About 57 percent of those who shopped Black Friday week did so online, said CTA Chief Economist Shawn DuBravac, citing its survey of a “nationally representative” sample of U.S. adults. “We saw the biggest jump” in consumers who used mobile devices to shop, he told reporters Sunday. The association estimates 35 percent of those who shopped did so on a mobile device, compared with 28 percent last year. CTA estimates 45 percent of overall Black Friday week shoppers shopped for tech, with TVs, tablets and smartphones much sought, DuBravac said. More than half of all U.S. adults took part in Black Friday shopping, CTA said; Cyber Monday sales also rose, Adobe reported (see 1611280033).

Ofcom will require the legal separation of Openreach from BT due to competitive concerns raised by the U.K. regulator, the agency said in a news release Tuesday. After concluding a public consultation, Ofcom decided to notify the European Commission to implement the change, it said. Legal separation would require Openreach to become a distinct company with its own board, including a majority of nonexecutive directors not affiliated with BT, Ofcom said. “We are disappointed that BT has not yet come forward with proposals that meet our competition concerns,” Ofcom said Tuesday. “Some progress has been made, but this has not been enough, and action is required now to deliver better outcomes for phone and broadband users." Monday, BT announced Mike McTighe as the first chairman of the new Openreach board. He worked at Ofcom from 2007 to 2015 and also for communications and other companies such as General Electric. BT didn’t comment Tuesday on the Ofcom announcement.

Cyber Monday netted $540 million between midnight and 10 a.m. EST and was on track to reach $3.36 billion in online sales for the day, up 9.4 percent from a year ago, said Adobe Digital Insights. Mobile shopping since Nov. 1 continued its surge, accounting for $205 million of morning shopping, said the tech company. Holiday season online revenue rose 7.1 percent to $36.5 billion. As of 10 a.m. EST Monday, mobile accounted for 56 percent of Cyber Monday e-commerce site visits (46 percent smartphones; 10 percent tablets) and 38 percent of sales (27 percent smartphones; 11 percent tablets).

The booming demand for spectrum means unlicensed spectrum needs to be used to support LTE and eventually 5G services, but whether LTE and Wi-Fi can work together remains to be seen, IHS Markit reported Monday. Unlicensed spectrum "is critical" to mass deployment of services bearing the LTE-Advanced Pro standard, since only one in four carriers has sufficient LTE spectrum for LTE-A Pro services, IHS Markit said. The researcher said that LTE use of unlicensed spectrum carries "the potential for friction" and called for rules governing coexistence.

The Competitive Carriers Association and T-Mobile said FCC real-time text (RTT) rules should give industry more technological flexibility in transitioning from traditional text telephony (TTY) services used by those who are deaf and others with hearing or speech disabilities. With the FCC eyeing an RTT vote Dec. 15 (see 1611220064), CCA and T-Mobile recognized the importance of standardizing text-based, IP communication, especially with public safety answering points. They said they appreciated agency consideration of a phased deployment approach that recognizes "carriers are dependent upon manufacturers to make native [embedded] changes to handsets" and smaller carriers will need more time for implementation. Within that approach, the FCC should "ensure its new rules provide options for the implementation roadmap ultimately to achieve support for RTT native to IP-based voice handsets," CCA and T-Mobile said in a filing posted Monday in docket 16-145 on a discussion with FCC staffers. They said a downloadable app is not a feasible first step for most CCA carrier members, and would divert resources from "the path to full native RTT," particularly given carrier decisions intended to meet a Dec. 31, 2017, implementation target. "The current proposal, as described by staff, appears effectively to mandate a single implementation path -- that is, deployment by means of an over-the-top app followed by all native handsets at a subsequent date," CCA and T-Mobile said. "But T-Mobile, as it stated on the record in this proceeding, cannot achievably deploy RTT by means of an over-the-top app due to the way its core network is architected, and it cannot possibly have all of its handsets support RTT by December 31, 2017. Other CCA members are likely to have similar issues with over-the-top deployment." CCA and T-Mobile urged the FCC to adopt flexible RTT rules that allow carriers "that plan to deploy RTT natively to meet the new obligations, either through an over-the-top app or by a staged introduction of RTT-capable handsets." They said they appreciated the FCC's proposed elimination of duties to support TTY, other than "backwards compatibility," and they recognized carriers would be granted needed flexibility to implement the latter. Separately, representatives of Telecommunications for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing and other advocates urged FCC action on RTT. The IP transition is a "once in a lifetime opportunity to make RTT available to everyone on every phone," said a filing on a meeting with aides to all five commissioners.

Sprint hit the Black Friday deal parade Wednesday, announcing a family plan that gives the third, fourth and fifth lines of unlimited data, talk and text for free for a limited time, it said in a Wednesday announcement. Customers have to switch at least one mobile device line to Sprint and sign up for the Unlimited Freedom plan with auto pay to get the deal, it said. The offer runs through Dec. 1. For one line of service, customers pay $60 per month; for two lines, $100 per month; and the third, fourth and fifth lines are free until Jan. 31, 2018, when a five-line plan would be $30 per month per line, it said.

FCC staff approved AT&T's buy of a lower 700 MHz B-block license in Arizona from Data-Max Wireless (see 1603240034) despite finding that AT&T's local spectrum holdings post-transaction would exceed one-third of the available spectrum below 1 GHz. "After carefully evaluating the likely competitive effects of AT&T’s increased aggregation of below-1-GHz spectrum in this local market area, as well as the other factors ordinarily considered in a case-by-case review, we find that the likelihood of competitive harm is low," said a Wireless Bureau order in docket 16-59 listed in Wednesday's Daily Digest. "Further, we find some public interest benefits are likely to be realized, such as increased network quality and a better consumer experience."

Smartwatches still have limitations, executives of a new entrant acknowledged. Movado doesn’t see the category “becoming a significant portion of our business, given the limitations in the functionalities and physical dimensions of current technology,” President Ricardo Quintero said Tuesday on an earnings call. The company has "always taken a kind of patient approach to the wearable technology space and smartwatch space,” said CEO Efraim Grinberg.

FCC staff granted L-3 Communications Security and Detection Systems' waiver request so it can be certified to market its newest ProVision screening device to identify metallic and non-metallic weapons or contraband products in airports and elsewhere. The Office of Engineering and Technology said L-3 seeks the same waivers under the same conditions that OET granted in 2006 for the first-generation ProVision device, with one exception. "The new scanning device would have a wider operating bandwidth, increasing the swept frequency signal range from 24.25-30 GHz to 20-40 GHz," said the OET order Tuesday in docket 16-45.

Crown Castle sought FCC OK for buying assets including FPL FiberNet from NextEra Energy, in a fiber-services provider takeover that was worth about $1.5 billion when disclosed a few weeks ago (see 1611010053). Though the transaction "will result in a change in the ultimate ownership of Licensees, no assignment of licenses, assets, or customers will occur as a consequence," said the companies in a filing posted Tuesday. "Licensees will continue to provide service to their existing customers under the same rates, terms, and conditions. Accordingly, the Transaction will be transparent to the customers."