An FCC public meeting for prospective Spectrum Access System administrators and environmental sensing capability operators in the 3.5 GHz band is now on for Feb. 29 at 9:30 a.m., an agency public notice said. The meeting was supposed to take place Tuesday but didn’t because of inclement weather in Washington, D.C. (see 1602160048).

Walmart made strides in moving commerce online, executives said on a fiscal Q4 earnings call (see here and here) Thursday, even as it said revenue and operating income fell in the quarter ended last month. Neil Ashe, CEO-global e-commerce, cited efforts to offer consumers a “seamless shopping experience” across Walmart's app, website and stores. The company’s new Pangaea technology platform powered the shopping experience online for the first time this holiday season, said Ashe. Walmart offered early access to the Black Friday circular on the mobile app for the first time during the 2015 runup to Christmas, and the app reached No. 1 at Apple’s App Store that day, Ashe said, an indication customers “are now comfortable buying on their phone.” More than half of online sales were completed on a mobile device on Thanksgiving, doubling mobile sales over 2014, Ashe said. It had “significant growth” in mobile sales for the rest of the peak holiday period, he said. Walmart began testing Walmart Pay in “a small group of stores” during the quarter, said Ashe. Initial shopper feedback said the experience was “simple and easy,” he said. Walmart’s entertainment category continued to have “soft” wireless sales and a “slower adoption of new technology in televisions,” said Walmart U.S. CEO Greg Foran. The company's stock closed down Thursday 3 percent to $64.12.

Apple recalled travelers' AC adapter kits for Mac computers and certain iOS devices after receiving 12 reports of wall plug adapters breaking and consumers receiving shocks when using them overseas, including three reports of consumers who were medically evaluated and released, said the company. The recall covers AC adapter kits and plug adapters for Australia/New Zealand/Argentina, Brazil, Continental Europe and Korea. The two-prong wall plug adapters can break and expose the metal portion of the adapter, posing a shock risk, said the company. No reports of incidents or injuries were reported by U.S. consumers, it said. Consumers should stop using the recalled wall plug adapters and contact Apple for free replacements. The recall includes 814,000 adapters (about $30), including 81,000 sold in Canada, sold at Apple stores and other electronics outlets from January 2003 through January 2015, said the company.

Technology will play a major role in Fossil turnaround efforts, after the company’s first earnings-per-share decline in a decade, said CEO Kosta Kartsotis on a Q4 earnings call. Adding chips to watches “in all brands” will provide additional functionality for differentiation and make the watch category more relevant to a demographic that hasn't worn watches because they grew up with smartphones, Kartsotis said. Also Tuesday, Chief Strategy Officer Greg McKelvey cited a “significant expansion" in the number of brands that will be launched across Fossil’s connected lineup of trackers, “smarter” watches with integrated technology and smartwatches. Last year, wearables generated $10 billion to $15 billion revenue industrywide. They're expected to generate $45 billion revenue by 2019, said Kartsotis.

Qualcomm, which announced LG as a launch partner for the Snapdragon Wear platform last week (see 1602120018), said Wednesday that original design manufacturers Borqs, Compal Electronics and Infomark began offering reference designs based on the Wear 2100 SoC (system on chip), some of which include 3G, 4G, smartwatches, Bluetooth and/or Wi-Fi. Qualcomm also said it’s the first company to support hardware-backed biometric fingerprint authentication for Tencent’s WeChat mobile payment service. And at next week's Mobile World Congress, Qualcomm will demo with Ericsson an LTE modem capable of gigabit data transfer speeds, 4-layer MIMO (multiple-input, multiple-output) in a smartphone and 5G connectivity, Qualcomm said. It will also demo Ultra HD Voice, along with IoT functions.

The GSM Association released a specification Thursday that allows consumers to remotely activate the SIM card embedded in a smartwatch, fitness band or tablet. The spec, the first from the GSMA’s industry-backed Consumer Remote SIM Provisioning initiative, will enable consumers to add devices to a mobile subscription and connect them securely to a mobile network, said GSMA. Mobile network operators, mobile device manufacturers and SIM vendors worked together on the spec that will allow consumers to activate the SIM embedded in a range of devices with a subscription from a mobile network operator of their choice, said GSMA. The initiative “does not aim to replace all SIM cards in the field” but is designed to help users connect multiple devices through the same subscription, it said. The spec will help mobile device manufacturers develop smaller, lighter mobile-connected wearables, it said. GSMA will also release a specification in June that will include remote provisioning for smartphones, it said.

The Competitive Carriers Association said it's partnering with consulting firm 151 Advisors to bring an IoT Connection Zone to CCA’s Mobile Carriers Show, April 13-15 in Nashville. “With a dedicated location in the exhibit hall, the IoT Connection Zone will provide an ideal meeting place for carriers and vendors to discuss all things IoT,” said CCA President Steve Berry in a news release.

The Wireless Broadband Alliance unveiled its Hope for Connectivity charter, which defines the focus of the first World Wi-Fi Day. The charter "directs the attention of cities, government bodies, fixed and mobile operators, technology vendors and Internet giants towards the critical influence and success of wireless connectivity in bridging the digital divide,” the alliance said Wednesday. “It calls on governments, the industry and the public to recognize and celebrate the important role of Wi-Fi in socioeconomic development and to advance and accelerate affordable connectivity for the unconnected around the world.” World Wi-Fi Day is scheduled for June 20. AT&T, Boingo Wireless, BT, China Telecom, Cisco, Google, Nokia, Intel, Liberty Global, Orange, Ruckus, Tata Teleservices and the Wi-Fi Alliance are among the groups and companies supporting the charter, the alliance said in a news release. Hope is an acronym for help, offer, promote and engage, it said.

AT&T and Verizon appear to be neck-and-neck in a fight to become FirstNet’s lead partner, analyst Damon Verial said Wednesday in a report on financial website Seeking Alpha. “The importance of winning the FirstNet bid cannot be overstated for the stocks of these companies,” Verial wrote. “Becoming the FirstNet provider will give the winner a de facto monopoly on the national wireless network employed by the federal and state governments. This essentially guarantees the continued existence of the winner, protecting it from a possible bankruptcy (e.g., as a result of competition or disruptive technology to the wireless market) and should therefore change the lower bound valuation of the stock price (i.e., liquidation will not be possible as it would imply the destruction of a government system).” Verial also said the contract comes with many strings attached. The requirements are complex, he said. “Not only does it ask the wireless carrier to connect the entire country but it also requests ‘creativity’ in the bid.” Other industry observers see AT&T as more likely to emerge with the FirstNet contract (see 1601220053).

The FCC should move quickly to get spectrum controlled by Ligado Networks, formerly LightSquared, in play for wireless broadband, Technology Policy Institute President Thomas Lenard said in a letter posted Wednesday in docket 12-340. Lenard said the need for more spectrum for mobile broadband is well established and was a central part of the FCC 2010 National Broadband Plan. The Ligado spectrum is “low-hanging fruit,” he said. “The Commission should move this process forward by issuing a notice requesting public comment on Ligado’s December 31, 2015 filings concerning license modifications and reallocation in mid-band spectrum,” Lenard wrote. “By incorporating limits on Ligado’s operations that were agreed to by major GPS manufacturers, this proposal appears to satisfy the concerns of various stakeholders about adjacent band interference issues.”