The FCC Wireless Bureau approved, in part, a waiver allowing AT&T to use power spectral density (PSD) measurements to comply with effective radiated power (ERP) limits for 800 MHz cellular operations in parts of Missouri. The bureau said it would allow AT&T to use the PSD model at a maximum ERP level of 125 watts/MHz in four Missouri cellular market areas. AT&T can potentially increase the power to 250 watts/MHz in nonrural areas and 500 Watts/MHz in rural areas, said the order in docket 15-86. AT&T told the FCC that granting the waiver would help it build out its LTE network more quickly. The bureau said it had earlier approved similar waivers for AT&T in Vermont and Florida. “We find it persuasive that AT&T and several public safety entities previously conducted successful tests using the PSD model, and that no public safety licensees have raised objections specific to AT&T’s proposed PSD model for the Missouri Stations or requested testing,” the bureau said. “Further, the conditions we impose will help ensure that public safety systems and neighboring Cellular licensees will be protected from increased harmful interference from AT&T’s operations using the PSD model.” Among conditions imposed is a notice requirement for public safety agencies with nearby operations using 806-824 MHz/851-869 MHz before the carrier deploys a base station.

The FCC released documents Monday on the proposed sale of 11 700 MHz licenses by Bluegrass to AT&T. The licenses, four in the B-block and seven in the C-block, cover parts of Indiana, Kentucky and Tennessee, the FCC said. Bluegrass doesn't have any customers using the spectrum, the agency said. The FCC established a pleading cycle. Petitions to deny are due Oct. 26, oppositions Nov. 2 and replies Nov. 9. “The Applicants maintain that the proposed transaction would provide AT&T with additional spectrum that would enable it to increase its system capacity to enhance existing services, better accommodate its overall growth, and facilitate the provision of additional products and services in eight Cellular Market Areas,” the FCC said. As a result of the deal, AT&T would be assigned 12 to 24 MHz of spectrum in a total in 51 counties, the agency said. “Post-transaction, AT&T would hold 103 to 165 megahertz of spectrum in total, including 43 to 55 megahertz of below-1-GHz spectrum, in these eight CMAs.” Under FCC spectrum aggregation rules, the deal would be subject to increased scrutiny because of AT&T’s low-band holdings in seven of the CMAs. The FCC sent questions to both carriers. Bluegrass was asked in a letter whether it explored selling the spectrum to a carrier other than AT&T. AT&T was asked to provide detail information on its build-out plans, including how it will use the spectrum to offer a “10x10 megahertz LTE network, on a standalone basis and/or in conjunction with any other of the Company’s spectrum holdings.”

Oppositions to eight petitions for reconsideration on parts of the FCC’s rules for the 3.5 GHz shared spectrum band are due at the FCC Oct. 19, said a notice published in the Federal Register Friday.

Sprint will employ cost-cutting measures to save $2.5 billion through the next six months, reported The Wall Street Journal. The report said the mobile carrier sent messages to certain employees about the coming cuts. Sprint didn't comment and didn't provide details of its money-saving efforts.

CTIA updated its Smartphone Anti-Theft Voluntary Commitment, responding to a request by FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler, it said Friday. At a June 11 meeting of the FCC Technological Advisory Council, Wheeler said he would ask CTIA to include in its voluntary industry code language that would require consumers to opt out of safeguards that come with their smartphones (see 1506110037). The revised document takes Wheeler’s request into account, CTIA said Friday. “New models of smartphones first manufactured after July 2016 for retail sale in the United States will, if technically necessary, make readily available to the authorized user an option that allows the authorized user to enable or disable the anti-theft solution at any time that the smartphone is connected and is in the authorized user’s possession,” the revised commitment said. The revised commitment “is the latest example of how America’s wireless industry takes on tough issues and works together to develop the best solutions for their customers that balances the needs of users while still providing the flexibility for companies to innovate,” CTIA President Meredith Baker said in a news release. “It’s clear that these initiatives are working since smartphone thefts have declined in cities across the country.” CTIA said it also developed a list of apps “to locate, erase and/or lock, many of which are free, for the various operating systems” and is offering “step-by-step video instructions on how to set up a PIN/password on various mobile devices.” “CTIA and its members understand that smart-device theft remains a serious problem," Wheeler said in a statement. "I am hopeful that this new voluntary commitment will make a meaningful difference for consumer safety." Apple, Assurant, Asurion, AT&T, BlackBerry, Google, HTC America, Huawei Device USA, LGE Mobile Research U.S.A., Microsoft, Motorola Mobility, Samsung Electronics America, Sprint, T-Mobile USA, U.S. Cellular, Verizon and ZTE USA signed off on the anti-theft commitment.

Sprint’s announcement that it won't participate in the TV incentive auction (see 1509280059) shows the Department of Justice was dead wrong in urging the FCC to devise rules for the auction that would guarantee Sprint and T-Mobile came away with spectrum, said Fred Campbell, executive director of the Center for Boundless Innovation in Technology, Thursday in a blog post on the RedState webpage. “Though it’s no surprise, it’s now obvious the country’s federal experts on competition and antitrust matters were wrong in their analysis of Sprint’s alleged need for low-frequency spectrum in order to compete,” he said. A Sprint spokesman responded in an email: “Sprint’s decision to not participate in the 600 MHz Incentive Auction provides no basis for critiquing the FCC’s public policy decisions in establishing the incentive auction structure, rules and procedures... Throughout these proceedings, Sprint consistently advocated for an auction structure with the best chance of promoting competition and thereby spurring wireless broadband innovation and benefiting consumers. The FCC’s auction decisions reflect a fair balancing of these goals along with other public policy considerations in a truly innovative and complex undertaking.”

The Edison Electric Institute fired back against arguments by the National Consumer Law Center (NCLC) and other groups against granting EEI the relief it sought from class-action lawsuits against its members for violating the Telephone Consumer Protection Act. EEI and the American Gas Association said in a February petition that utilities should be able to provide information on planned or unplanned outages, repair work, service cancellation, service restoration and energy efficiency to their customers without risking suits alleging they violated the TCPA (see 1503270020). Allowing the relief requested in the petitions would “legalize many more automated and prerecorded phone calls” to cellphones, NCLC said in comments filed at the FCC last month. “The extent to which this relief should be granted should be analyzed through a filter which examines the impact of so many more calls on the most vulnerable wireless cell phone customers who have limited minutes, especially those low-income customers who rely on the Lifeline program.” EEI countered that the consumer group gets the dynamic of its request wrong. NCLC "just assumes" that energy consumers have little interest in hearing from their electric utilities, EEI said. Electricity isn't an ordinary good or service, the utility group said. “Electricity is a necessity to survive in a modern society: it provides heat, light, and cooling; it is needed to keep food and to cook food; it allows one to connect to the outside world through the internet and through the use of mobile phones; and in rural areas it is often necessary for access to water.” The filings were in docket 02-278.

The Open Technology Institute at New America and Public Knowledge jointly urged the FCC to set aside either one or two vacant TV band channels in every market nationwide for unlicensed use after the TV incentive auction. “The Commission can best optimize the use of TV band spectrum for communication, innovation, job creation, consumer welfare and economic growth more broadly only by ensuring the availability of a substantial number of six megahertz blocks of unlicensed access to TV White Space spectrum in every local market nationwide,” the groups said in a filing posted Thursday in docket 12-268. Wi-Fi generates at least $200 billion in consumer welfare each year in just the U.S., they said. “Yet Wi-Fi never would have flourished without access to a substantial and predictable amount of unlicensed bandwidth in every market nationwide.” Google also backed the proposal. "The preservation of sufficient unlicensed channels is critical to achieving the FCC’s goal of expanding the availability and affordability of unlicensed wireless broadband services, and therefore well worth the small practical impact on broadcasters," the company said.

Sprint said it's raising the price of its $60 unlimited plan to $70 for new customers starting Oct. 16. “At Sprint, we give customers what they want -- and they want the option of unlimited data,” Sprint CEO Marcelo Claure in a Wednesday news release. ”At $70 a month, Sprint still beats the competition. Rather than increase the price without warning, we want to give customers one last chance to take advantage of the $60 rate.” The plan offers unlimited high-speed data, talk and text. Sprint noted that between 2010 and 2014, U.S. mobile data traffic climbed 947 percent.

The FCC Consumer and Governmental Affairs Bureau sought comment on a petition by Colorado-based Broadnet Teleservices asking the FCC to decide Telephone Consumer Protection Act restrictions don't apply to calls made “by or on behalf of federal, state, and local governments when such calls are made for official purposes.” Broadnet raised the issue in a Sept. 16 petition to the FCC. Absent clarification from the FCC “citizens that rely on their wireless phones as their primary, or only, means of telephone communication will be deprived of important opportunities to engage with their government that wired citizens currently enjoy,” Broadnet said. “Receiving calls from the government with important information is not the type of harm from which Congress was attempting to shield consumers.” Comments are due Oct. 29, replies Nov. 13, in docket 02-278, the bureau said in a Wednesday public notice. The FCC has taken a tough stand on the TCPA, approving an order and declaratory ruling in June that industry critics said would expand the number of TCPA-related law suits (see 1506180046).