CTIA President Meredith Baker met with all five FCC members to lay out the group’s concerns headed into Thursday commissioner meeting, which will consider the spectrum frontiers order, said a filing in docket 14-177. “CTIA expressed support for moving forward to make the 28, 37, 39, and 64-71 GHz bands available to support innovative 5G and Internet of Things technologies,” the filing said. “CTIA urged the Commission to adopt policies that prioritize licensed, exclusive use spectrum and provide the flexibility to innovate. CTIA explained that such actions will enable wireless providers to improve service for U.S. wireless consumers, foster development of the Internet of Things, and extend this country’s global 4G leadership position into 5G services.” Baker said the rules as proposed by Chairman Tom Wheeler adequately protect satellite incumbents in the 28 GHz band. “Despite satellite operators having only limited rights to use of this spectrum, both the Commission and the wireless industry in this proceeding have made significant accommodations to satellite incumbents,” the filing said. “These options are especially noteworthy, CTIA explained, in light of satellite companies’ stated intentions to compete directly with terrestrial mobile providers in the provision of broadband services.” Baker also warned against imposing cybersecurity rules, the filing said: “CTIA described the wireless industry’s consistent track record of deploying and integrating cyber security protective measures without need for onerous government intervention.” Baker is a former FCC commissioner. CTIA also reported on call between Brian Josef, CTIA assistant vice president-regulatory affairs, and Brian Regan, Wireless Bureau associate chief. “CTIA discussed the potential negative implications of adoption of a complex sharing arrangement for the lower portion of the 37 GHz band together with an operability requirement that spans the entire 37 GHz band,” the filing said.

Verizon said it completed its 5G radio specification, the first U.S. carrier to do so. “The specification provides guidelines to test and validate crucial 5G technical components,” Verizon said in a Monday news release. “The development of the specification allows industry partners such as chipset vendors, network vendors, and mobile operators to develop interoperable solutions and contribute to pre-standard testing and fabrication.” It called the step a milestone toward the development of a complete 5G spec. Verizon said its pre-commercial 5G testing is continuing in in New Jersey, Massachusetts and Texas. The company's goal “is to accelerate the pace of innovation and to accelerate when the industry can deliver benefits of fiber functionality wirelessly to customers,” the carrier said. “During the testing process, Verizon has validated numerous 5G technology enablers, such as wide bandwidth operation of several hundred MHz in size, multiple antenna array processing, and carrier aggregation capabilities that are substantially different from 4G.” Verizon said propagation and penetration testing across residential single and multi-dwelling units in field locations "has validated the feasibility" of using high-frequency spectrum as part of 5G. The carrier has said repeatedly it plans to lead the U.S. as 5G is deployed (see 1607050062).

The Wi-Fi Alliance named Alexander Roytblat, the longtime World Radiocommuncation Conference director at the FCC, senior director-worldwide regulatory affairs. “In this newly created role, Roytblat will lead Wi-Fi Alliance engagement with regulatory bodies around the world,” the alliance said in a Thursday news release. Roytblat was vice chairman of the U.S. delegation to the 2003, 2007 and 2012 WRCs.

The FCC must devise rules in its spectrum frontiers order to protect fixed service (FS) wide-area licenses in the 37.5-40.0 GHz band, said wireless backhaul company FiberTower in a filing in docket 14-177. Introducing upper microwave flexible use service (UMFUS) transmitters in the band is a threat to FS incumbents, FiberTower said. “As amply demonstrated in the record … FS base station and remote module operations are -- from a propagation standpoint -- highly similar, if not identical, to proposed UMFUS operations,” the company said. “In other words, UMFUS is a natural and inextricably intertwined development of the FS. Thus, long-standing protections for terrestrial licensees must be preserved, if not strengthened.”

Wearable devices of various types will be a $30 billion global market this year, with about a third of that “coming from newly popular products including smartwatches and fitness trackers,” IDTechEx said in a Thursday report. Though the research firm sees the market growing to more than $150 billion by 2026, that significant growth won’t come without “shake-ups in several prominent sectors, with commoditization hitting hard, and product form factors changing rapidly,” it said.

The FCC established a pleading cycle on a proposed spectrum transfer of PCS and AWS-1 licenses between Sprint and U.S. Cellular (USCC). “Applicants assert that the proposed transaction would enable more efficient operations that would help meet the demands of their customers for broadband wireless services. In those markets where either Sprint or USCC gains additional spectrum, the Applicants claim the proposed transaction would provide added capacity and improved data throughput speeds,” the FCC said in a Thursday public notice. No customers or facilities are affected, just spectrum, the agency said. By the FCC’s calculation, the swaps include spectrum in 49 counties in all or parts of 14 cellular market areas in parts of Illinois, Kansas, Michigan, Virginia and Washington, the PN said. The spectrum covers “close to one percent of the population of the United States,” the agency said. The FCC said Sprint owns enough spectrum in seven of the covered counties that the deal requires enhanced review in those counties. Petitions to deny are due at the FCC July 28, oppositions Aug. 4, replies Aug. 11. The FCC also sent a request to Sprint asking a series of questions about the deal.

All high-frequency bands are not equal, AT&T’s Advanced Wireless Technology Group said in a report filed at the FCC. The group compared the 28 and 39 GHz bands, two of the bands the FCC is expected reallocate for broadband at the July 14 commission meeting (see 1606240026). A licensee would need 44-66 percent more spectrum in the 39 GHz band to provide the same cell edge data rate with the same cell radius it would need in the 28 GHz band, the report said. “Between these two bands, the industry momentum currently favors 28 GHz due to the activity in Korea as related to the 2018 Olympics,” the report said. “From a propagation point of view, 28 GHz has better potential given the longer wavelengths as compared to 37/39 GHz. But there is significantly more bandwidth available in the 37/39 GHz, which makes it an attractive 5G option as well.” The report was filed in docket 14-177.

Verizon Wireless allegedly took millions of dollars from the Defense Department through fraudulently inflated billings, said a whistleblower complaint (in Pacer) unsealed Wednesday in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. OnTheGo Wireless, filing the complaint as a relator on behalf of the United States, said Verizon violated the False Claims Act by not honoring a promise to provide prices to DOD that are as good or better than those charged other customers. “Verizon routinely and knowingly overcharged the DOD for wireless communication services,” the complaint said. “The margin of overcharge was immense, amounting to millions of dollars each year.” Verizon senior executives knew about the overcharging, it said. OnTheGo said it knew about the scheme because Verizon retained a related entity to analyze pricing plans, including nonpublic pricing data, for many of Verizon’s customers. The relator said it was “present at meetings where Verizon acknowledged its failure to comply with the best pricing obligations it owed the government.” The complaint seeks damages and civil penalties on behalf of the U.S. Verizon didn’t comment Thursday.

Volkswagen and LG signed an R&D memorandum for development of a connected car service platform, the companies said Wednesday. They will work together on Volkswagen's Cross-Over-Platform that will offer drivers access to smart home and location-based services. They will focus on integrating the connected car and smart home and developing a notification center that delivers message intuitively and safely to drivers, they said. The platform will allow "wide integration with smart home services and adoption of open IoT connectivity technologies," said Richard Choi, head of LG’s cloud center.

Global demand for “innovative” flexible displays for wearables and other mobile devices will increase by more than 300 percent to around $15 billion in 2022, from $3.7 billion this year, IHS said in a Tuesday report. Flexible displays will generate 13 percent of total display market revenue in 2020, IHS said. LG and Samsung launched the first smartphones with flexible active-matrix OLED displays three years ago, and “inspired by these successes, other mobile manufacturers are now developing their own flexible-display devices,” it said. Though only a few suppliers “are now regularly supplying flexible displays to the market,” many more panel makers “are now attempting to build flexible display capacity, leveraging the latest AMOLED display technology,” it said.