Competitive Carriers Association President Steve Berry spoke with FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler to make the case that the agency must address business data services (BDS) as part of a bigger push on 5G. Berry was a top lieutenant to Wheeler when the latter was president of CTIA. “The Chairman and I discussed that BDS are critical inputs into competitive carrier networks and will become even more important as carriers work to densify their networks in anticipation of 5G and the technologies it will support,” Berry wrote. “Backhaul costs represent a large percentage of most competitive carriers’ network operating expenses. These costs will increase exponentially as carriers build out more cell sites to meet existing and growing network demands and to deploy 5G.” Competitive carriers rely on some time-division multiplexing services for backhaul, Berry said. "These services will have limited to no use in a 5G world. Instead, I described that carriers need backhaul capable of supporting the load that 5G will require." The filing, in docket 16-143, wasn't posted by the FCC at our deadline.

AT&T Mobility reached tentative agreement on a healthcare contract with 42,000 union workers represented by Communications Workers of America, the organizations said Wednesday. CWA members must still vote to ratify the agreement. The process usually takes several weeks, with informational meetings for members taking place ahead of the actual vote, a CWA spokeswoman emailed. Summarizing the proposed agreement, CWA highlighted reduced premium costs for 20,000 employees hired after 2014, lower rates for single employees with dependent children, popular HMO plans with lower contribution rates for Puerto Rico employees and a new “Option 2” plan with lower premium costs. AT&T won’t comment on details of the tentative agreement until it’s presented to CWA members for vote, the carrier said in a news release. Last month, CWA members refused to ratify a June tentative agreement (see 1607150027). The current benefits contract expires Dec. 31. CWA “accomplished our main goal, which was to put health care benefits bargaining back in the regional bargaining agreement process and to make health care affordable for all Mobility workers,” said CWA District 1 Vice President Dennis Trainor in a statement. Wages, pension and work rules for union-represented Mobility employees are negotiated under separate contracts.

New America is concerned about parts of the Wi-Fi Alliance’s proposal for coexistence testing of Wi-Fi and LTE-unlicensed, said Michael Calabrese, director of the Wireless Future Program. WifiForward, a pro-Wi-Fi coalition, praised the release, but the Evolve Coalition has said progress has been too slow (see 1608020054). “Consumer advocates are heartened to hear the Wi-Fi Alliance has completed its LTE-U coexistence test plan,” Calabrese said in a Wednesday statement. “However, it is alarming to hear that compromises on the test plan within this industry group could leave 50 percent of Wi-Fi connections at risk of disruption from LTE-U. It is also unfortunate that cellular industry proponents of using LTE on unlicensed spectrum are now threatening to pull back from Wi-Fi coexistence testing they initially proposed and supported.” The FCC must ensure that ITE-U devices pass “the entire test” and can coexist with Wi-Fi, he said.

Samsung launched the Galaxy Note7 Tuesday, touting the smartphone’s iris-scanning biometric authentication, 5.7-inch screen with Corning Gorilla Glass 5 and high-dynamic-range playback of streamed content. In a research email, IHS said the Note7 demonstrates Samsung's desire to be a “technology leader in smartphones” and will act as a premium showcase to boost margins, define strategy and increase brand appeal. Samsung picked IDT’s Wireless PowerShare wireless-charging “architecture” for the Galaxy Note7, IDT CEO Gregory Waters said on a Monday earnings call.

Widespread use of the TV white spaces for accessing the internet is getting closer to reality, Microsoft said in a paper filed at the FCC. “The building blocks are falling into place for a globally scalable marketplace for devices capable of dynamically accessing unused TV white space spectrum,” the paper said. “Numerous standards have been developed including the IEEE’s 802.11af standard for Wi-Fi in the television white space spectrum and the IEEE 802.22 standard for wide area networks. Each of these advances is creating opportunities for vendors to begin product development.” Microsoft cited early deployments around the world. Mediatek demo'd its first tri-band 5 GHz, 2.4 GHz and TV white spaces device based on the 802.11af Wi-Fi standard in a trial in Glasgow, Scotland, Microsoft said. “Several companies have announced plans to manufacture devices incorporating MediaTek’s first generation 802.11af chipset.” Paula Boyd, Microsoft director-government and regulatory affairs, discussed the paper with Matthew Hussey, associate chief of the FCC Office of Engineering & Technology, said a filing in docket 04-186.

Verizon named Ronan Dunne, former CEO of O2 UK, executive vice president and group president of Verizon Wireless, effective in September. For the past eight years, Dunne was CEO of O2 UK, the No. 2 U.K. wireless carrier, and a member of the executive committee of parent Telefonica SA, Verizon said in a Tuesday news release. He “will be responsible for all aspects of Verizon Wireless’ operations, including marketing operations, wireless operations, network operations, customer care and digital operations,” Verizon said. Dunne will report to John Stratton, Verizon president-operations.

Total Call Mobile asked the FCC to reverse a Wireline Bureau order freezing Lifeline payments to the company “starting in May and for future periods indefinitely.” The order "jeopardizes the Company's ability to continue to provide service to eligible subscribers and thereby threatens the essential communications services of Lifeline subscribers,” Total Call said in the petition for reconsideration. “The purported temporary nature of the Bureau's action does not grant the Bureau special authority in this instance,” the carrier said. “Regardless of the terminology the Bureau used in the order, the Funding Hold Order is a suspension, pure and simple.” Only by following section 54.8 of FCC rules can the agency suspend payments “and the Bureau declined to follow that process,” Total Call said. The Wireline Bureau put payments on hold because of a notice of apparent liability for forfeiture and order resulting from an investigation against Total Call by the Enforcement Bureau (see 1606220073). The notice proposed fining Total Call Mobile $51 million for allegedly enrolling tens of thousands of duplicate and ineligible consumers into the low-income telecom support program (see 1604080032).

The FCC-proposed deadline for wireless carriers to transition from text telephone (TTY) to real-time text (RTT) technology may be “too aggressive for all providers,” the Competitive Carriers Association told the commission. The agency proposed a deadline of Dec. 31, 2017. CCA and other commenters made similar points as the FCC sought comment on an NPRM on the transition (see 1607260020). “CCA and its members are committed to moving to RTT, but need the largest carriers to pave the way for equipment and technology development and deployments,” CCA said. The FCC should extend the deadline by 18 months for non-nationwide carriers, the group said. “Competitive carriers have less ability to influence the technical ecosystem in which RTT will operate, or the device ecosystem necessary to acquire devices with RTT capability.” CCA made its points in a meeting with officials from the Consumer and Governmental Affairs Bureau, said a filing in docket 15-178.

The FCC Enforcement Bureau fined an amateur radio operator $25,000 for allegedly interfering with other amateur operators. The operator, William Crowell of Diamond Springs, California, told us he would fight the fine. The forfeiture represents the full penalty initially proposed for the violation last year, plus $3,000 for continuing violations, the bureau said. The bureau said it responded to multiple complaints of interference, primarily from members of the Western Amateur Radio Friendship Association (WARFA). Bureau field agents investigated. They found Crowell’s amateur radio station “intentionally interfering with other amateur licensees by transmitting on top of other amateurs, and repeatedly interrupting amateurs using noises on the WARFA net, recordings and music, so as to not allow them to transmit on 3908 kHz.11,” the order said. “Between 7:45 P.M. and 9:45 P.M. PDT, on both August 25 and August 27, the Agents ... observed at least a dozen instances, lasting from thirty seconds to at least four minutes each, of Mr. Crowell intentionally transmitting on top of and repeatedly interrupting amateurs on the WARFA net.” The interfering transmissions included racial, ethnic and sexual slurs and epithets, the bureau said. Crowell responded to a proposed fine, saying he was exercising his First Amendment rights of free speech, the order said: “Mr. Crowell argues further that the Bureau characterized his transmissions as jamming or interference because it does not like what he wants to say.” Crowell was cited for the interference itself, not the content of the transmissions, the bureau said. “It is well-established that regulation of radio in general does not violate the First Amendment or Section 326 [of the Communications Act], and courts have made clear that this conclusion applies to the amateur service as well.” Crowell vowed to fight the FCC in court. "I haven't had an opportunity to study the Forfeiture Order very carefully yet, but from what I have seen so far I think it is on very weak legal grounds and represents nothing but more bluffing, bullying and denial of Constitutional rights by the FCC," Crowell emailed us. "I am not going to be paying anything on the Forfeiture Order, and I fully expect to fight it in the U.S. District Court in a trial de novo under Sec. 504 of the Communications Act, if the U.S. Attorney sees fit to file such a suit."

Huawei faces headwinds in its aim to become the top global smartphone vendor in five years, said a Monday ABI Research report. The Chinese smartphone maker rose to the No. 3 global smartphone maker primarily on sales in its home market, but it will need to get a strong foothold in the U.S. and Western Europe to achieve its goal, while creating its own chipsets and Android-based mobile operating system, ABI said. It was helped by the “ongoing collapse” of shipment numbers from brands including BlackBerry, HTC, Sony and Microsoft Lumia, said analyst David McQueen. Android smartphone makers like Samsung tried to develop competing OS platforms and “failed miserably,” he said.