Big companies that have invested in W-Fi should welcome LTE-unlicensed, not fight it, said Richard Bennett, a developer of the Wi-Fi media access control (MAC) protocol, in a Tuesday blog post. Because LTE-U is a variation of the MAC protocol used by mobile phones, “it can operate over large distances -- miles -- without substantial loss of efficiency, and it can also operate more efficiently over short distances at high data rates,” Bennett wrote. “The LTE-U base station acts as coordinator to ensure that spectrum is shared fairly and quickly without unnecessary overhead.” Big companies that have invested heavily in Wi-Fi complain about possible interference between Wi-Fi and LTE-U, but “they usually don’t emphasize the more pertinent issue: performance,” he said. “Even when LTE-U and Wi-Fi are operating on different channels and therefore not interfering with each other, LTE-U will outperform Wi-Fi. This makes LTE-U a more attractive technical offering.” Bennett is an American Enterprise Institute fellow.

T-Mobile said its proposal for wireless-friendly changes to FCC E-rate rules, made in a March petition for reconsideration, are “unopposed, supported by all commenters who addressed it, and should be granted without delay.” Among the changes T-Mobile sought was clarification of FCC guidance on how wireless local area network upfront costs are to be amortized for comparison to the yearly cost of mobile broadband service contracts. T-Mobile also asked the FCC to “seek comment on reasonable time periods for amortizing Wi-Fi networking equipment, given such equipment’s short useful life span, and provide a uniform and public template for cost-effectiveness comparisons” and to clarify mobile broadband isn't “necessarily duplicative” in cases where parts of the network lack sufficient Wi-Fi coverage and it's impossible or not cost-effective to construct a WLAN. “The record reveals no disagreement on the need to clarify the cost-effectiveness requirement for applicants seeking funding for mobile broadband solutions,” T-Mobile said in reply comments in docket 13-184. “The clarifications and reconsiderations that T-Mobile has requested are essential to ensuring that schools and libraries can continue to take advantage of the significant benefits of mobile broadband where it is cost-effective to do so.” CTIA filed in support of T-Mobile. “As the T-Mobile Petition correctly observes, the effective and efficient use of E-rate support requires a fair evaluation of the cost-effectiveness of services relative to one another,” the association said. “Schools and libraries participating in the E-rate program should be able to select mobile services when those services are the most cost-effective way to meet their connectivity needs.” The Competitive Carriers Association also said the E-rate program should support mobile solutions: "Rather than restraining the types of broadband services available to schools and libraries, the Commission should set objective performance requirements and benchmarks so that carriers -- both fixed and mobile -- can compete to provide E-rate services on a level playing field.” CCA said T-Mobile’s petition “offers common-sense clarifications that will improve the E-rate program and promote increased competition.”

The FCC released a “Small Entity Compliance Guide” on a November order changing how the 800 MHz cellular service is licensed -- from a site-based to a geographically based regime (see 1411120015). “With the Report and Order, the Commission achieved regulatory reform goals by eliminating the need for a wide range of regulatory filings, modernizing the rules that will remain in place, and deleting obsolete provisions,” the guide said. “Under the newly adopted licensing regime, licensees’ administrative burdens and time-consuming regulatory processes are reduced. Licensees will also benefit immediately from greater flexibility to modify their systems quickly in response to market demands, facilitating advanced broadband services to the benefit of consumers.”

Global advertising spending on mobile devices is expected to reach $105 billion by 2019, up from an estimated $51 billion this year, said Juniper Research. The growth in mobile ads is due to an “attitude shift” among brands and retailers using mobile as a core channel for consumer engagement, said Juniper. The ability of smartphones to deliver targeted, personalized and timely ads -- along with media-stacking trends among consumers -- makes mobile advertising primed for high visibility and high response rates, it said. An uptick of ad spending in the Far East and China, fueled by the adoption of mobile commerce within China, is expected to bring that region’s share of the mobile ad spend to 43 percent by 2019, said Juniper. It cited increasing concerns around consumer privacy based on advertisers use of big data analytics to gain insight into consumers’ purchase patterns and behavior online and offline. With consumers feeling an increasing violation of their rights when their information is shared for ad purposes, it’s important for marketers to offer consumers a way to opt in to data sharing to avoid adverse publicity and possible litigation, said the researcher. As the prevalence of video increases in mobile ads, it will be important for advertisers to address viewability on small screens, it said.

The Wireless Communications Association and its members asked FCC officials to move forward on an NPRM addressing the licensing of unlicensed Educational Broadcast Service spectrum. WCA representatives shared with staff examples of rural areas that have no EBS licensees “and thus lack the 2.5 GHz band educational and commercial broadband services that operators are providing in areas where the EBS spectrum is fully licensed,” said a filing on the meeting in docket 13-213. Nextwave HoldCo, Sprint and ZTE were among the WCA members at the meeting, which included Wireless Bureau Chief Roger Sherman.

The FCC should ignore requests from some companies and groups to revise the rules reserving some spectrum for smaller carriers in the TV incentive auction, Mobile Future Chairman Jonathan Spalter and others from the group told FCC officials in recent meetings. “In these meetings, Mobile Future urged the Commission to reject calls by certain parties for reconsideration of the spectrum set aside in the upcoming incentive auction,” said an ex parte filing by the group. “There is no need to revisit these issues and put the success of the auction potentially at risk or cause unnecessary delay.” The filing was posted by the FCC Monday in docket 12-268.

A report by the Commerce Spectrum Management Advisory Committee enforcement subcommittee recommends the FCC and NTIA reach an “overarching” memorandum of understanding requiring each agency to enact parallel enforcement dispute resolution tools. The report is to be presented by the subcommittee Tuesday at the CSMAC meeting. “Each agency would agree to use these tools/remedies in the event of an unresolved dispute between the parties,” the report said. “It is also recommended that NTIA develop the mechanisms to have an MOU between federal and non-federal users and would contain a provision subjecting both users to the enforcement tool kit adopted by the FCC and NTIA.” The report also recommends that NTIA offer a procedure for getting correct and relevant information to consumers on steps for intervention if needed in the event of interference. “Though it is possible for a licensed operator to take pro-active action to prevent interference, similar action may not be always possible for average consumer devices,” the subcommittee said.

A University of Colorado Law School clinic petitioned the FCC to launch a rulemaking aimed at developing a “fact-based, transparent, and timely adjudication process for spectrum interference disputes.” Under the Samuelson-Glushko Technology Law & Policy Clinic proposal, a private party would be permitted to file a spectrum interference complaint against another private party directly with the FCC Office of Administrative Law Judges. The clinic proposed that the FCC set deadlines for resolving complaints and “make resources available as and where needed such as providing support staff, hiring or loaning additional ALJs and a spectrum advisor, or engaging experts and policy advisors to ensure the adjudication process is fact-based and timely.” University of Washington Research Fellow Pierre de Vries also signed the petition. “Under the Commission’s existing rules, an operator that brings a claim asserting that another operator is causing harmful interference cannot be certain whether, when, or how its claim will be resolved,” the petition said. “Operators caught up in unresolved spectrum disputes are thereby unable to make full economic use of their spectrum and may ultimately suffer economic losses.” Spectrum licenses are “limited and valuable resource,” the petition said. Commission practices “do not guarantee a fact-based, transparent, and timely process to resolve these disputes,” it said. “The Commission is struggling to fulfill its responsibilities and may not have enough resources to devote to these disputes, which means that spectrum rights are not always used in the best interests of the public.” The FCC posted the petition Monday.

The Council of Better Business Bureaus and the Direct Marketing Association will extend their ongoing independent oversight of Digital Advertising Alliance principles on browsers to the mobile space beginning Sept. 1, the DAA said in a Thursday news release. DAA Mobile Guidance includes new guidance specific to mobile such as cross-app data, precise location data and personal directory data, the DAA said. Companies that collect and use data across sites or apps for interest-based advertising, including carriers, apps, ad networks, brands, agencies and publishers, will be required to demonstrate compliance, DAA said. DAA principles “provide consumers with enhanced notice and choice about such data collection and use,” DAA said. “By extending our accountability program into the mobile application space and creating new web- and app-based tools, we have created a robust and enforceable industry-wide regime that covers existing and emerging technologies in the evolving multi-screen world,” DAA Executive Director Lou Mastria said. “As consumers increasingly rely on their mobile devices for information, purchases, and entertainment, it is crucial that they have confidence that companies will provide them with the same level of transparency and choice in the mobile space that they enjoy on their desktops,” Council of Better Business Bureaus CEO Mary Power said. “The DAA Principles encourage innovation while assuring consumers that they have controls and safeguards over their privacy,” said DAA General Counsel Stu Ingis.

Don't overlook privacy and security issues associated with application programming interfaces of mobile devices, as APIs have been abused by some apps, wrote Nithan Sannappa, an attorney in the FTC Division of Privacy and Identity Protection, in a blog post Thursday. Unlike with desktops, “With the rapid evolution of the internet and the spread of malware, it soon became clear that not all applications could be trusted,” he wrote. In computing, “privilege” is the right to perform an action like accessing a device resource while “sandboxing” is implementing the privileges necessary to “complete the job,” Sannappa said. Though “nearly all modern mobile operating systems feature sandboxing,” there are various approaches on how and when an app should be permitted to access things like a device camera or mic, or a user’s contacts or calendar, Sannappa said. APIs decide which resources a developer needs and how users should be informed of that access. Mozilla’s Firefox OS prevents third-party applications from accessing the device’s telephony API, Sannappa said. “According to its documentation, Mozilla restricted access to this API in order to prevent the creation of malicious applications that surreptitiously dial premium phone numbers, a practice known as ‘toll fraud,’” Sannappa said. “Google’s Android operating system provides developers with a telephony API, as well as many other APIs that are not accessible on other operating systems,” he said. “Providing developers with too much flexibility can create privacy and security risks.” The FTC previously filed a complaint against HTC America alleging a vulnerable application pre-installed on the company’s Android devices copied sensitive personal information, such as location data and text messages, to the system log, potentially exposing this information to third-party applications, Sannappa said. He also cited 2013 comments from Facebook that developers were copying Facebook user IDs to their system logs, and that after Apple began in 2010 a policy prohibiting developers from collecting users' personal information like contacts and calendars, apps continued to abuse these APIs.