U.S. Cellular disclosed it won 600 MHz licenses worth at least $327 million in the TV incentive auction, in an SEC filing. “With the completion of the Clock Phase of the auction, U.S. Cellular is now committed to purchase 600 MHz spectrum licenses on which it submitted bids for a minimum amount of $327 million, subject to increase as the FCC completes the Assignment Phase of the auction, which is pending,” the filing states. “U.S. Cellular expects to be obligated to pay for the total committed amount, less the $143 million upfront payment made in June 2016, in the second quarter of 2017. U.S. Cellular currently expects to make such payment using cash on hand and/or borrowings under its revolving credit agreement.”

Starting Friday, customers who switch to Sprint will get “the nation’s best price for Unlimited,” including HD-quality streaming video and 10 GB of mobile hot spot use per month, Sprint said. “At $22.50 per line for four lines, that’s 50 percent less than Verizon’s newly announced plan,” said a Thursday news release. “Customers save even more compared to AT&T’s current unlimited plans, which require a DirecTV or U-verse contract.” Sprint CEO Marcelo Claure said “our unmatched spectrum position gives us a clear competitive advantage in a high-capacity unlimited world.” Claure also commented in a tweet: “So this Fri, it’s bye @Verizon & @ATT, hello @Sprint #Unlimited HD!” A new Verizon unlimited plan took effect Monday (see 1702130041).

Sales of 4G IoT cellular modules will peak within two years when 5G modules hit the market, with the automotive market accounting for the majority of IoT cellular modules through 2025, said a Strategy Analytics report Thursday. Sales of 5G modules will reach an inflection point in 2024 when they begin to outsell 4G modules, it said. Large-scale, machine-type communications won’t be in the first release of the 5G standard, said analyst Andrew Brown, but critical components such as ultra-low latency and high reliability will be standardized in the first release and completed by 2018. Low latency and long modem battery life are some of the benefits of 5G networks that will open up possibilities for IoT cellular devices and enable use cases such as remote surgery with sense of touch and real-time video, said analyst Matt Wilkins.

Verizon bought drone operations management company Skyward for an undisclosed sum, said the telco in a Thursday news release. "This acquisition is a natural progression of our core focus on operating in innovative, high-growth markets, leveraging our network, scale, fleet management, device management, data analytics and security enablement capabilities and services to simplify the drone industry and help support the adoption of IoT," said Mike Lanman, Verizon senior vice president-enterprise products and IoT. It said Skyward's technology will provide one platform to handle "mission planning, complex workflow, [Federal Aviation Administration] compliance support, supplying information about restricted airspace and pilot credentialing, drone registration and provisioning rate plans for drones on Verizon's network."

The FCC sought comments by March 2, replies by March 9 on a TracFone request for clarification of Lifeline minimum service standards in a 2016 order extending the low-income phone subsidies to broadband. TracFone seeks clarification of sections 54.408 and 54.411 of the agency's rules, said a Wireline Bureau public notice in docket 11-42. A Sprint filing posted Thursday on a meeting with bureau staffers requested "expeditious clarification of two aspects" of Section 54.408(b)(2) on minimum mobile broadband standards: (1) "That WiFi service does not satisfy the current 500MB mandated Lifeline mobile broadband data allotment requirement. Sprint explained that WiFi does not provide broadband service in locations (such as a Lifeline customer’s home) that otherwise lacks broadband access, and that allowing WiFi to count towards data allotments makes the escalating data allotment standards meaningless. [2] That Lifeline broadband customers who do not have a 3G-capable and configured device are not receiving the benefits of mobile broadband service and should accordingly not be considered BIAS [broadband internet access service] customers subject to the 12-month port freeze."

The FCC should have published its draft order on phase two of the Mobility Fund (MFII), consistent with the new commission emphasis on transparency, the Competitive Carriers Association said in a Thursday letter to the agency. When orders were circulated for next week’s commissioners’ meeting, new Chairman Ajit Pai opted to release as part of a pilot program the drafts of two media orders, but not the Mobility Fund (see 1702020051). “This proceeding cries out for publication of the draft order with sufficient time for review and comment, a step toward transparency and improved outcomes that both the Chairman and Commissioner [Mike] O’Rielly have proposed,” said the filing in docket 10-208. “It also calls for rigorous examination of the reliability of the data on which the Commission will rely, and consideration of the costs and benefits of the Commission’s proposals, efforts that both leaders, again, have rightly supported.” The FCC simply can’t afford to get the rules wrong, CCA said: “Rural America cannot shoulder a misfire on MFII. Indeed, for rural Americans in particular, the consequences of a poorly crafted and implemented MFII would be difficult to overstate.” AT&T Services, “on behalf of its affiliates,” told the FCC it supports the agency’s plan to use data collected from Form 477 filings as the starting point for determining areas that should be eligible for MFII support. “We understand that there is some concern that the quality of the data is not appropriate for this purpose because of the uncertainty over whether carriers are submitting Form 477 data in a consistent manner,” the company said in a letter filed in docket 10-208. “Carriers are not required to publicly disclose their Form 477 methodologies. However, AT&T would like to take this opportunity to note that our Form 477 Mobile Broadband Deployment data and Mobile Voice Deployment data as of June 2016 used coverage boundaries at a resolution of 90 meters.” Verizon urged the FCC to adopt reasonable rules for the new fund, in meetings with aides to all three commissioners, said a filing by the carrier. “The Commission should ensure that the service obligations for Mobility Fund recipients are reasonable, given the challenges of deploying LTE service in the difficult areas that are currently unserved,” Verizon said. “A requirement that Mobility Fund recipients cover 90 percent of the bid area could discourage bids.” The proposed buildout standard is “substantially more stringent” than the standard for the initial Mobility Fund, Verizon noted, since Phase I had a buildout target of 75 percent, “and applied that target to road miles, not to all square miles.” A requirement that carriers deliver speeds of 10 Mbps downstream, 1 Mbps upstream “could discourage bids or increase bid amounts, thus depleting the auction budget more quickly,” Verizon said. “We urged the Commission to adopt a lower downstream speed target, such as the 5 megabit per second target proposed by AT&T and smaller providers.” An order approving the fund appears headed to approval at next week’s commissioners' meeting, though questions remain and parts of the rules appear to still be in flux (see 1702150035).

T-Mobile is hosting as many as 110 high school and college students at its headquarters in Bellevue, Washington, for CodeDay Eastside, the carrier said Wednesday. The 24-hour event starts Saturday at 11 a.m. PST. Students of all skill levels are welcome, said a T-Mobile news release. “Past participants have gone on to create venture-funded startups and gain hundreds of thousands of downloads on app stores. Hundreds of past participants now work as full-time engineers for leading companies.”

Altair Semiconductor launched an LTE chipset with global band support, advanced security and location capability, the company announced Wednesday.

GSMA launched an “IoT Big Data API Directory” designed to make “harmonised data sets from multiple sources worldwide available to developers and third parties, enabling them to create innovative new Internet of Things (IoT) services.” API stands for application programming interface. “The directory, which is the first of its kind, is designed to encourage a common approach to data sharing that will help the IoT to realise its full potential and encourage the development of new projects across transport, the environment and smart cities,” GSMA said in a Wednesday news release. Wireless operators China Mobile, China Unicom, KT Corporation, Orange and Telefónica put in place solutions enabling them to share harmonized IoT data, GSMA said.

5G Americas released a white paper Wednesday on the “progress and evolution” of LTE. With the U.S. approaching 90 percent LTE penetration “the stage is being set for a new technology frontier with the fifth-generation wireless technologies,” 5G Americas said in a news release. “Dozens of 5G trials are occurring around the world, and the process of information gathering by leading operators and manufacturers to feed into the 3GPP [3rd Generation Partnership Project] standards process is underway,” said Vicki Livingston, head of communications at 5G Americas, an author of the paper. “LTE and 5G will work together to form our connected future."