The Groupe Speciale Mobile Association is concerned with the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India’s (TRAI) recommendation to set a starting price of $1.7 billion per megahertz for pan-Indian 700 MHz spectrum, GSMA Chief Regulatory Officer John Giusti said in a news release Tuesday. Spectrum’s biggest value doesn't come from high sales prices, but from its use to expand social and economic opportunity for all of India’s citizens, he said. “The more mobile operators have to pay for a spectrum licence, the less capital is available to roll out new mobile networks," Guisti said. "As the digital economy becomes increasingly important to India’s future prosperity, we encourage greater focus on the long-term benefits of connecting more people in India to affordable mobile broadband, rather than on short-term financial gain."

Following the Supreme Court's Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) ruling on Campbell-Ewald Co. v. Gomez (see 1601200057), some are turning to the FCC to resolve the remaining contractor liability issues, Hogan Lovells said in a post. The high court's decision said an unaccepted settlement offer or offer of judgment for complete relief made to the named plaintiff in a putative class action doesn't moot the plaintiff’s case or the class action. It also said government contractors aren't entitled to derivative sovereign immunity where they have failed to abide by the government’s instructions and violated federal law. In light of the decision, attention will likely turn to the FCC, Hogan Lovells said. Several parties have asked the FCC to clarify that federal, state and local governments aren't “persons” under the TCPA and the Communications Act, the firm said. The FCC already has sought public comment on several petitions and can issue a decision any time.

There's no dispute in the record that wireless carriers believe they can -- and routinely do -- block text messages that consumers wish to receive, Twilio said in an ex parte filing posted Tuesday in FCC docket 08-7. Wireless-carrier blocking practices occur despite carriers representing to consumers that their messaging services will be unlimited, the company said. Twilio is encouraging the FCC to move quickly on granting the relief the company has requested in its petition for expedited declaratory ruling that the agency deem messaging services a Title II Communications Act telecom service.

The FCC Wireless Bureau reminded 700 MHz guard band licensees and 220 MHz band managers that annual reports are due at the agency March 1.The bureau released a public notice on the topic Monday.

FirstNet’s Public Safety Advisory Committee is focusing on local control and on identity, credential and access management (ICAM) as it helps the authority plan its network, PSAC Chairman Harlin McEwen said Monday in a blog post. “In the coming year, I believe the PSAC will continue to play a substantial role in working through key implementation issues." On local control, PSAC’s goals are to “further define and refine the operational requirements of FirstNet’s local control application,” McEwen said. FirstNet is particularly interested in the advisory group’s advice on “developing governance of the use of quality of service, priority and preemption by public safety and sharing such governance with the user community,” he said. “ICAM is a critical enabler for facilitating mutual aid and assisting first responders in accessing necessary data to effectively perform their duties."

The FCC should maintain its long-standing policy of light-handed regulation, based on a “permissionless innovation framework,” Mobile Future said in a paper released Monday. The paper looks at regulation going back to 1939. “While the Commission has modified its unlicensed rules over the years, certain fundamental FCC principles have remained constant,” the paper argues. “Chief among these principles has been a minimally intrusive regulatory approach, with unlicensed devices authorized to freely operate in accord with basic technical requirements designed to mitigate interference, limit radiofrequency exposure, and maximize the utilization of the unlicensed bands.”

WifiForward's Save our Wi-Fi campaign has concerns about the FCC’s announcement Friday that it will allow testing of LTE-unlicensed by Qualcomm and Verizon (see 1601290064), the group said in a statement by Executive Director Bill Maguire. "Given the significant concerns raised by many stakeholders regarding harm LTE-U will cause to broadband connections over Wi-Fi, we hope the FCC will closely monitor the Qualcomm and Verizon trial,” Maguire said. “We are encouraged that the FCC still expects that Qualcomm and other LTE-U supporters [will] work closely with the Wi-Fi community on coexistence testing in the future."

Roger Sherman, chief of the FCC Wireless Bureau since November 2013, is leaving at the end of February, to be replaced by Jon Wilkins, current managing director at the FCC, the agency said Friday. Sherman came to the FCC from the House and was formerly a lawyer for Sprint (see 1311050058). Sherman's "expertise and leadership in protecting the open Internet, streamlining infrastructure deployment, helping establish the historic market-based spectrum reserve, and playing key roles in vitally important spectrum policy initiatives -- from the historic AWS-3 auction to the broadcast incentive auction to our work on 5G -- will have a lasting impact," FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler said in a news release. Wilkins also came to the FCC in late 2013, the start of the Wheeler chairmanship, as the FCC’s chief operating official and as an adviser to Wheeler on management.

A strong holiday quarter boosted worldwide smartphone shipments to new record highs “thanks to robust product offerings at numerous price points in both mature and emerging markets,” IDC said in a quarterly smartphone tracker report. That was in sharp contrast to an early December “forecast update” in which IDC said 2015 would be the first full year of only single-digit percentage worldwide smartphone sales growth due to a slowdown in consumer demand in most Asian markets, Latin America and Western Europe (see 1512030051). Now, IDC estimates that for the full year, worldwide smartphone makers shipped a total of 1.4 billion units, “marking the highest year of shipments on record,” up 10.1 percent from the 1.3 billion units shipped in 2014, the research firm said Wednesday.

Crown Castle plans to promote Chief Financial Officer Jay Brown to CEO, Crown announced during the company's Q4 financial results webcast Thursday. Brown will take over for Ben Moreland June 1. Moreland said he believes the tower industry is "in the midst of a multiyear wireless investment cycle." Crown Castle increased its 2016 outlook for site rental revenue by $10 million, site rental gross margin by $7 million, adjusted EBITDA by $12 million, and adjusted funds from operations by $11 million, Brown said. The increased outlook reflects strong 2015 results and an anticipated 2016 leasing activity similar to 2015, the company's earnings statement said. Overall, Crown Castle took in $62 million more in site rental revenue in Q4 2015 than in Q4 2014, it said.