For now, the wearables market will remain “highly fragmented,” Fossil Chief Strategy Officer Greg McKelvey emailed us. Activity trackers, smartwatches and smarter watches “are each playing a part in satisfying the highly variable wants, needs, and personal styles of today’s connected consumer,” he said. Fossil said earlier this month it’s buying the wearables platform company Misfit for $260 million (see 1511130053). The platform that powers Misfit’s products will be “behind the scenes” when integrated into connected devices for other Fossil brands, McKelvey said.

Communications Workers of America members and East Coast supporters protested at dozens of Verizon Wireless stores Thursday, demanding fair labor contracts, said a CWA news release. The rallies were a day after the National Labor Relations Board authorized issuance of a complaint against Verizon for violating federal labor laws when it fired a member "in an attempt to silence and terrify Brooklyn Verizon Wireless workers," the union said Thursday. CWA members working for Verizon have been without a new contract since August (see 1508030061). Since then, CWA has released radio and TV ads slamming Verizon (see 1508070029), asked state commissions to review what the union calls the company's lack of action on wireline upkeep (see 1511160039) and held rallies (see 1508130024). A Verizon spokesman Friday called the latest action another "agenda-driven attempt by the CWA" to divert attention from the "real" work that needs to be done at the bargaining table: "If the CWA truly wants to look out for its members, they should work with us on achieving a new contract that’s good for our employees, fair to our customers and puts the company on a path toward success.”

The FCC's best route to LTE-U/Wi-Fi coexistence is by watching and encouraging industry-led progress toward that goal, the Wi-Fi Alliance said in an ex parte filing posted Friday in docket 15-105. The group, which earlier this month put out its own suggested guidelines on how the two can coexist in the same spectrum (see 1511040059), has said the agency should monitor that coexistence development and step in on coexistence issues only if necessary. "I hope we have stepped in on it," FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler said Thursday after the agency's November meeting. "I've said to [LTE-U and Wi-Fi industry representatives], 'Folks, you've got to come together and resolve this in a broad-based standard.' It appears the House subcommittee has done the same. This is the way things ought to be taken care of. There are two things that characterize unlicensed spectrum. One, it's the innovation band; it's where all kinds of new innovations happen. And you want to make sure that in fact continues. The second is, it's the 'everybody respects everybody else' band. And we want to make sure both of those are happening. And the way that can be done is by a broad-based development of commonly agreed-to standards that meets both of those criteria." LTE-U backer Verizon "agrees," Patrick Welsh, assistant vice president-regulatory affairs, told us Friday in an email. "We are actively working with the Wi-Fi Alliance to develop coexistence guidelines for LTE-U." And in a statement, fellow LTE-U advocate Qualcomm said "proponents of LTE-U, including the members of the LTE-U Forum -- whose members also are members of the Wi-Fi Alliance -- are pleased to continue our ongoing collaboration with the industry through our work with the Wi-Fi Alliance initiative to develop an agreed-upon coexistence test regimen that will ensure that LTE-U and Wi-Fi successfully co-exist in the unlicensed spectrum, where the watchword is permission-less innovation, as Chairman Wheeler has correctly recognized.” The Wi-Fi Alliance ex parte recapped meetings between alliance CEO Edgar Figueroa and front-line staff of Wheeler and of Commissioners Mignon Clyburn, Ajit Pai and Jessica Rosenworcel, plus with Office of Engineering and Technology representatives. The Wi-Fi Alliance said it plans a Coexistence Test Workshop for the week of Feb. 8. The group's members include Apple, Broadcom, Cisco, Comcast, Intel, LG, Microsoft, Sony and T-Mobile, its website said.

The FCC should act to reduce workers' RF risks from wireless antennas, said the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers in a letter to Chairman Tom Wheeler posted Wednesday in docket 13-84. “I write to urge you to promulgate a rule that would require stronger RF monitoring and safety regulations that would protect all workers not just those employed in the telecommunications industry,” said IBEW International President Lonnie Stephenson. He noted congressional concerns about the potential for workers to be overexposed to RF emissions from wireless transmission sites. He said employers are rarely informed about the location of RF antennas, which are often not recognizable because they're camouflaged or hidden. “Our understanding is that the FCC does plan to address RF exposure through a proposed rule,” he said. “The IBEW hopes that the FCC's proposal will protect all personnel, especially our members, with the same level of safety enjoyed by the wireless industry's workforce. An updated RF regulation could go a long way to prevent unnecessary health risks associated with RF over-exposure.”

Alaska Wireless Network (AWN) got an extension of the deadline for being capable of sending 911 texts to a public safety answering point, said a Thursday FCC Public Safety Bureau order. AWN has until Dec. 31, when it must submit a final certification that it's capable of sending texts to 911, the order said. The original deadline was Dec. 31, 2014. AWN, formed in a deal with Alaska Communications Systems and General Communication, had said it soon will be ready for texts to 911 (see 1511020050).

The FCC Wireless Bureau granted PST Digital's request for a waiver of the deadline for its application to renew a license for one of its broadband PCS stations, said an order released Wednesday. It also ordered that the application PST filed late on Sept. 1 be processed in accordance with the commission's rules. The filing deadline was June 23, but PST Digital didn't submit its application correctly and the license expired, the order said. PST requested permission to operate under special temporary authority, which was granted and expires Jan. 11, the bureau said. The bureau acknowledged that denial of the renewal application and terminating the license would be "too harsh a result in proportion to the nature of the violation." It said the agency doesn't routinely grant such waivers, but "we have repeatedly held that the filing of a timely, but defective, renewal application warrants a waiver to permit the late filing of a subsequent renewal application where the licensee acted in good faith and moved promptly to file a proper renewal application after learning that the original attempt fell short."

T-Mobile told the FCC it should reject arguments by Dish Network and two Dish-backed designated entities that they should be able to bid a second time on licenses they opted not to buy after being the initial winners in the AWS-3 auction. T-Mobile initially argued against Northstar Wireless and SNR Wireless participating in the AWS-3 reauction in late October (see 1511020064). The two DEs responded then, calling the letter an “untimely request for reconsideration” of the Aug. 18 FCC order, which said the conduct of Dish, Northstar and SNR during the AWS-3 auction didn't violate commission rules (see 1511100041). “Having gamed the system once” the two DEs “want the Commission to allow them to do it again,” T-Mobile said in a filing posted Wednesday in docket 12-268. “The Commission should not allow DISH or the DISH DEs to hide behind procedural arguments to avoid the consequences of their attempts to undermine the integrity of the AWS-3 auction.” Instead, the FCC should “discourage similar action by others” by barring Dish and the DEs from participating in the re-auction “and require them to pay an additional 50 percent upfront payment if they choose to participate in the upcoming incentive auction,” T-Mobile said. It responded directly to the subsequent filings by Northstar and SNR. “The DISH DEs fail to provide any substantive reason why the Commission should not take the steps that T-Mobile has recommended to ensure the integrity of its future auctions,” the carrier said. “The far-reaching consequences of DISH and the DISH DEs’ improprieties in the AWS-3 auction process must be addressed.” Dish and SNR said they aren't commenting. Northstar didn't comment by our deadline.

Phoenix Tower said it closed a transaction with T-Mobile to acquire the ownership or management rights to more than 600 wireless towers. The terms are “confidential,” Phoenix said in a news release. Just as AT&T and Verizon sold cell towers ahead of the AWS-3 auction, “T-Mobile is working to build a war chest for the March broadcast incentive auction,” suggested Seeking Alpha, a financial news service. T-Mobile Chief Financial Officer Braxton Carter said last week T-Mobile plans to raise about $6 billion before the incentive auction, but could spend as much as $10 billion (see 1511120040).

Five G mobile subscriptions will reach 150 million worldwide by 2021, and an increase in mobile video consumption will drive about six times more data traffic volume per smartphone in North America and Europe by the same year, Ericsson said in its 2015 Mobility Report released Tuesday. It projects South Korea, Japan, China and the U.S. will lead the world with the first and fastest 5G subscription uptake, and the new technology will pave the way for new industries in the information and communications technology and IoT spaces. Due to the predicted rise in mobile video consumption, which Ericsson said will make up 70 percent of all mobile data traffic by 2021, data traffic per smartphone in North America will grow from 3.8 GB to 22 GB per month by 2021. Ericsson projects mobile broadband subscriptions will increase worldwide from 3.6 billion in 2015 to 7.7 billion in 2021, and mobile LTE subscriptions will experience a compound annual growth rate of 25 percent in that time. Mainland China will overtake the U.S. by 2021 as the largest LTE market in the world with a predicted 1.2 billion LTE subscriptions, Ericsson said, and Africa will continue to improve connectivity, which will improve opportunities for financial inclusion.

The Competitive Carriers Association outlined a proposal for a new USF mobility fund, in a meeting with FCC Wireless Bureau Chief Roger Sherman and others at the agency, said a filing in docket 10-208. The program should have a “sufficient budget consisting of targeted support to preserve existing service where necessary while also expanding mobile broadband where services are unavailable, to be repeated consecutively over a period of two to four years,” CCA said. Commissioner Mignon Clyburn backed the launch of Phase II of the Mobility Fund, in a speech in October at CCA’s annual convention (see 1510080024).