U.S. Cellular asked the FCC to extend a June 25 75-percent coverage deadline for three of the census tracts for which it received Mobility Fund Phase I support. The carrier got support for 26 census tracts total. U.S. Cellular “has encountered unexpected deployment delays at four sites in three Census Tracts, located in the State of Washington and containing approximately 11 percent of the unserved road miles for which U.S. Cellular and its affiliates received Phase I support,” the carrier said. U.S. Cellular “has taken reasonable steps to meet the build-out requirements in the three Census Tracts, including the construction of several new cell sites that are already providing service, but unforeseen circumstances have interrupted construction of other sites,” the petition said. A grant of the petition “is the best way to ensure that 4G LTE broadband will be made available expeditiously to residents and travelers in sparsely populated areas in the three Census Tracts,” U.S. Cellular said. The petition was posted in docket 10-90.

The auto industry hopes to push a decision about unlicensed use of the 5.9 MHz band to a later administration, Public Knowledge Senior Vice President Harold Feld said Friday. Feld took aim at a letter automakers and others sent to the White House (see 1605050022). “Yesterday, the auto industry finally crossed a line on common decency that just pisses me off,” Feld wrote in a blog post. “It is one thing to claim that your technology saves lives and that if the FCC doesn’t do what you want, people will die. It is another thing to knowingly and deliberately invoke actual, real dead pedestrians and dead cyclists you know damned well your proposed technology could not conceivably save in an effort to support your own spectrum squatting.” The dedicated short-range communications (DSRC) system the auto industry wants to put in cars would replace the “actual existing collision avoidance system you are deploying today that would save cyclists and pedestrians,” namely car radar and sensing systems that use unlicensed spectrum, Feld said.

The FCC Wireless Bureau OK'd Alaska Wireless Network’s (AWN) buy of a single lower 700 MHz A-block license from T-Mobile. The license covers 29 boroughs/census areas in the four local market areas that comprise all of Alaska, the bureau said in the Friday order. AWN already has more than one-third of the below-1-GHz spectrum in one census area of about 17,000 people “in one very rural local market area,” which meant the deal got extra scrutiny, the bureau said. “After carefully evaluating the likely competitive effects of AWN’s increased aggregation of below-1-GHz spectrum in this market area, as well as in Alaska as a whole, we find that the likelihood of competitive harm is low,” the bureau said. “Some public interest benefits are likely to be realized, such as the expansion and improvement of wireless broadband in Alaska’s many unserved or underserved areas, leading to a better consumer experience.”

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit dismissed a case filed by James Chelmowski against the FCC. In October, the Enforcement Bureau turned down a petition for reconsideration by Chelmowski, who accused AT&T Mobility of failing to port his phone number to a new provider in 2011, in violation of agency rules (see 1510160045). “The challenged orders of the Chief of the Federal Communications Commission’s Enforcement Bureau are not final, reviewable orders,” the court ruled in dismissing the case. The court also dismissed Chelmowski’s pursuit of documents from the agency under the Freedom of Information Act, saying the U.S. District Court has jurisdiction over FOIA complaints.

The FCC Wireless Bureau is seeking comment on a request by PCS Partners (PCSP), which wants to change how it uses channel block A multilateration location and monitoring service (M-LMS) spectrum. The company wants to use its licenses for machine-type communications in addition to providing trilateration-based M-LMS using LTE, the bureau said. PCSP also seeks to extend its mid-term and final construction deadlines to 2020 and 2022, the bureau said. “By this Public Notice, we seek comment on the PCSP Construction Extension and Waiver Request, particularly with respect to any potential adverse impact on other operations within the 902-928 MHz band and in adjacent bands,” the bureau said. The proceeding is in docket 16-149.

The Competitive Carriers Association filed a letter at the FCC from “a dozen non-nationwide wireless carrier CEOs” encouraging the agency to stick with the current post-TV incentive auction repacking schedule. “The very fact that a dozen smaller carrier CEOs co-signed this letter should send a clear signal to the FCC that non-nationwide carriers are concerned about the repacking process,” CCA President Steve Berry said in a news release Thursday. “Smaller carriers with limited resources greatly depend on a smooth and timely repacking process to ensure they can gain access to the spectrum purchased during the auction as soon as possible. Any delay would negatively put smaller operators’ ability to maintain capital at risk in the interim between purchasing spectrum during the auction and receiving the assets to deploy -- which is something no small business can afford.” The FCC currently has a post-auction timeline requiring broadcasters to vacate spectrum within 39 months. NAB members have pressed the FCC to wait until after the auction before imposing a transition deadline, citing a complicated process and continuing uncertainty (see 1602250038).

Netflix unwrapped a data calculator tool that lets subscribers see how much data they're using when streaming video on cellular networks. In a blog post, Eddy Wu, director-product innovation, said the tool’s default setting lets users stream about three hours of TV shows and movies per gigabyte of data, translating to a bitrate of roughly 600 kbps. Testing showed that on cellular networks, this setting "balances good video quality with lower data usage to help avoid exceeding data caps and incurring overage fees,” said Wu. Users with a higher data cap on their mobile plan can adjust the setting to stream at higher bitrates, he said. Netflix’s goal is to give users "more control and greater choice” in managing their data usage regardless of data plan, he said. Users need to update their Netflix app to the most recent version to access the cellular data usage function. Bitrates could change over time, said Wu, because Netflix is “always working on ways to improve picture quality while streaming more efficiently.” Actual data usage can vary based on device and network conditions, and the mobile carrier may affect data usage even if users select a higher bitrate setting in the app, he said. The setting affects data usage while viewing content on a mobile device over a cellar network but doesn’t affect Wi-Fi streaming, he said. “Three cheers for Netflix for user empowerment, but there’s no principled reason why broadband operators shouldn’t be able to give users the same option,” responded Berin Szóka, president of TechFreedom. “The rhetoric for ‘net neutrality’ has always been about user empowerment. But the FCC wound up writing a hard-line rule that seems to completely ban broadband providers from adjusting video quality even if users want that. That’s crazy."

Market maturation in smartphones is slowing sales growth in wireless semiconductors, IHS said in a Wednesday report. “Revenue associated with the wireless competitive landscape continued to serve as a bright spot in the larger semiconductor market in 2015,” but that likely won’t be so in 2016, said the research firm. “Due to slowing sales of smartphones and other wireless devices, the wireless competitive landscape faces a set of challenges” that could result in slower sales growth for wireless semiconductors this year, it said. That Apple recently reported its first-ever quarterly year-on-year iPhone unit sales decline indicates “the potential magnitude of the softness in the premium smartphone market,” IHS said. “If the iPhone and other premium smartphones fail to gain enough traction to support growth in that market segment, it may be reflected in the underlying semiconductor market in 2016.”

The FCC was right to hold a daylong workshop Tuesday (see 1605030056) on small cells and distributed antenna systems, said Scott Bergmann, CTIA vice president-regulatory affairs, in a statement. “Innovative small cell and DAS technologies have a lower impact and are crucial to the deployment of 5G and the Internet of Things,” Bergmann said. “We strongly encourage the Commission to move as quickly as possible to streamline the small cell/DAS siting process to ensure that these facilities can be efficiently integrated into high-band spectrum, which will serve as a complement to the low- and mid-band spectrum that wireless providers are deploying.”

Carrier radio frequencies in the 800 MHz band are interfering with the Port Authority public safety radios, the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey said in an ex parte letter to the FCC. It's dated May 3, one week after the FCC approved rules designed to guard against interference to public safety communications in the 800 MHz National Public Safety Planning Advisory Committee (NPSPAC) band (see 1604250056). Interference has rendered inoperable 800 MHz NPSPAC portable radio receivers of the Port Authority Police Department and others, the Port Authority said. The Port Authority attached spectrum analyzer data for interference experienced during 2015 in New York City and Union City, New Jersey. When notified, wireless carriers have been responsive and cooperative, it said: “However, this remediation does not preclude similar harmful RFI on other occasions as we are unable to predict the location, duration or timing of future occurrences.”