Arris' Ruckus President Dan Rabinovitsj and Chief Technology Officer Steve Martin met with Commissioner Mike O’Rielly at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona to encourage the FCC to act on the 3.5 GHz citizens broadband radio service band. The executives are encouraged by FCC steps, including recent conditional approval of four environmental sensing capability operators (see 1802210053) and the Office of Engineering and Technology’s release of knowledge database guidance on device certification. In a filing in docket 17-258, Arris supported unlicensed operations in the 5925-7125 MHz frequency range "on the condition that the existing incumbent operations are appropriately protected." Verizon said it met with Rachael Bender, aide to Chairman Ajit Pai, on the band. “We expressed support for targeted changes to the licensing regime for Priority Access Licenses,” the carrier said. License renewability and longer license terms are important, as are larger geographic licenses, it said. “While we recognized that there is no optimal geographic size for all bidders, we explained that it is generally easier to disaggregate down in a secondary market than to aggregate up to a desired size at auction.”

Fifty-seven percent of U.S. broadband households are interested in voice control features for their car, Parks Associates reported Wednesday. "As consumer interest in voice control and connected safety features rises, there is a parallel rise in interest in car data plans, preferably bundled with consumers' current mobile data plan," said analyst Kristen Hanich. She said consumers are limited in options for data sharing, leaving opportunities for carriers and others to “forge partnerships with automakers and dealers to aggregate billing, improve the onboarding process for car buyers, and enhance the consumer experience."

Qualcomm announced a Snapdragon 5G module for smartphone OEMs looking to commercialize 5G in smartphones and major verticals quickly. It lets manufacturers combine a “few simple modules” for designs rather than using "more than a thousand components," said Qualcomm at Mobile World Congress Tuesday. Modules cover digital, RF, connectivity and front-end functionality, and key components include an application processor, baseband modem, memory, power management integrated circuit RF front-end, antennas and passive components. Sampling is due in 2019. Qualcomm unveiled its next Snapdragon mobile platform, the 700 series, with an artificial intelligence engine promising twice the performance of the 660 series. The 700 platform -- with a hexagon vector processor, Adreno visual processing subsystem, and Kryo CPU -- uses heterogeneous computing to capture and share videos, learn voice and speech and extend power efficiency by up to 30 percent, said the company. Additional features: Quick Charge 4+ technology, said to be capable of a 50 percent charge in 15 minutes, and Bluetooth 5. Commercial samples are expected in first half 2018.

Worldwide smartphone shipments slipped 0.5 percent last year to 1.46 billion, the first decline, with the U.S. market flat, IDC reported Tuesday. For 2018, IDC projects shipments to return to low single-digit growth, and forecasts a 2.8 percent compound annual growth rate for 2017-2022, reaching 1.68 billion units. Analyst Ryan Reith said the premium space will continue to have 20 percent of the market, competition will continue to tighten, and consolidation “is inevitable.” IDC expects phablets to outship regular smartphones in 2018, “essentially ending the race for bigger screens.” The research firm expects commercial 5G smartphones to hit the market in 2019, reaching 18 percent of worldwide shipments by 2022. Demand for artificial intelligence, augmented and virtual reality, contextual awareness and 5G will drive advances in overall core smartphone functions, said IDC. “Improvements in speed, power, battery life, and general performance will be critical in driving growth at a worldwide level as the smartphone evolves into a true all-in-one tool,” said analyst Anthony Scarsella.

The FCC is publishing in the Federal Register Wednesday a notice with effective dates for part of new rules for wireless emergency alerts, approved by commissioners in January (see 1801300027). The major parts, including requirements for more accurate geo-targeting of alerts, don’t kick in until much later. Effective April 29 is language saying carriers participate in the WEA program “in whole” when they agree to “transmit WEA Alert Messages in a manner consistent with the technical standards, protocols, procedures, and other technical requirements implemented by the Commission in the entirety of their geographic service area, and when all mobile devices that they offer at the point of sale are WEA-capable.”

AT&T, China Mobile, Deutsche Telekom, NTT DoCoMo and Orange formed the Open Radio Access Network Alliance, a “carrier-led effort to drive new levels of openness in the radio access network of next generation wireless systems.” ORAN combines the C-RAN Alliance and the xRAN Forum, the companies said. It's “committed to evolving radio access networks -- making them more open and smarter,” they said Tuesday. “Real-time analytics that drive embedded machine learning systems and artificial intelligence back end modules will empower network intelligence.”

Verizon, AT&T and the Competitive Carriers Association were among commenters urging the FCC to finalize a draft program comment approved 5-0 by commissioners in December (see 1712140049). A group representing tribes said the FCC must act with care. The towers were constructed between March 16, 2001, and March 7, 2005, and either didn’t get historic review or weren't documented to have the review. “Verizon fully supports the Commission’s proposal to make ‘twilight towers’ available for collocation without the need for historic preservation review,” the carrier said in reply comments in docket 17-79. “Doing so will speed deployment and reduce the need for unnecessary new towers.” AT&T said the record "demonstrates that the Program Comment, as drafted, advances the public interest through an appropriate balance of promoting broadband deployment and protecting historic and tribal properties." CCA complained about the high costs of reviews. “One CCA member operating in portions of Kansas, Colorado, and Nebraska paid over $107,000 to 36 Tribes for the deployment of just seven towers, in a seven-month period,” CCA said. “This is an average of over $15,000 per tower, solely for Tribal review fees. This is not a sustainable arrangement, especially considering future networks will require denser deployment scenarios.” The National Association of Tribal Historic Preservation Officers objected, saying initial comments “have not shown that the Draft Program Comment is even needed, much less that it would satisfy the requirements of the National Historic Preservation Act.” The FCC should curtail action until the tribes are told the locations of all twilight towers “so they can make an informed decision on the process to follow, and a proper government-to-government consultation has been completed,” the group said.

The FCC released a map showing areas across the U.S. presumed eligible to receive support for deployment of 4G LTE service as part of the Mobility Fund Phase II auction. The FCC plans to make up to $4.53 billion of support available over 10 years. Last week, commissioners approved an order addressing various petitions for reconsideration of MF-II rules (see 1802220045). “MF-II is critically important to supporting mobile voice and broadband coverage, incentivizing the deployment of mobile wireless service through a reverse auction, and ensuring that 4G LTE service is preserved and advanced in those areas of the country that lack unsubsidized service,” the FCC said Tuesday. The regulator also released the order approved last week. Steve Berry, president of the Competitive Carriers Association, said the map as released raises major concerns for his group. “It is now clear that the parameters the FCC directed carriers to use in its one-time data collection have failed to produce a credible map of eligible areas, and it is most disappointing that absent significant changes, the Commission will fall short of Congress’s mandate for Universal Service,” Berry said in a statement.

World Bank Group President Jim Yong Kim said the bank will partner with the GSMA and wireless carriers worldwide to harness big data from the IoT to “help end extreme poverty and unlock new drivers of economic growth.” The initiative will “unlock new insights from anonymized data collected by mobile network operators through IoT devices and aggregate data from smartphone use,” GSMA said Monday. “It will also call on industry leaders, development partners and governments to work together in building a strong enabling environment for the IoT while protecting personal privacy.”

Leica and pmdtechnologies, a supplier of time-of-flight depth-sensing technology, announced a strategic alliance to jointly develop and market 3D depth-sensing camera systems for mobile devices. The joint effort addresses the increasing demand in the mobile device segment for highly efficient and compact lenses, they said Monday. The system is expected to achieve superior data quality despite miniaturization in pixel, imager and module size, said the companies. First samples of the new lens are due in May.