The Obama administration is lagging behind the needs of industry as it struggles to make more spectrum available for wireless broadband, Free State Foundation Visiting Fellow Gregory Vogt said Friday in a paper. “The time to locate and begin reallocating more spectrum for mobile broadband use is now,” Vogt wrote. The administration’s 2010 plan to reallocate 500 MHz of spectrum is out of date and work on the plan is “lagging,” he said. “Reallocating spectrum takes time, a lot of it, and therefore the government needs to redouble its efforts now to find more spectrum for commercial mobile broadband use,” Vogt said. “Because government is sluggish to respond to the market, the need should be classified and considered ‘urgent.’”

The Wireless ISP Association defended its proposal to establish a professional installer program for TV white spaces devices and the 3.5 GHz shared spectrum band. The FCC should keep in place rules that allow professional installation in both bands, WISPA said. “The effectiveness of a professional installation certification program will benefit all spectrum users,” the group said. “To that end, WISPA invites stakeholders to work with WISPA to help develop an effective program that can apply in all spectrum bands.” The letter was posted in docket 14-165. NAB has questioned the viability of professional installer programs, especially in the 3.5 GHz band. “Simply put, experience has confirmed that professional installation is unreliable and inadequate,” said an NAB letter in the same docket. “Further, professional installation is not appropriate for consumer devices that are likely to be deployed in the 3.5 GHz band, and mere tweaks to the rules regarding the definition of 'professional installation' are unlikely to address the fundamental problems.”

The FCC Enforcement Bureau settlement with TerraCom and YourTel America Thursday "highlights the problem of making policy through enforcement actions," said Commissioner Mike O'Rielly in a statement later that day. The companies agreed to jointly pay a $3.5 million civil penalty and take actions to improve their data security practices, as part of a bureau order and consent decree to resolve an investigation of possible Lifeline USF customer privacy violations (see 1507090035). YourTel also agreed to improve its compliance with Lifeline eligibility and de-enrollment rules. "I am certain that attempts will be made to cite the Consent Decree as precedent for an entire industry even though it was the product of company-specific negotiations," O'Rielly said. "Other interested parties had no opportunity to comment at any point in time on the substance of the Commission’s claims or legal theories, but will now be forced to embrace the product of a closed and slanted process that will be portrayed as consensus practices and rules."

The FCC should ignore T-Mobile’s “eleventh-hour request” to change the trigger for the set-aside of reserve spectrum in the TV incentive auction, Verizon said in a filing Wednesday in docket 12-269. T-Mobile last week asked the FCC to rethink the trigger (see 1507010023). “T-Mobile has repeatedly asked the FCC to change the rules for the incentive auction in ways that favor T-Mobile at the expense of the American taxpayer,” Verizon said.

CTIA officials stressed in a meeting with aides to Commissioners Ajit Pai and Mike O’Rielly the need for the FCC to give carriers the time and information they need to make informed bids in the TV incentive auction, to guarantee the success of the auction. “CTIA urged the Commission to provide sufficient inter-service interference data, including detailed information on the television stations causing potential interference well in advance of the forward auction,” CTIA said in an ex parte filing on the meeting in docket 12-268. For example, carriers need information on potential impairments “as early as possible, including preliminary data once participants in the reverse auction are known,” CTIA said. “CTIA asked that the FCC release the formats for the files it will provide bidders during the auction well before the applications are due. In addition, the Commission should ensure that its proposals do not sacrifice informed decision-making in favor of auction speed.” The CTIA officials also cited the importance of minimizing impairment of the blocks offered for sale in the auction: “While a certain degree of impairment to 600 MHz licenses is inevitable, the Commission’s originally-proposed 20 percent threshold would result in significant impairment.”

T-Mobile continues its rapid growth, adding 2.1 million net customers in Q2, the carrier said Thursday. That's the ninth quarter in a row T-Mobile has had net adds of at least 1 million and is a 41 percent year-over-year increase, said a news release. Churn was 1.3 percent for branded customers with monthly plans, T-Mobile said. The adds bring T-Mobile’s total customer base to 58.9 million across postpaid, prepaid and wholesale customers. "T-Mobile’s momentum continued in full force for the second quarter, with 2.1 million customers voting in favor of the Un-carrier," said John Legere, T-Mobile CEO. He said on Peroscope T-Mobile’s market cap is now twice that of Sprint: “They have big problems; they have a lot of problems.” A Sprint spokesman declined to comment on Legere’s statement or on whether T-Mobile might pass Sprint this quarter to become the nation's third-largest wireless carrier. “We can’t comment on numbers until our quarterly earnings report in a few weeks,” the spokesman said. “While the media is going to focus on who is three or four, customers don’t care. Sprint is focused on long-term growth by offering customers value, providing a great experience and having a reliable and consistent network.” T-Mobile also unveiled a new initiative Thursday, “Mobile without Borders,” allowing customers to call between the U.S., Canada and Mexico without extra charges. Some 35 percent of all international calls and 55 percent of all international travel from the U.S. last year was to Mexico and Canada, T-Mobile said.

Microsoft’s decision to cut up to 7,800 jobs over the next few months in the restructuring of its mobile phone business was not taken “lightly," given that the cutbacks "affect the lives of people who have made an impact at Microsoft,” CEO Satya Nadella said in an email to employees Wednesday in which he addressed them as "Team." Microsoft is "deeply committed to helping our team members through these transitions,” he said. Microsoft will take a $7.6 billion impairment charge “related to assets associated with the acquisition of the Nokia Devices and Services business,” in addition to a restructuring charge of about $750 million to $850 million, he said. “I am committed to our first-party devices including phones. However, we need to focus our phone efforts in the near term while driving reinvention. We are moving from a strategy to grow a standalone phone business to a strategy to grow and create a vibrant Windows ecosystem that includes our first-party device family.” Microsoft’s plans for the “near term” are to “run a more effective phone portfolio, with better products and speed to market given the recently formed Windows and Devices Group,” he said. “We plan to narrow our focus to three customer segments where we can make unique contributions and where we can differentiate through the combination of our hardware and software.” Of those three segments, business customers will get “the best management, security and productivity experiences they need,” while “value phone buyers” will get the communications services they want, and “Windows fans the flagship devices they’ll love,” he said. Longer term, Microsoft smartphones “will spark innovation, create new categories and generate opportunity for the Windows ecosystem more broadly,” he said. “Our reinvention will be centered on creating mobility of experiences across the entire device family including phones.”

Broadcom, Google and Microsoft representatives raised concerns about an FCC staff proposal to put some TV stations in the duplex gap following the TV incentive auction (see 1507070055), in a meeting with aides to the various FCC commissioners. “We discussed the importance of access to low-frequency unlicensed spectrum and emphasized that a decision by the Commission to place broadcasters in the duplex gap in certain markets detracts from the goal of identifying three TV white space channels per market for consumers,” said a filing by the three in docket 12-268.

The FCC should consider raising to 25 percent the 15 percent bidding credit for small carriers proposed by FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler as part of designated entity (DE) rules set for a vote at the July 16 FCC meeting (see 1506250057), representatives of the Rural-26 DE Coalition told aides to Wheeler. Among those at the meeting was Michael Hagg, CEO of Horry Telephone Co-op, said a filing in docket 12-268. The proposed 15 percent credit “still gives spectrum speculators with shell DEs backed by deep-pocketed companies a financial advantage over legitimate facilities-based small telecommunications providers,” the coalition said. “In order to level the playing field, and reduce the incentive for arbitrage and abuse, Rural-26 urged the Commission to adopt a 25 percent non-revenue-based rural communications company bidding credit in addition to a 25 percent revenue-based small business bidding credit.” Equal, noncumulative bidding credits would “close the gap between large and small auction participants and further the comprehensive goal to minimize opportunities to abuse the DE program,” the group said.

The Competitive Carriers Association, joined by Dish Network, Sprint and T-Mobile, met with FCC Commissioners Jessica Rosenworcel and Mike O’Rielly to explain why the FCC should mandate a 40 MHz spectrum reserve, or 50 percent of what is auctioned, as it takes up incentive auction rules. The reserve spectrum is set aside for carriers without significant low-band holdings in a particular market. FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler has proposed instead that the rules keep the 30 MHz reserve approved by the FCC last year (see 1506250057). “The spectrum reserve is the only competitive safeguard still under consideration to prevent AT&T and Verizon from using the 600 MHz auction to further consolidate their already considerable low-band spectrum holdings,” said a filing by the competitive carriers in docket 12-268. “In addition, AT&T or Verizon are reserve eligible in most of the country, including 74 percent of the nation’s geography and 40 percent of the [POPs].” CCA supports any proposal that would address concerns about the current trigger for determining when the reserve kicks in, CCA said. The currently proposed trigger “opens opportunities for gaming if the Commission pursues high clearing targets -- with attendant high clearing costs -- at the outset of the auction, but later falls back to a lower clearing target with lower clearing costs during a subsequent round,” CCA said.