Apple didn’t respond to questions on its reported buy of wireless charging company PowerbyProxi. The acquisition was reported by stuff.co.nz Wednesday. The New Zealand company employs 55 and holds more than 300 wireless charging patents, said the report. PowerbyProxi showed its wireless power system in the U.S. for the first time in March at APEC 2017 in Tampa and Automate 2017 in Chicago in April, it said. Apple announced last month it will introduce the AirPower wireless charging pad next year (see 1709130040).

The FCC released the text of its NPRM, approved Tuesday by divided commissioners (see 1710240050), on whether the agency should change its rules for the priority access licenses (PALs) that will make up one of the three tiers of the 3.5 GHz shared citizens broadband radio service band. The NPRM acknowledges wide opposition to a push by CTIA and T-Mobile for the FCC to license the PALs as larger partial economic areas (PEAs). “Many commenters oppose expanding the geographic license area of PALs from census tracts to PEAs or other larger areas,” the NPRM said. “These commenters argue that PEAs -- especially in combination with other potential changes to the PAL licensing rules -- could foreclose smaller entities from participating in the PAL auction.” The NPRM seeks comment on the proposal to license the PALs as PEAs and asks other questions, including “whether a larger license area would provide additional flexibility to facilitate the deployment of a wide variety of technologies, including 5G.” Fletcher Heald wireless lawyer Mitchell Lazarus blogged that the NPRM “is a rare exception” in that nothing has changed in industry since the FCC approved the rules in 2015. The NPRM “does not point to any changed circumstances,” he wrote. Only one thing changed -- Republicans won the White House, he said. Americans “voted for an administration whose regulatory philosophy differs sharply from that of the last administration,” Lazarus wrote. “That is all it takes for Congress or the White House to change policy, but by law, an agency must provide adequate justification for any new policy. Still, so far as we can tell from the NPRM, the only change that prompts the proposed shift in these rules is the handoff to new FCC leadership.” The FCC declined to comment.

With T-Mobile merger rumors swirling, Sprint reported a smaller Q2 loss than analysts expected. Executives didn’t hold an analyst call, as T-Mobile also didn’t Monday (see 1710230055). "For obvious reasons, given the noise in the media and in the market about potential strategic opportunities for Sprint, we are taking a non-traditional approach to sharing our results with you this quarter," Sprint said. The carrier reported 378,000 new wireless network connections in the quarter to give it just over 54 million at the end of September. But Sprint also said it lost $48 million in the quarter compared with a $206 million profit in the previous quarter. In the same quarter last year, Sprint reported a $142 million loss. Revenue in the recent quarter was $7.9 billion, down from $8.2 billion a year earlier. Sprint earnings are “another encouraging set of results but left investors eagerly anticipating a deal,” wrote Macquarie Capital analyst Amy Yang: “It’s imperative they fire on all cylinders, as stellar numbers give them additional operating leverage” on a deal. Sprint managed to capture 22 percent of the industry’s postpaid phone gross adds, she wrote investors. New Street Research’s Jonathan Chaplin said if a transaction is announced, consensus likely will be that it has a 50 percent chance of winning approval by regulators. One big question is what happens if the deal is rejected, wrote Craig Moffett, analyst at MoffettNathanson. “By now, almost everyone has created at least a rudimentary Sprint and T-Mobile merger model,” Moffett said. “Investors have come to their preliminary synergy estimates. They have scrutinized the HHI [Herfindahl-Hirschman market concentration index] tea leaves, and they have read and re-read all the stories about what DOJ staffers might recommend, and what new DOJ Antitrust Bureau Chief Makan Delrahim might or might not do with whatever that recommendation from his staff turns out to be.” Regulators use the HHI to assess the effect of a transaction on competition.

There’s “a lot more innovation to do to solve the core problem” of developing a glass-based “transparent material” for smartphones that won’t break when dropped, Corning CEO Wendell Weeks told investors Tuesday. There are “many generations ahead of us” in further perfecting its Gorilla Glass, now in its fifth generation, he said. Strong Gorilla performance so far helps the company in “putting glass in new places, like the back of the phone,” he said. Future such opportunities “depend on how much we can continue to improve the glass to make sure that the customer’s ultimate experience of this product has all the great benefits of glass -- wireless charging, improved reception, improved aesthetics -- but at the same time to have the type of durability” one would get from “more opaque materials,” Weeks said. Corning shares closed up 6.4 percent to $31.94.

Communications union workers would oppose a Sprint/T-Mobile combination, which could kill 20,000 jobs, Communications Workers of America said in a Tuesday news release. “Allowing Sprint and T-Mobile to merge guarantees the loss of tens of thousands of U.S. jobs that would result from store closures and the consolidation of administrative work,” CWA President Chris Shelton said. “Corporations and Wall Street applaud this ‘synergy,’ but employees and their families would bear all the costs.” Sprint and T-Mobile didn’t comment. With speculation rampant about a possible deal, T-Mobile didn’t hold an analyst call as the carrier released Q3 results Monday (see 1710230055).

NTIA’s Commerce Spectrum Management Advisory Committee will meet Nov. 17, from 9 a.m. to noon. The meeting will be at the Verizon Technology and Policy Center, 1300 I St. NW, Suite 500 East, Washington. NTIA is to publish a notice in Tuesday's Federal Register.

Electronics trade-in company Decluttr.com reported Monday an “unusually high” amount of traffic for the recently launched iPhone 8 and 8 Plus from customers who want to trade in their phones early to get the most return. Following Apple’s September iPhone launch, “All the buzz and excitement has been around the iPhone X,” said Decluttr.com Chief Marketing Officer Liam Howley. “The iPhone 8 has perhaps been less well received than previous handsets.” Trade-ins for the newest generation of iPhones are higher than those for any previous iPhone, Decluttr said. Consumers looking to swap a smartphone ahead of upgrading to the iPhone X can get up to 30 percent more if they trade in before the Oct. 27 preorder date, said the company.

The Competitive Carriers Association told the FCC its members are making progress in deploying real-time text, but the process isn't under their control. “Competitive providers often are unable to obtain the newest handsets, an issue that continues to plague compliance with other regulatory obligations,” CCA said in its third report on the RTT transition. “Competitive carriers often require additional time to obtain devices that are capable of supporting enhanced technologies, or to ensure there are currently devices in the market that can be enabled on the carrier’s network.”

FirstNet unveiled a tribal consultation policy Monday to help the first responder network deal with some of the trickier issues it faces. The policy enables tribes to “express their public safety needs through a nation-to-nation relationship between FirstNet and the country’s 567 federally recognized tribes,” FirstNet said in a news release. FirstNet officials said in the past that tribal issues are complicated because they often involve more than one state (see 1707270046). “This policy recognizes the importance of working directly with Indian Country for the deployment and operation of the Network and being responsive to the needs of public safety communications on tribal lands” said FirstNet board member Kevin McGinnis, the board’s tribal liaison.

T-Mobile continues to grow and is strengthening its financials in general, the company said Monday as it released Q3 results. But with a merger announcement with Sprint possibly imminent, T-Mobile’s normally talkative CEO John Legere didn’t hold an analyst call, announcing the results in a news release and posting a video blog. T-Mobile said it added 595,000 postpaid phone subscribers in the quarter, 817,000 postpaid customers overall including connected devices like tablets and wearables. Revenue was $10 billion for the quarter, up 8 percent over the same quarter last year, with net income of $550 million, a 50 percent increase. T-Mobile “had no comment on the strategic M&A speculation around Sprint … although the fact it chose not to have a call may speak loudly to what is happening on that front,” Wells Fargo’s Jennifer Fritzsche said in a note to investors. Sprint plans to release results Wednesday, but also without an investor call. “We wanted to make sure you all saw and focused on our Q3 results and not just the rumors and speculation that seem to fill the news every day,” Legere said on the video blog.