Nine out of 10 millennials say their smartphone is always with them, said Mobile Future’s sixth annual "Mobile Year in Review," released Friday. Other statistics include that 61 percent acknowledge using their smartphone in the bathroom and 80 percent said they would give up alcohol or chocolate to get a lost phone back.

Delphi gave a peek Friday into CES plans for an automated vehicle showcasing its "vehicle 2 everything" technology. Among the features to be demonstrated: vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) detection that can see all cars in the immediate vicinity, including when an adjacent car abruptly moves into its lane; vehicle-to-pedestrian that leverages a chip in a smartphone, and warns of pedestrians not paying attention to traffic as they use their phone; blind corners, which manages for situations when street angles prevent drivers from seeing opposing traffic; and a ride-sharing feature that notifies designated contacts of the driver’s location so a ride can be requested, said the company. Delphi called the future of “truly automated driving” a “long-term” development but said next year its V2V technology will appear on the 2017 Cadillac CTS’ Super Cruise system. At CES, Delphi will show a touch-free cockpit that uses hidden infrared cameras to track eye movement to detect what a driver sees and infers what action should be carried out by the infotainment system.

The Consumer Technology Association worries that the Federal Aviation Administration will defy its own task force recommendation and impose a registration fee for small drones when the agency writes its final rules, Doug Johnson, vice president-technology policy, said in a statement. “To be successful, an efficient drone registration system with widespread compliance must be simple, easy and free.” Even a small fee would amount to a “drone tax,” and would “undermine” the FAA’s goal of widespread compliance, Shapiro said Thursday. “Simplicity” in drone registrations was the hallmark of recommendations in the Nov. 21 report of the task force, with two dozen members from CTA and aviation trade groups, and powerhouse names like Amazon, Best Buy, Google, GoPro and Walmart. “To encourage a high level of compliance with the registration requirement,” the task force believes the FAA “should not impose a registration fee,” and if it needs to do so for “legal reasons,” the charge should be a “de minimis fee” of 1/10th of one cent, the report said. FAA representatives didn’t comment Friday.

Verizon told the FCC it agreed to an alternate time frame to begin delivering 911 text messages to six public safety answering points in Hawaii, including the Big Island, Honolulu, Kuai and Maui. The FCC’s PSAP registry had designated these PSAPs as ready for text-to-911 service as of May 27, Verizon said in a filing posted Friday to docket 10-255. The carrier said it worked out an agreement with the Hawaii E-911 Board to instead start delivering emergency texts this month on a phased-in basis.

The FCC Wireless Bureau sought comment on AT&T’s latest request (see 1512020031) to use power spectral density (PSD) measurements to comply with effective radiated power limits for 800 MHz cellular operations, in this case in eight cellular market areas in Kentucky and Tennessee. The bureau earlier approved similar requests for markets in Florida, Missouri and Vermont (see 1510050044). “AT&T specifically proposes a PSD limit of 250 watts/MHz in non-rural areas and 500 watts/MHz in rural areas, and includes two studies that purport to show that implementing PSD-based power limits in the Cellular Service would not cause harmful interference to public safety deployments,” the bureau said Friday. Comments are due Dec. 31, replies Jan. 11.

HP asked the FCC to extend the June 2 deadline for when all U-NII-3 equipment imported to or marketed in the U.S. must be compliant with rules on power levels and emission limits for the 5.725-5.85 GHz U-NII-3 band. HP said it supports arguments by Intel last month that the FCC shouldn't require compliance with the rules until six months after it acts on petitions for reconsideration on out-of-band emission limits in the band. “HP Inc. must have time to receive and test compliant updated or new wireless devices and integrate them into production,” the company said in a filing Thursday in docket 13-49. “HP Inc. is concerned there will not be enough time between the publication of the new rules and the June 2nd 2016 date to obtain, test and implement the compliant wireless devices into our products without impacting delivery to consumers and businesses.” Intel asked for a delay in a Nov. 6 filing. “The continuing uncertainty regarding the OOBE [out-of-band emission] limits that will apply to the U-NII-3 band in just 8 months is proving highly problematic to Intel given the high volume of IEEE 802.11 products it produces each month and the fact that Intel’s customer base for that product largely consists of OEMs who incorporate Intel product into their own devices,” Intel said.

Sprint CEO Marcelo Claure was at the FCC last week to talk with the four commissioners other than Chairman Tom Wheeler about special access reform, said a series of filings posted Friday in docket 15-191. Claure “noted that access to reasonably priced special access circuits, including ethernet backhaul, will be critical to expanding the coverage of mobile broadband services and providing the data speeds consumers demand,” said a filing. Claure also “discussed the importance of streamlining the siting process to allow more rapid deployment of small cells and network densification,” it said. “He noted the delays frequently encountered in certain jurisdictions and encouraged the FCC to consider actions that would speed the siting process nationwide.”

The FCC Wireless Bureau dismissed an objection filed by Sirius XM to an exchange of AWS-1 and PCS licenses between Verizon Wireless and T-Mobile. The carriers announced the $173 million deal in August (see 1508050054). The objections aren't specific to the deal and would be “better addressed in an appropriate proceeding designed to address the interference claims,” the bureau said in an order released Thursday. It said Sirius said in the objection that some subscribers in large urban markets have begun experiencing harmful interference to their reception of satellite radio.

The FCC Wireless Bureau put off deadlines for filing comments on the protection framework and protection criteria during the transition to spectrum sharing in the 3.5 GHz band. The deadlines were those sought by the Wireless Innovation Forum earlier this week (see 1512080008). The deadline for initial comments was delayed from Thursday until Dec. 28, the reply deadline from Dec. 28 to Jan. 12. “It is in the public interest to grant an extension to promote industry collaboration and allow parties to fully address the complicated issues raised in the 3650-3700 MHz Band Protection Contours Public Notice,” the bureau said in a Wednesday public notice.

The Virginia Department of State Police raised objections to a FirstNet proposal for clearing incumbent systems from Band 14 (758-769/788-799 MHz), the spectrum that the authority is using to build its network. The FCC Public Safety Bureau sought comment in November on an Oct. 20 letter from FirstNet detailing its plans (see 1511050060). Initial comments were due Wednesday. The state said its comments express the views of the 21-agency Statewide Agencies Radio System (STARS). Incumbent statewide public safety systems “must be properly protected during the transition” to FirstNet, Virginia said. “It is not appropriate procedurally to have a new public safety licensee (FirstNet) control at its discretion the transfer schedule of existing public safety licensees,” the state said. “This is not intended as a reflection on FirstNet's ability or good faith, but when a conflict develops between First Net's legitimate needs and timetable, and an existing public safety licensee's legitimate needs and timetable, FirstNet should not be allowed to unilaterally make that decision.” The state of Hawaii, which has systems that must move from the band, said the FCC, consistent with past practice, should require that FirstNet pay transition costs. The state said FirstNet has committed to do so and a federal grant funding notice is expected. The comments were filed in docket 06-150.