The FTC cleared the way for Deutsche Telekom spectrum swaps with AT&T in several markets including San Diego, Sacramento and Tucson, in early termination notices ending the transactions’ Hart-Scott-Rodino waiting periods. The companies signed the agreements Sept. 2, said a filing at the FCC. The FTC also granted early termination of the waiting period for networking company Infoblox’s sale to Vista Equity Partners. That deal is expected to close Q2 of FY 2017, Infoblox and Vista said in a news release Friday.

FirstNet may not meet its self-imposed deadline of early November to pick a team of companies to build a national network (see 1606300064), said public safety consultant Andrew Seybold Friday in an email. FirstNet has said its goal is to announce in early November, but several times, members of the FirstNet C-level (executive level) said there may be circumstances that might delay the announcement, Seybold wrote: “Further, it is not clear, at least to me, that when FirstNet does announce the chosen Partner all of the t’s will have been crossed and i’s dotted. This is a complex system, and while the network will be built out on greenfield spectrum (band 14), chances are pretty good that the Partner will either be or have a nationwide operator and a number of rural broadband operators lined up as its partners.” Parts of FirstNet will operate on existing networks, he said. FirstNet also must address many complexities, Seybold said. “Many of these could directly impact the time it takes the FirstNet Partner to complete the basic network. Plans change as computer-generated coverage maps are sent to the field. A site may be deemed not acceptable, antenna placement less than ideal, or a tower already exceeds its rated wind loading. When this happens, FirstNet and the Partner will have to work out how to resolve the issues, how to keep the momentum going, and how to keep the project on track both from the Partner’s and Public Safety community’s perspective.”

GSMA expects growth starting the second year after it first hosts a new conference, "GSMA Mobile World Congress Americas, in partnership with CTIA," next year in San Francisco (see 1610070023), a representative emailed us Friday. “GSMA has worked with CTIA as the US wireless trade association for several years, with many members in common, and we very much respect the important work that the CTIA does for our industry,” said Chief Marketing Officer Michael O’Hara. “We expect the event to have relatively flat … attendance for the first year as we transition to a new venue in San Francisco, but then we anticipate growth as we move forward with our partnership.” Mobile World Congress Americas “will go beyond the U.S. market to create a true ‘Americas’ event that will serve all of North America, as well as Latin America,” said O'Hara. “Clearly, North America and the United States in particular are viewed as leaders in mobile innovation, so Mobile World Congress Americas will likely attract attention from outside the region, but our initial focus is squarely on the Americas.” The initial event will highlight 4G and 5G technologies, consumer and industrial IoT, media and content, innovation and “of course the important policy issues for the Americas market,” the representative said.

Amazon pushed holiday season ordering by Alexa, saying in a Thursday news release that 70 percent of Amazon.com shoppers last year made purchases using a mobile device and that shopping via mobile app more than doubled over 2014. It also promoted “hands-free” shopping by Alexa this holiday season via Echo, Tap and Fire TV devices. In another announcement, Amazon said it slotted 120,000 positions for the holiday season.

A new 5G Americas paper provides an update on 3rd Generation Partnership Project Release 13 and its many updates for LTE. The release “supports Active Antenna Systems (AAS), including beamforming, Multi-Input Multi-Output (MIMO) and Self-Organizing Network (SON) aspects, enhanced signaling to support inter-site Coordinated Multi-Point Transmission and Reception (CoMP), Carrier Aggregation (CA) enhancements to support up to 32 component carriers and Dual Connectivity (DC) enhancements to better support multi-vendor deployments with improved traffic steering,” the paper said. “Improvements in Radio Access Network (RAN) sharing have also [been] worked on as part of Rel-13. Work on enhancements to Machine Type Communication (MTC) and Proximity Services (ProSe) continued from Rel-12.” The paper emphasizes that “LTE is not a yesterday story,” Chris Pearson, president of 5G Americas, said in a Wednesday news release. “It is a technology for today and tomorrow.” Work continues toward 5G, the group said: "The 3GPP standards have many innovations remaining for LTE to create a foundation for 5G."

Samsung slashed its Q3 operating profit forecast by a third to cover the "impact" of recalling and scrapping the Galaxy Note7, the company said in a Wednesday announcement. "After recent incidents and in consideration of our consumers’ safety," Samsung "stopped sales, exchanges and production" of the troubled smartphone (see 1610110042), the company said. Samsung now expects to report a Q3 operating profit of 5.2 trillion Korean won ($4.6 billion), a 33 percent downgrade from the forecast of 7.8 trillion won ($7 billion) in Q3 operating profit from only a few days earlier (see 1610070038), the company said. The downgrade "reflects the impact" on Q3 earnings of the decision to scrap the Note7, Samsung said. It also converted the previously expected 5 percent rise in operating profit from Q3 a year earlier into an expected 30 percent decline, the company said. Samsung scheduled the release of Q3 results for Oct. 27.

The National Consumers League asked the FCC to take a closer look at the role international mobile roaming (IMR) services play in wireless “bill shock.” An NCL analysis found that “a significant portion of the more than 73 million Americans who travel abroad annually may be at risk of incurring higher than expected charges on their wireless phone bills,” NCL said in a Wednesday news release. Since 2011, carriers have been providing notifications to travelers of international roaming charges they may incur while using their phones overseas, the group said. “Given the explosive growth of data-intensive smartphones since 2011, however, NCL believes notifications alone may not be sufficient to prevent IMR-related bill shock, it said. NCL urged the FCC to “gather new data on the impact of IMR-related bill shock and consider possible regulatory or voluntary industry solutions.” Scott Bergmann, vice president-regulatory affairs at CTIA, questioned the need for the FCC to step in. “The wireless industry provides consumers with a host of consumer-friendly protections and service offerings to ensure that consumers can travel abroad without unexpected international roaming charges,” Bergmann said. “Through practices developed collaboratively with the FCC and Consumers Union, wireless providers offer usage alerts, as well as a variety of service plans, account management tools, tips and customer service support to help consumers connect and manage their bills when they travel abroad.” The marketplace is working for wireless consumers, he said.

Sprint said it plans to raise about $3.5 billion by selling off and then leasing back spectrum licenses. About 14 percent of Sprint’s total spectrum holdings, on a MHz/POPs basis, are included in the deal, offered through three lease vehicles, Sprint said in a Wednesday news release. The spectrum leases are used “by approximately 77 percent of all of Sprint’s 2.5GHz enabled sites and approximately 33 percent of Sprint’s 1.9GHz enabled sites,” Sprint said. The licenses were independently valued at $16.4 billion, the company said. Sprint said it had negative cash flow of $3.17 billion in its last fiscal year, which ended March 31. Chief Financial Officer Tarek Robbiati said in May the carrier was working on a deal to shore up its books by selling and then leasing back spectrum (see 1605250060). In April, Sprint said it formed Network LeaseCo for the sale and leaseback of some of its network assets, mostly equipment located at cell towers (see 1604060070). The notes are expected to be rated investment grade by both Moody’s and Fitch, Sprint said. “The consummation of the Notes offering is subject to market and other conditions and is anticipated to close in early November 2016,” the carrier said. “There can be no assurance the Notes offering will be successfully completed on the terms described herein or at all.” The announcement was expected by investors, but there are still many unknowns, said Jonathan Chaplin, analyst at New Street Research, in a research note. “The most interesting data point will be what the value ascribed to this spectrum implies for Sprint’s overall spectrum value -- specifically, what value is being ascribed to Sprint’s 2.5 GHz licenses," Chaplin said. "Without knowing specifically which 1.9 GHz and 2.5 GHz licenses have been placed into the vehicles it is impossible to say, and the range of possible values based on the data that has been disclosed so far is enormous.” “The intent of the deal is to lower Sprint’s borrowing costs by replacing more than $4 billion of higher cost unsecured debt that is maturing over the next four quarters with this new secured debt,” said BTIG analyst Walter Piecyk in a blog post. BTIG estimates Sprint is valuing mostly 2.5 GHz spectrum at $1.85 MHz/POP, “which is more than 6x the $0.30/MHz/POP it effectively paid for this spectrum when it acquired Clearwire in 2013,” Piecyk said.

The number of devices capable of wireless charging will pass the 200 million unit mark for the first time this year, but the market will fall short of previous forecasts, said a Tuesday IHS Markit report. IHS had called for shipments of 250 million receivers this year. Contributing to the shortfall were the lack of wireless charging in flagship smartphones such as the iPhone 7 and delivery delays for the first resonant receiver systems and wireless charging-enabled laptops, said IHS. In the automotive market, in-cabin wireless charging continues to grow, but the first OEM wireless electric vehicles won’t be launched until late 2017, said IHS. Mercedes-Benz is the first manufacturer to announce intent to launch wireless charging with the 2017 S-Class 500e, it said. Mobile phones and wearables have driven growth of 40 percent over 2015 levels with many customers experiencing wireless charging for the first time, said IHS. A quarter of consumers have used wireless charging and more than 98 percent would choose the feature again on their next phone, it said. Adoption of wireless charging will ramp up, said IHS, which still predicts the market will exceed a billion annual receiver shipments per year by 2020, led by mobile phones and wearables.

Windstream plans to roll out last-mile fixed wireless using millimeter spectrum to 40 markets under a partnership with Cambridge Broadband Networks (CBNL) and Straight Path Communications, Windstream said in a news release Tuesday. CBNL provides licensed point-to-multipoint radios and Straight Path is the largest licensed holder of millimeter wave spectrum, Windstream said. The telco plans to deploy CBNL radios with Straight Path’s 39 GHz spectrum to 33 new markets, and upgrade seven markets where it already has fixed wireless technology, it said. Windstream said it has an option to later expand to 32 more markets where Straight Path owns 39 GHz spectrum; the technology will allow speeds up to 275 Mbps full duplex.