New tests by the Korea-based Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute found that LTE-unlicensed and Wi-Fi can peacefully coexist in unlicensed 5 GHz bands, said a blog post Thursday by Patrik Lundqvist, Qualcomm director-technical marketing. “In this over-the-air demonstration, LTE-U co-existence was put to the test in scenarios with a large number of Wi-Fi access points (APs) from Cisco and Wi-Fi stations (STAs) from Samsung, all sharing the same 20 MHz channel in 5 GHz,” Lundqvist wrote. The baseline was made up of 15 Wi-Fi APs, “all on the same channel, where each AP was connected to one user (STA),” he said. “Each STA was at a relatively close distance to its corresponding AP, which means that the signal quality was sufficiently guaranteed.” The tests verified the LTE-U operations didn’t interfere with the Wi-Fi operations, he said. Michael Calabrese, director of the Wireless Future Program at New America, said concerns remain. “It is helpful that the Korean institute tested one of several scenarios related to the still open question of whether LTE-U can coexist with Wi-Fi without disrupting the ecosystem nearly every consumer depends on for affordable mobile device connectivity,” he said. But other very different scenarios still must be examined, Calabrese said. “For example, the Koreans apparently assumed users would be close to the Wi-Fi access point,” he said. “Consumers, schools and smart city deployments need to be very worried about the impact on Wi-Fi when users are further away from the access point. If LTE-U does not detect [access points] at a signal level similar to the coexistence protocol in use by Wi-Fi, the coverage areas of deployed Wi-Fi hotspots could be cut in half. In that case, LTE-U would create an unnecessary tragedy of the commons.”

The FCC Office of Engineering and Technology Thursday approved a waiver request by Deere allowing the company to install TV white space devices manufactured by Koos on agricultural equipment. Deere requested the waiver last summer (see 1508210035). “Our action here will permit [Koos] to obtain an equipment certification grant for a fixed white space device that will be installed in Deere agricultural machinery, such as tractors, self-propelled harvesting machines, sprayers, etc., to provide a variety of agricultural applications,” the order said. “We find that granting these waivers is in the public interest because they will provide for broadband machine-to-machine (M2M) data communications aimed at increasing crop yields and reducing food production costs, all without causing harmful interference or materially adding to spectrum congestion for other authorized users of this frequency band.” OET said fixed white spaces devices are subject to strict controls: "Such devices must: 1) initially register with a white space database to enter their coordinates and antenna height above ground level, 2) obtain a channel list before operating, and 3) re-check the database at least once daily. If moved to another location or if its stored coordinates are altered, a fixed device must also re-register its new coordinates and antenna height."

The TV incentive auction should end up being bigger than the AWS-3 auction, said Preston Padden, former executive director of the Expanding Opportunities for Broadcasters Coalition, in a Wednesday blog post. The AWS-3 auction had only 70 qualified bidders, with pricing driven primarily by four bidders -- AT&T, Verizon, T-Mobile and Dish Network, he said. “Based on detailed auction simulations in the FCC record, the 600 MHz auction is likely to include a net of 90 or 100 MHz of paired spectrum -- twice as much as in AWS 3,” he said. “And, demand is greater in this auction. 104 bidders have filed in the 600 MHz auction -- more than the 70 in AWS 3.” Carriers have tried to downplay the value of the spectrum, Padden said. “But just a few weeks ago, Bill Smith, president of AT&T Network Operations, gave a speech in which he candidly admitted the continuing need for more spectrum,” said Padden (see 1602230042). The 600 MHz spectrum is also uniquely valuable, he said. “It travels long distances and goes through walls. Even advanced 5G systems will need low band spectrum for signaling channels.”

“To help our customers connect with loved ones in the wake of the terrible terrorist attacks,” T-Mobile said Tuesday it's offering free calling and texting from the U.S. to Belgium and Turkey following attacks in both places. “I’m speechless,” said John Legere, CEO of T-Mobile, in a news release. “Our hearts are with everyone affected by the horrible acts of terrorism.” The offer applies to all T-Mobile Simple Choice postpaid customers and is in effect from Tuesday through Friday for Belgium. It was in effect Saturday through Tuesday for Turkey. “Customers will see regular charges on their bills with corresponding credits,” T-Mobile said.

Panasonic commercialized an encapsulation material with a “high dielectric constant” for fashioning smaller and thinner fingerprint recognition sensors to be embedded in mobile devices, the company said in a Tuesday announcement. Panasonic will start “full-scale mass production” of the material next month, it said. Panasonic sees fingerprint recognition features being embedded in more and more smartphones, it said. Sapphire glass conventionally has been used in the fingerprint contact part of packages for existing capacitive fingerprint recognition sensors due to its high dielectric constant, Panasonic said. But that has “drawbacks,” including the difficulty of making the sensor packages smaller and thinner to fit sleeker smartphone form factors, it said. Sapphire glass-based sensors also require complex “manufacturing processes,” it said. There’s a “booming market” for fingerprint sensors in smartphones, tablets and notebook computers, IHS said in a December report. “Their use in the iPhone 5 in 2013 was followed by adoption by many other OEMs in 2014 and 2015,” IHS said. “These sensors are becoming a standard feature in high-end smart phones, with further growth expected.”

Millennials are the key to future-proofing for BMW and other luxury car brands, BMW North America CEO Ludwig Willisch told the 2016 Automotive Forum in New York Tuesday. But millennials no longer define luxury exclusively by “comfort, features and sporty handling,” he said, seeking technology, connectivity and sustainability. But “technology must be humanized to resonate,” he said. A car packed with the latest technology “means very little to them unless that technology supports their lifestyle,” he said. They also want their world to be “customized for them,” said Willisch of millennials. “None of what they own should be generic or predefined." He cited Coca-Cola’s marketing strategy to make soda cans with different names on them. Millennials also want the products they own to be discovered, “not dictated,” he said. BMW has an alliance with GoPro through an integrated app that allows a driver to use a camera through vehicle controls, Willisch said, an example of meeting millennials on their terms. BMW Connected Drive allows drivers to lock their doors with a smartphone app. BMW is also targeting urban millennial drivers who can’t afford or don’t want to own a BMW at this stage of their lives with mobility solutions through a global effort, Willisch said. That includes a parking app that “takes the hassle out of finding a parking space.” Joe Eberhardt, CEO, Jaguar and Land Rover, said connectivity is a requirement in the luxury market, citing the company’s collaboration with Intel to develop next-gen digital vehicle prototypes that connect the car, mobile devices and the cloud. Connectivity isn’t just a hot button for millennials but is “a requirement in the luxury market” today, he said.

The Competitive Carriers Association supports the FCC’s vacant channel proposal, “which is in the public interest and provides ample flexibility for low power television stations,” CCA said Tuesday in a news release. The FCC is proposing to set side vacant TV band channels in every market nationwide for unlicensed use after the TV incentive auction. “The Commission has spent countless hours engaging with both the broadcast and wireless industries to design an incentive auction and subsequent repacking process which will enable the most productive use of licensed and unlicensed spectrum,” said Steve Berry, CCA president: “The FCC’s proposed vacant channel policy clearly serves the public interest by making additional spectrum available for mobile broadband use, and it also addresses LPTV and TV stations’ concerns by extending the translator digital-transition date, allowing channel-sharing agreements and offering assistance in finding displacement channels after the incentive auction.”

There's a need for “straightforward, consistent methodology” for determining whether a public access licensee is actually using the 3.5 GHz spectrum and “accompanying interference protection rights,” CTIA and member companies said in a series of meetings with aides to FCC commissioners, according to a letter posted Tuesday in docket 12-354. CTIA also raised issues to be addressed in a recon order, “including license terms for PAL licensees, power limitations, and the ‘N-1’ auction process.” They also discussed the amount and kind of information “derived from registered Citizens Band Radio Service Devices and exchanged among one or more Spectrum Access Systems (SASs),” CTIA said. It said the FCC should "ensure that SAS operators internally cabin off any data from other portions of their respective business and prohibit them from using this data for any purpose other than for operation of the SAS.” CTIA members AT&T, T-Mobile, Qualcomm and Verizon were at the meetings with aides to Commissioners Mignon Clyburn, Mike O’Rielly and Jessica Rosenworcel, the filing said. FCC commissioners are considering a second report and order on reconsideration on the shared spectrum band (see 1603110083).

Eighty-one percent of U.S. smartphone users stream video programming on their devices, said an NPD report Monday. While most video streaming takes place over Wi-Fi, video is the top driver of cellular data usage, with the average U.S. smartphone owner consuming nearly 3 GB of cellular data per month, NPD said. Analyst Brad Akyuz attributed growing video usage on smartphones to larger displays and free sponsored data from T-Mobile’s Binge On and Verizon Wireless’ go90 plans. Overall smartphone data usage is being driven by users 25 and younger, who spend twice as much time watching videos on YouTube and Netflix mobile apps as users over 25, NPD said. Smartphone users under 25 average 6.2 GB data consumption for video streaming monthly versus the 25-plus group who average 4.9 GB data for video usage per month, NPD said.

PoLTE Corp. is planning retail and carrier trials this year of its positioning over LTE (PoLTE) location services technology, it said Monday. PoLTE is positioning the technology to chipmakers, wireless carriers and handset manufacturers, which can use existing infrastructure to deliver location services to retail, enterprise, IoT and enterprise markets. PoLTE’s network-based services are said to be able to seamlessly transition from outdoor to indoor locations and track 4G or LTE phones independent of handset manufacturer or operating system. The PoLTE technology platform “enables location functionality, without modifying the handset in any way and protects the user’s privacy,” said the company. The technology goes beyond Wi-Fi and Bluetooth offerings “by providing a cost effective, scalable location services solution that is easy to deploy, use and maintain,” said CEO Russ Markhovsky.