T-Mobile unveiled an initiative Tuesday specifically targeting Verizon customers, trying to get them to switch to T-Mobile. The self-proclaimed “Un-carrier” launched the “Never Settle Trial” offer for Verizon subscribers. Verizon customers get to port their number to a new T-Mobile smartphone “and hold on to their old Verizon phone, just in case,” said a news release. “After the trial, if they love the service and want to join the millions switching to the Un-carrier, T-Mobile will pay off any of Verizon’s Early Termination Fees up to $650 or outstanding device payments when they trade in their phone and get a new one with T-Mobile’s wildly popular Simple Choice plan.” If it doesn’t work out, a customer just has to return the T-Mobile phone within 14 days and T-Mobile will pay any fees for starting back up at Verizon, the carrier said. Verizon had no immediate comment.

How the FCC defines the term “commence operations” will have major implications for the success of the TV incentive auction, CTIA said in comments responding to a March 26 public notice. “It is essential that the Commission adopt a standard that is readily understood by all stakeholders and leaves no doubt as to the regulatory obligations of affected parties.” Among CTIA’s suggestions is that the FCC ensures wireless licensees have access to the spectrum they buy “free from interference, including to test their networks, by tying the definition of ‘commence operations’ to the initial transmission on the spectrum by licensee.” Wireless licensees should also have “primary control” over the notice process, CTIA said. The definition has implications for many other parts of the post-auction transition, the group said. “Before commencing operation wireless carriers must provide 120 days’ notice to Low Power Television [LPTV] and TV translator stations, and must coordinate with the National Science Foundation regarding operations at permanent fixed locations near certain radioastronomy service observatories,” CTIA said. “Critically, the date of a 600 MHz wireless licensee’s commencement of operations triggers the obligation of the secondary users of the 600 MHz band (namely LPTV, TV translator, broadcast auxiliary service, and TV white space device operations) to vacate the band.” The comments were posted Tuesday in docket 12-268.

Innove and AT&T are pairing up through AT&T's Partner Exchange Program to give clients custom, end-to-end telecom services, a news release from Innove said.

The use of in-cell and on-cell touch technologies by smartphone market leaders Apple and Samsung helped drive 47 percent shipment growth in 2014 for such displays, IHS said Monday. In-cell and on-cell embedded touch displays are forecast to be 40 percent of touch module shipments in 2015, up from 36 percent last year, it said. Japan Display also uses hybrid in-cell touch displays in some tier-one phones from LG, Huawei and Xiaomi, IHS said. “The technical touch sensor evolution is changing the face of touch-panel competition,” said Calvin Hsieh, IHS director.

The FCC Public Safety Bureau sought comment on a December petition by the Alaska Wireless Network for a one-year waiver of FCC rules requiring that all covered providers be able to transmit emergency texts to public safety answering points (PSAPs) by the end of last year. Comments are due May 14, replies May 19. AWN claims that it faces “unique financial and technical constraints in meeting the text-capable requirement by the deadline, and that technical issues associated with its deployment of an LTE network currently render it unable to route 911 texts to the appropriate PSAP,” the bureau said Monday. The small carrier also said no Alaska PSAP has requested text-to-911 service and “contends that enforcement of the requirement in this instance would be inequitable and unduly burdensome," the bureau said.

The Enterprise Wireless Alliance and pdvWireless said they filed proposed rules at the FCC on their earlier joint petition for rulemaking seeking a realignment of the Part 90 land mobile radio 900 MHz band. “The realignment would create an allocation to address the broadband needs of critical infrastructure and private enterprise entities, including priority access,” the two said in a Monday news release. The proposed rules ask the FCC to create a single 240-channel license for the 898-901/937-940 MHz band for private enterprise broadband in each metropolitan trading area, they said. Spectrum in the 896-898/935-937 MHz band would continue to be licensed for site-based and geographic narrowband operations and services.

Representatives of the Wireless Medical Telemetry Service Coalition told FCC officials that the use of TV white spaces devices in spectrum also used by medical devices would cause problems for members. The group “demonstrated that TV White Space devices will create interference to WMTS receivers at the proposed power and distance levels,” the coalition said in a filing in docket 14-165. “Interference incidents would badly disrupt patient care and hospital staffing.” The group met with Julius Knapp, chief of the Office of Engineering and Technology, and Gary Epstein, chairman of the Incentive Auction Task Force, among others.

The Competitive Carriers Association and TracFone filed joint comments with the U.S. Copyright Office asking the agency to recommend that the Librarian of Congress ensure consumers can legally unlock their wireless devices. “The Parties’ proposed exemption is pro-consumer by properly enabling users to take control over the use of their wireless handsets, and permitting them the choice of which network they will be connected to, while assuaging TracFone’s concerns regarding loopholes that would potentially prevent carriers from offering subsidies or other discounts that make wireless handsets affordable and accessible to American consumers,” the filing said. “Consumers wanting to unlock their devices legally should be allowed to do so, and I strongly encourage the Librarian of Congress to adopt CCA’s proposed unlocking exemption and create presumptions that will give consumers certainty about their ongoing ability to legally unlock their devices,” said CCA President Steve Berry in a news release. “Unlocking is not only beneficial for consumers, but it is also important for smaller and regional carriers who may have trouble accessing the newest, most iconic devices.”

The FCC Public Safety Bureau rejected a petition for reconsideration filed by Arizona Public Service Co. of the bureau’s earlier order finding that APSC failed to meet its burden of proof to demonstrate that its estimate of the cost to reband its 800 MHz communications system met the FCC’s “well established Minimum Necessary Cost Standard.” APSC had sought $2.67 from Sprint as the cost of retuning its system under the FCC’s 800 MHz rebanding order. The bureau approved a $1.44 million reimbursement (see 1503100041). “Section 1.106 of the Commission’s rules precludes us from considering the Petition on the merits because reconsideration is appropriate only where the petitioner either shows a material error or omission in the original order or raises additional facts not known or existing until after the petitioner's last opportunity to present such matters,” the bureau said. The utility demonstrated “no material error or omission” in the order, the bureau said.

Based on a recommendation by NTIA, the government lifted the suspension of Los Angeles Regional Interoperable Communications System’s (LA-RICS) use of Broadband Technology Opportunities Program for construction of a public safety LTE cell tower network in the city. The project is one of five early build initiatives FirstNet hopes will provide lessons for the eventual construction of a national network for first responders (see 1504030061). The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, NTIA’s contracting office, lifted the suspension Friday. “NTIA, in close consultation with FirstNet, determined that the revised LA-RICS project plan submitted on April 20 would deliver substantial benefits to the Los Angeles public safety community and could be completed by the statutory deadline of September 30,” an NTIA spokeswoman said in an emailed statement. NTIA and NOAA also require LA-RICS to follow a new corrective action plan, the spokeswoman said. “We appreciate the continued commitment of the LA-RICS staff and Los Angeles City and County officials to seeing this project to fruition, giving first responders in the Los Angeles region the most advanced communications tools to protect the public and save lives.” LA-RICS had used $31 million of the $154.6 million in BTOP funds it received for the network.