As the FCC considers the proposals in a further rulemaking on real-time text, it should ensure the rules “remain grounded in feasibility, subject to the statutory limitations on what is achievable and readily achievable,” T-Mobile replied. “T-Mobile encourages the Commission to reject calls for expanding the scope of the backwards compatibility obligation as well as to refrain from adopting new and onerous mandates on carriers.” The company said, for example, RTT can't be compatible with short-message service texting. “SMS and RTT are two entirely different communications protocols -- SMS is a best-effort, store-and-forward service, while RTT is a session-based, two-way communication similar to voice calling,” the carrier said. “Making RTT backwards compatible with SMS is not feasible.” The Alliance for Telecommunications Industry Solutions agreed. “RTT and SMS are two different technologies -- end-users make a choice regarding which technology to use and there is no way for service providers to automatically revert messages sent using one technology to another,” ATIS replied. “An RTT message therefore cannot automatically fall back to SMS.” The National Emergency Number Association in general supported an FCC proposal that it set a sunset date of 2021 for traditional text telephony (TTY), which RTT is replacing. “The Commission should carefully track data trends among consumers, access network providers, originating service providers (such as over-the-top RTT services), and [public safety answering points],” NENA wrote. “If it appears, closer to the tentative sunset date, that any one of these important constituencies has not yet adequately transitioned to technologies and business practices that natively support RTT, the Commission should be prepared to postpone the sunset for a limited time.” In December, the FCC approved an order on a common standard for the transition from TTY to RTT and asked a number of questions in an FNPRM (see 1612150048). Replies were due Friday in docket 16-145.
In a follow-up to its 300 watch introductions Thursday, Fossil Senior Director Kyle Beste emailed us that the company is eyeing three opportunities in the connected watch space: activity trackers, touch-screen smartwatches and hybrid smartwatches “that look like a regular watch but act like a smartwatch.” Among the new (see 1703230081) are an improved user interface, third-party apps via Android Wear 2.0, Beste said. Hybrid designs allow discreet notifications of texts, emails and phone calls through haptic feedback and hand movement, said Beste. "We see more of a convergence of our analog and connected products than a shift from one to the other.”
Despite “well-chronicled safety concerns” with the Galaxy Note7, Samsung “continues to sell, market, and distribute other smartphones which are at risk of overheating, fire and explosion,” alleged a federal complaint (in Pacer) filed Thursday in California. The Note7 recall “was a Band-Aid to a pervasive problem for which a major fix and repair was required,” but never implemented, said the complaint by San Diego resident Jesus Sanchez in U.S. District Court in San Jose, seeking class-action status. His complaint called the Note7 recall “a public relations effort to comfort the public that there was a technical fix to a pervasive problem.” Sanchez bought a Samsung Galaxy S6 smartphone at a Costco in San Diego “and suffered the injuries and damage complained of herein,” said his complaint. His phone “runs hot,” the complaint said. While using the Galaxy S6, Sanchez “has experienced the device overheat while talking on the device and running applications,” which “impair and impede” its use, it said. Sanchez “is concerned the product is not safe and poses a risk of fire,” it said. His lawyers filed a motion (in Pacer) Thursday to link his case to a similar action (in Pacer) filed Nov. 2 and being tried before U.S. District Judge Beth Freeman in San Jose. It's the latest in a string of federal actions based on allegations that inherent risks unique to the lithium-ion batteries that Samsung uses in its various smartphones leave them vulnerable to harm even if plaintiffs in those class actions never claimed to have owned a recalled Note7 device (see 1612260003). The company didn’t comment Friday on the Sanchez complaint, but previously reacted to similar filings by saying it stands “behind the safety of the millions of Samsung phones in the U.S.” (see 1612280017).
Ericsson and SoftBank said they're moving to a next phase of 5G testing, using 28 GHz spectrum. Japan’s SoftBank is the parent of Sprint. The companies noted in a Friday news release that 4.5 GHz, the subject of past testing, and 28 GHz are candidate bands for 5G in Japan. “The coming 5G trial will be conducted both in indoor and outdoor trial environments covering both device mobility and stationary tests,” the companies said. “The trial will utilize Ericsson's mmWave 28GHz 5G Test Bed solution, which includes base stations and device prototypes and will showcase advanced 5G technologies including Massive-MIMO, Massive Beamforming, Distributed MIMO, Multi-user MIMO and Beam Tracking together with multi-gigabit data rates and ultra-low latency which are becoming key requirements for future consumer mobile broadband and industrial use-cases.”
Fossil made good on CEO Kosta Kartsotis’ vow to add more brands in its wearables push, launching 300 connected devices for 14 brands at a jewelry fair in Basel, Switzerland, Thursday. Introductions included wearables debuts by the DKNY, Marc Jacobs, Michele, Relic and Tory Burch brands. Diesel, Emporio Armani, Fossil, Michael Kors and Misfit will branch out to new connected watch designs when they launch in fall. Touch-screen watches are powered by Android Wear 2.0 and a Qualcomm Snapdragon processor; 2.0 includes shortcuts to play music, call a ride-hailing service and download third-party apps.
Futuresource sees flexible display sales surging to become a $200 billion global market opportunity within five years, the researcher reported Thursday. A smartphone that unfolds to become a tablet is an example. The firm estimates more than a quarter of new smartphones introduced by 2026 will have flexible screens, which, among their other attributes, “will render them unbreakable.”
Local government groups sought more time for reply comments on the Mobilitie petition asking the FCC to pre-empt state and local authority over rights of way (see 1703220044). The agency should move the deadline to May 5 from April 7 due to the number and complexity of initial comments, said NATOA, the National League of Cities, National Association of Counties and other local groups in a Thursday motion in docket 16-421. “Granting an extension to file reply comments would allow the development of a more complete and factual record as there were no less than 860 comments filed.”
FirstNet officials highlighted state consultation efforts in a teleconference Monday with the FCC Public Safety Bureau, said a FirstNet ex-parte filing in docket 16-269. FirstNet “is using the feedback received and data collected to develop State Plans for deploying the nationwide public safety broadband network in each state and territory,” it said. FirstNet officials also discussed planned time frames for development and delivery of state plans and a conceptual state plans portal site map, which was previewed in an attached PowerPoint presentation.
A smartphone’s camera is one of its most prized features, said a Strategy Analytics report Wednesday. As consumers continue to replace dedicated digital cameras with smartphone cameras for their convenience, image quality and clarity are becoming priorities for users, it said. Smartphone users are looking for integrated cameras to include features that aid photo capture, a selection of filters, easily accessible editing functionality and a wide-angle lens for selfies, it said.
The U.S. is entering an era where “spectrum valuation is of paramount importance,” MoffettNathanson said Wednesday in a research note. “When the incentive auction finally concludes in late April, the window will open on what many expect to be an unprecedented wave of spectrum deal-making,” the firm said. “This comes after more than two years of successive quiet periods. The Prom Queen of all spectrum takeout candidates is widely regarded to be Dish Network and its trove of AWS spectrum, but other spectrum candidates feature prominently as well.” The firm mentioned Ligado, Globalstar, Straight Path and “even Sprint.” New bands also are coming online for broadband, the analysts said: “3.5 GHz, 5 GHz, and millimeter wave frequencies, all of which promise even more capacity.”