The FTC is providing more than $88 million in refunds to 2.7 million AT&T customers who had third-party charges added to their mobile bills without their consent, also known as mobile cramming, the agency said Thursday. In 2014, the trade commission, working with the FCC, reached a settlement with AT&T on cramming allegations. The refunds are the most ever returned to consumers in a mobile cramming case, the FTC said in a news release. “Through the FTC’s refund program, nearly 2.5 million current AT&T customers will receive a credit on their bill within the next 75 days, and more than 300,000 former customers will receive a check.” The average refund is $31. “AT&T received a high volume of complaints related to mobile cramming prior to the FTC and other federal and state agencies stepping in on consumers’ behalf,” said FTC Chairwoman Edith Ramirez. AT&T said at the time it had taken steps to prevent future occurrences (see 1410090096).

The FCC said it negotiated a protocol with the Mexican government to facilitate U.S. railroads' deployment and operation of positive train control systems along the U.S.-Mexico border. The agreement covers the 220-222 MHz band. “Since rail lines cross the U.S.-Mexico border, and since railroads will be using PTC radios both onboard and along rail lines, implementation of PTC systems will affect use of the 220-222 MHz band in the border region,” the FCC said in a Thursday news release. A similar agreement was executed between the FCC and Canada’s Department of Innovation, Science and Economic Development, the FCC said. The FCC emphasized the importance of helping railroads put PTC systems in place (see 1505150047), Lack of PTC factored in a number of recent train accidents, most recently in New Jersey (see 1609290067). U.S. railroads were supposed to have had PTC in place by Dec. 31, 2015, but got a three-year extension last year after telling Congress they couldn't launch everywhere along their systems by that deadline (see 1510290069).

Holiday season spending online Nov. 1-Dec. 4 reached $38 billion, a 12 percent spike from the 2015 period, reported comScore. Citing the growing impact of mobile commerce (see 1611280033), the researcher said shopping via smartphones and tablets accounted for $597 million of spending on Thanksgiving (up 26 percent over 2015), $797 million on Black Friday (up 41 percent) and more than $1 billion on Cyber Monday (up 29 percent). Mobile commerce helped drive a 20 percent increase in overall digital spending for the three days, it said, with Cyber Monday ringing in as the largest digital commerce spending day on record at $3.7 billion.

Sprint, Pokemon Go maker Niantic and Pokemon Co. International said more than 10,500 Sprint, Boost Mobile and Sprint at RadioShack stores in the U.S. will become playgrounds for the augmented reality smartphone game. In a Wednesday news release, they said that beginning Monday Pokemon Go players can advance their game at the locations, which also can be used to recharge their phones. Since introduced in the summer, the game has run into controversy over data collection practices (see 1609010083). Niantic CEO John Hanke said at a recent congressional hearing (see 1611160045) that the game, downloaded more than 600 million times, complies with federal privacy protections for children and collects only a minimal amount of user data, and that information isn't sold to third parties.

The FCC established a pleading cycle on AT&T’s proposed buy of a single partitioned lower 700 MHz C-block license from Rainbow Telecommunications. The license covers a single market -- Leavenworth County, Kansas. “The Applicants assert that, as a result of this proposed transaction, AT&T would hold 24 megahertz of contiguous, paired Lower 700 MHz spectrum in Leavenworth County, allowing for a 10x10 megahertz LTE deployment,” the FCC said in a Monday order. Petitions to deny are due Dec. 27, oppositions Jan. 3, replies Jan. 10.

The FCC set up a pleading cycle on AT&T’s proposed buy of lower 700 MHz C-block licenses from Grand River and Green Hills in Missouri. “Applicants maintain that the proposed transaction would provide AT&T with additional spectrum that would enable it to increase its system capacity to enhance existing services, better accommodate its overall growth, and facilitate the provision of additional products and services in Cellular Market Area (CMA) 507 (Missouri 4 -- De Kalb),” said a Wednesday public notice. Petitions to deny are due Dec. 28, oppositions Jan. 4, replies Jan. 11. The FCC asked AT&T and the two companies for additional information. AT&T was asked in a letter about plans “to provide high-quality, high-speed wireless broadband services prior to the Proposed Transactions, including a detailed description of the Company’s current and planned deployment of LTE, which identifies the spectrum bands and the total amount of spectrum used for LTE deployment.”

Alaska carrier General Communication Inc. said the FCC should grant AT&T a waiver of buildout requirements for a 700 MHz license for a cellular market area (CMA) license covering Wade Hampton, Alaska. The Wireless Bureau earlier sought comment on the proposed waiver asking the FCC replace geographic-based benchmarks with population-based benchmarks for meeting the buildout requirements for the remote area. “Like AT&T, GCI is working to deploy 700 MHz wireless service in the uniquely challenging Alaska market. GCI agrees that the Commission’s geographic build-out requirements for Lower 700 MHz A- and B- Block licensees are not appropriate for sparsely populated license areas in Alaska, including the CMA covered by AT&T’s waiver request,” GCI said in a letter filed in docket 16-335.

Verizon will launch pre-commercial trials of 5G in the first three months of 2017, CEO Lowell McAdam said at a financial conference. “We’ve moved that up from a general 2017 comment,” McAdam said at the UBS conference. He compared 5G to wireless fiber. Verizon now deploys fiber to the home and then Wi-Fi within the home, he said. “This will allow you to stop anywhere from 200 feet to a 1,000 feet, somewhere in that range we think from the home, and then make it a wireless last leg into the home,” he said Tuesday. “I think that's going to be the predominant architecture for wireless service.” The first launches of 5G will be fixed rather than mobile, he said. McAdam also said he hopes Donald Trump's election as president presages corporate tax reform. But he said more will be revealed as the new administration takes office in January. “I think it's too early to tell” what the change will mean, McAdam said. “Those of you that follow Verizon know that we didn't get into Twitter wars with one of the candidates and we didn't publish blogs favoring one over the other.”

The FirstNet board plans a series of meetings next week, said a notice in Wednesday's Federal Register. A joint meeting of the board’s four committees begins at 8 a.m. PST Tuesday, with the board to go into closed session 10:15 a.m.-3:30 p.m. On Wednesday, the board set a formal meeting starting at 8 a.m. All take place at the Doubletree Hotel Sacramento, though the public can dial 888-324-8109 and enter participant code 2827944# to listen in. FirstNet is to make a decision soon on a coalition of companies to help build its network, though some analysts say that could be put off until the spring, an issue on which the network isn't commenting (see 1612050026). Rivada Mercury sought to block the Department of Interior's "unlawful decision to exclude" the company's proposal from those under consideration for the network (see 1612020032). FirstNet released a video tutorial on the state plans it will send to states to help them prepare to make a decision on participating in FirstNet. The tutorial “also identifies examples of the key officials and advisors that could be involved in the review process to ensure the Governor is prepared to make the most informed decision” about deploying the network in each state, FirstNet said.

The Wireless Innovation Forum said its members approved its Spectrum Sharing Committee’s signaling protocols and procedures to be used in the 3.5 GHz Citizens Broadband Radio Service (CBRS) band for spectrum access systems -- and spectrum access system (SAS) interfaces. “These standards are the first of their kind addressing the new FCC Part 96 rules for CBRS. Publication of these standards represents a major milestone for enabling U.S. commercialization of the band,” the Winn Forum said in a Tuesday news release. Elements include SAS-SAS prerequisites, SAS-SAS procedures, SAS-SAS synchronization, message encoding and transport and parameters of SAS-SAS messages, the forum said. The new administration is expected by some to make changes to the rules for the 3.5 GHz band (see 1611180037).