The number of wireless charging-ready devices outpaced charger shipments, but resonant wireless charging should boost the overall wireless charger market, said a report from ABI Research. Some 213 million Powermat/Rezence chargers are forecast to ship by 2020, but they will be outpaced by the 713 million Qi chargers expected to ship during the period, said ABI. Many smartphone original equipment manufacturers haven’t bundled wireless chargers with handsets, which has stunted the market for chargers, said ABI, but growing awareness and dropping prices should drive sales of chargers per active user, said the research firm. Broadcom, Microsoft, Qualcomm and Samsung are among the companies that belong to both the Qi and Powermat/Rezence trade groups, but companies “will need to send clear signals about their product support to consumers,” said ABI Tuesday. Samsung ships devices today support both Powermat and Qi, but ABI predicts Samsung eventually will throw its full support behind Qi in future products.

Customers who buy a $299 Netgear Nighthawk DST AC1900 router from Best Buy will get Geek Squad set-up help to customize settings, connect devices and secure their network, plus a year of unlimited Geek Squad support by phone or online, the chain said in a Wednesday announcement. The promotional offer is to address the growing problem in U.S. homes of strained Wi-Fi networks and slower connection speeds caused by adding more connectivity devices, Best Buy said. The Netgear router was built to Best Buy’s specifications and “can keep up with the growing number of connected devices in the home, while also virtually eliminating Wi-Fi dead zones,” it said. The router can support 10 or more connected devices at speeds up to 1.9 Gbps, it said.

“For America’s drone technology to actually take flight, we need a regulatory framework that embodies a risk-based approach to integrating unmanned aircraft systems [into the national airspace] to maximize safety, utility and economic benefit,” said CEA CEO Gary Shapiro in a news release Wednesday. Shapiro’s comments came as the House Aviation Subcommittee held a hearing on ensuring aviation safety in the era of unmanned aircraft systems. “The drone industry is set to take off one-million flights per day within the next 20 years given the right regulatory environment,” for uses ranging from search and rescue to package delivery to filming movies to precision agriculture, Shapiro said. “Until the Federal Aviation Administration releases clear rules authorizing drones in the national airspace, the industry and CEA will continue to educate drone enthusiasts about the safe and responsible operation of drones through the Know Before You Fly campaign.”

Sprint’s decision to sit out the TV incentive auction, after lobbying hard for a spectrum reserve, teaches a valuable lesson, Free State Foundation President Randolph May said Wednesday in a blog post. “The foremost lesson is one I have tried to hammer home for many years,” May wrote. “Absent a true market failure -- and there is not one with respect to the marketplace for broadband services, including wireless services, the Commission needs to quit trying to manage competition.” May’s comments miss the point of Sprint’s advocacy, Larry Krevor, vice president-legal and government affairs-spectrum, said in an email. “Yes, Sprint supported strengthening the spectrum reserve, along with virtually the entire wireless communications industry, other than Verizon and AT&T,” he said. But the record makes clear Sprint’s focus was on persuading the FCC to minimize the “impairment” 600 MHz winners would suffer from remaining TV broadcast operations, Krevor said. “Sprint’s efforts helped the Commission improve the quality of the auctioned spectrum, thereby producing better spectrum for all auction participants to bid on and higher auction revenues.”

Verizon’s existing wireless advertising programs -- Relevant Mobile Advertising and Verizon Selects -- will be combined with the AOL Advertising Network starting in November, wrote Verizon Chief Privacy Officer Karen Zacharia in a blog post Wednesday. “The combination will help make the ads our customers see more relevant to them, and therefore more useful, across the different devices and services they see.” Verizon is changing how its programs operate, including who receives the Verizon advertising identifier or Unique Identifier Header (UIDH), which is essentially a string of random characters that's transmitted with unencrypted Internet requests over the Verizon Wireless network, Zacharia said. UIDH doesn’t contain or transmit personally identifiable information; doesn’t broadcast Web browsing information to advertisers or others; and when the AOL and Verizon programs are combined, will be transmitted only to entities that are on a preapproved white list, she said. Verizon’s advertising approach is “in line with best-in-class industry standards for privacy protection,” Zacharia said. “Our customers will continue to have choices about whether or not to participate in these programs.”

The Federal Aviation Administration wants to levy the “largest civil penalty" it has proposed against an unmanned aircraft system operator "for endangering the safety of our airspace” by operating drones in a “careless or reckless manner,” the agency said in a Tuesday announcement. The proposed $1.9 million civil penalty against SkyPan International of Chicago alleges that between March 21, 2012, and Dec. 15, 2014, SkyPan conducted 65 unauthorized operations “in some of our most congested airspace and heavily populated cities [including New York City and Chicago], violating airspace regulations and various operating rules,” the FAA said. The flights involved aerial photography, and the aircraft were “not equipped with a two-way radio, transponder, and altitude-reporting equipment,” the FAA said. SkyPan also failed to obtain a certificate of waiver or authorization for the operations, the release said. SkyPan has 30 days to respond to the FAA’s enforcement letter, it said. SkyPan didn’t have an immediate comment.

The FCC Incentive Auction Task Force and Wireless Bureau will host a webinar on recent modifications to Part 1 rules on designated entities and other auction-related matters, including joint bidding, Oct. 28, the FCC said. The session starts at 1:30 p.m. EDT, the agency said. An agenda is to be announced later.

National Consumers League officials asked the FCC to conduct a new "bill shock" survey, "given the proliferation of smartphones, data intensive applications, and international roaming fees." There's anecdotal evidence of consumer concerns over bill shock due to international roaming, said an NCL ex parte filing posted Tuesday in docket 10-207. NCL repeated a recommendation that wireless carriers require "an affirmative opt-in from subscribers before roaming charges are assessed."

FirstNet released what it said is the last in a “long line of ongoing consultation efforts" toward the release of requests for proposals (RFPs) on a national broadband network for first responders, this time seeking comments on cybersecurity. Cybersecurity “is prominent among the high-level objectives" for the network, FirstNet said. The authority said it already has gathered “an extensive amount of information.” Comments are due 1 p.m. EDT Oct. 16. FirstNet said it wants “feedback from stakeholders, including states, tribes, territories, public safety stakeholders, and market participants” on protecting the network against attack. “A paradigm shift in how cyber security is defined and delivered is required, and FirstNet seeks input to effect this paradigm shift so that the [network] can be appropriately defended,” it said. FirstNet President TJ Kennedy said in a Tuesday blog post that the authority wants to be leading edge. “We have an opportunity to innovate and be creative in addressing cyber security from the ground up for one of the most diverse, complex, and unique broadband networks in the country,” he wrote. “After all, this will be the only nationwide network that is dedicated to public safety and can provide first responders with true priority and rural coverage.”

Broadcom is "cautiously optimistic" a solution on "workable coexistence" could be reached on a model for licensed assisted access unlicensed LTE deployment, but less so on Wi-Fi and LTE-U, it said its executives told FCC officials. While the 3rd Generation Partnership Project isn't "a traditional venue for developing standards for unlicensed operation," Broadcom said that it "nevertheless" is hopeful that solutions are possible. On "LTE-U, however, Broadcom stated that the situation is far different," it said in an ex parte filing on its meeting with Chief Julius Knapp and others in the Office of Engineering and Technology and with a Wireless Bureau official, and another meeting with Jessica Almond, aide to FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler. "Planned Wi-Fi/LTE-U co-existence mechanisms will not be effective, and co-existence analyses performed by LTE-U supporters to date are deeply flawed." The LTE-U specification doesn't "mandate any meaningful co-existence features, only requiring co-existence capabilities," said the company in a filing posted Tuesday in docket 15-105. "This distinction is critical." The company is a member of the Wi-Fi Alliance, according to that group's website. The group in the FCC docket has asked the agency not to certify LTE-U equipment “until such time as it is fully satisfied that fair sharing of unlicensed spectrum will be achieved” (see 1508260039). Backers of LTE-U like Qualcomm have said it can work well with Wi-Fi. A Qualcomm executive didn't immediately comment Tuesday. LTE-U and Wi-Fi issues also were discussed at an FCBA panel Monday (see 1510060010). After the panel, an FCC spokesman said the agency is waiting for standards bodies to discuss LTE-U/Wi-Fi issues, has no LTE-U devices before it to look at, and will evaluate and ask technical questions about any products that do come in.