Ruckus hopes the FCC will move soon to finalize approvals for devices that can use the 3.5 GHz citizens broadband radio service band, as well as approvals of the first spectrum access system (SAS) administrators and environmental sensing capability (EMC) operators, Dave Wright, director-regulatory affairs and network standards, told us. “There is a tremendous amount of existing investment, momentum and anticipation in the band,” Wright said in an email. “Any further delays risks stalling the ecosystem.” There have been reports of movement on rules for the band (see 1801020046). “Ruckus is encouraged by both the quantity and quality of the comments that have been submitted to this NPRM, especially considering that the filing deadline was between Christmas and New Year’s,” Wright said. New commenters “representing a variety of industries such as transport, energy, and rural providers” weighed in, he said. Comments on priority access licenses “echo the previous positions that had been taken,” but others “offered fresh thoughts on secondary market mechanisms (leasing and partitioning) and performance requirements,” he said. “We expect these ideas will receive additional attention in the reply phase.”

The FCC plans to publish in the Federal Register Wednesday the latest rules on requirements for handsets used to test whether an area already has 4G LTE service or should qualify for Mobility Fund II support (see 1712200055). “Parties may submit the list of provider-approved handsets as part of their 4G LTE coverage data filings due by January 4 … or they may elect to supplement those filings with the handset list by no later than thirty days following the publication of this document,” said the notice by the Rural Broadband Auctions Task Force and the Wireline and Wireless bureaus.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit rejected claims by Alpine PCS that the FCC’s 2002 cancellation of spectrum licenses meant the agency breached contractual obligations and the cancellation was a taking for which Alpine was entitled to just compensation under the takings clause of the Fifth Amendment. “The Court of Federal Claims dismissed both of Alpine’s claims for lack of jurisdiction,” wrote Judge Richard Taranto. “We affirm, concluding that the Communications Act provides a comprehensive statutory scheme through which Alpine could raise its contract claims and could challenge the alleged taking and receive a remedy that could have provided just compensation in this case, foreclosing jurisdiction under the Tucker Act.” The Tucker Act waives U.S. sovereign immunity in certain lawsuits. The FCC awarded the licenses to Alpine in 1996 and they were canceled six years later after Alpine failed to make required payments, the court said. Alpine didn't comment.

FirstNet is now in “deployment mode” after years of consulting, planning and design, CEO Mike Poth said in a Tuesday blog post welcoming the start of 2018. All 50 states, two U.S territories and Washington, D.C., opted in (see 1712290021) and the network can now “move full speed ahead,” Poth wrote. FirstNet is “the first and only network offering priority and preemption, giving first responders their own ‘fast lane’ connection,” he said. Widespread participation “accelerates the vision, deployment, and availability of FirstNet from coast to coast,” he said. “Nationwide participation supports the more efficient and coordinated expansion of the network -- including the buildout of Band 14 spectrum -- across the country.”

Researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology are looking at whether very-low-frequency (VLF) digitally modulated magnetic signals and quantum sensors might allow communications and mapping in places where GPS and ordinary cellphones and radios don’t work reliably or at all, including urban canyons, underwater and underground. “The technology may help mariners, soldiers and surveyors, among others. GPS signals don’t penetrate very deeply or at all in water, soil or building walls, and therefore, can’t be used by submarines or in underground activities such as surveying mines,” said a NIST blog post. “GPS also may not work well indoors or even outdoors among city skyscrapers. For soldiers, radio signals may be blocked in environments cluttered by rubble or many interfering electromagnetic devices during military or disaster recovery missions.” VLF already is used for communications between submarines, NIST said, but there’s not enough data-carrying capacity for audio or video, only one-way texts. The big issues raised by VLF are poor receiver sensitivity and the extremely limited bandwidth of both transmitters and receivers, said NIST project leader Dave Howe. “The best magnetic field sensitivity is obtained using quantum sensors,” Howe said. "The increased sensitivity leads in principle to longer communications range. The quantum approach also offers the possibility to get high bandwidth communications like a cellphone has.”

The FCC Consumer and Governmental Affairs Bureau extended until June 30, 2021, a waiver for TracFone Wireless of FCC requirements to support text telephony (TTY) technology over IP-based wireless services. The bureau said Friday it has approved similar waivers for AT&T, Verizon, Cellular South, the Competitive Carriers Association and the Iowa Independent Telephone Companies. “We continue to be persuaded that TracFone, as a reseller of IP-based wireless services, is similarly situated to the underlying facilities-based wireless carriers for which it resells service, and that its ability to provide either TTY or RTT [real-time text] over wireless IP networks is limited by the extent to which solutions implemented by such carriers can support these technologies,” the bureau said in the order in docket 15-178.

Frontier, Windstream and Consolidated Communications jointly told the FCC they're interested in using the 3.5 GHz citizens broadband radio service (CBRS) band and agree with others who argue against increasing the size of the priority access licenses (PALs) (see 1712260032). The three noted this is the first time they have weighed in on the CBRS proceeding. “Our companies believe that the 3.5 GHz Band could provide another key tool in the toolbox to reach the hardest to serve rural Americans if carriers are able to access the spectrum for rural fixed wireless deployments,” they said in a filing in docket 17-258. “In particular, by preserving smaller census tract license sizes in rural areas, the FCC can offer the opportunity for rural fixed wireless in the band and promote rural broadband deployment.” Wireless carriers represented by the Blooston, Mordkofsky law firm also supported smaller license sizes for the PALs. “The Commission can best promote investment and maximize opportunities for both large and small service providers by adopting county-based licensing for five (5) of the PALs and retaining census block licensing for two (2) PALs, and retaining a significant amount of dedicated [general access] spectrum to create and enhance opportunities for all operators,” the carriers said. The Wireless ISP Association said in a news release it will oppose changes to the rules in a filing it's making at the FCC. “There is nothing on the Commission’s agenda that is more important than connecting the 23 million rural Americans who don’t have access to broadband today,” said Chuck Hogg, WISPA chairman. “Fixed-wireless technology is the most cost-effective way to connect the unconnected, and the current CBRS rules are a solid framework to attract private capital to rapidly connect the unconnected. If the Commission is serious about bridging the digital divide, it will reject this transparent attempt by the nation’s largest mobile carriers to use the regulatory process for their exclusive benefit, and to the detriment of competition and rural broadband.”

LG will partner with Here Technologies to offer a “next-generation telematics solution” for autonomous driving, said the companies Wednesday. The system combines LG's telematics technology with Here’s digital mapping and location services, and will support automakers globally “with a robust and secure data communications hub for highly automated and fully autonomous cars,” they said.

The Google Pixel 2 and 2XL smartphones had the largest gain in new activations over Christmas weekend compared with the prior three holiday shopping weekends, said Localytics Wednesday. Pixel 2 activations jumped 38.6 percent, Pixel 2XL signups grew 31.4 percent and iPhone X activations increased 28.7 percent during the period, while iPhone 8 and 8 Plus activations advanced 17.7 and 13.9 percent, it said. There are far fewer active Pixel devices in the market than iPhones, it noted. Samsung Galaxy device activations slipped from a 44 percent jump in new activations during Thanksgiving for the Note 8 to a 9.5 percent lift during Christmas weekend, said the analytics firm, noting the “highly competitive holiday season” for handset makers. In iPhone market share, the iPhone X held 5.3 percent share on Wednesday, compared with 19.3 percent for the 7, which led the pack. The iPhone 8 and 8 Plus combined for a total of 7.4 percent share, it said.

Cellular data usage among consumers with unlimited data plans is 67 percent higher than among those with limited plans, who tend to rely more on Wi-Fi access for their streaming-video and other needs, said NPD in a Wednesday report. Over the past three months, limited plan users consumed 8 percent more Wi-Fi than their unlimited plan counterparts, with a spike of 18 percent more usage in October, it said. “When looking at data and Wi-Fi consumption as it relates to a user’s smartphone operating system, iOS users tend to consume more cellular data, while Android users look to Wi-Fi,” it said. The average U.S. smartphone user consumes 31.4 GB of Wi-Fi and cellular data monthly, a 25 percent increase from 2016, it said. Streaming video “remains the number one driver” of cellular and Wi-Fi data consumption on mobile and fixed networks, accounting for 83 percent of the total data used by smartphone owners, said NPD. In Q3, two-thirds of all smartphone users reported accessing video content via an app at least once a month, up from 57 percent sequentially in Q2, it said.