The FCC Wireless Bureau sought comment on a request for waiver by ACR Electronics for the ACR SARLink Combined 2-Way Communicator Personal Locator Beacon, used to locate people in remote areas. ACR needs a waiver because the device doesn't conform to FCC rules, the bureau said Tuesday. Rules require that emergency radio beacons transmit a distress signal on 406.0-406.1 MHz, to communicate with the COSPAS-SARSAT satellite system and a lower-powered signal on frequency 121.5 MHz, used by search-and-rescue (SAR) personnel as a homing beacon. The SARLink doesn’t include the latter capability, the bureau said. Instead, the SARLink “incorporates two-way text messaging capability through the Iridium satellite system,” the bureau said. “ACR asserts that this capability will provide better distress alerting and locating assistance than a 121.5 MHz homing beacon because SARLink users will be able to text SAR personnel directly and provide location information in addition to the Global Positioning System data encoded in the COSPAS-SARSAT message, such as physical landmarks and obstacles.” Comments are due May 7, replies May 22.

The SEC alleged 12 companies and six individuals defrauded investors by offering to help clients apply for licenses in the 800 MHz expansion and guard bands, claiming "money from thin air" when the potential payoff was allegedly very small. The SEC brought the action in federal district court in Arizona against David Alcorn and Kent Maerki who “orchestrated the offering fraud through Janus Spectrum,” a Glendale, Arizona-based company, said a Monday SEC news release. “Janus Spectrum and the fundraising entities claimed that investors could profit because Sprint and other major wireless carriers needed licenses in this spectrum,” the SEC said. “In fact, the value of the licenses was small because this spectrum cannot support cellular systems and is generally used for ‘push-to-talk’ services for local law enforcement or businesses like pizza delivery companies that require less bandwidth.” Michele Layne, director of the SEC’s Los Angeles Regional Office, said Janus and its supporters “allegedly engaged in the unregistered offer and sale of securities in violation of the federal securities laws and repeatedly lied to investors regarding the value and use of the FCC licenses,” according to the news release. Janus could not be reached for comment.

ZTE announced the global debut of its affordable Blade S6 Plus smartphone Monday through eBay. The $299.99 device upgrades the 5-inch Blade S6 with a larger 5.5-inch 720p display while keeping the same Qualcomm Snapdragon 615 octa-core chipset, Adreno 405 image processor, Android 5.0 operating system and customizable MiFavor 3.0 user interface, ZTE said. The Blade S6 Plus also has an infrared function that allows the phone to act as a remote control for products including TVs, set-top boxes, air conditioning units and digital cameras, the company said.

Autonet Mobile and AT&T said Autonet Mobile’s telematics system and services are coming to the automotive market via AT&T’s 4G LTE network. The mobile applications will let consumers access their cars from smartphones, let car original equipment manufacturers update vehicles while they’re on the road, and protect proprietary vehicle information when connected to the cloud, they said Monday. Car owners will be able to remotely and securely control their vehicles from a smartphone, find and track vehicle location, receive health reports for maintenance, get alerts when airbags are deployed and connect mobile devices through the vehicle’s Wi-Fi hot spot, the companies said. Autonet’s technology will enable carmakers to monitor how vehicles perform, fix problems and boost vehicle performance via over-the-air updates, they said.

SiBeam is partnering with the NYU Wireless research center at the New York University Polytechnic School of Engineering as an industrial-affiliate sponsor of fundamental research that is creating 5G, a news release from SiBeam said Monday. The FCC is exploring the potential of mobile radio services in the millimeter-wave radio spectrum, which researchers believe could increase today’s mobile data capacity by a thousandfold or more, the release said. SiBeam and NYU Wireless recently filed comments in response to the FCC notice of inquiry aimed at exploring the potential of mobile radio services in bands above 24 GHz, SiBeam said in the release. NYU Wireless filed recommendations on global competitiveness and regulation, safety and feasibility and timing as it seeks to shape and accelerate the 5G future, it said.

Motorola Solutions said the FCC is on the right track in proposing some changes to rules governing Part 74 Remote Pickup (RPU) stations. RPUs are a type of broadcast auxiliary station used by broadcasters to transmit audio and video from remote sites to studios or other production centers. The Wireless Bureau proposed the changes in a February NPRM. Motorola is a leading manufacturer of two-way radios used under Part 90 and other sections of the FCC’s rules, the company said. “Motorola Solutions currently markets and sells such radios to broadcasters and other program production entities for remote pickup applications,” Motorola said in its filing posted Friday. “As such, it has experienced the negative impact of the obstacles that are created by certain outdated technical provisions of Part 74 that the instant Notice is proposing to correct.” It urged the FCC to complete work on the NPRM and put in place final rules this year. The comments were filed in docket 15-36.

An FCC order making changes to rules on trunking in the 150-174 MHz and 421-512 MHz private land mobile radio bands takes effect May 4, after it was published in the Federal Register Friday. The order was approved by the FCC in March, at the request of the Public Safety Communications Council (see 1503110061). The FCC dropped a requirement that applicants who operate trunked stations on Public Safety Pool channels be required to demonstrate that the proposed station's service contour won't be overlapped by any incumbent station's interference contour. The FCC also amended its rules on the treatment of mobile stations to clarify how to protect 150-174 MHz band mobile stations associated with a base station.

CTIA posted a list of apps for blocking unwanted calls to cellphones and posted videos on how to use them. “By using these kinds of apps and features, you make the decision of who you want to hear from, and who you want to block,” Krista Witanowski, CTIA assistant vice president-regulatory affairs, said in a Friday consumer advisory. “What could be considered a nuisance call for one, may be important to someone else,” she wrote. “That’s why it’s important blocked calls and texts are directed by the user, not by the wireless carrier.”

Consumers spent twice as much time viewing online video on a tablet as on a smartphone in 2014, said Adobe Digital Index’s U.S. Digital Video 2014 Inaugural Report. Mobile device video viewing is also expected to overtake desktop viewing by Q4 of 2016, the report said. By year-end 2014, TV Everywhere consumers logged 21 billion authenticated videos, an increase of 266 percent above 2013 totals. Of those TV Everywhere authentications, 64 percent of them were on mobile devices, Adobe said.

FiberTower won a partial victory in a court case challenging a 2012 FCC order canceling 689 wireless spectrum licenses it held in the 24 and 39 GHz bands, for failure to meet the agency’s “substantial service” performance standard during the license term. In a decision Friday, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit vacated the FCC’s order on 42 of the licenses, on which FiberTower had stated on its renewal applications that construction had occurred. FiberTower proposes to use the licenses to offer wireless backhaul. The court also ordered the FCC to again consider its request for an extension of substantial service requirement for the other licenses as well. The company told the court last year (see 1410150093) that it filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in July 2012, but as long as it held the licenses it “maintained a pathway for restructuring the company around its industry-leading technology and customer-development efforts in the 24 and 39 GHz bands.” The Wireless Bureau’s “substantial service analysis was predicated on the finding that there was no ‘construction of any facilities whatsoever’ in any of the terminated license areas,” Judge Judith Rogers wrote on behalf of the court panel. In its filings, the FCC “overstates its position in maintaining that it 'had no notice of FiberTower’s specific objections,’” Rogers said. The court vacated the orders denying the requests for renewal “so that the Commission may rule on FiberTower’s requests in light of an accurate understanding of the license renewal record,” Rogers wrote. The burden “for challenging the Commission’s denial of waiver and extension is heavy,” she said, citing precedent. But “the Commission has acknowledged that the proportion of licenses that have been built out may be relevant to its extension analysis.” FiberTower was represented by Akin Gump on the appeal.