Verizon agreed to pay $2.4 billion to acquire Dublin-based Fleetmatics, a fleet and mobile workforce management company serving small and medium-sized businesses, the telco said in a news release Monday. Friday Verizon closed an acquisition of Telogis (see 1606210069), another fleet management software-as-a-service company, it said. The combination of Verizon Telematics, Fleetmatics and Telogis “will position the combined companies to become a leading provider of fleet and mobile workforce management solutions globally," said Verizon Telematics CEO Andrés Irlando. Fleetmatics has 37,000 customers, 737,000 subscribers and 1,200 employees, Verizon said. The Fleetmatics acquisition is subject to regulatory approvals and closing conditions, including shareholder approval and the sanction by the Irish High Court of the arrangement by which Verizon will buy Fleetmatics. Verizon expects the deal to close in Q4, it said.

Political convention attendees used massive amounts of wireless data last month, Verizon said in a news release Monday. Verizon Wireless customers at the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia used more than 9.3 TB of wireless data over the four-day event in the Wells Fargo Center, Verizon said. Data use peaked on the fourth day with 2.65 TB consumed, it said. At the Republican National Convention one week earlier, customers consumed more than 28.5 TB over four days on the Verizon network at the Quicken Loans Arena and across downtown Cleveland, the carrier said. As in Philadelphia, data usage peaked on Day 4, with a total amount estimated at 7.3 TB, Verizon said.

TP-Link, which sells Wi-Fi routers, agreed to pay $200,000 and to stop marketing routers that don’t fully comply with FCC power level rules, the agency said Monday. The consent decree alleges TP-Link violated Section 15.15(b) of the FCC rules by selling routers that can operate at power levels that exceed their approved parameters on some restricted Wi-Fi channels. “TP-Link cooperated with the Bureau’s investigation and, as part of the consent decree, has agreed to pay a $200,000 fine and implement a compliance program to ensure future compliance with the Commission’s rules and regulations,” the FCC said in a news release. “TP-Link will institute processes to ensure that products imported or marketed in the U.S. are in compliance with the FCC’s rules, remove any noncompliant products from the U.S. marketplace and offer an updated user-downloadable version of software on its website so that affected users can bring their Wi-Fi router into compliance.” The FCC’s approach struck a careful balance, said Travis LeBlanc, chief of the Enforcement Bureau. “While manufacturers of Wi-Fi routers must ensure reasonable safeguards to protect radio parameters, users are otherwise free to customize their routers and we support TP-Link’s commitment to work with the open-source community and Wi-Fi chipset manufacturers to enable third-party firmware on TP-Link routers.” TP-Link didn't comment.

The FCC Wireless Bureau approved AT&T’s buy of two lower 700 MHz B-block licenses from West Carolina (see 1603020060). The licenses cover all or parts of two local market areas in South Carolina, the bureau said. The deal got extra scrutiny because it would increase AT&T’s spectrum holdings in the markets above one-third of the currently suitable and available below-1-GHz spectrum, the order said. “After carefully evaluating the likely competitive effects of AT&T’s increased aggregation of below-1-GHz spectrum in these two local market areas, as well as the other factors ordinarily considered in a case-by-case review, we find that the likelihood of competitive harm is low,” the bureau said. “We find some public interest benefits are likely to be realized, such as increased network quality and a better consumer experience.”

T-Mobile representatives urged the FCC to make information available about vendors that can help broadcasters relocate after the TV incentive auction as part of a public-facing webpage. The T-Mobile representatives met with Gary Epstein, chairman of the Incentive Auction Task Force, and other FCC officials to discuss the importance of an “efficient, phased” process. “To facilitate an efficient information flow regarding resources, T-Mobile suggested the Commission offer broadcast equipment suppliers and broadcast service companies an opportunity to identify their firms’ capabilities on an FCC-hosted webpage in a manner similar to the voluntary, vendor-identification list FirstNet developed during its contracting process,” said a filing on the meeting. “Hosting vendor-provided contact information would not serve as an endorsement of any firm, but would help highlight the number and variety of vendors prepared to support the repacking process.” The filing was posted in docket 12-268.

AT&T put Dolby Audio at the top of its feature list for the AT&T-branded Trek 2 HD tablet that will be in stores Friday. The 8-inch Android tablet will sell for a buck with two-year agreement or $7.50 per month for 20 months with an eligible plan, said AT&T. Other features: Snapdragon 1.5 GHz Octa-core processor, 16 GB storage expandable to 128 GB with a microSD card, 10.5-hour battery life and five-megapixel front and rear cameras.

The IoT and 5G will transform healthcare, said Bob Rogers, Google chief data scientist-big data solutions, in a Friday blog post. “As 5G becomes available, a much wider array of devices [will] be able to communicate, and even the smallest devices will be able to do so while at the same time performing powerful computations thanks to a connection to the cloud,” Rogers wrote. Healthcare will benefit, he said. “We can expect a new generation [of] wearables for tracking heart health and fitness, diagnostics for proactive patient care, powerful data analytics and more,” he said. “Just imagine a world where a patient’s condition can be assessed and treatment can be administered via wearable devices.” A patient’s data can be sent to a doctor anywhere, “who can then administer the treatment a patient needs -- and even deliver a medication through the device itself,” Rogers said. “It’s not far off.”

Ford is “working very hard” on autonomous vehicles, CEO Mark Fields said in Q&A on a Thursday earnings call when asked if he thinks self-driving cars are being “overhyped” in the media and by automotive competitors. Whenever “something new and shiny and sexy” emerges like autonomous vehicles, “I think sometimes the media does tend to write about things maybe in flourishing ways,” Fields said. “I mean we're just going to stay very focused on our plan.” Fields agrees “there's a lot of announcements going on right now by a lot of competitors” on autonomous vehicles, “and I just want to be really clear,” he said. “We are not in a race to make announcements. We are in a race to do what's right and best for our customers and best for our business, period.” Following the General Motors $581 million acquisition of Cruise Automation and its $500 million investment in Lyft to test self-driving cars, GM CEO Mary Barra said on GM’s earnings call that commercializing autonomous vehicles is “something I focus on every day” (see 1607220003). Earlier, BMW, Intel and Mobileye announced plans to bring autonomous vehicles to streets by 2021 (see 1607010052).

The FCC Wireless Bureau sought comment on a waiver request by Expert Linears America, which wants to import an unmodified version of an amplifier used by amateur radio operators. The company already sells a version of the amplifier that complies with Amateur Radio Services rules, the bureau said in a Friday notice. “Expert seeks a waiver in order to be able to import the unmodified version of the Model 1.3K FA, which is capable of considerably more than 15 dB amplification,” the bureau said. “Expert argues that the public interest would be served by permitting use of a higher-powered amplifier, because it would improve the communications capabilities of amateurs using portable, low-power transmitters by enabling them to approach the maximum legal power output.” Comments are due Aug. 29, replies Sept. 13 in docket 16-243.

Sprint’s proposed spectrum swap with U.S. Cellular (USCC) (see 1607070042) helps Sprint address a requirement of the April order approving the Sprint/Shentel/nTelos transaction, Sprint said in a filing at the FCC. Among the order's requirements was that Sprint sell off 20 MHz of AWS-1 spectrum in various markets in Virginia (see 1604150046). “In anticipation of this voluntary commitment, Sprint negotiated with USCC for a mutually beneficial spectrum exchange so that USCC would obtain the 20 MHz of AWS-1 spectrum in markets it desired in exchange for Sprint receiving mid-band spectrum in other markets. The parties sought to exchange sufficient spectrum of comparable value such that no additional cash consideration from either Applicant would be necessary.” Sprint said the trade will give it PCS spectrum in Michigan, Kansas and Illinois comparable to what it's giving up in Virginia. That new spectrum will help it deploy 4G LTE service in the markets covered and “rationalize/eliminate … less usable spectrum ‘fragments’ or ‘stranded’ channels,” Sprint said in the filing in docket 16-179.