JVCKenwood urged FCC commissioners to deny or dismiss a spectrum proposal to make a private enterprise broadband (PEBB) allocation in the 900 MHz band. In an ex-parte letter Monday to all five commissioners, JVCKenwood said it’s aware of a Wireless Bureau order circulating on the eighth floor about a 2014 petition by Enterprise Wireless Alliance and Pacific DataVision (see 1507170037). The petition is “fatally defective” and “no more than a transparent proposal for a spectrum giveaway, intended single-mindedly to feather the nest of both petitioners (especially PDV), to the exclusion of all others,” JVCKenwood said. The petitioners want the FCC to “award a single, exclusive license to a broadband service provider through a mechanism that avoids any competitive bidding (or any competition at all) and precludes any opportunity for the filing of a mutually exclusive application to become a PEBB licensee in a given market,” it said. “Nor is there any opportunity for other entities that might, in the presence of a competitive bidding opportunity, develop a far better business plan to implement a broadband system in this band that does not result in the disruption to incumbent and future narrowband licensees.”

FirstNet seeks to restrict states' ability to produce alternative radio access network (RAN) plans, said the FirstNet Colorado Governing Body (FNCGB) in replies posted Tuesday in docket 16-269. FirstNet said Monday the FCC shouldn’t give too much flexibility to states or risk delaying the national public safety network (see 1611210038). Colorado is deciding whether to opt out; the state received 10 responses to a request for proposals earlier this year (see 1611100049). “The FNCGB vehemently opposes the comments of parties that seek to frustrate, confuse, or otherwise limit the ability of states and territories to exercise their statutory rights,” the state commented. For states to submit a comprehensive alternative plan, FirstNet must provide access to network policies, the interoperability compliance matrix and other parameters at least 90 days before delivery of the state plan, the Colorado body said. "FirstNet has not provided access to this information, nor has it given states adequate assurances that it will provide access in a timely fashion. Simply stating that FirstNet will provide access as 'expeditiously as possible' is not enough.” The state body disagreed with FirstNet about whether states may file amendments and supplemental information during the 180-day period. AT&T urged the FCC to be strict in its assessment of state alternative plans. States that opt out “should be required to demonstrate in detail how its RAN would be interoperable with the [national public safety broadband network] NPSBN, and demonstrate a serious long-term commitment of resources, funding, expertise, and cooperation,” the company said. “Without such showings and commitments from opt-out States, FirstNet’s NPSBN risks being balkanized -- neither nationwide nor interoperable.”

Various wireless providers backed the Lifeline Connects Coalition request that the FCC temporarily waive new rules shortening a "nonusage window" from 60 days to 30 days and a "cure period" from 30 days to 15 days, which are currently expected to take effect Dec. 2 (see 1610260033). The waiver is needed to avoid cutoffs of telecom service to low-income subscribers subsidized by Lifeline until the FCC acts on a related petition for reconsideration by TracFone Wireless (which also sought a stay) that no parties opposed, said Assist Wireless, Boomerang Wireless, CGM, Cintex Wireless and Prepaid Wireless Group, Easy Telephone Services, TAG Mobile and TruConnect Communications. Without a waiver, "many eligible low-income consumers face the significant likelihood that they will (through no action of their own) be denied Lifeline benefits to which they are entitled and for which they have expressed no desire to discontinue," the companies said in a filing Monday in docket 11-42. "Evidence in the record indicates that millions of Lifeline subscribers may lose access to vital communications services" when the new 30-day non-usage rules take effect, they said. Most are expected to re-enroll, but the interim service loss would be harmful, they said. The LCC and TracFone requests also picked up support recently from the National Consumers League (here) and the National Consumer Law Center, United Church of Christ, Benton Foundation, Center for Rural Strategies, Communications Workers of America, NAACP, National Hispanic Media Coalition and OCA-Asian Pacific American Advocates National Center (here).

Not planning for the volume of people visiting a web or mobile e-commerce site accounts for 25 percent of outages during big online events, said BigPanda Monday. Some 75 percent of e-commerce outages during high-volume events such as Black Friday and Cyber Monday are due to unplanned configuration changes, BigPanda said. Recommendations start with identifying absolutely critical systems and building a “bulletproof” disaster and recovery plan around them, it said. It recommended having three to five tiers of services to make prioritization and response quicker, along with a backup and failover plan for the highest service tier. A BigPanda tool allows IT and operations teams to deal with potential problems during high-traffic events.

IHS Markit thinks the iPhone 7S Pro due in 2017 will be Apple’s first model to use an active-matrix OLED (AMOLED) panel, it said in a Monday white paper. IHS thinks Apple will use AMOLED’s flexibility to “achieve a bezel-less design” on the iPhone 7S Pro, it said. “The screen would remain flat, but the edge would be curved and sandwiched with the bezel, similar to the Apple Watch.” With a curved-bezel model, the iPhone 7S Pro would have a “slim and agile design” with rounded corners, it said. Apple representatives didn’t comment. An Apple patent (US 9,256,250) published in February at the Patent and Trademark Office described methods of fashioning flexible OLEDs with “fastened bent edges” as a means of minimizing the “inactive border area” around the display (see 1602100054).

The IoT, network densification and 5G “will not be economic or practical without the convergence and coexistence of licensed and unlicensed technologies,” the London-based Wireless Broadband Alliance (WBA) said in a Friday report. “Ultimately, success will depend on unlicensed technologies working in conjunction with licensed networks, enabling new performance levels and flexibility for service providers of all kinds.” A survey the group conducted found nearly 80 percent of respondents believe they will deploy next-generation Wi-Fi by 2020, “driven by the need to improve quality of experience (QoE), reduce churn, and provide seamless access between Wi-Fi networks, and between Wi-Fi and licensed networks,” WBA said.

The FCC Enforcement Bureau issued a citation and order to HobbyKing USA for marketing at least two devices in the U.S. in violation of the commission’s equipment authorization and labeling requirements. “Marketers must ensure that RF devices are properly authorized and comply with all applicable labeling and identification requirements prior to being offered for sale in the United States,” the order said. “We therefore direct HobbyKing to take immediate steps to comply with the Commission’s equipment authorization and labeling requirements and cease any marketing of unauthorized RF devices in the United States.” HobbyKing faces fines of up to $18,936 per day and other sanctions, the bureau said. Representatives of HobbyKing, which markets model aircraft, drones and other products via its e-commerce site, didn't comment Friday.

The FCC should proceed with care in addressing mandates for over-the-top apps as the commission considers real-time text (RTT) technology as a substitute for legacy text telephone (TTY) service, Microsoft and the Voice on the Net Coalition said. They reported on a meeting with Consumer and Governmental Affairs Bureau staff. In April, the FCC approved an NPRM on the TTY-to-RTT transition (see 1604080053). “Given that over-the-top applications rely on the best efforts internet, the FCC should recognize the inherent characteristics and limitations of such applications and their inability to guarantee performance criteria, including with respect to access to emergency services,” the filing said. “Even where OTT applications provide interconnected VoIP service, they may still use the best efforts internet and, as a result, may be unable to guarantee the proposed performance requirements,” the filing said. “The parties also emphasized the importance of avoiding any confusion with respect to consumer expectations around the use of an OTT application to contact emergency services.” The filing was posted in docket 16-145.

NTCH is considering whether to challenge a U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit ruling last week in the Supreme Court, Fletcher Heald, which represents NTCH in the case, said in a blog post. The D.C. Circuit rejected arguments by carrier NTCH challenging an FCC order approving Verizon’s buy of AWS-1 licenses from SpectrumCo and Cox (see 1611150039). Fletcher Heald lawyer Donald Evans wrote the post. “The FCC delayed action” on an NTCH reconsideration “for about two and a half years until Verizon had divested itself of the foreign ownership, then declared the matter moot. NTCH promptly appealed to the Court,” Evans wrote. “The Court rejected NCTH’s claims, finding that, although the thousands of licenses may have been improperly granted, the FCC has complete discretion as to whether to revisit that matter.”

The FCC, which has an ongoing campaign against unwanted robocalls (see 1610260053), Friday issued a warning to senders of robotexts. “The FCC is committed to protecting consumers from harassing, intrusive, illegal, and unwanted robotexts to cell phones and other mobile devices,” a public notice said. The FCC has made clear that “the restrictions on making autodialed calls to cell phones encompass both voice calls and texts,” the PN said. Text messages sent to cellphones using any automatic telephone dialing system are also subject to the Telephone Consumer Protection Act, the PN said.