The FCC Consumer and Governmental Affairs Bureau plans a webinar May 3 starting at 2 p.m. EDT on the challenge process for the Mobility Fund Phase II reverse auction. “This free webinar will focus on the issues that affect state and local government offices and agencies and will explain the MF-II reverse auction, how to determine if a particular locality has been identified as initially deemed ineligible for support and how to challenge that determination and seek inclusion of the locality among the areas identified as eligible for support,” said a Wednesday notice. FCC staff will be standing by to answer questions.

IHS Markit estimates about a third of the vehicles on U.S. roads have connectivity through embedded telematics control units (TCUs), Colin Bird, senior analyst-automotive technology, told a Wednesday webinar on the cybersecurity vulnerabilities of connected cars. “Nearly every vehicle” in production “is being equipped with some sort of TCU,” so by 2023, 85 percent of “the entire vehicle parc will be connected,” said Bird of the registered U.S. fleet. “That’s really the holy grail of hacking.” Fiat Chrysler’s July 2015 recall of 1.4 million vehicles to install software to protect against data breaches was the first National Highway Traffic Safety Administration action taken “for cybersecurity-related issues,” and it was a “wake-up call” for the automotive industry, said Bird. “Since that happened, every RFQ for an infotainment unit or TCU has had a cybersecurity requirement,” he said of OEM requests for quotations. With the increasing “complexity” of in-car electronics, “there’s a lot of different ways to get into the vehicle, a lot of things to protect here,” he said. He cited an Audi A8, which is equipped with “more than 88 high-powered CPUs” and runs up to 30 million “lines” of binary code, including 4 million lines of code just in the “steering component.” IHS estimates more than half the total cost of a high-end vehicle, including R&D and “validation,” is “related to electronic components or software,” he said.

CTIA filed reports on importance of the move to 5G and the threat from China (see 1804160056). “China’s narrow lead in 5G-readiness is due to a combination of both proactive government policies and industry momentum, underscoring the urgency in action by U.S. policymakers,” said a filing posted Wednesday in FCC docket 14-177.

The Supreme Court should clarify U.S. law on compelling commercial speech, CTIA said in a Tuesday reply brief in case 17-976, CTIA v. Berkeley, California. Defending its RF disclosure ordinance, the city argued it may compel truthful disclosure in commercial speech because it’s reasonably related to the FCC’s interest (see 1804020049). CTIA argued that the First Amendment precludes state and local governments from forcing retailers to convey a government message. “Berkeley’s response confirms the need for this Court to resolve the widespread confusion about the proper standard of scrutiny for laws compelling commercial entities to speak,” CTIA said. Circuit courts don’t agree, the wireless association said. “Thirty-three years is long enough for the issue to percolate.” The Supreme Court will consider whether to hear the case at a May 10 conference, said a docket notice Wednesday.

Imported RF devices must have a suppliers' declaration of conformity available from a responsible party if the FCC requests one, though such SDoC's aren't required at ports of entry, said the commission's Office of Engineering and Technology guidance dated April 5. "The responsible party is typically one of the following: the manufacturer, the assembler (if the equipment is assembled from individual component parts), or the importer (if the equipment is imported)," the OET said. Its rules require "that no radio frequency device may be imported into the U.S. unless the importer or ultimate consignee, or their designated broker, determines that the device meets one or more of the conditions for entry." Last year, the regulator ended Form 740 filing requirements (see 1711010017).

The Mobile Electronics Association will launch the Connected Car Show July 20-21 as a “co-located” event with the IFA-sponsored CE Week New York conference at the Javits Convention Center, said the trade group Tuesday. “In light of recent events, safety and the driver's changing role will be key issues.” There have been recent autonomous automobile accidents (see 1803230071).

The Rural Wireless Association hailed a letter by three Republican senators saying the FCC should consider countywide tracts for priority access licenses in rural areas in the 3.5 GHz citizens broadband radio service band instead of using partial economic areas (PEAs). The letter urges licensing by metropolitan statistical area in urban communities. The letter was signed by Steve Daines of Montana, John Barrasso of Wyoming and Dan Sullivan of Alaska. They said the FCC should “reject the expansion of geographic licensing areas such as large scale" PEAs. The proposal makes sense, said RWA President Mike Kilgore, CEO of Sagebrush Cellular. “The use of PEAs or other large license sizes in the CBRS context would stifle broadband deployment in rural states.”

Members of the Mobile & Wireless Forum and CTIA General Counsel Tom Power said they met with an aide to FCC Chairman Ajit Pai to recommend the FCC “update” its rules “to adopt the most current RF exposure standards.” The group also sought “clear guidance from the FCC Lab for 5G devices.” The current approval requirements “are based on a standard developed and adopted by the FCC in the 1990’s, prior to the development of 3G, 4G and 5G technology,” the groups said in a Sunday filing in docket 13-84. That standard is “not sufficient to address testing issues for the next generation of products, and there is a pressing need for adoption of an updated standard such as the pending 2018 IEEE C95.1 standard,” the filing said. Representatives of Cisco, Intel and Motorola Solutions were at the meeting with Pai aide Rachael Bender.

The FCC reached a $40 million settlement with T-Mobile USA concluding an investigation into whether the carrier violated the Communications Act when it didn’t correct ongoing problems with delivery of calls to rural consumers. T-Mobile also violated an FCC rule that prevents carriers from inserting false ring tones on hundreds of millions of calls, the FCC said. T-Mobile agreed to pay a $40 million fine and entered into a compliance plan aimed at preventing future violations, said an FCC news release. “It is a basic tenet of the nation’s phone system that calls be completed to the called party, without a reduction in the call quality -- even when the calls pass through intermediate providers,” said Chairman Ajit Pai. T-Mobile calls were unable to reach customers of three rural carriers in Wisconsin and investigation found possible violations in seven other rural areas, the FCC said. “The investigation also revealed T-Mobile’s practice of injecting false ring tones into certain calls. T-Mobile reported that it had done so on hundreds of millions of calls and admitted that its actions violated the Commission’s prohibition of injecting false ring tones on any calls.” Rural consumers and companies "have suffered rural call failure since 2010," NTCA said in response. "Continued vigilance on the part of industry and the Commission, combined with enforceable regulatory backstops, clearly remain essential to ensure that rural call failure will not compromise the integrity of our nation’s networks and the safety and welfare of rural communities.” T-Mobile said: "Our actions have always been focused on better serving our customers and the ringtone oversight, which was corrected in January 2017, was unintentional. We have settled this matter -- and will continue to focus on our mission to change wireless for good -- for consumers everywhere." Commissioner Mignon Clyburn slammed the consent decree, saying it badly missed the mark. The $40 million penalty “is dwarfed by larger, unpaid fines recently proposed against individual robocallers -- and the volume of potential violations here outpaces any robocalling action the Commission has taken,” she said. “The compliance plan does not contain any concessions that would explain such a massive discount.” Clyburn questioned why consumers won’t see any refunds, and said she asked for a vote by commissioners but didn’t get one. “Prior consent decrees have included direct-to-consumer benefits, such as refunds or discounts, or notifications to customers who have been impacted,” she said. “Despite demonstrating a clear and tangible consumer harm, in this consent decree, consumers are treated as a mere afterthought.”

Officials from Apple, Broadcom, Cisco, Facebook, Google, Hewlett Packard Enterprise, Intel, Microsoft and Qualcomm discussed the 6 GHz band with aides to the five FCC commissioners. The companies said they addressed questions about a January study by RKF Engineering Solutions, which said the band can be shared with no downside (see 1801260043). “Further analysis reconfirms the RKF study’s conclusion: the band can support sharing without risking harmful interference to incumbents,” said a filing in docket 17-183 about last week's meeting.