Public Safety Planning Advisory Committee frequencies for mobile-only communications in conventional mode, said a Monday order. The county asked “to deploy 800 MHz spectrum as a platform for a talk-around capability of a new Project-25 public safety radio system designed to serve the county’s population of over four million people,” the bureau said. The selected channels are unlikely to cause interference to other public safety users because they’re currently vacant, nor should the proposal impair rebanding, the bureau said.