Verizon countered NTCH arguments that responses filed under seal by Verizon in response to FCC interrogatories in a dispute between the companies over roaming rates should be available for viewing by staff for the smaller carrier. NTCH said the documents should be labeled “confidential,” rather than “highly confidential,” so its employees can see the responses. “The designation was appropriate,” Verizon countered. “This is competitive data that includes rates and traffic volumes Verizon receives from and pays to dozens of other carriers -- some of which (including Verizon) compete directly with NTCH. The Commission has consistently treated such data as highly confidential. Allowing NTCH business personnel access to this data would give NTCH a significant competitive advantage over other carriers and would impair Verizon’s business.” NTCH said it had attempted to “resolve this dispute without the need for FCC intervention but was unable to do so.” The filings were made in docket 14-212.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit Friday rejected an appeal by the nation’s largest flight attendants union unhappy with a directive from the Federal Aviation Administration permitting airlines to change their rules so passengers don’t have to put away their iPads or other portable electronic devices during take-off and landing. The challenge was made primarily on procedural grounds, by the Association of Flight Attendants-CWA. In October 2013, the FAA issued FAA Notice N8900.240, which said airlines could allow passengers to keep reading their tablets throughout the flight. Two months later, the union challenged it, arguing that the FAA "impermissibly and substantially altered and effectively amended” regulations for carry-on baggage on aircraft “without adhering to the notice and comment requirements of the Administrative Procedure Act,” the court said. The APA is not implicated, said the decision, written by Senior Circuit Judge Harry Edwards. “Notice N8900.240 does not alter this regulatory regime,” Edwards wrote. “The Notice merely provides guidance to aviation safety inspectors who enforce FAA regulations. Moreover, Notice N8900.240 creates no rights or obligations, and generates no legal consequences. No airline need alter any policy in response to it. The Notice does not eliminate the discretion of safety inspectors or require that any particular carry-on baggage program be approved or denied. And the Notice does not contradict existing regulations regarding stowage of carry-on baggage.” CTIA saw the decision as good news for consumers. It means “Americans will be able to use their mobile devices during take-off and landing since the FAA found there is no threat of interference to airplane communications or public safety,” said Jot Carpenter, vice president-regulatory affairs.

The Chicago Board of Education urged the FCC to act on Blackboard’s petition seeking clarification of Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) rules on calls to wireless phones (see 1503230070). Blackboard, which provides a mass notification platform for schools, argues that its clients should be able to send texts on emergency weather closures, threat situations, event scheduling or “other important education-related information” without worrying about violating the TCPA. “As the initial comments demonstrate, the TCPA does not apply to the mass notifications [Chicago Public Schools] and other educational institutions send to the school community to provide education-related information,” the board of education said. “These messages directly affect the health and safety of America's school children, as well as their parents and guardians.” The comments were posted in docket 02-278.

Bluetooth Low Energy beacons are key building blocks for indoor location, a market that’s expected to reach 1 million retail deployments by 2020, ABI Research said in a report. Beacons are spreading into all 11 retail/venue verticals in the ABI database with the fastest growth occurring in QSR (quick-service restaurant) and convenience stores at 84 percent and 47 percent clips, said ABI. Total beacon shipments, said ABR, are expected to approach 200 million by 2020 as categories including connected home, personal tracking and enterprise take hold. Google's UriBeacon technology is expected to have a big impact on those verticals, it said. Other indoor location technologies such as Wi-Fi, audio/ultrasound and small cells/LTE are also viable, said ABI.

BlackBerry and T-Mobile announced a partnership to bring the BlackBerry Classic to the Un-carrier’s Data Strong network, said T-Mobile in a Thursday news release. The partnership brings together the productivity and security of the BlackBerry Classic and T-Mobile’s Un-carrier for Business initiative, the release said.

Mozilla counseled officials in India about the dangers inherent in zero rating, in response to a consultation by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India on Internet services, said a blog post Tuesday by Denelle Dixon-Thayer, senior vice president-business and legal affairs. Zero rating offers limited Internet access at lower rates and was one of the most sensitive issues before the FCC as it finalized net neutrality rules in February (see 1502250064). “The impact of zero-rating may result in the same harms as throttling, blocking, or paid prioritization,” Dixon-Thayer wrote. “By giving one company (or a handful) the ability to reach users at no cost to them, zero-rating could limit rather than expand a user’s access to the Internet and ultimately chill competition and innovation. The promise of the Internet as a driver of innovation is that anyone can make anything and share it with anyone. Without a level playing field, the world won’t benefit from the next Facebook, Google or Twitter.” The Mozilla official conceded there are many unknowns about zero rating. “There may be markets where affordability hurdles to access remain so significant that mobile networks can’t reach economies of scale to keep prices down,” she said. “It may be possible that access to zero-rated services will help to give previously unconnected users a ‘taste’ of the Internet leading them to demand access to the open Internet itself. The truth is we don’t know.”

Wireless Emergency Alerts (WEA) on cellphones should be a “bell ringer” service that alerts users to seek more information about imminent threats, AT&T representatives said in a call with officials from the FCC Wireless Bureau. “WEA is not a purpose-built alert system … and as such policymakers should accept the limitations inherent in the cellular system,” AT&T said in a filing posted in docket 15-91. “The carrier obligations of WEA can only be met by the native broadcast capabilities defined in the standard.” Carriers can offer longer warning messages through LTE, but doing so will take time, AT&T said. “The updated message length for WEA messages will require new handsets and it will take time to standardize, deploy in the core network, modify the interface to [the Integrated Public Alert and Warning System], and get quantities of handsets out to wireless users.” AT&T said that a message length of 280 characters does “seem achievable.”

Law enforcement shouldn't have been able to search or seize Adam Bradley’s telephone records without first obtaining a warrant, Jason Estabrook’s lawyer George Murphy argued Thursday before the Massachusetts Supreme Court. Estabrook was charged with first-degree murder and allegedly was in possession of Bradley’s cellphone before and after the murder. Arguing on behalf of the commonwealth, Jamie Michael Charles said that in order to have a reasonable expectation of privacy, an individual must show interest in the phone. Charles said that since law enforcement knew the time of the murder, it searched a six-hour time frame of Bradley’s phone around the time of the murder, a search that didn't require a warrant. Defendants constantly talk in advance to plan crimes and after to sync alibis and how to get rid of evidence, Charles said. Probable cause wasn't needed because there's no reasonable expectation of privacy in a short-time frame because it doesn’t show patterns such as whether an individual visits a mosque once a week or is cheating on a spouse, Charles said. Murphy said there's no evidence Bradley had his phone on his person. Bradley attorney Daniel Beck said that law enforcement illegally obtained information in order to obtain a statement from his client. The American Civil Liberties Union and Electronic Frontier Foundation have written amicus briefs on the Estabrook v. Commonwealth case, asking the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court to close what they see as a loophole in the state’s warrant requirements for cellphones, which let law enforcement collect cell-site location information for a period of six hours or less without a warrant (see 1504270048).

Comments are due June 5, replies July 6, on the FCC’s previously released NPRM on non-service-initialized phones, the Public Safety Bureau said Wednesday. The FCC sought comment in April on whether to drop a 1996 requirement that cellphones that are no longer in service still be able to make calls to 911 (see 1504020047). Public safety officials asked for the change seven years ago, alerting the FCC about prank calls to public safety answering points, often from teenagers, that can't be traced to the caller (see 0803050126).

CTIA met with the FCC to discuss a 2013 NPRM that proposed tougher rules on updates wireless carriers must file on their networks following major disasters, said a report on the meeting posted Wednesday in docket 13-239 and written by an agency official. “Participants discussed the possibility of developing resiliency indicators that could facilitate communication between communities and their wireless providers about the readiness of commercial networks to survive and/or recover from likely disasters,” the filing said. “The Participants discussed the possibility of alternative forms of informational disclosures that could be used to promote transparency of the wireless resiliency measures that service providers incorporate in various manners today, as suggested in the Notice.” Officials from the Public Safety and Wireless bureaus attended the meeting on the NPRM.