Qualcomm will add support for the Android Things operating system on Snapdragon 210 processors with X5 LTE modems, it announced Tuesday. The SoCs are expected to be the first such solutions to offer integrated 4G LTE support for the Android Things OS, a vertical of Android for IoT devices, said the chipmaker.

During 2016, Verizon provided more than 12,000 handsets to nearly 500 domestic violence prevention organizations, it said in a filing in FCC docket 08-51. As of last month, just under 37,000 HopeLine lines were in service, Verizon said. “All these handsets are CDMA/1X feature phones limited to voice and text capability.”

T-Mobile and subscriber Paul Armbruster told the FCC they resolved a fight over whether T-Mobile is exempt from liability under the Telephone Consumer Protection Act because it doesn’t charge for text messages. An arbitration order sided with the company and found Armbruster can't revoke consent to receive unwanted text messages from the carrier. In January, he asked for a declaratory ruling from the FCC resolving some of the issues raised by the arbitration order. Armbuster also filed a motion for reconsideration with the arbitrator. Lawyers for T-Mobile and Armbruster asked to withdraw the January petition. “Pending a decision on the motion for reconsideration, the parties resolved their dispute, rendering the requests set forth in the Petition moot,” said a filing in docket 02-278. “The Parties hereby respectfully request that Petitioner be granted leave to withdraw the Petition.” Armbruster is a T-Mobile customer, “and at a certain point in 2015 began to receive text messages from 1-Mobile advertising products like, T-Mobile's ‘gift finder’ for father's day, and ‘T-Mobile LG tablet offer,’” said the January petition. He called T-Mobile customer support “where he was told that he cannot opt-out because ‘the FCC requires T-Mobile to send the messages,’” the petition said.

T-Mobile officials explained their concerns about FCC small-cell siting rules, in a meeting with Erin McGrath, aide to Commissioner Mike O’Rielly, said a filing in docket 16-421. “We discussed T-Mobile’s support of the Commission’s efforts to streamline wireless facility siting, including the proposals in its recently-released small cell Public Notice,” the carrier said. “We specifically discussed the obstacles that T-Mobile has encountered in siting wireless facilities, and the actions the Commission should take to address those issues.”

The Wireless Innovation Forum’s Spectrum Sharing Committee met last week and is making progress on technical rules for the 3.5 GHz shared band, Lee Pucker, CEO of the forum, said in a filing in FCC docket 15-319. The group plans Release 1 in June, with all parts already voted on by the committee, Pucker said. Release 2 is planned for June, he said. A working document filed at the FCC said it “defines the requirements on the Spectrum Access System (SAS), Citizens Broadband Radio Service Device (CBSD), End User Device (EUD), Priority Access License (PAL), and General Authorized Access (GAA) equipment in order to define the necessary operation and standards interface between such equipment to effect a properly functioning spectrum sharing environment in the 3550-3700 MHz band.”

Ericsson and Intel said they're launching 5G Innovators Initiative (5GI2), “an open industry initiative designed to explore, test and innovate with 5G network and distributed edge technologies.” The group will focus on the industrial IoT, or IIoT, said Aicha Evans, general manager of the Intel Communication and Devices Group, in a Tuesday blog post. “The 5GI2 will join major equipment manufacturers, leading technology companies, industry leaders and top universities to accelerate the adoption of 5G wireless and infrastructure innovation in the U.S.” Initial members also include General Electric, Honeywell and the University of California, Berkeley. Evans said Intel will have multiple announcements next week at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. At last year’s MWC, “we revealed our plans for 5G products and trial acceleration, rolling out our first-generation mobile trial platform that immediately offered the industry a development platform for fast prototyping, integration and testing,” she said. “Steady progress has followed. Throughout 2016, we entered into several 5G trials around the globe with tier-one service providers.” At CES in January, Intel released a 5G modem, “the world’s first global 5G modem that supports both sub-6 GHz and mmWave bands and transforms connectivity for a variety of use cases,” Evans said. 5G is already here, Evans said: "The big difference with 5G is that when you start to talk about ‘autonomy’ and factories, cars and hospitals thinking for themselves, they will rely on split-second connectivity to do so -- with no room for error.”

Officials for DOJ and AT&T submitted their final written briefs in a Rivada Mercury protest of the company’s rejection as a candidate to build FirstNet. Little information is available on the case before the U.S. Court of Federal Claims. Under an order by Judge Elaine Kaplan, pleadings and other substantial documents are sealed (1:16-cv-01559). Kaplan is expected to review the written arguments before deciding whether to schedule oral argument or ask for additional input, said a lawyer following the case. On Tuesday, Kaplan rescheduled from Wednesday to Thursday a status telephone conference on the case. Rivada is seeking to block the Department of Interior's "unlawful decision to exclude" the company's proposal "from the competitive range" for the FirstNet contract to build the nationwide public safety broadband network (see 1612020032). Officials said a winning bidder, widely expected to be a team led by AT&T, can’t be picked until the challenge is settled (see 1612140053).

Representatives of rural wireless carrier Smith Bagley met with aides to the three FCC commissioners and Wireless Bureau staff to push for special Mobility Fund treatment for tribal areas. The carrier “urged the Commission to afford special treatment for Tribal Lands in the Lower 48, similar to that provided in the Commission’s recent ‘Alaska Plan’ order that assigned over $1.5 billion in universal service funding to accelerate and preserve broadband deployment in Alaska over the next ten years,” Smith Bagley said in a filing in docket 10-208. Doing business as Cellular One of North East Arizona, it provides mobile communication services to customers in northern Arizona and New Mexico.

The U.S. wireless industry invested $32 billion in 2015, and $300 billion over the past 10 years, on deploying 4G LTE, but the FCC could do more to further spur investment, CTIA President Meredith Baker said in a letter to the three commissioners posted Friday in docket 10-208. “The investment and efforts of U.S. wireless providers have enabled American consumers and businesses to reap the benefits of U.S. global leadership in 4G LTE wireless networks and services,” Baker wrote. “Yet there is more that can be done to extend those benefits to all corners of our country. ... CTIA is pleased to see the Commission moving forward to implement Phase II of the Mobility Fund and encourages the Commission to move forward with modernizing its infrastructure siting policies so that high-speed mobile wireless services can be rapidly and efficiently deployed.”

The Rural Wireless Association filed an application for review of a January order by the FCC Wireless Bureau allowing AT&T to meet population- rather than geographic-based construction benchmarks for a lower 700 MHz B Block license. The license covers the Wade Hampton, Alaska, market. The bureau handed down the order Jan. 17, days before the end of the Obama administration. “Based on the data submitted to the Commission by AT&T, the company has only provided service to 8.7 percent of its licensed coverage area, far short of the required 35 percent,” said Caressa Bennet, RWA counsel, in a statement. “The waiver is conditioned on AT&T making some very modest incremental increases in its service coverage (expanding service to reach an additional ten percent of the population over the next nine years). In return, the Bureau granted AT&T a windfall that will allow it to retain the exclusive right to utilize the licensed spectrum in upwards of 90 percent of the geographic territory of its license area, the preponderance of which will likely continue to remain unserved even if the waiver conditions are met.” Bennet said the waiver is "in conflict with FCC regulation, past precedent, and public policy, and establishes a harmful precedent which should be overturned.” AT&T didn't comment.