The FCC Wireless Bureau sought comment Thursday on a March AT&T petition outlining a smart grid solution that can be deployed in the unpaired C and D blocks of the wireless communications service band (see 1603300036). The petition asked the FCC to waive the interim performance requirement for the unpaired blocks owned by AT&T in the 2.3 GHz band, the bureau said. AT&T had complained it took the company some time to find a use for the C and D blocks that didn’t raise interference concerns. Comments are due June 22, replies July 5, the notice said.

The public should weigh in on the FCC NPRM on the text telephone technology to real-time text (RTT) transition, said Alison Cutler, chief of the Consumer and Governmental Affairs Bureau, in a Thursday blog post. The FCC approved an NPRM on the transition at its April 28 meeting (see 1604280055) and initial comments are due July 11. “The recent NPRM is an outgrowth of input and feedback that we have received from industry, the deaf and hard of hearing community, and other consumer groups,” Cutler wrote. “Our goal is to address the needs of people with disabilities who use text to communicate as we transition from circuit-switched to IP services.” The transition is also a step forward for public safety communications, she said. “Public safety operators who use IP networks would be able to gather crucial information more quickly,” she said. “They say seconds count. RTT would enable you to communicate during those precious seconds.”

NTIA should keep the interests of competitive carriers in mind in its April request for comment on the government's role in encouraging the growth of the IoT (see 1604060030), the Competitive Carriers Association said in a Thursday news release. Comments were due Thursday. The IoT “is here and ever-growing, and to remain competitive in the marketplace and provide consumers with the services they want and demand, competitive carriers must incorporate IoT into their business plans,” said CCA President Steve Berry. “There is a lot NTIA, the FCC and Congress can do to make sure IoT technology is widely, competitively deployed. For example, there are several proceedings before the FCC, including the Spectrum Frontiers proceeding, the incentive auction, and the business data services proceeding, that will have a huge impact on IoT development and deployment, and I strongly encourage the Commission to consider the impact that these proceedings will have on competitive carriers’ abilities to provide IoT opportunities to their customers.” ACT|The App Association, which provided us its comments to NTIA, said the security and privacy of users’ data through end-to-end encryption is vital to maintain trust and rejected calls (see 1604180048) from law enforcement for back doors to such encrypted devices and data. The group also emphasized coordination among federal agencies as “essential” for IoT to progress. Such coordination will help “avoid duplicative or conflicting regulations and parallel efforts,” among other benefits, the group said.

Dish Network's move to use 2000-2020 MHz for downlink operations could make it, or at least its spectrum holdings, a more attractive Verizon takeover target, said analyst Michael Rollins of Citi in a note to investors Thursday. "Carriers will eventually place greater value on downlink spectrum to meet data traffic demands." Rollins said Verizon has particularly pressing long-term spectrum needs and Dish's spectrum would complement the carrier's existing AWS holdings, and "the mix of downlink-centric spectrum could further fuel Verizon's mobile video ambitions." In a filing Wednesday in FCC docket 13-225, Dish said it was electing to reverse the 20 megahertz of AWS-4 uplink spectrum to downlink. In a news release, it also said the Third Generation Partnership Project's RAN4 working group had agreed on LTE Band 70 specifications -- Band 70 covering Dish's AWS-4 spectrum and its H block downlink spectrum at 1995-2000 MHz, plus unpaired AWS-3 uplink spectrum at 1695-1710 MHz, and said formal 3GPP approval will open the door to development of devices and infrastructure supporting Band 70. When asked Thursday about the Verizon speculation, Dish didn't comment.

In a forecast update Wednesday, IDC cut 2016 worldwide smartphone shipment projections by 2.6 percentage points due to a “continued slowdown in mature markets and China.” IDC now projects smartphone shipments to rise 3.1 percent this year, compared with 10.5 percent growth in 2015 and 27.8 percent in 2014. Smartphone shipments will reach 1.48 billion this year and 1.84 billion in 2020, said IDC. It expects large markets -- the U.S., Western Europe and China -- to have low single-digit growth rates this year. "Consumers everywhere are getting savvy about how and where they buy their smartphones, and this is opening up new doors for OEMs and causing some traditional channels to lose some control of the hardware flow," said analyst Ryan Reith. Apple smartphone shipments are on track to experience their first annual decline in 2016.

Americans don't have any expectation of privacy over their historical cellphone location data, and the government can obtain such information without a warrant, said the full 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in a Tuesday 12-3 ruling that overturned its three-judge panel opinion last year. In U.S. v. Graham, the majority opinion cited Supreme Court precedent in concluding that the government's acquisition of historical cellsite location information (CSLI) from the cellphone provider of a defendant in the case, Aaron Graham, didn't violate his Fourth Amendment right against unreasonable search and seizure. "The Court has long held that an individual enjoys no Fourth Amendment protection 'in information he voluntarily turns over to [a] third part[y],'" said the majority's ruling, which said "all of our sister circuits" came to the same conclusion. While the Supreme Court may limit or even eliminate the third-party doctrine in the future and Congress may act to require a warrant for CSLI, the majority 4th Circuit opinion said "without a change in controlling law, we cannot conclude that the Government violated the Fourth Amendment in this case." Three judges who dissented said a cellphone customer "neither possesses the knowledge of his CSLI nor acts to disclose it" and hasn't voluntarily shared location data with a cellphone provider in any "meaningful" way. Jennifer Lynch, senior staff attorney with the Electronic Frontier Foundation, which filed an amicus brief in the case, wrote in a blog post that decisions from five appellate courts "means that now, in the vast majority of states, federal law enforcement agents don't need to get a warrant to get access to this data from cell service provider." She wrote the 4th Circuit majority opinion relied "on a wonky legal principle from two 1970s Supreme Court cases" on third-party doctrine but went further, saying "it didn’t matter if cell site location information could reveal sensitive information about our lives."

APCO disagreed sharply with Federated Wireless arguments that a dynamic spectrum sharing framework, enabled by a spectrum access system, could “expand the use of, and improve the efficiency of, the 4.9 GHz band.” In June 2012, the FCC approved revised rules designed to boost use of the underused public safety band (see 1206140066). Federated urged the FCC in a filing to look to its rules for the 3.5 GHz band as a model for the 4.9 GHz band. “Federated Wireless’s proposal ignores the importance of frequency coordination for public safety,” APCO said in a filing Wednesday. “Clear and interference-free operation is a fundamental requirement of public safety communications.” APCO's 4.9 GHz Task Force “found that this is especially true for this band, given its ability to handle broadband data and thus carry large amounts of sensitive, mission-critical information,” the filing said. The filings are in docket 07-100.

FirstNet’s Public Safety Advisory Committee (PSAC) will discuss “working group and task team updates” in a meeting in San Diego June 6, FirstNet said Tuesday. The meeting is to start at 8 a.m. PDT at the Hard Rock Hotel San Diego, said a notice. The meeting will be streamed, FirstNet said.

Movado Group research recently found that half of U.S. consumers are “not interested” in smartwatches (see 1605270034), but buying intentions are much higher among Chinese, an ABI Research survey found. The research firm estimates nearly two-thirds of Chinese consumers plan to buy a smartwatch in the next 12 months, it said in a Tuesday report. “The heightened demand is due to the wide range of choices that local manufacturers offer consumers, as well as to the products’ affordable pricing, good design, and comprehensive feature set.” Some among the more affluent Chinese consumers regard the Apple Watch and other branded smartwatches “to be a desired status symbol,” it said. ABI found 42 percent of the respondents it canvassed are willing to spend between $150 and $310 on a smartwatch, while 36 percent regard “a reasonable price to be below $150,” and 22 percent are likely to spend more than $310, the firm said: “It is likely that some consumers will gladly pay a higher price for a reputable and customized smart watch, but most will probably choose the cheaper options.”

NTIA is set to publish a notice in Wednesday's Federal Register saying it updated its “Manual of Regulations and Procedures for Federal Radio Frequency Management.” The agency "is releasing an update to the current edition of the NTIA Manual, with which federal agencies must comply when requesting use of radio frequency spectrum,” NTIA said in the notice. The changes are effective with publication.