Apple acknowledged cellular connectivity problems in its latest smartwatch, due in stores Friday, after a Verge review reported "handoff" problems with two devices. Cellular connectivity was the highlight of the Apple Watch Series 3, announced last week at the company's annual September product unveiling event (see 1709120062 or 1709120054). In a statement, reported by The Verge, Apple said it "discovered that when Apple Watch Series 3 joins unauthenticated Wi-Fi networks without connectivity, it may at times prevent the watch from using cellular." The company reportedly is investigating a fix. Apple didn't comment.
Toyota representatives met with aides to Chairman Ajit Pai and Commissioner Brendan Carr on the importance of dedicated short range communications technology in the 5.9 GHz band and the need to protect it from harmful interference. DSRC is being deployed, the automaker said in an FCC filing in docket 13-49, including most recently by Volkswagen. “The market leaders in Japan (Toyota), Europe (Volkswagen), and the United States (General Motors) have now either begun deployment of DSRC technology or announced a specific deployment plan for the technology.”
The effective date for a July FCC order expanding the current 76-77 GHz spectrum allocation for vehicular radars to include the entire 76-81 GHz band is Oct. 20, after a notice in Wednesday's Federal Register. The FCC also ordered the transition of the radars from the 24 GHz band. The order allows an extra year for the move of ultra-wideband (UWB) authorized to operate in the 22-29 GHz band. Commissioners approved the change in July (see 1707130056). The order “will improve performance for applications such as lane change warnings, blind spot detection, parking aids, ‘stop and follow’, ‘stop and go’, autonomous braking, and pedestrian detection,” said in a news release.
Free Press accused FCC Chairman Ajit Pai of tying wireless competition in a misleading way to the push to reclassify broadband. The group filed a letter in docket 17-69 on the pending mobile wireless competition report. “You are once again misleading the public in furtherance of your irrational vendetta against the congressionally mandated classification of transmission services as telecom services,” Free Press said. “Wireless industry investments peaked in 2013, as carriers completed the bulk of 4G LTE deployments. Both that peak, and the ongoing decline from it, predate the entire proceeding that led to the 2015 reclassification of broadband as a lightly regulated Title II service.” Pai is seeking a vote on the controversial report at Tuesday’s commissioner meeting (see 1709070056). The FCC declined to comment.
Changes to the 6 GHz license structure should be adopted “only after adequate protections are included to protect existing operations from interference or disruption,” said U.S. Cellular CEO Ken Meyers in a meeting with FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr. The CEO discussed a wide range of issues with the new commissioner, including rules for the Connect America Fund II and Mobility Fund II. “We stressed our disappointment with the speed tier weightings adopted by the Commission in its prior order and discussed the inherent disadvantages placed on wireless carriers by such a weighting system,” Meyers said. “We also highlighted our ongoing concerns regarding the potential for the use of statewide package bidding in conjunction with the CAF2 auction.” Meyers supported changes in the rules for the 3.5 GHz band proposed by CTIA and T-Mobile (see 1706200081), said the filing in docket 10-208 and seven other dockets.
The U.S. Chamber of Commerce released a report Tuesday on “The IoT Revolution and Our Digital Security,” counseling against regulation. “When it comes to security, attempts to regulate today will become outdated tomorrow,” said the first of 10 principles. “Flexible approaches to collaboration and cooperation to combat shared threats have significant advantages over national regulation which serves to fragment the global economy and lags behind technological innovation.” The Chamber said the issues raised will only grow in importance. “Recent high-profile cyberattacks underscore the importance for public-private collaboration to create policies that enhance privacy, security, and trust in the IoT,” said Ann Beauchesne, senior vice president-national security and emergency preparedness. The best approach to IoT security is “data-driven, based on empirical evidence of a specific harm, and [will] be adaptable both over time and cross-border,” the Chamber said. “Security demands should never be used as industrial policy to advance protectionism or favor national economic interests.” The report was written in partnership with Wiley Rein.
Attorneys for the FTC will square off with their AT&T Mobility counterparts during an oral argument Tuesday before the full 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals that could decide whether the commission has oversight over some activities of ISPs. The hearing will begin at 1 p.m. PDT in San Francisco. A three-judge 9th Circuit panel last year decided the FTC didn't have jurisdiction, in tossing out the government's data-throttling case against the carrier. The company successfully argued that its status as a common carrier exempted it from liability under Section 5 of the FTC Act, while the commission said the telco's mobile data service was a non-common carrier activity and therefore subject to government oversight (see 1608290032). The trade agency appealed the decision, saying other companies that offer broadband services could claim common-carrier exemption leaving an enforcement gap. It was granted the en banc rehearing in May (see 1705090068 and 1709140058).
The wireless industry continues worldwide progress connecting the unconnected, GSMA reported in its second annual report. “As of the end of 2016, more than half the world’s population was within reach of a 4G network, while nearly 85 percent had access to 3G networks.” Mobile subscribers number 4.8 billion, and 3.5 billion people used mobile to access the internet, GSMA said Monday.
Apple's iPhone 8 launch may not lead carriers down the same troubled path as in 2016, when the 7 launched a price war, MoffettNathanson's Craig Moffett wrote investors Monday. Sprint CEO Marcelo Claure offered Friday to match other offers. “Sprint’s pricing announcements might be taken as the opening salvo in yet another brutal round of discounting,” Moffett wrote. “On closer analysis, that may not be the right reading. Far from being an irrational opening salvo, Claure’s pre-emptive tweet about ‘matching any offer’ may actually have been a well-considered message to his competitors to remember what went wrong in 2016.” Helping carriers is that prices of phones like the iPhone 7 or earlier models remain high, and since the offers require the trade-in of old handsets, the offers could prove nearly "costless" for carriers, the analyst said.
PCTel introduced a 5 GHz bidirectional train top antenna for passenger and metro rail systems that’s said to solve the challenge of providing high-speed Wi-Fi over extended track distances. It communicates with wayside equipment in either direction from the train, providing “reliable passenger Wi-Fi while minimizing installation and maintenance costs,” said the company.