Various models of Samsung Galaxy smartphones have rear-camera glass lens covers that are prone to “spontaneously shatter within a few weeks of purchase,” alleged a complaint (in Pacer) filed Tuesday in U.S. District Court in San Francisco. The “defect is common” on Galaxy S7- and S8-series and Note 8 phones and is “known to Samsung, as Samsung has received countless complaints about it,” said the filing, which seeks class-action status. “But Samsung continues to hide this defect from consumers and has refused to repair it even when covered under its warranty.” That leaves consumers with devices “on which the camera -- an integral part of a smartphone’s functionality -- is unusable,” it said. The glass shatters “without any external force applied,” and does so “in a telltale circular pattern as if it had been shot out by a BB gun,” said the complaint. Consumers “have suffered injury in fact and incurred fees and costs” associated with the defect, it said. “Without a repair or a refund from Samsung, consumers are left with limited options. To replace one of these devices at retail price costs several hundred dollars.” Even if a consumer bought insurance on the defective phone, replacing it “requires paying a deductible that may be between $175 and $250,” it said. The complaint was reassigned Wednesday to a U.S. district judge in Oakland, California, after plaintiffs Lynette Pang and Timo Masalin declined (in Pacer) their consent to have the case go before a magistrate judge in San Francisco. Opting not to have a complaint heard before a magistrate judge is "common practice in these kinds of cases," Michael Woerner, a lawyer for Pang and Masalin, emailed us Wednesday. Samsung didn’t comment.

Sprint considers the 2.5 GHz band key to its ability to provide 4G LTE and 5G service, Sprint officials said in a meeting with Nick Degani and Rachael Bender, aides to FCC Chairman Ajit Pai. Sprint plans to “deploy 2.5 GHz spectrum on thousands of macro sites as well as small cells to provide high-speed high capacity broadband service to its customers as part of its densification and optimization effort,” Sprint said in a filing Monday in docket 03-66. Sprint also urged the FCC to expand the boundaries of education broadcast service licensees to the county boundaries of their licensed footprint.

Sensible Medical Innovations (SMI) countered arguments by the GPS Innovation Alliance opposing a waiver SMI is seeking for a system that uses ultra-wideband (UWB) medical imaging to obtain lung fluid measurements for congestive heart failure patients in a noninvasive way (see 1803130030). But two other commenters also raised question in replies. GPS systems won’t be compromised by its ReDS (remote dielectric sensing) System, SMI said in reply comments in docket 18-39. “The ReDS System is used indoors, while satellite navigation systems primarily operate outdoors,” SMI said. “ReDS devices also use low power transmissions, and energy is coupled into a patient’s body, resulting in extremely low power leakage -- at least 27 dB below the limits that are applicable to unintentional consumer appliances.” Globalstar raised concerns about mobile satellite service operations at 1.6 GHz. “Before acting on the Waiver Request, the Commission should require SMI to submit a more detailed technical showing demonstrating that its UWB devices will not cause harmful interference to licensed services above 1 GHz, including Globalstar’s MSS offerings,” Globalstar said. Philips Healthcare questioned potential interference to wireless medical telemetry service equipment “deployed at hundreds of hospitals throughout the United States,” which primarily uses spectrum at 1395-1400 and 1427-1431.5 MHz. “Our concern is heightened because Sensible’s proposed device is intended to be used in the same healthcare facilities, including potentially on the same patients being monitored by Philips’ wireless monitoring systems,” the company said.

The FCC will publish in the Federal Register Thursday its specific parameters and procedures for implementing the Mobility Fund Phase II challenge process. The document lays out the steps the FCC will use “to establish a map of areas presumptively eligible for MF-II support from the newly collected, standardized 4G Long Term Evolution coverage data and proposes specific parameters for the data that challengers and respondents will submit as part of the challenge process, as well as a process for validating challenges,” the notice said. The challenge window opens Thursday and will remain open through Aug. 27. AT&T said Wednesday the FCC laid out challenge rules that are “clear-cut and manageable” and it’s time to get the process started. “Predictably, many of the same carriers who have long criticized the FCC data collection methods have criticized the MF-II maps as well,” said Mary Henze, AT&T assistant vice president-federal regulatory. “The FCC has collected new data to generate an up-to-date LTE coverage map designed specifically to meet its USF goals and created a hands-on way to crowdsource more granular data through a comprehensive challenge process to make the map even better.”

The FCC Public Safety Bureau asked for comments to update its record on the feasibility of including multimedia content in wireless emergency alerts (WEAs). The FCC earlier raised the issue in a Further NPRM in 2016 (see 1609290060). CTIA said in response the FCC shouldn’t “adopt infeasible and unnecessary requirements” for commercial mobile service (CMS) providers that participate in the program (see 1612090012). But New York City repeatedly stressed the importance of including photos and other media in alerts (see 1803150056). “The Commission continues to consider the WEA FNPRM’s proposal regarding multimedia alerting, and the Bureau requests that interested commenters refresh the record with any new information or arguments,” said a Wednesday notice in docket 15-91. “Commenters should address the technical feasibility for requiring multimedia content in WEA messages, including the current state of multimedia testing and standards development. Commenters should also address with particularity the potential costs and benefits to public safety and Participating CMS Providers for supporting the inclusion of multimedia content in WEA messages, given the other changes to WEA that are currently ongoing.” Comments will be due 30 days after the notice is published in the Federal Register, replies 15 days later.

The Broadband Access Coalition countered an earlier technical analysis of sharing in the 3.7-4.2 GHz band by SES (see 1803050050). “The SES technical analysis makes incorrect assumptions and thus fails to address the BAC’s proposal to share the C-band between point-to-multipoint (P2MP) fixed wireless broadband links and [fixed-satellite service] FSS earth stations on a frequency- and geography-coordinated basis that protects incumbent C-band earth stations,” BAC said in a filing in 17-183. “Properly considered, sharing the C-band among P2MP fixed links and C-band earth stations is quite feasible.” BAC officials were at the FCC Tuesday to present the results. BAC last year proposed a plan for the band (see 1708080050).

The FCC’s Rural Broadband Auctions Task Force plans to release a map of areas “presumptively ineligible” for Mobility Fund Phase II (MF-II) support April 10, the FCC said Tuesday. “Release of this map will help ensure a timely and effective MF-II challenge process as the map will inform challengers of those areas for which they will need to test the coverage of only one unsubsidized mobile provider,” the FCC said. The Wireless and Wireline bureaus also are working on the map.

AT&T launched the FirstNet network core one year after becoming the private partner for the nationwide public safety network, AT&T said in a Tuesday news release. The LTE-enhanced packet core infrastructure gives public safety the dedicated network it was promised, separating public safety traffic from commercial traffic. The core lets public safety switch among three priority levels and enter an incident management portal to control network resources. It also will enable future capabilities like push-to-talk and z-axis location-based services, AT&T said. AT&T plans a controlled migration from the commercial network to the public safety core with a small number of users while FirstNet completes testing the core, then will move more customers in April or May, it said. In planned testing, FirstNet and AT&T “will exercise the functionality of the public safety features, measure redundancy under a variety of conditions, and validate the overall performance and resiliency of network components,” blogged FirstNet Chief Technology Officer Jeff Bratcher. “While we are moving to expedite this process, we will not sacrifice delivering a robust, first class, secure broadband experience to our public safety users.” The dedicated network “is what public safety has spent years advocating for,” said Scott Edson, executive director of the Los Angeles Regional Interoperable Communication System, one of five FirstNet early builder projects. “To see public safety's network core roar to life nationwide, well, there are no words for how meaningful that is.” AT&T is “proud of the quick progress we've made in this short timeframe, consistently delivering on or ahead of schedule,” said AT&T Senior Vice President-FirstNet Chris Sambar. Band 14 rollout began earlier this month (see 1803150044). Also Tuesday, Verizon announced its rival public safety core network will be available Thursday. It similarly separates public safety from commercial traffic and provides priority and preemption for public safety but uses a Verizon radio access network in bands including 700 MHz, 800 MHz, 1.9 GHz PCS and 1.7/2.1 GHz AWS, the carrier said.

Nokia demonstrated its prowess in the 3.5 GHz citizens broadband radio service band last week at the FCC, the company said in a filing in docket 15-319. Nokia is the “only company developing an end-to-end solution,” it said. It alone has “a fully virtualized, cloud-based, scalable Spectrum Access System (SAS), a Domain Proxy, an Environmental Sensing Capability and Citizens Broadband Radio Service Devices (CBSDs),” Nokia said. Nokia officials said they met with aides to all the commissioners, except Chairman Ajit Pai, and with staff from the Wireless Bureau and Office of Engineering and Technology. “Nokia highlighted its advanced product development by demonstrating over-the-air live transmissions from CBSD small cells authorized by the Nokia SAS and the ease with which End User Devices could connect to the Nokia network and seamlessly access rich video content.” Nokia said it also demonstrated the technology at NTIA.

BTIG sees signs that wireless network investments are on the upswing in the U.S., analyst Walter Piecyk blogged Monday. “We believe the tower industry is poised for accelerating revenue growth based on our recent discussions with industry participants,” Piecyk said. “The timing and pace of that acceleration will be impacted by the approvals necessary to add new tenants to existing towers, but the drivers of organic growth acceleration are clear.” One sign of growth is that AT&T’s build of FirstNet is ramping up this year into 2019. Piecyk also said more competition appears on the way. “We also believe that the likelihood of a 5th national wireless network emerging within the next five years is greater than 50 percent,” he said. “Cable and tech are actively testing ... 3.5 GHz technology and lobbying for mid-band spectrum to be used on small cells. Ultimately, we believe a proper wireless network will require a macro layer with licensed spectrum on towers. The wireless industry has not foreclosed on the valuable spectrum opportunity that Dish [Networks] offers these new entrants.”