Global smartphone shipments jumped 4.3 percent in Q1, further proof that “the smartphone industry is not dead and that growth still exists," IDC said in a Thursday report. "There is no question that 2016 was a pivotal year for the industry as growth dipped to low single digits for the first time. However, we believe the industry will show some rebound in 2017, and the strong first quarter results certainly support this argument.” Samsung regained control as the leader in the worldwide smartphone market despite a flat first quarter, IDC said. “Substantial discounts on the Galaxy S7 and S7 edge helped move last year's flagships as they make way for the new S8 and S8+.” Apple’s Q1 shipments “also remained essentially flat,” it said. “The strong holiday fourth quarter carried into the month of January as the larger iPhone 7 Plus returned to stock across most channels in numerous regions.”

Consumer Watchdog filed a formal complaint with the FTC claiming Uber deceptively tracked its app users after they deleted the app from their iPhones, said John Simpson, the public interest group's Privacy Project director, Thursday. In the complaint, Simpson said the commission should first must make sure that users who have deleted the app aren't being tracked and then enjoin Uber from engaging in the practice. The FTC also should make sure that the company's privacy policy "accurately and clearly describes" its actual practices, which Simpson said it likely doesn't. The complaint stems from a recent story by The New York Times that said Uber "had been secretly identifying and tagging iPhones even after its app had been deleted and the devices erased" and hiding the practice from Apple. "It is important that the Commission take a position to block this unfair and deceptive activity, for based on the company's record it is likely to engage in the activity again," wrote Simpson. The iPhone app is the main focus, but Consumer Watchdog said the FTC also should review the Android app to see if Uber is conducting similar tracking of users. An Uber spokesperson emailed that the company "absolutely" doesn't track users or their locations if they have deleted the app. "As the New York Times story notes towards the very end, this is a typical way to prevent fraudsters from loading Uber onto a stolen phone, putting in a stolen credit card, taking an expensive ride and then wiping the phone -- over and over again," said the spokesperson, adding that similar techniques are used in detecting and blocking suspicious logins to protect accounts. The spokesperson also said The New York Times allegations date back to early 2015, before Uber hired its first chief security office and centralized all security functions. An FTC spokeswoman confirmed the agency received the complaint but couldn't comment beyond that.

The Competitive Carriers Association said the FCC must get the rules right on the challenge process for Mobility Fund II support. CCA reported on various discussions with FCC officials as the FCC seeks comment on the rules for challenging whether a market should receive funding (see 1702230042). “CCA encouraged the FCC to anchor its Mobility Fund II funding decisions on accurate service data and a sound challenge process, and reiterated its recommendation that the Commission adopt data collection standards to ensure that evidence supporting final determinations for areas eligible to receive Mobility Fund II support is clear, rigorous, and above all, reliable,” CCA said in a filing in docket 10-208. “To ensure that limited resources allocated for Mobility Fund II are put to their best use, the FCC must standardize inconsistent underlying data to present on-the-ground broadband coverage that reflects consumers’ actual mobile experiences.” The FCC also must ensure carriers have adequate time to respond during the challenge process, CCA said.

AT&T executives laid out an ambitious schedule for starting to deploy FirstNet. AT&T, working with FirstNet, will post state plans for the national network for first responders in June, Chief Financial Officer John Stephens said in a Q1 earnings call Tuesday (see 1704250067). States have incentives to opt in, including jobs and investments, and opting out presents challenges, Stephens said. “We'll go through that process through the summer and hope to get the states to move as quickly as possible with … encouragement that we are ready to go and the first ones that opt in are going to get that first investment in their states,” he said. FirstNet funding is available only for states that opt in, and states that go it alone “take the risk of any project cost overruns,” he said. Stephens said most states are likely to make a decision in the last quarter of 2017, with first deployments expected next year. Since AT&T will have to wait to be reimbursed for deploying FirstNet, the company could see limited effects on its capex and cash flow, he said. “Our capital spending guidance remains in the $22 billion range, but with FirstNet it could be at the higher end of that $22 billion range,” Stephens said. “Free cash flow is expected to be in the $18 billion range, and it may be a little bit on the low end of the range with the timing of the FirstNet reimbursements.” AT&T “worked it hard” to get the FirstNet contract “and our effort paid off last month,” said CEO Randall Stephenson, also on the call. The 20 MHz of low-band spectrum from FirstNet improves AT&T’s spectrum position, he said. “We now have more than 60 MHz of fallow spectrum that we're ready to light up and we'll be deploying all the bands simultaneously starting this fall when states begin to opt in to the FirstNet,” he said. “The efficiencies we'll gain from climbing the tower once to put up multiple bands of spectrum, those efficiencies are significant. And we're going to see those cost savings and the network performance materialize immediately and then throughout the life of this multiyear buildout.”

Comments are due May 8 on the FCC World Radiocommunication Conference (WRC) Advisory Committee's draft recommendations, and on NTIA's draft proposals submitted to the FCC, the International Bureau said in a public notice Monday in docket 16-185. The comments will help the FCC, NTIA and State Department come up with U.S. positions for WRC-19, it said. The committee draft proposals include potentially supporting an agenda item at WRC-23 on spectrum requirements for telemetry, tracking and commanding and voice communications on suborbital vehicles such as manned reusable launchers and high-altitude balloons and opposing agenda items regarding identifying spectrum specifically for railway radiocommunication or for intelligent transport systems or machine type communications. The committee draft also opposes changes to radio regulations for earth station licensing. The NTIA proposals include opposition to agenda items regarding unauthorized operation of earth station terminals and spectrum for machine-type communications and for railway radiocommunications.

The FCC should move forward to finalized rules for the 3.5 GHz band, said Dynamic Spectrum Alliance President Kalpak Gude and other Wi-Fi advocates in a meeting with Rachael Bender, aide to FCC Chairman Ajit Pai. The rules established a three-tiered access and sharing model between federal and nonfederal incumbents, priority access licensees (PALs) in the 3550-3650 GHz part of the band, and general authorized access users (see 1504170055). “The DSA believes that the three tiered approach promotes innovation and investment by: (1) making spectrum available on a very localized basis and (2) Reduces barriers to entry, particularly by having the GAA tier, while still ensuring predictable access through the PAL tier, all while protecting the incumbent government user,” DSA said in a filing in docket 12-354. “Further, the group stressed that since the adoption of the rules (Apr. 2015), the multi-stakeholder process involving more than a dozen wireless operators, [equipment makers], chipmakers, and other technology firms have spent thousands of hours forging a consensus on operating standards, and enormous progress has been made.” The DSA also emphasized the importance of setting aside spectrum for unlicensed in the TV band. For innovation and investment to thrive “there needs to be enough usable spectrum in every market across the United States” and “the technical rules should only provide what is necessary to protect incumbents from harmful interference and not serve to create unnecessary technical restrictions, regulation, and barriers to adoption,” DSA said. DSA also underscored the need for regulatory certainty. Representatives of Google, Microsoft and New America joined Gude at the meeting.

Michael Marcus, former FCC engineer and current consultant, was named the first member of the Wi-Fi Now Hall of Fame. “He is the Founding Father of the ISM [industrial, scientific and medical] bands, and thus laid the groundwork for rules for bands that would become the operating bands of Wi-Fi & Bluetooth,” said a citation. “This was in 1985. More than that, he’s also widely responsible for the FCCs adoption of rules for the 60 GHz mmWave bands that were approved in 1995.

American Petroleum Institute "members expressed their need for additional spectrum to support the energy industry’s operations,” API said in a filing in docket 07-100 on a meeting of its members with staff from the FCC Public Safety Bureau at a recent meeting of its Telecommunications Subcommittee. API’s members urged the FCC to move forward with rules allowing critical infrastructure companies to share the 4.9 GHz band with public safety agencies and pushed for “additional access to 800 MHz spectrum, as may be made available as a result of the 800 MHz interstitial proceeding,” API said.

Wireless carriers want to include embedded, “clickable” links in wireless emergency alerts but warned the FCC against mandates for that functionality without adequate feasibility testing. CTIA said it contacted aides for the three FCC commissioners on the topic. “CTIA continues to urge the FCC and other governmental stakeholders to be mindful of the potential limitations of embedded reference functionality beyond the control of wireless carriers,” said a Friday filing in docket 15-91. “For example, last year, the National Hurricane Center website was not available for a period of time during Hurricane Matthew.” CTIA also emphasized that work remains on standards for alerts. “While the wireless industry worked diligently to complete the necessary standards work within a few months after adoption of the rule, implementation by handset manufacturers and operating system providers will be necessary before consumers will be able to ‘click’ on embedded references,” CTIA said.

A divided 9th U.S. Court of Appeals upheld a Berkeley, California, city ordinance requiring retailers to inform prospective cellphone buyers that carrying their devices in certain ways can cause exposure to RF radiation exceeding federal limits. The ordinance requires retailers to post a notice warning consumers: “If you carry or use your phone in a pants or shirt pocket or tucked into a bra when the phone is ON and connected to a wireless network, you may exceed the federal guidelines for exposure to RF radiation.” Berkeley's requirement “does no more than to alert consumers to the safety disclosures that the FCC requires, and to direct consumers to federally compelled instructions in their user manuals providing specific information about how to avoid excessive exposure," wrote Judge William Fletcher in the majority opinion. “Far from conflicting with federal law and policy, the Berkeley ordinance complements and reinforces it." Judge Michelle Friedland partially dissented. The court’s majority “interprets the sentences in Berkeley’s forced disclosure statement one at a time and holds that each is ‘literally true,’” Friedland said. “But consumers would not read those sentences in isolation the way the majority does. Taken as a whole, the most natural reading of the disclosure warns that carrying a cell phone in one’s pocket is unsafe. Yet Berkeley has not attempted to argue, let alone to prove, that message is true.” A CTIA spokesman said the group is considering its options. “The court of appeals concluded that ‘CTIA is correct’ that there is no evidence of harmful effects caused by cell phones," CTIA said. "We respectfully believe this fact demonstrates why the Berkeley ordinance violates the First Amendment since it necessarily makes Berkeley's ‘warning’ misleading, as Judge Friedland recognized in her dissent.”