The FCC Wireless Bureau released specifications for auction system data file formats for the clock phase of the TV incentive auction’s forward auction. The formats are what bidders will use to interact with the auction system and had been requested by industry. “The Commission has determined that qualified bidders in the forward auction will have access to detailed information related to the results of bidding,” the bureau said in a public notice Wednesday. “The attached specifications set forth the file formats in which this information will be made available to qualified bidders.” The bureau also posted sample data files “for illustrative purposes only.”

The White Space Database Administrator Group (WSDBA) said a provision buried in FCC rules approved in August could complicate Wi-Fi in the TV white spaces. The order concedes it doesn’t make sense to make white spaces devices recheck a database every 20 minutes, as some propose, the group said. But the order requires that database administrators “push” information to white space devices in the area where licensed wireless microphones will be used “notifying them of changes in channel availability.” The FCC appears to not recognize “it's not possible to really ‘push’ data to specific devices at a specific location at a specific time” and the requirement will mean white spaces devices will have to poll the database “all the time no matter where they are,” the group said. The requirement “would cause significant burden on the database administrators and white space devices, with many potential real-world costs” including draining battery life of the devices and consuming bandwidth, the kinds of problems the FCC wants to solve, the group said. WSDBA said it represents Comsearch, Frequency Finder, Google, LS telcom, Microsoft, Neustar, Spectrum Bridge and Telcordia. The filing was posted Wednesday in docket 12-268.

The FCC Wireless Bureau plans a pre-auction process tutorial for the forward part of the TV incentive auction before Jan. 19, the bureau said in a notice. The tutorial will offer “additional information concerning access to the Commission’s bidding system,” the bureau said. The forward auction will offer the 600 MHz spectrum made available by broadcasters for sale to carriers and other potential bidders. The bureau reminded potential bidders they must have an FCC-provided SecurID token to access the auction system to place bids in the reverse or forward auctions or to participate in any mock auction. The tokens “will be distributed to applicants for the reverse auction prior to the deadline for initial commitments, and to forward auction applicants prior to the announcement of qualified bidders, to enable applicants with complete applications to practice with the Auction System,” the bureau said Monday.

The FCC Wireless Bureau gave AT&T a limited waiver to use power spectral density measurements to comply with effective radiated power limits for 800 MHz cellular operations in parts of Kansas. The bureau earlier approved similar requests for markets in Florida, Missouri and Vermont (see 1510050044). “The waiver relief we grant today is subject to the outcome of the pending rulemaking proceeding in which the Commission is considering changes to the Cellular radiated power limits and related technical rules,” the bureau said in a notice.

The FCC posted a paper by its Technological Advisory Council testing an earlier proposal for probabilistic risk analysis, looking at the protection of meteorological satellite earth stations from interference by cellular mobile transmitters in the 1695-1710 MHz band. The band made up part of the spectrum the FCC sold in the AWS-3 auction. The paper finds that the methodology offers “useful insights for assessing coexistence, including the unexpected result that the binding interference constraint is not the lowest antenna elevation considered in previous analyses.” The report recommends the FCC make more use of risk-informed interference assessment. But it also said a lack of transparency can be an issue. “We recommend that the FCC encourage all parties to be as complete and transparent as possible in disclosing the methods underlying interference criteria and coexistence assessments,” the paper said. TAC approved the paper, by its Spectrum and Receiver Performance Working Group, at a Dec. 9 meeting (see 1512090067).

The Competitive Carriers Association asked the FCC to hold the TV incentive auction as planned and ignore broadcaster arguments for a transition period beyond the 39 months in the current rules. “The FCC’s planned 39-month transition period is more than enough time for broadcasters to relocate off the 600 MHz spectrum,” CCA President Steve Berry said in a Tuesday news release. “In fact, by the time the 39-month period ends, broadcasters will have had more than seven years to prepare for the introduction of new wireless broadband services that consumers crave. … Instead of asking for more time, broadcasters should be making plans now to relocate.” Patrick McFadden, NAB vice president-spectrum policy, said at the CCA convention in October that forcing all broadcasters off their spectrum by a given date makes little sense and will be unworkable (see 1510080026). “NAB supports a successful incentive auction that is voluntary and realistic in its deadlines," an NAB spokesman said in response. "It is not realistic to think that upwards of 1,000 stations can be repacked into a shrunken TV band in 39 months. Rather than setting an arbitrary 39-month deadline, the FCC should wait until the auction is over to set an end date for when stations turn in their licenses.”

TracFone representatives met with FCC officials to explain its proposals for the Lifeline program, said a filing by the company posted Monday in docket 11-42. TracFone discussed its proposal “to make broadband available to Lifeline households by requiring wireless Lifeline providers to offer at no charge to qualified consumers Wi-Fi-enabled smartphones that could utilize free Wi-Fi hotspots provided through public facilities” and the company’s support for a third-party eligibility verifier, the carrier said.

Home broadband adoption has plateaued, the number of smartphone-only households has increased and 15 percent of adults have become cord cutters, new Pew Research Center surveys released Monday said. The percentage of consumers in the country adopting broadband is at 67 percent, down from 70 percent in 2013, one of the surveys said. While 68 percent of Americans said they have a smartphone, 13 percent said they use their smartphone for their Internet access instead of buying a broadband connection, it said. That figure is up from 8 percent in 2013. Those who have only a smartphone run into challenges such as more frequently having to cancel or suspend service due to financial constraints, running into data-cap limits and not being able to fill out job applications, a report about the findings said.

Changes to the FCC’s RF exposure regulations and assessment techniques likely are necessary to enable portable-device applications in the millimeter wave frequency bands, Qualcomm said in a meeting with officials from the FCC Office of Engineering and Technology, including Chief Julius Knapp. Qualcomm’s comments, in docket 14-177, relate to the FCC’s October NPRM on use of frequency bands above 24 GHz (see 1510230050). “For the mmWave bands under consideration in the NPRM, assessment of RF exposure for portable device applications, such as smartphones and tablets, needs to be done in the near field,” Qualcomm said. “It is important that spatial averaging be used for a meaningful exposure assessment against the limit, as the power density distribution varies drastically in the near field, especially in close proximity of the source.”

The Electronic Frontier Foundation filed an amicus brief, asking the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to uphold a district court ruling and strike down a 2006 Wisconsin statute requiring individuals who have completed their criminal sentences to wear GPS ankle bracelets for the rest of their lives. While the law was aimed at individuals who committed certain sexual violence offenses, it "applied to any person released from jail, prison, treatment, or involuntary civil commitment after January 1, 2008 -- regardless of the date of their offense, without any determination of their risk of recidivism, and even to those fully discharged from their criminal sentences," wrote EFF Legal Fellow Jamie Williams in a Monday blog post. She wrote EFF filed its brief last week in a case involving Michael Belleau, who sued the state, saying the law violated the Fourth Amendment and the U.S. Constitution's ex post facto clause, "which prohibits states from passing laws that retroactively change the legal consequences of a crime or action." In September, the U.S. District Court in the Eastern District of Wisconsin sided with Belleau. The ruling said Belleau served his sentences and the state "is not entitled to add to his punishment because it now believes the sentences imposed were too lenient or provided insufficient protection to the public. Nor may the State force Belleau to wear a GPS tracking device around his ankle so that it can record his movement minute-by-minute for the rest of his life because it believes he might commit another crime in the future." Wisconsin appealed the ruling. EFF's Williams wrote that GPS tracking helps law enforcement not only know individuals' whereabouts but "also learn an extraordinary amount of highly sensitive information about who we are." Wisconsin's "GPS surveillance program severely and pervasively invades [their] privacy interests," she wrote, citing the EFF brief.