T-Mobile will celebrate “the amazing diversity and struggle for equal rights of the lesbian, gay, bi-sexual, transgender and queer communities by supporting and participating in a record 53 Pride events across 29 states,” the carrier said in a Friday news release.

Sigma Designs joined the Open Connectivity Foundation to ensure interoperability between Z-Wave and OCF devices and to help define a standard for future OCF IoT devices, the chipmaker announced. Sigma's Z-Wave specification gives cloud service developers, gateway manufacturers and others access to the Z-Wave interoperability layer for smart home app development. OCF “complements our direction to standardize and simplify the IoT smart home market for an open, unified method,” for all such devices, said Raoul Wijgergangs, vice president-Z-Wave at Sigma Designs. Z-Wave has an installed base 70 million-plus devices.

The FCC Office of Engineering and Technology said it will extend through Sept. 30 suspensions of information collection requirements tied to FCC Form 740 and importation of RF devices. The earlier waivers were to expire June 30, OET said. Section 2.1203 of FCC rules says no RF device can be imported unless the importer or “ultimate consignee” declares the device meets the conditions of entry set forth in agency importation rules and Section 2.1205 addresses the filing of the declaration, OET said. But the requirement is in question, OET said. A pending NPRM would “update the rules that govern the evaluation and approval of RF devices,” said a Friday OET order. “Among the changes being considered by the Commission are proposals to eliminate the requirement to file FCC Form 740 by amending Section 2.1203 and removing Section 2.1205.”

Samsung’s Connect Home mesh network Wi-Fi system will be sold at Best Buy, Samsung announced Thursday. Connect Home hubs offer connectivity via ZigBee, Z-Wave, Bluetooth 4.1, and 2.4 GHZ and 5 GHz Wi-Fi, it said, and up to five can be combined. The “simple solution” expands Wi-Fi coverage in a home and offers the ability, via smartphone, to “monitor, automate and control smart devices,” said Bill Lee, Samsung vice president-smart home product marketing. Best Buy blogged this helps consumers avoid “that spot -- or two -- in the house where the Wi-Fi doesn’t reach, and where the movie you’re watching endlessly buffers.”

Autonomous driving will spur a goods and services economy worth $7 trillion by 2050, up from $800 billion in 2035, Intel/Strategy Analytics reported Thursday. The idle time when drivers become passengers will create new business opportunities, said Intel, and mobility-as-a-service will “disrupt long-held patterns" involving cars, said Intel. “Companies should start thinking about their autonomous strategy now,” said Intel CEO Brian Krzanich in a statement in which he compared opportunities from the “passenger economy” with digital business models ushered in by personal computing, the internet, ubiquitous connectivity and smartphones. Business-to-business will experience the first wave of change in the autonomous driving age, said SA researcher Harvey Cohen. Media companies and content producers are expected to develop custom content formats to match short and long travel times, and advertising will become more location-based and relevant, the study said.

Service rules for high-frequency spectrum bands, to be used for 5G, are now in effect. The FCC said in a Thursday notice in the Federal Register it received Office of Management and Budget clearance for information collection requirements. The rules affect license holders at the end of the license term, or 2024 for incumbent licensees, the FCC said. This one-time reporting requirement will cost industry a collective $196,875, the FCC said. The rules “will help facilitate Fifth Generation mobile services and other mobile services,” the notice said. “In developing service rules for [millimeter wave] bands, the Commission will facilitate access to spectrum, develop a flexible spectrum policy, and encourage wireless innovation.”

GSMA said Wednesday some industry heavyweights are confirmed for the first Mobile World Congress Americas, Sept. 12-14 in San Francisco. The conference doubles as CTIA’s annual show. Confirmed speakers include Carlos Slim Domit, CEO of América Móvil; Sunil Bharti Mittal, founder and chairman of Bharti Enterprises and chairman of GSMA; CTIA President Meredith Baker; GSMA Director General Mats Granryd; Rajeev Suri, CEO of Nokia; Dan Schulman, CEO of PayPal; Marcelo Claure, CEO of Sprint; and Ronan Dunne, executive vice president and group president of Verizon Wireless. “Mobile World Congress Americas will reflect an experience truly representative of North, Central and South America, capturing many of its region- and culture-specific nuances,” said Michael O’Hara, chief marketing officer of GSMA, in a news release.

Rivada Networks filed an application at the FCC asking to be designated as a spectrum access system administrator and environmental sensing capability operator in the 3.5 GHz shared band. The company asked to be OK'd as part of a second wave of FCC approvals. “Rivada’s team has accumulated 97 patents worldwide for new technologies related to wireless communications and enhanced location services,” said the application in docket 15-319 from the company, which unsuccessfully challenged FirstNet giving AT&T a major contract and now seeks alternative deals from states. The company said its dynamic spectrum arbitrage-tiered priority access system is “the world’s first technology that seamlessly allocates excess cellular capacity to where it is most needed.” Commissioner Mike O’Rielly is heading a review of 3.5 GHz rules approved a year ago (see 1704190056).

Qualcomm extended to June 28 its cash tender offer to buy all outstanding shares of NXP (see 1610270028), it said in a Wednesday announcement. About 14 percent of outstanding NXP common shares have been “validly tendered,” said Qualcomm. Bloomberg reported investors are pressuring NXP to renegotiate with Qualcomm and raise its $110-a-share purchase offer. NXP didn't respond.

A group of rural wireless carriers, led by U.S. Cellular, said the FCC should decide that areas without wireless service offering 10 Mbps download speeds should be eligible for Mobility Fund II support. The FCC hasn't provided a reasonable rationale for its selection of a 5 Mbps threshold, the carriers said. “A compelling case can be made that the Commission should declare that a geographic area will be eligible for MF-II support if consumers throughout the area do not have access to mobile broadband service meeting a 10 Mbps minimum speed threshold,” the rural carriers said in a filing in docket 10-90. “Use of a minimum speed in this instance would increase the number of areas eligible for support and more aggressively fill in dead zones because, if any area is not covered by broadband service meeting the minimum speed benchmark, then the entire geographic area would be treated as eligible.” East Kentucky Network, Cellular Network Partnership, NE Colorado Cellular, Nex-Tech Wireless and Smith Bagley also signed the filing.