The FCC Wireless Bureau circulated an order on the 896-901/935-940 MHz band, addressing a realignment of the band to create a private enterprise broadband allocation, according to the agency’s list of items on circulation. The Enterprise Wireless Alliance and pdvWireless asked for a rule change last year (see 1505040042). “The realignment would create an allocation to address the broadband needs of critical infrastructure and private enterprise entities, including priority access,” the two said in a May 2015 news release.

The Alliance for Telecommunications Industry Solutions, CTIA and the National Emergency Number Association jointly warned the FCC against mandating backward compatibility for text telephone devices, for nonemergency calls, as it pushes forward on the TTY to real-time text (RTT) transition. Representatives of the groups reported on a meeting with FCC staff working on the issue. The FCC approved an NPRM in April on the transition (see 1604280055). Transcoder overloading is a real threat, the groups said. “Representatives from ATIS explained that, when RTT-enabled phones are configured to accommodate all incoming calls from the circuit switched network as TTY calls, the network must reserve an RTT to TTY transcoder in case it may be needed for the call (i.e., a party activates an RTT session),” the filing said. “Otherwise, a transcoder may not be assigned and calls that begin as voice calls will not be able to transition to an RTT session. However, if an RTT call is initiated as RTT, ATIS noted that the transcoder overloading issue is less of a problem as normal traffic engineering practices can be applied.” ATIS said the backward compatibility requirement proposed by the FCC “could have a significant impact on the industry and could require the industry to upgrade all transcoders to support RTT, or to develop more specific transcoding resourcing with the ability to assign instantaneously.” The filing was in docket 16-145.

The FCC should consider rules for high-frequency spectrum that require licensees to make their frequencies available for unlicensed use when they’re not using what they buy at auction, Public Knowledge said in a filing in 14-177 and other dockets. PK officials met with Wireless Bureau Chief Jon Wilkins. “Performance obligations are a means to an end, not an end in themselves,” PK said. Traditional performance measures won’t work, but a “private commons” rule makes sense, the group said. “The physical propagation characteristics of microwave bands make traditional performance obligations difficult to enforce, and considerably less efficient than sharing,” PK said. “The spectrum has multiple uses, but any given operator will want to construct its network for a specific subset of these uses -- and that subset may not suit a particular geographic area of market. It is not merely costly and inefficient for the licensee to build out network operations to geographic areas or populations where those network operations are unsuited, it does no good to the population now ‘served’ by a wireless network they neither want nor need.”

A year after the Apple Watch set a “new benchmark” for the global smartwatch market, new smartwatch shipments will grow only 3.9 percent this year to 20.1 million units, IDC said in a Thursday tracker report. "To date, smartwatches have remained in the realm of brand loyalists and tech cognoscenti, but we expect that to change over the next few years," said the research firm. It sees smartwatches getting a market boost when more models “will look and feel like traditional watches, appealing to those who put a premium on design and style,” it said. Once more smartwatches get cellular connectivity, “they’ll disconnect from the smartphone, making them more useful,” it said. It also sees smartwatch pricing coming down, “making them more affordable to a broader market," it said. IDC sees global smartwatch shipments increasing at a 23 percent compound annual growth rate in the next four years, reaching 54.6 million units in 2020, it said. It’s becoming increasingly “obvious” that consumers are not willing to deal with poor battery life and the other “technical pain points” that are associated with smartwatches, IDC said.

Fake 911 calls to public safety answering points remain a major problem, said National Emergency Number Association officials in a meeting with FCC Public Safety Bureau Chief David Simpson and others from the bureau. The FCC sought comment last year on whether to drop a 1996 requirement that cellphones that are no longer in service must still be able to make calls to 911 (see 1504020047). The FCC refers to these nonconnected devices as non-service-initialized (NSI) phones. “NENA’s representatives reiterated the extreme importance of solving the NSI problem quickly, and urged the Bureau to work with carriers and other stakeholders to develop novel and viable solutions to this ongoing crisis,” said a filing in docket 08-51.

Competitive Carriers Association President Steve Berry and others from the group met with FCC Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel to press for action on a new mobility fund. “Provide sufficient and predictable funding that can sustain mobile wireless operations and avoids flash cuts for legacy funding. Mobility is essential for next generation technology including 5G and the Internet of Things to flourish throughout the country,” CCA said. “The Commission must not strand currently served consumers without mobile networks -- consumers’ preferred choice -- particularly in rural and disadvantaged areas.” CCA also pressed for business data services reform. “CCA encouraged the FCC to adopt a presumption that low-capacity BDS are not competitive and apply a competitive market test to high-capacity BDS above-50 or -100 Mbps,” said the filing in dockets including 10-208. Commissioner Mignon Clyburn said last week she hopes the FCC will approve Phase II of a mobility fund in coming months (see 1609090016).

CTIA urged the FCC to move with care on new wireless emergency alert rules, scheduled for a vote at commissioners' Sept. 29 meeting (see 1609080083). Revised rules should be tailored to encourage “voluntary private/public partnership with government stakeholders,” CTIA said in a filing in docket 15-91. “It is crucial that changes to the WEA service are carefully developed and deployed to ensure that consumer experiences and expectations are properly managed,” the group said. “The wireless industry is concerned that excessive modifications to WEA may lead to confusion by the public or may overwhelm wireless subscribers with either confusing or duplicative information. This may have the unintended effect of subscribers choosing to opt out of the service.”

The FCC Wireless Bureau approved an order allowing the Southern California Regional Rail Authority (SCRRA) to obtain spectrum from the Automated Maritime Telecommunications System so it can install positive train control (PTC). SCRRA oversees the Metrolink commuter railroad, which operates seven train lines serving 55 train stations on over 500 track miles, the bureau said. On an average weekday, the system serves more than 40,000 commuters. Rail safety has been an issue for the system, the bureau noted. In 2008, a Metrolink commuter train collided with a Union Pacific freight train, killing 25 passengers and injuring more than 100, the bureau said. The National Transportation Safety Board said PTC would have prevented the accident. “We conclude that grant of the SCRRA Applications and related waiver requests will further the vital public interest in rail safety and is consistent with the federal PTC mandate,” the order said.

The Wireless Infrastructure Association will partner with the Smart Cities Council to develop and promote programming for Smart Cities Week Sept. 27-29 in Washington and at WIA’s HetNet Expo Oct. 25-26 in Houston, WIA said in a Tuesday news release. The events will include panels and keynote speeches on the intersection of smart city efforts and wireless networking, WIA said.

CTIA attacked the validity of a Berkeley, California, cellphone warning ordinance on RF emissions exposure, in oral argument Tuesday at the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals (see 1608260019). “Today we presented our argument that the lower court created new law in this case that dramatically weakens First Amendment protections and contradicts binding decisions of the Ninth Circuit as well as the Supreme Court,” a CTIA spokeswoman emailed. “The Ninth Circuit previously invalidated a similar cellphone ordinance in San Francisco.” The FCC, health experts and scientific evidence show the Berkeley warnings are misleading, she said. The city didn’t comment.