Overall consumer satisfaction with smartphones equipped with displays five inches and larger is “typically higher” than that for smaller smartphones, J.D. Power said in a Thursday report. Moreover, the gap in satisfaction between owners with larger smartphones and those with the smaller devices among all brands is 40 points, up from 32 points in a similar study done six months ago, the research firm said. Its study, now in its ninth year, measures customer satisfaction based on performance, features, physical design and ease of use, it said. "Satisfaction is clearly higher among owners of larger smartphones, based on a number of reasons surrounding the physical display size and latest technology capabilities," the firm said. "It's important for the wireless providers that offer these devices to realize that spending on new service rises when subscribers upgrade smartphones. Also, when customers are more satisfied with their smartphone selection, OEMs and carriers can benefit through increased customer loyalty and repurchase intent."

All 21 competitive carriers taking part in Verizon’s LTE in Rural America (LRA) program have now launched 4G LTE service, Verizon said Thursday. Verizon said in a blog post that 225,000 square miles of Verizon’s spectrum is leased by LRA participants in 169 rural counties in 15 states. More than 1,000 4G LTE cell sites have been activated through the program, the carrier said. “The LRA program has positively impacted the lives of Americans from Maine to Alaska, and we’re very proud to be a part of that,” said Philip Junker, executive director-strategic alliances at Verizon.

“Nosebleed” or extremely high frequency spectrum being looked at by the FCC for wireless use comes with advantages and disadvantages, Mitchell Lazarus of Fletcher Heald said Thursday in a blog post. Because the wavelength is short, less than three millimeters, “designing circuits is a major challenge,” Lazarus wrote. “A device’s internal components typically have dimensions comparable to this wavelength; without appropriate precautions, they act like little antennas transmitting and receiving to each other within the device, and that impairs performance.” The big advantage is that the high-frequency spectrum is almost empty, he added. “Uniquely in the spectrum, there is enough radio bandwidth here to permit data capacities similar to those of fiber-optic cable,” Lazarus said. “A compact antenna just a few inches across can provide a highly directional beam. The same frequencies can be reused nearby.”

AT&T raised concerns about 49 requests for waiver of the FCC's Multichannel Video Distribution and Data Service (MVDDS) technical rules sought by seven MVDDS licensees. The Wireless Bureau sought comment Sept. 14. “The Petitioners seek a huge power increase that would overturn the delicate balance the Commission established in the 2002 band-sharing rules to provide an opportunity for MVDDS service provision while at the same time protecting” DBS service, AT&T said. AT&T, which recently wrapped up its buy of DirecTV, noted that millions of Americans rely on the provider to watch TV. “DIRECTV has made significant investments in spacecraft, launches, ground-stations (including tens of millions of subscriber terminals) and, of course, programming,” AT&T said. “The spectrum sharing rules for MVDDS licensees, which were carefully crafted during the protracted MVDDS proceeding from 1998-2002, are critical to ensuring that DIRECTV’s customers are able to receive high quality signals in this band.” The comments were posted Thursday in docket 15-218.

The FCC Wireless Bureau signed off on buys by NE Colorado Cellular and two other companies in the AWS-3 auction. The FCC is slowly working its way through applications to take title on the spectrum sold in the record-setting auction. While 30 applications were accepted for filing, many are awaiting action. Eleven applications were granted April 8 and two more Aug. 24, the FCC said Thursday. Nineteen of the 21 applications approved were from NE Colorado. The bureau also approved Docomo Pacific’s buy of a license covering Guam and Northern Mariana Islands and RigNet Satcom’s buy of a license in the Gulf of Mexico.

NYU Wireless Wednesday filed at the FCC a technical report on millimeter wave propagation measurements inside an office building. The study found a “strong dependence on path loss over distance as the frequency increases,” NYU said. “The paper also shows that simpler, distant-dependent path loss models do virtually the same job at predicting signal strength as more cumbersome and less intuitive models currently used in industry.” Researchers looked at the 28 and 73 GHz bands. The report noted that while the 2.4 and 5 GHz Wi-Fi bands have been widely used for indoor wireless communications for more than 10 years, less is known about high-frequency spectrum. “The impending spectrum and capacity crunch for outdoor cellular may very well lead to the use of the 28 GHz and 73 GHz mmWave frequency bands as an extension for 5G outdoor and indoor communications, especially due to the trend of shrinking cell sizes,” the report said. The FCC is expected to approve an NPRM on high frequency spectrum at its Oct. 22 open meeting (see 1510010067).

The FCC’s February net neutrality order threatens to reverse decades of light-handed regulation in the U.S., Brendan Carr, an aide to FCC Commissioner Ajit Pai, on Wednesday told attendees at a conference in Brussels sponsored by think tank New Direction. “There’s been a dramatic turn towards heavy-handed regulation of the Internet -- one that has injected tremendous uncertainty into the market and already resulted in a substantial decrease in capital spending by U.S. broadband providers,” Carr said, according to remarks posted by the FCC. Carr cited a recent report by the Progressive Policy Institute, which found that capital expenditures by the largest wireline ISPs plunged 12 percent in the first half of 2015, compared with the first half of 2014, while expenditures overall fell 8 percent. “This decrease represents billions of dollars in lost investment and tens of thousands of lost jobs,” he said. “And it cannot be dismissed as part of a normal fluctuation in spending. Broadband providers’ capital expenditures have fallen on a year-over-year basis only twice before: following the dot-com bust in 2000 and the Great Recession in 2008.” Anecdotal evidence shows that small ISPs, including some wireless ISPs, are also curbing their investments in their networks, he said.

Sprint launched its Direct 2 You service, which provides on-site wireless sales, consultations and customer service (see 1506290070), in seven new cities, it said in a news release Tuesday. Direct 2 You is now available to customers in Charlotte, North Carolina; Cincinnati; Las Vegas; Nashville; New Orleans; Pittsburgh; and Salt Lake City, Sprint said. "We're excited to see such positive customer reaction to Direct 2 You, and we plan to expand its reach into new communities," Vice President Rod Millar said.

The National Public Safety Telecommunications Council Tuesday released an updated report on public safety control of the Nationwide Public Safety Broadband Network (NPSBN) being built by FirstNet. “The effective coordination of people, process, and technology is critical to establishing a successful inter-jurisdictional, inter-disciplinary, interoperable, and shared NPSBN,” the report said. NPSTC points out that public safety entities (PSEs) joining or subscribing to the network “must accept that they are becoming a part of a community sharing a critical communications resource and that their decisions can have significant impact on other participating entities.” FirstNet must “take a lead role in educating PSEs about technical factors under their control and how they can ensure effective operation of the NPSBN,” the report said. It said that FirstNet also needs to “facilitate regular dialogue on the best practices and cooperative use of common resources.”

The FCC Wireless Bureau Tuesday sought comment on proposals by two different companies to use extreme high-frequency spectrum. ZenFi sought a waiver to use the 102-109.5 GHz band under its existing Millimeter Wave Radio Service license for high-speed, point-to-point data streams between users of its service, a public notice said. ZenFi would use the band in Chicago, New York City, San Francisco and Washington metropolitan markets, the bureau said, noting that the company already has a regulatory framework set up for similar use of the 70/80/90 GHz bands. McKay Brothers seeks a similar waiver to allow its subsidiary Geneva to operate links in and around Chicago, New York City and northern New Jersey, the bureau said. Comments are due Nov. 12, replies Nov. 30. The FCC is set to take up an NPRM on high-frequency “spectrum frontiers” at its Oct. 22 open meeting (see 1510010067). Also in the high-frequency arena, the bureau Tuesday also sought comment on waiver requests by two companies that want to use smaller antenna for operations in the 71-76 and 81-86 GHz bands. Aviat Networks, a provider of microwave networking, and Fastback, which makes outdoor networking products, asked for waivers allowing use of antennas with lower minimum gain, higher maximum beamwidth and modified suppression criteria, the bureau said in a separate PN. The Fixed Wireless Communications Coalition has asked for changes to the antenna rules, the bureau noted: “Aviat and Fastback specify that they seek waivers to allow antennas meeting the proposed requirements to be used immediately, prior to the resolution of this rulemaking.” Comment due dates are the same as for the other PN.