AT&T is boosting its mobile network capacity about 60 percent for Mardi Gras, it said in a news release Tuesday. The company deployed four cells on light trucks to help increase the network's ability to handle the demand from the large crowds expected in New Orleans for Mardi Gras Feb. 9, the carrier said.

A report commissioned by CTIA said the U.S. economy grows by $3.1 billion each year with every 10 MHz of spectrum made available, said a Tuesday CTIA news release. Every 10 MHz also means more than 100,000 new jobs are supported and more than $1.6 billion “in additional economic benefits from mobile apps and content that rely on mobile broadband services,” CTIA said. The report was written by Recon Analytics. “The astounding growth in employment will likely continue as the US economy becomes more competitive through the use of advanced wireless technology and services, with apps and the on-demand economy still primed for considerable growth,” the report said. “We need to work collaboratively to find additional opportunities to unlock new spectrum for mobile broadband to support Americans’ mobile-first lives and to ensure that America’s wireless industry remains the global leader,” said Meredith Baker, CTIA president.

By 2020, 40 percent of all wearables shipped will have wireless charging capability, an IHS report said Tuesday. It said smartwatches will lead the category, at 40 percent of wireless charging receiver shipments in 2020. Last year, 23 million wireless-charging-enabled wearable products shipped, IHS said. “Smartwatches are a key driver for wireless charging adoption in the wearable market,” analyst Vicky Yussuff said. Apple Watch and the Samsung Gear S2 use inductive wireless charging technology as the sole means of recharging their batteries, she said. Yussuff cited progress shown at CES. Challenges need to be addressed before wireless charging matures for the wearables market, she said. The goal is “to avoid negative customer experiences that could create further barriers to adoption in the future.”

APCO warned its members they face fines of as much as $112,000 if they don’t comply with the FCC’s narrowbanding mandate. APCO cited a recent notice from the agency (see 1601130072). “The FCC is taking new steps to ensure licensees comply with their narrowbanding mandate that was implemented over three years ago,” APCO said in an advisory. The group offered to provide guidance to members not sure if they're in compliance with the rules.

Hundreds of Verizon employees have spent almost two years getting ready for Super Bowl 50 in the San Francisco Bay area where the carrier says it plans to show off its network. Verizon has built 16 new area cell sites, installed 75 small cells and is deploying a patented antenna system to reach the lower stadium seats at Levi's Stadium, IT said. On Super Bowl weekend, Verizon plans to deploy 14 mobile cell sites in high-traffic locations. Overall, the carrier said it made a $70 million investment in the area to improve its network there before the big game. “We do this because we anticipate that this will be the most ‘shared’ Super Bowl,” said Brian Mecum, vice president-network for Verizon Wireless. “A better wireless network matters when it comes to capturing and sharing life’s greatest moments.” At last year’s Super Bowl, Verizon customers in Phoenix used 4.1 terabytes of data, the carrier said. “A state-of-the-art facility, Levi’s Stadium is designed to handle 1.5 times the wireless data traffic on the Verizon network as compared to University of Phoenix Stadium.” The Super Bowl will be played Feb. 7.

AT&T had 2.8 million wireless net adds in Q4, including 638,000 from Mexico, it said in an earnings report, released after regular U.S. stock markets closed Tuesday. AT&T said it now has 137 million wireless customers worldwide. Postpaid churn was 1.18 percent for the quarter, 1.09 percent for the full year. Postpaid smartphone sales dropped 27 percent in Q4. Revenue was $42.1 billion, up 22 percent year-over-year “primarily due” to the DirecTV acquisition, AT&T said. Net earnings attributable to AT&T were $4 billion, compared with a net loss of $4 billion in the year-earlier quarter. Full-year capital investment was $20.7 billion and is likely to climb to about $22 billion this year, AT&T said. “Our DIRECTV integration is going well, and the customer response to our new integrated mobile and entertainment offers is strong,” CEO Randall Stephenson said in a news release. “Throughout this year, we plan to launch a variety of new video entertainment packages that give customers even more choices.” In Mexico, AT&T said it now covers 44 million POPs with LTE and will deploy LTE in the massive Mexico City market in Q2. Stephenson said AT&T’s growth in Mexico is “exceeding all our expectations.”

Fingerprint sensors are an expected feature in smartphones, driven by biometric security and mobile payments, said an IHS report Monday. The sensors are also being used more in tablets and notebook PCs, said IHS. The iPhone leads the segment in fingerprint sensors, with 499 million shipped in 2015, up from 316 million in 2014, said IHS. Growth will continue each year until 2020, when fingerprint sensor shipments will peak at 1.6 billion units, it said. Apple, which acquired fingerprint-sensor maker AuthenTec in 2012, led the fingerprint sensor market in 2015 on the popularity of the iPhone 6s and iPads, said analyst Jamie Fox.

The American Civil Liberties Union, ACLU of Wisconsin and the Electronic Frontier Foundation asked the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to allow them to file a joint amicus brief in a cellphone privacy case. In U.S. v. Damian L. Patrick, Patrick was charged with being a felon in possession of a weapon. Police tracked him down using location information from his phone, obtained from his carrier or possibly collected using a cell-site simulator, EFF said. “This is the first time this federal appeals court, whose rulings affect Illinois, Wisconsin and Indiana, is considering whether citizens have an expectation of privacy in real-time cell phone location records,’’ said EFF Senior Staff Attorney Jennifer Lynch in a news release Monday. “This case comes as we are seeing a groundswell of recognition that this information is private.” The brief would give judges a unique perspective on “the broader implications of cellphone tracking, including information on the precision with which cellphones and cellphone service providers may capture data about where the phone’s owner has travelled throughout their day, the privacy interests implicated by the government’s collection of location data, the current trend toward greater legal protection for this data throughout the United States, and the implications of cellphone location data collection for Fourth Amendment analysis,” the groups said Friday in a filing at the court.

CTIA President Meredith Baker met with FCC officials to express concerns about the agency’s pending 11th broadband progress report and on USF issues. “CTIA highlighted the significant role that mobile wireless broadband services have cemented in the lives of Americans, and expressed disappointment that the Commission’s forthcoming … report may not affirmatively conclude that mobile wireless broadband deployment is occurring on a reasonable and timely basis,” the filing said. Currently, 99 percent of Americas have access to LTE, compared with 35 percent of consumers worldwide, Baker said. Wireless carriers invested a record $32 billion in their networks last year, she said. “American consumers use more than 11.1 billion MB of data every day,” the filing said. “As a result, mobile data usage increased more than 25 percent in 2014 alone, and more than ten times the volume from 2010.” The filing was in docket 15-191. The draft Telecom Act Section 706 report that has been on circulation would find that broadband wasn't being deployed in a timely and reasonable manner to all consumers (see 1601070059).

Sprint and T-Mobile are hyping progress they're making on their networks versus AT&T and especially Verizon. T-Mobile premiered a TV ad during the NFL playoffs Sunday. In a take-off on Verizon’s colored balls ad, the piece shows five red Verizon balls headed down a ramp followed by dozens of magenta T-Mobile balls. “In the last two years, Verizon only added LTE coverage for 5 million people,” a female voice exclaims. “T-Mobile, they added 100 million.” A male voice chimes in: “Verizon didn’t tell you that, did they?” Without mentioning T-Mobile’s 700 MHz buys, the ad says the carrier’s in-building coverage is four times better than in the past. “Verizon is better at some things," T-Mobile CEO John Legere tweeted Sunday. "Like keeping secrets. It's time to spill the balls, once and for all.” Verizon also broadcast its own version of its bouncing balls ad repeatedly during the playoff games. Meanwhile, Sprint, which unveils earnings Tuesday (see 1601220047), said in a news release Monday that it has doubled its number of LTE Plus markets. Sprint also said a new report by Nielsen Mobile Performance said Sprint had the fastest LTE download speeds of the four national carriers. “Over 75 million downloads, collected from real consumers in cities across the country, show that Sprint wins where it matters -- the actual customer experience,” said CEO Marcelo Claure. “Our customers are experiencing a network that’s faster than the competition, and there’s never been a better time to give Sprint a try.”