Doubts about whether smaller carriers will compete in the TV incentive auction are on the rise at precisely the same time that expectations for what the larger players might actually spend are falling, analyst Craig Moffett of MoffettNathanson told us in an email. Questions emerged at last week’s Competitive Carriers Association conference over whether small carriers will jump in in a big way during the auction, slated to start March 29 (see 1510090022). “We’re still a long ways out from March, but I think it is fair to say that skepticism seems to be mounting about just how much the auction might raise,” Moffett said. “Sprint’s decision not to participate, coupled with cautious comments from Verizon, AT&T, and T-Mobile, have led equity investors to lower their sights a little bit. All this may be posturing, but there are reasons to think that large carriers may be more restrained" than they were in the AWS-3 auction. The small license sizes for sale in the incentive auction “allow regional and rural carriers to focus their very limited resources on acquiring low-band spectrum that better fits their service areas,” countered Michael Calabrese, director of the New America Foundation’s Wireless Future Project. “As a result, selling other spectrum in secondary markets to raise funds to participate in the incentive auction is a strategy some non-national carriers can use to right-size their spectrum holdings and get more bang for the buck.”

The FCC Wireless Bureau sought comment Tuesday on a petition by “cloud-based developer-platform company” Twilio asking the agency to clarify that messaging services fall under Title II of the Communications Act. “Twilio asserts that wireless providers engage in a variety of discriminatory and anti-competitive practices that cannot be adequately addressed absent a declaratory ruling classifying messaging services under Title II,” the bureau said. Comments are due Nov. 20, replies Dec. 21. The FCC sought comment on a similar petition in 2008, but didn't take action, the bureau said. The notice doesn't mention the agency’s February net neutrality rules but says that “marketplace and legal developments since” 2008 justify a record refresh.

Contrary to concerns raised by the prpl Foundation and other groups (see 1509300063), the FCC doesn't plan to ban third-party firmware installation on devices, including Wi-Fi routers, said Julius Knapp, chief of the Office of Engineering and Technology, in a Thursday blog post. Numerous parties continue to raise the issue in comments on proposed rules for the evaluation and approval of RF devices. “Like the U-NII rules we adopted, the proposed rules do not require device makers to prevent installation of third party firmware or otherwise favor specific security solutions,” Knapp said. “Quite the contrary, the proposed rules would require manufacturers to select the security method they deem appropriate to prevent modifications that take the device out of compliance.” Interference prevention is key to a flexible use spectrum regime, Knapp said. “The proposed rules aim to create a certification process that recognizes this goal without creating burdensome red tape for manufacturers and headaches for users while also allowing innovative solutions by 3rd party vendors,” he said. “It’s critical that we get the details right, and we look forward to fielding comments in the record this fall.”

Fred Moorefield, director-spectrum policy and programs with the Department of Defense’s Chief Information Officer, received the department’s Distinguished Civilian Service Award Thursday. The award is the highest honor DOD can bestow on a civilian employee. Moorefield is widely viewed as reshaping DOD’s spectrum policy, leading discussions with industry on sharing and possible reallocation of DOD spectrum.

Sprint Chief Financial Officer Tarek Robbiati confirmed reports (see 1510020053) the company is planning to cut $2.5 billion in costs, an article posted on SeekingAlpha.com said Friday. While in Tokyo for a meeting with SoftBank executives, Robbiati said Sprint's cost structure is "bloated" and it will cut $2 billion in operating costs and an additional $500 million in equipment spending, according to Seeking Alpha.

The FCC should open a real-time text (RTT) rulemaking and cultivate emerging technology that can benefit persons with disabilities, the agency's Disability Advisory Committee recommended Thursday. The committee adopted a resolution that noted the emergence of real-time text services and recommended the FCC "begin a rulemaking to explore if RTT is a solution that meets or exceeds the objectives" of existing wireless text-telephony (TTY) rules, and particularly whether RTT "better meets the communications and emergency access needs of today's consumers, including individuals who are deaf, hard of hearing, deaf-blind or speech disabled individuals, than does TTY." The resolution also recommended the commission explore, in the same rulemaking, whether other next-generation text-based communications technologies could be viable replacements for TTY. The committee suggested the FCC consider numerous specific issues and questions in the rulemaking to facilitate "a smooth transition from TTY to RTT and other next-generation solutions" while ensuring that consumer needs are met and wireless carriers and equipment manufacturers can carry out their obligations. AT&T has asked for a rulemaking aimed at replacing TTY with RTT and recently was granted a temporary waiver to offer RTT service (see 1510060026). The committee also adopted a resolution recommending the FCC undertake various efforts to understand and promote the use of emerging technologies to improve communications access for persons with disabilities.

T-Mobile sees LTE-unlicensed as providing the first real competition for Wi-Fi, said Mark McDiarmid, vice president-radio network engineering, during a final panel at the Competitive Carriers Association’s annual conference in Fort Lauderdale. Competition is good, he said. “It encourages ecosystems to perform and reform.” Competition leads to “breakthroughs,” he said. Jim Lienau, chief technology officer at Wisconsin-based Cellcom, said his company is very interested in unlicensed. “Anything that can help to bring a better product or service or any more capacity into rural areas is a plus for us,” he said. “We’re in areas where Wi-Fi isn’t even available,” he said. Cellcom has brought broadband to some areas for the first time, he said. Lienau said he sees LTE-U in the end as “just another tool in the toolbox.” LTE-U is one way to help meet the surge in data in the mobile sector, said Neville Meijers, Qualcomm vice president-small cells. “We’ve got to provide more spectrum, better technology, better devices, innovation around things like carrier aggregation,” he said. “We need better deployment of small cells.” LTE-U also isn't a “land grab” of unlicensed spectrum, Meijers said. Lienau said small carriers also need to “keep their eye on 5G, where it’s going, because we all need to be a part of it.” Carriers need to “keep that engine running” and they have to deploy 4G first to even get to 5G, he said.

AT&T started to allow wireless Wi-Fi VoIP calls Thursday, two days after getting the needed waiver from the FCC (see 1510060026), the carrier said. “Wi-Fi Calling is a complement to AT&T’s already great network coverage,” Bill Smith, president AT&T Network Operations, said in a blog post. For the service to work, customers need a compatible device with iOS 9 installed, a postpaid wireless account set up for HD Voice and the Wi-Fi Internet connection, he said.

Samsung is offering a free one-year trial to Texture by Next Issue to customers who buy the Galaxy Tab S2 through Nov. 20. The online service offers subscriptions to 160 magazines for $9 per month for the basic version, and $14.99 for premium. The offer is only for new subscribers, said Samsung.

More than 25 privacy advocates and national consumer groups, including the Center for Digital Democracy, Consumer Action, Consumer Watchdog, Consumers Union, Electronic Privacy Information Center and the World Privacy Forum, sent a letter to FTC Chairwoman Edith Ramirez and Consumer Financial Protection Bureau Director Richard Cordray Thursday, expressing “grave concerns raised by the early reports of the significant data security breach affecting T-Mobile customers and applicants whose information was stored by Experian” (see 1510020051). Since Experian is one of three nationwide consumer reporting agencies (CRAs), “each holding data on over 200 million consumers,” the groups asked the agencies to “fully investigate this breach, including whether other Experian databases have been breached,” the letter said. The groups asked the agencies to determine how hackers would be allowed to “access the information of T-Mobile customers but not the main credit report files,” and determine if different security measures are in place. “If there are no such differences, doesn’t this raise the troubling possibility that the servers holding highly sensitive credit and personal information of over 200 million Americans is vulnerable to a data hack by identity thieves?” the letter asked. A breach of a credit reporting agency takes the problem of data breaches to a “whole new and dangerous level given the extraordinarily large amounts of critical financial information they hold,” the letter said. “Identity thieves could play havoc of an unimaginably huge scale with access to such data, with potentially devastating consequences to consumers, financial institutions, and the American economy,” it said. The groups also expressed concern with Experian’s decision not to offer a security or credit freeze to consumers, which is the only way to stop new account financial identity theft, the groups said. The “breached firms are only offering weaker credit monitoring, so we also ask the regulators: Is there any authority for the CFPB to require the nationwide CRAs to provide free security freezes to affected consumers?” it said. Meanwhile, Missouri Attorney General Chris Koster issued a news release Wednesday saying as many as 263,000 people in the state could be affected by the breach.