Harman hopes to show drivers benefits of data sharing with connected cars, General Manager-Cloud Services Steve Surhigh told a recent demo event in New York. Personalization is a major benefit of the company's platform, which combines terrestrial and satellite radio and streaming services and recommends music. Data also can be sold to market researchers such as Nielsen or J.D. Power, he said. “We can track the individual radio stations people listen to down to the microsecond.” The platform can throttle the amount of data coming in, increasingly important as higher bandwidth networks proliferate. It collects about 50 megabytes of data monthly per vehicle, said Surhigh. “We try to keep that payload down because ultimately somebody is paying for that bandwidth.” Surhigh said in most global regions, there’s an opt-in program for information sharing: The company is trying to make the two-way data channel a “win-win-win for all the parties at play here."

APCO expressed concerns about a waiver sought by Arizona Public Service Co. (APSC), which filed 54 applications for 800 MHz channels at 53 locations for a new statewide trunked radio system and said the waiver may be acceptable with the right conditions. The FCC has in place a licensing freeze while the 800 MHz transition is being completed, a slow process along the border with Mexico. “Due to the complexities involved with the rebanding process, and the need to ensure that public safety licensees are afforded full opportunity to maintain consistent operations to carry out their missions, APCO is wary of providing the extraordinary relief that APSC seeks,” the group said. But APCO also noted that APSC agreed that if frequency changes are needed, it will work with the FCC, the 800 MHz transition administrator and other parties. “If the Bureau were to afford the relief sought, APCO recommends that APSC be held accountable and ensure that it will immediately act, at its own cost, to resolve any issues it causes that impact the needs of public safety licensees to access channels during the rebanding process,” the group said. The waiver requests show why it supports six-month advance filing window for public safety and business/industrial/land transportation (B/ILT) licensees, the National Public Safety Telecommunications Council said. “Applicants like APSC have an operational need for land mobile channels as opposed to a speculative need." The Enterprise Wireless Alliance also filed in support of the waiver. “While APSC has described three scenarios for deployment of its new system, the only reasonable, practical approach is the one for which waiver relief is sought,” EWA said. “The purpose of the licensing freeze is to create a stable spectrum environment and ensure that adequate replacement channels are available to permit the reconfiguration of all systems in an area.” Comments were due Monday in docket 17-168.

Mobile Future asked the FCC to move as quickly as it can to follow up a spectrum frontiers order approved by commissioners a year ago (see 1607140052). The FCC should auction the high-frequency spectrum identified in the order, reallocate other bands identified in a Further NPRM, and “approve pending secondary market transactions as quickly as possible,” the group said in a filing Monday in docket 14-177. “The Commission must also leave intact the elegant and practical compromise framework adopted in the Spectrum Frontiers Order that balances terrestrial and satellite user interests to facilitate 5G services while providing flexibility for satellite users to operate in the band,” Mobile Future said. “As the Commission moves forward with efforts to free up additional millimeter wave spectrum, it should not simultaneously take a step backward by altering the careful compromise adopted in the Spectrum Frontiers Order.”

Samsung’s latest LTE modem has a maximum downlink speed of 1.2 Gbps, fast enough to download an HD movie in 10 seconds, the company said Monday. Samsung worked with Anritsu to gain additional speed, improving on the 1.0 Gbps speed it achieved with the Cat.16 LTE modem introduced this year, it said. The Cat.18 6CA-supported modem can also boost network performance and allow telecom operators to make more efficient use of their equipment, said the company. A Samsung processor incorporating the modem will begin mass production this year, it said.

More than half of new-car buyers in the U.S. expect to own at least one self-driving vehicle in the next 10 years, said Bosch in a Monday survey report. It canvassed 1,000 past-five model years new-car buyers who plan to buy or lease a new vehicle again. Seventy-two percent cited “lack of control” of a self-driving vehicles as their biggest worry, while 65 percent said their biggest concern was that autonomous vehicles were “unproven technology,” it said. “A key aspect to helping consumers overcome concerns about automated technology is to highlight the high levels of redundancy that are being built into these systems,” said the supplier to automakers of tech products.

CTIA officials expressed general support for the pending notice of inquiry on mid-band spectrum, in a meeting with aides to all three FCC commissioners, said a filing in docket 17-183. It “commended the Commission’s recognition of the need to bring additional mid-band spectrum to market. CTIA also complemented recent Commission efforts to address low- and high-band spectrum and its specific focus on the 3.7-4.2 GHz and 6 GHz bands.” The NOI is set for a vote at Thursday’s commission meeting.

Rivada Networks told the FCC there's general agreement on the agency’s proposed rules for opting out of FirstNet and on the two versions of the interoperability matrix filed at the commission by the authority. Rivada is making a major push to recruit states to work with it to build an alternative state network (see 1706190072). “All commenters other than AT&T and FirstNet that addressed the matrix emphasized the importance of a predictable and transparent opt-out process, which applies only interoperability criteria on which the public, and the states, have had ample notice and opportunity to comment,” Rivada said last week in docket 16-269. “Commenters also emphasized the importance of limiting these interoperability criteria to only those that are truly necessary to ensure interoperability, and the importance of core-to-core interconnection in allowing states to have necessary flexibility to address their public safety communications needs.”

PCTel joined the CBRS Alliance, a group promoting use of the shared 3.5 GHz Citizens Broadband Radio Service band. “PCTEL and the CBRS Alliance believe that efficient use of this underutilized 3.5 GHz spectrum will expand coverage and capacity to meet growing wireless data demands,” the company said in a Thursday news release. “PCTEL scanning receivers currently support LTE network testing on the 3.5 GHz CBRS band.”

The FTC cleared Motorola Solutions buying Kodiak Networks, said a recent early termination notice. Motorola announced the deal in May (see 1705010043) and said it will close later this year.

NTIA released a two-part report providing data on progress on moving federal users in the AWS-1 and AWS-3 bands. “All 12 federal agencies have reported that they have ceased operations of their systems in the 1710-1755 [AWS-1] MHz band, where required to do so, clearing the way for commercial licensees,” NTIA said. The AWS-3 transition is more at the beginning stages, the agency reported Thursday. “For the period ending December 2016, outlays of the eligible federal agencies totaled $21 million and $249 million for the 1695-1710 MHz and 1755-1780 MHz bands, respectively. This brings the total cumulative outlays to $26.5 million for the 1695-1710 MHz band and $274.5 million for the 1755-1780 MHz band.” The AWS-1 auction ended in 2006, the AWS-3 auction in 2015.