LTE “continued its impressive momentum in North America, Latin America and throughout the world” in Q4, based on data from Ovum, 5G Americas said in a news release. Worldwide LTE connections hit 1.9 billion at the end of last year and surpassed 2 billion connections by February of 2017, 5G Americas said Monday. The North America region had nearly 300 million LTE subscriptions by the end of 2016 “with some of the highest penetration rates, most extensive coverage and largest market share for LTE in the world,” the group said. Ovum projects 3 billion LTE connections in 2018 and 4 billion in 2020, and 5G Americas projects 5 billion in 2022, the news release said. “At the recent Mobile World Congress 2017 in Barcelona, 5G continued to show incredible progress and great promise in all areas,” said Chris Pearson, president of 5G Americas. “Yet, at the same time, the evolution of LTE toward LTE-Advanced Pro is being welcomed by mobile wireless customers throughout the world as evidenced by the tremendous growth of LTE customers.”

Finding strategic partners is a key component of Ligado's plan for a satellite/terrestrial network aimed at the industrial IoT space, the company said in a statement Tuesday after reports it's working with a pair of investment banks on finding strategic alternatives. Reuters reported that Ligado could face difficulty in finding investment because of its debt load and uncertainty over FCC approval for its planned satellite-broadband LTE network.

Representatives of Onvoy Spectrum said they met with FCC Wireline Bureau​ staff to explain the company’s waiver request, which would allow the company to obtain pseudo-automatic number identifications (p-ANI) for use in its 911 technology for data-only devices using over-the-top VoIP (see 1701250029).​ Former FCC Chairman Reed Hundt was among those at the meeting on behalf of Onvoy, said a filing in docket 13-97. “We opened the meeting with an overview of Onvoy Spectrum’s prior meetings with Commission Staff and close coordination with the E911 community and various Public Safety Answering Points regarding the Petition,” the filing said. “In response to questions, we explained that the Wireline Competition Bureau has previously used its delegated authority to issue waivers on numbering administration issues. This Petition similarly relates to highly technical numbering administration issues, so it is appropriate for the Bureau to exercise its delegated authority to grant the Petition.” Onvoy’s lawyer, Gerard Waldron of Covington, also reported on a call with Charles Mathias, associate chief of the Wireless Bureau.

Auto industry representatives made their case for not rechannelizing the 5.9 GHz band, as proposed by Wi-Fi advocates (see 1702210060), in a meeting with Nick Degani and Rachael Bender, aides to FCC Chairman Ajit Pai. The automakers want to preserve the entire band for use by dedicated short-range communications (DSRC) technology designed to curb crashes and save lives, though with sharing with Wi-Fi. “Global Automakers explained the diversity of the 5.9 GHz safety application ecosystem and the need to preserve the existing 75 MHz allocation to leverage the full opportunity for existing and future applications,” said a filing in docket 13-49. Global Automakers, American Honda, the Intelligent Transportation Society of America and Schagrin Consulting were among attendees.

Harman International shares ceased trading Monday and were delisted from the New York Stock Exchange after Samsung Electronics announced Saturday it completed its $8 billion Harman buy on the fast track. The companies said in November they expected Harman/Samsung would close mid-2017 (see 1611140030). One of the last remaining hurdles to the deal was cleared when the FTC granted the transaction early termination of the Hart-Scott-Rodino waiting period just before Christmas (see 1612210031). Dinesh Paliwal will remain CEO at Harman, which will operate as a stand-alone subsidiary reporting to a board chaired by Young Sohn, Samsung Electronics president-chief strategy officer, Samsung said.

Powermat is developing an “adaptation plan” for compatibility with Apple wireless charging technology, it said in a Monday announcement. Noting Apple’s recent membership in the Wireless Power Consortium (see 1702130033), Powermat said it would be “ready to support iPhones with whatever wireless charging protocol Apple employs,” as Apple can bring wireless charging “into the mainstream.” Regardless of which standard Apple adopts “or whether they’ll develop their own proprietary technology," Powermat believes the category is "big enough for everyone to play," said CEO Elad Dubzinski. The Powermat platform is capable of supporting multiple protocols, and its inductive wireless charging technology is installed in Starbucks stores across the U.S. and abroad, said the company. Powermat, which lists Duracell and AT&T as partners, is also installed in over a million General Motors vehicles and 250 million mobile devices, it said. Numerous reports have suggested upcoming iPhones will feature wireless charging capability. Apple didn't comment Monday. The company joined the Wireless Power Consortium, which backs inductive charging, but it's not a member of the AirFuel Alliance, which supports multiple types of wireless charging, including inductive. Powermat, meanwhile, is an AirFuel member, along with Samsung, LG, Qualcomm, Motorola, Intel, Bose, Delphi, Foxconn and many others.

CTIA and Verizon separately urged the FCC to reject a request by the Maine Public Utilities Commission to clarify where the point of demarcation is between carriers and the state’s Next-Generation 911 network for message session relay protocol (MSRP). CTIA also disagreed with several states in the initial comment round (see 1702090021), in docket 11-153. The PUC said the lack of clarity was delaying Maine's adoption of the technology and making it difficult to assess costs (see 1701090027). “The record assembled supports CTIA’s initial comments that the Bureau should not disturb the established cost allocation norm for the interim text-to-911 environment,” CTIA replied. The PUC insists wireless providers should bear the costs of connecting from the text-control center to Maine’s ESInet because the FCC “placed the obligation to provide interim text-to-911 on the service providers, not on the PSAP,” CTIA said. “This mischaracterizes the Commission’s framework for interim text-to-911 and ignores that [public safety answering points] have their own set of obligations once they choose to request text messages from wireless providers.” Verizon said the Maine state agency correctly called attention to the need for collaboration. “However, it would inappropriately alter the interim framework developed between industry and the public safety community that launched the successful and still-growing deployment of text-to-911 throughout the country,” Verizon replied. The Boulder Regional Emergency Telephone Service Authority supports the PUC’s plea for clarity. “This proceeding concerns the anomaly in which providers of telephony services are responsible for delivery, and the cost of delivery, of their customers’ calls; except the most important calls their customers make: calls for emergency assistance,” it said. “The Commission should not further excuse providers from responsibility for delivery of their customers calls and messages to 9-1-1, and thus not permit providers to transfer to PSAPs or 9-1-1 authorities the costs of transport and routing of intrastate 9-1-1 calls and messages to and from nationally or regionally consolidated MSCs [mobile switching centers] or NG9-1-1 Data Complexes.”

Eighty-nine percent of U.S. broadband households use at least one smartphone that in many cases serves as the foundation for connected consumer experiences across multiple IoT markets, Parks Associates reported. “Quick and easy access to the Internet is changing how consumers interact with technology, driving new innovations and the adoption of new products and services in multiple verticals,” said analyst Jennifer Kent. Just over a quarter of U.S. broadband households, over 26 million, own at least one smart home device, said Parks.

Iris recognition is expected to be a $4.1 billion global market by 2025, up from $676.6 million last year, growing from 10.7 million units to 61.6 million units annually, Tractica reported. The technology was “hamstrung” by a conceptual patent in force until 2005, and since then, more than 10 “well-qualified” iris recognition hardware manufacturers, plus various software providers, have launched, with infrared cameras and light sources in smartphones and tablets creating new uses, the researcher said Friday.

The FCC Library will celebrate National Library Week with an open house April 19, the FCC said in a Friday notice. “Once again, in partnership with the FCC Technology Experience Center, the FCC Library will showcase how local, state, federal, and academic libraries use electronic or digital content to provide 24/7 cyberspace access for a wide array of personal use devices,” the FCC said. The FCC is inviting manufacturers and vendors of smartphones, e-book readers, tablets, technology kiosks and “library-specific application solutions” to take part, the notice said. The event is closed to the general public.