The California Court of Appeal for the First District rejected an industry petition for rehearing of a Sept. 15 decision in a tower citing case. An order from the court made edits to the opinion but otherwise let the ruling stand. The court had found that cities may consider aesthetics when assessing telco pole attachment applications (see 1609160052). The court had rejected a challenge by T-Mobile, Crown Castle and ExteNet Systems to a San Francisco law intended to block installation of telecom equipment that would diminish the city's beauty. The telecom companies said state law pre-empts the ordinance, but the appeals court disagreed again now.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for 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. NTCH argued that the FCC improperly rejected its 2012 petition for reconsideration challenging the approval. NTCH had raised concerns about the deal because of the 45 percent ownership of Verizon Wireless then held by the U.K.’s Vodafone. In the 2015 order (see 1504170050), the FCC said the petition was moot since Vodafone had since sold its stake in Verizon Wireless. “We reject NTCH’s claims,” said a decision by the D.C. Circuit panel. “The FCC’s decision not to initiate proceedings to revoke Verizon’s licenses is not subject to judicial review. Furthermore, any questions about the licenses Verizon obtained before the Spectrum Assignment are not properly before the court.” The decision was written by Judge Harry Edwards, who also wrote on behalf of colleagues Cornelia Pillard and Raymond Randolph.

The FCC Consumer and Governmental Affairs Bureau rejected a petition by the Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) asking for an exemption from the prior express consent requirement under the Telephone Consumer Protection Act for autodialed or prerecorded “mortgage servicing” calls to wireless phones. In August, the bureau sought comment (see 1608030032). MBA had argued that the benefits of mortgage servicing calls “far outweigh potential privacy interests,” the bureau said. “MBA maintains that the exemption is necessary to ensure that the TCPA does not restrict mandated, timely communications with residential mortgage borrowers that are required by other federal and state laws or regulations.” The CGB disagreed. “Applying Commission precedent and in light of the record, we find that MBA has not shown, as a threshold matter, the exempted calls would be free of charge to called parties,” the bureau said in a Tuesday order. “Separately, we find that MBA has not shown that it should be able to make or send non-time-sensitive robocalls, including robotexts, to consumers without first obtaining consumer consent.”

Ahead of the expected release of Bluetooth 5 next year, ABI Research forecast Monday that Bluetooth Smart and Smart Ready devices will top 5 billion shipments by 2021, fueled by technical enhancements that open new opportunities, use cases and device types. Key IoT growth areas will include the smart home, smart lighting, beacons and wearables, said an ABI report. Bluetooth is becoming more attractive for low-power applications, said analyst Andrew Zignani. The technology still faces stiff competition from other standards, but mesh networking will enable new opportunities in the smart home, building automation, and emerging IoT markets, due to robustness, low latency, scalability, low power consumption and “strong security,” said Zignani. The imminent standardization of mesh networking will take device capabilities to a next level, said ABI. Bluetooth-enabled smart lights will be able to control lighting across an entire smart home or smart building from a single gateway or controlling device, such as a smartphone, it said. “This puts Bluetooth on a more even playing field with other mesh networking technologies, such as Z-Wave or 802.15.4-based ZigBee and Thread.” Beacons represent “an enormous opportunity” for Bluetooth through personal tracking tags, retail, and advertising, ABI said, with Bluetooth shipments of beacons projected to grow by a compound annual rate of 133 percent between now and 2021. Increased broadcast messaging capacity in Bluetooth 5 will help drive the markets, “as beacons will be able to provide much higher quality content and richer contextual information than ever before.” Apple’s removal of the headphone jack from the iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus will help drive adoption of Bluetooth wireless headsets, headphones, and still emerging hearables, said the research firm. Mobile accessories are projected to account for 13 percent of Bluetooth device shipments in 2021, while Bluetooth will continue to be important in audio, said ABI. Upcoming speed and bandwidth enhancements with Bluetooth 5 will build on audio enhancements delivered by Qualcomm’s aptX HD and Sony’s LDAC for music streaming, it said.

Qualcomm released a 5G new radio (NR) spectrum sharing prototype system and a trial platform. The 5G NR is designed to work on low- to high-frequency spectrum, Qualcomm said in a Monday news release. “Qualcomm Technologies' prototype system aims to show that 5G spectrum sharing technologies will bring higher levels of mobile broadband performance to shared spectrum to enable fiber-like experiences, as well as extending 5G into new types of deployments, such as dedicated 5G networks for enterprise and industrial IoT,” the company said. “This technology will benefit operators with licensed spectrum but also opens the doors to those without licensed spectrum -- such as cable operators, enterprise or IoT verticals -- to take advantage of the 5G NR family of technologies,” said Matt Grob, chief technology officer at Qualcomm Technologies.

CTIA representatives urged the FCC to permanently exempt small businesses from the enhanced transparency requirements of the net neutrality rules, said a filing in docket 10-208. CTIA also sought a “more realistic definition of the small business entities to which the exemption would apply -- i.e., non-dominant carriers with fewer than 1,500 employees or providers with 500,000 or fewer subscribers," the association reported on a meeting with aides to Commissioners Mignon Clyburn and Jessica Rosenworcel. The CTIA representatives urged the FCC to create a permanent mobility fund. “Providers seeking to participate in Mobility Fund Phase II should have clear and consistent expectations about the auction, deployment, and service obligations that will be necessary to meet the Commission’s goals,” the filing said.

If the FCC creates a mobility fund, as proposed by Chairman Tom Wheeler, it should avoid any “flash cut” of current USF support for wireless, T-Mobile said in a filing in docket 10-90. T-Mobile representatives met last week with aides to the commissioners, except for Wheeler. “We urged the Commission to carefully consider eliminating legacy support so as to avoid sudden adverse effects on network operations and customers,” the carrier said. “The majority of T-Mobile’s legacy high-cost support funds our operations in Puerto Rico, and because of the currently depressed economic environment there, maintaining current levels of support for a transition period is critical.” Commissioners are scheduled to take up an order on the fund at their meeting Thursday (see 1611080048). Verizon added another wrinkle, noting that many competitive eligible telecom carriers (CETCs) are in partnerships with larger national carriers. A Verizon official told a Wireless Bureau official that “to the extent that the Commission adopts different phase-down schedules for small CETCs and nationwide carriers, partnerships between small rural entities and nationwide carriers should be subject to the same phase-down schedule as other small CETCs,” said a filing.

The global market for critical communications could top $8 billion in 2017, driven by threat of terrorism, police and fire radio system integration and the expansion of business and industrial communications and radio networks for transportation and utilities, ABI Research reported Wednesday. “Integration and interoperability of two-way radio networks is now mandatory due to the world’s increasing complexity,” Research Director Lance Wilson said in a news release. “This includes present radio protocols like TETRA [terrestrial trunked radio], DMR [digital mobile radio], APCO, as well as LTE, which serves as a bridge to the mobile communications markets.”

Carriers benefit financially from providing cellphone installment plans, Fitch Ratings said in a news release Thursday. “The advent of cellular equipment installment plans (EIPs) and the securitization of pools of the payments on those plans diversifies cell phone carriers' financing, provides liquidity and can lower carriers' overall financing costs,” it said. “EIPs can also provide transparency to consumers in terms of device cost, rather than having carriers heavily subsidizing it.” Since 2013, carriers have moved away from subsidizing customer phones, replacing that practice with financing costs with loans or leases, it said. “This creates a distinct receivable, separate from the contract on the wireless service, which can be pooled into a securitization. The carrier may then issue debt with exposure to its broad book of customers.” Carriers like Sprint are paying close attention to equipment-leasing costs (see 1603090024).

The Wireless Bureau sought comment on granting extensions to license buildout deadlines for multilateration location and monitoring service (M-LMS) licenses to Helen Wong-Armijo, FCR, Skybridge Spectrum Foundation and Telesaurus, it said in a public notice Thursday. Wong-Armijo sought extension of midterm and final construction deadlines for 84 channel block B and C M-LMS licenses until Oct. 5, 2021, the expiration date of the licenses, or a waiver of the deadlines in Section 90.155(d) of buildout requirements. FCR sought extensions or waivers of the deadlines for 13 of its channel block A M-LMS licenses. Skybridge and Telesaurus jointly sought extensions tor Skybridge’s 128 channel block A M-LMS licenses and one Telesaurus channel block C M-LMS license. They asked for an extension of the first construction deadline until Sept. 4, 2018, or an extended time frame for construction if that relief is granted to PCS partners in response to a separate request for extension and waiver. Comments are due Nov. 30, replies Dec. 12, in docket 16-385.