Sixty percent of global smartphone users check their devices every 30 minutes or more frequently, and over 22 percent tap into their phones every 5 minutes, said an Interactive Advertising Bureau study of smartphone users compiled from 18 countries and released Tuesday. Most reported accessing the internet via mobile web and apps at least once a day. The April 21-May 8 survey was by OnDevice Research including in the U.S. with 200 adults in each market.

The wireless industry now serves more than 5 billion unique mobile subscribers, said GSMA Intelligence, and it has "taken four years to add the latest 1 billion subscribers.” Projections are industry will hit 5.7 billion by the end of the decade. The most penetrated region is Europe, where 86 percent subscribe, and sub-Saharan Africa is the least-penetrated region at 44 percent, GSMA said. China has more than a billion subscribers, India 730 million.

North America counted 308.5 million LTE subscriptions by the end of March, up 11 percent in a year, 5G Americas said Tuesday. The group bases its numbers on data from Ovum. That means 85 percent of all connections are LTE, the group said. “LTE is forecast to continue its momentum, reaching close to 2.5 billion connections by the end of 2017, 3 billion in 2018 and 4.2 billion connections in 2020.”

The estimated 30 million U.S. consumers who own unlocked mobile phones are “less loyal” to wireless carriers and device brands than American mobile phone owners overall, with unlocked handsets making up about 12.5 percent of the U.S. mobile phone market, NPD reported Tuesday. NPD canvassed more than 1,000 adult owners of unlocked phones, in addition to 4,100 adult consumers it surveyed as part of a broadband adoption study, it said. It found that 30 percent of unlocked phone users switched carriers when purchasing a new device, versus 24 percent of locked phone users, it said: “In fact, the number one motivator for purchasing an unlocked phone was freedom to choose a future network.”

TracFone Wireless said Universal Service Administrative Co. plans for reverifying Lifeline eligibility as a national verifier is rolled out could cause major disruptions of subsidized service for low-income consumers. The wireless Lifeline provider said USAC May 17 revealed some details of its reverification plans in states where the national verifier is being implemented. "Utilization of those processes [could] result in procedures which are inconsistent with Commission rules and will cause millions of qualified low-income households to lose their Lifeline-supported service," said a company filing Monday in docket 09-197. "These proposed procedures are especially problematic for existing Lifeline customers who were enrolled prior to July 2017." TracFone proposed that during the migration to a national verifier, "the Commission should direct USAC to accept customer-provided proof of eligibility documentation that was provided by Lifeline applicants to providers at the time of initial enrollment." The FCC and USAC didn't comment.

Motorola Solutions will provide mobile apps, software and services for the FirstNet network as part of its role on the AT&T team, it said Tuesday. “We’ll work hand-in-hand with AT&T and first responders to help provide a new generation of voice, data and messaging capabilities for U.S. public safety,” said Bruce Brda, executive vice president-products and services at Motorola Solutions. Motorola Solutions’ LEX F10 device, designed for public safety, was certified for use on AT&T LTE network, Motorola Solutions said.

The FCC is set to publish Wednesday frequency allocation changes from the World Radiocommunication Conference in 2012 (WRC-12) and updates to its service rules. “The Commission took this action to conform its rules, to the extent practical, to the decisions that the international community made at WRC-12,” the FCC says in the Federal Register. Most changes take effect 30 days after publication, while a few are on hold pending Office of Management and Budget review. Among the changes, adopted in 2015 (see 1504270070), the FCC revised its table of frequency allocations to assign the 135.7-137.8 kHz band to the amateur service on a secondary basis, amended Part 80 rules to authorize radio buoy operations in the 1900-2000 kHz band under a ship station license and allocated eight frequency bands in the 4 to 44 MHz range to the radiolocation service for federal and nonfederal use, limited to oceanographic radars.

Having to defend its selection process of a team led by AT&T to build its network helped FirstNet, said FirstNet Chair Sue Swenson in remarks to Public Safety Communications Research’s Public Safety Broadband Stakeholder Meeting. In March, the U.S. Court of Federal Claims cleared FirstNet to move forward on picking a company to build its network, rejecting a challenge by Rivada Mercury (see 1703170066). “While it delayed the awarding of the contract by several months, I believe that it was actually quite helpful that we had to go through the protest process,” Swenson said. “The favorable outcome for FirstNet demonstrated the rigor with which FirstNet managed the acquisition process. It also gave FirstNet an opportunity to defend the fairness with which the process was conducted.”

Buildout requirements remain a key part of FCC spectrum policy and will in general be strictly enforced, the Wireless Bureau reminded licensees Monday. “The FCC has been clear that requests to extend construction obligations will not be routinely granted,” a public notice said. “Rules and case law impose limits on the types of arguments and factual circumstances that would qualify a licensee for an extension. We ... remind licensees that this long-standing approach to enforcing the FCC’s construction obligations will continue to apply.”

American Bird Conservancy and other environmental groups oppose loosening National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) requirements for new wireless projects, ABC said in a Friday news release. “Bird conservation groups are strongly opposed to exempting towers from environmental analysis,” said Steve Holmer, conservancy vice president-policy. ABC joined with other environment groups in a letter to the FCC. “We are strongly opposed to any new rulemaking that would weaken agency recommendations regarding the use of bird-safe lighting or that exempt siting decisions from NEPA. We have made substantial progress in the effort to update lighting on tall towers to reduce mortality of migratory birds,” the filing said.