FirstNet hired as senior law enforcement adviser, Mike Bostic (see 1608110033), a 34-year veteran of the Los Angeles Police Department. Bostic said in a blog post that cooperation is key to FirstNet’s success. “If I had one wish it would be that all of public safety could put down their personal preferences and do what is right for a nation of public safety officers that have been poorly served by our current states of technology,” Bostic wrote. “Solving our technology problem has never been about the technology, it is generally about governance and the lack of mutual cooperation. We have a chance to change the face of our technology on a system we control.”

Fossil Group CEO Kosta Kartsotis said smartwatch technology will improve, with smaller devices having longer battery lives. Displays on smartwatches will shrink, “which will enable them to fit on a female brand,” and they’ll become untethered to smartphones at some point, he said on a Q2 earnings call Tuesday. “A huge amount of innovation and technology is going to make these products even more compelling to more brands.”

The National Public Safety Telecommunications Council Wednesday blasted a critical article about FirstNet in the September issue of The Atlantic. “The prize for the most wasteful post-9/11 initiative arguably should go to FirstNet,” the article said. “FirstNet is in such disarray that 15 years after the problem it is supposed to solve was identified, it is years from completion -- and it may never get completed at all.” The article was by Steven Brill, founder of The American Lawyer and Court TV. NPSTC disagreed with the claims in the article. It's “far from reality,” NPSTC said. “As most public safety officials know, in addition to being inaccurate, the author failed to capture public safety’s longstanding advocacy efforts and hard work toward a dedicated, reliable mission critical wireless broadband network. In fact, there is not one single quote or testimonial from a public safety representative in the story.”

The FCC Wireless Bureau modified a station licensed to New York's Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) to use its 218-219 MHz spectrum to launch positive train control (PTC). The MTA needs to implement PTC for its Metro-North Commuter Railroad, the order said. Amtrak also can benefit when it uses the same track, the bureau said. MTA also can give New Jersey Transit “access to sufficient spectrum to deploy PTC in seven northern New Jersey counties,” the order said. Metro-North is one of the busiest commuter railroads in the U.S., providing more than 275,000 passenger trips on an average weekday within its service territory, the bureau said. Congress required Amtrak, and many commuter and freight railroads, to deploy interoperable PTC systems as part of the 2008 Rail Safety Improvement Act.

NTIA plans a workshop Sept. 1 on potential IoT benefits and challenges and the government's role in possibly helping advance those technologies. In a notice to be published in Thursday's Federal Register, the agency said it will post on its website a detailed agenda on the workshop, with several panels and speakers. The workshop, open to the public and scheduled for 9 a.m.-3 p.m., will provide input to the Department of Commerce's upcoming IoT green paper, the notice said. The meeting will be at the Patent and Trademark Office, 600 Dulany St., Alexandria, Virginia. In a blog post last week, Angela Simpson, NTIA deputy assistant secretary-communications and information, said (see 1608020060) the agency also is planning to launch a new multistakeholder process to help consumers better understand IoT products that support security upgrades -- building on a June request for comments on IoT benefits and challenges and one last year on cybersecurity.

Motorized window treatment company Somfy joined the ZigBee Alliance at the promoter level and will get a seat on the board, said the alliance in a Tuesday announcement. Somfy, which also makes automated outdoor extensions, gates and garage doors, joins board members Comcast Cable, Itron, Kroger, Landis+Gyr, Legrand, Midea, NXP Semiconductors, Philips, Schneider Electric, Silicon Labs, SmartThings, Texas Instruments and Wulian.

Federated Wireless joined the Telecom Infra Project (TIP), aimed at finding new approaches to deploying telecom networks in developing countries and the remote parts of developed countries, the company said Tuesday. Federated said it joined Facebook, Intel, Nokia and almost 200 other companies in the initiative. Federated is a provider of spectrum sharing technologies. “TIP is addressing some of the most pressing technology industry needs to rapidly connect the unconnected and underserved populations,” said TIP Executive Director Andrew Kurtzman in a news release. “Federated Wireless will join a dynamic membership that is working towards augmenting the development of powerful new technologies and approaches that will pave the way for better connectivity and richer services.”

AT&T chose Harman’s Telematics Control Unit for its mobile broadband accelerator program, said a Harman news release Tuesday. Harman’s integrated telematics and infotainment unit connects automotive systems to the cloud, providing secure, high-speed connectivity via GSM, GPS, Wi-Fi hot spots and LTE, said the company. “Connectivity is the backbone” for future autonomous vehicles, said Phil Eyler, president of Harman’s Connected Car division. “They may run without fuel, but they will not run without connectivity.” The goal of AT&T’s accelerator program is to expedite equipment makers’ ability to deliver advanced connected car experiences, said Cameron Coursey, vice president-product development of AT&T’s Internet of Things Solutions.

DTS CEO Jon Kirchner noted “migration of higher quality content distribution” from the living room to portable devices, saying on a Q2 call Monday the content universe in the living room is “widely spread" across formats. The use case is “inherently there” for higher quality audio on handsets, he said. Chief Financial Officer Mel Flanigan said DTS mobile category sales rose 37 percent to $6.4 million from the year-ago quarter, and automotive rose "substantially" to $17.5 million largely on HD Radio receipts. Total revenue was $48.7 million, up from $34.4 million, said an earnings release that raised full-year forecasts on mobile and automotive market growth. DTS Shares closed up 13 percent Tuesday to $33.02.

The FCC was right to finalize a revised national programmatic agreement streamlining (see 1608080061) the approval process for small cells and distributed antenna systems (DAS), TechFreedom said Tuesday. Carriers face “a staggering backlog in getting permission from local governments for building and upgrading 4G towers,” said Tom Struble, TechFreedom policy counsel, in a statement. “That process has to be simplified for Americans to enjoy faster 5G service.” The approval process makes “some sense for major projects, like siting a traditional cell tower,” he said. “Small cells and DAS, by contrast, typically just attach a small antenna atop existing infrastructure, and thus are unlikely to pose any significant impact on historic sites.” The FCC has more to do to further streamline the process, he said. “The FCC has been so busy trying to seize new regulatory powers, it’s not paid nearly enough attention to problems like this one,” Struble said. “But better late than never.”