Nomi Technologies agreed to settle FTC charges that it misled consumers about their ability to opt out of in-store tracking and that consumers would be informed when locations used Nomi’s tracking services, an FTC news release said Thursday. In late 2012, Nomi Technologies promised in its privacy policy to “provide an opt-out mechanism at stores using its services,” the release said. “This promise implied that consumers would be informed when stores were using Nomi’s tracking technology” to track the MAC address, device type, data and time the device was observed and signal strength of the device, the FTC said. But these promises weren't kept, the FTC alleged in its first-ever complaint against a retail tracking company, because “no in-store opt-out mechanism was available, and consumers were not informed when the tracking was taking place,” the FTC said. “Nomi collected information on about nine million mobile devices within the first nine months of 2013,” the FTC said. “It’s vital that companies keep their privacy promises to consumers when working with emerging technologies, just as it is in any other context,” said Director of the FTC’s Consumer Protection Bureau Jessica Rich. “If you tell a consumer that they will have choices about their privacy, you should make sure all of those choices are actually available to them,” Rich said. With its tracking technology, Nomi provided aggregated information on how many consumers passed by a store instead of going in, how long consumers stayed in the store, the types of devices used by consumers, how many repeat consumers a store had and whether the consumer had visited that store at another location, the FTC said. While the company provided an opt-out on its website, “consumers were not informed of the tracking taking place in the stores at all,” the FTC said. Under the settlement, Nomi “will be prohibited from misrepresenting consumers’ options for controlling whether information is collected, used, disclosed or shared about them or their computers or other devices, as well as the extent to which consumers will be notified about information practices,” the FTC said. The Commission voted 3-2 to issue the complaint and accept the proposed consent order, with Commissioners Maureen Ohlhausen and Joshua Wright dissenting, the FTC said. Chairwoman Edith Ramirez and Commissioners Julie Brill and Terrell McSweeny issued a joint statement in favor of the order, Ohlhausen and Wright issued separate dissenting statements. Comments on the consent agreement will be accepted through May 25, after which the Commission will vote whether to make the order final. “We continually review our privacy policies to ensure that they follow best practices and had already made the recommended changes in pursuit of that goal by updating our privacy policy over a year and a half ago, while we were still an early-stage startup that was less than a year old,” a Nomi spokesman said in a statement emailed to us. “Our mission has always been to help clients deliver the best possible customer experience, and a key part of achieving that goal is empowering consumers with choice,” the spokesman said. Ohlhausen noted in her dissent that Nomi is a “young company that attempted to go above and beyond its legal obligation to protect consumers but, in doing so, erred without benefitting itself,” he said. “Commissioner Wright believes that Nomi did not violate the FTC Act,” the spokesman said.

AT&T’s pursuit of three AWS-1, two lower 700 MHz C block licenses and other assets from Plateau Wireless remains controversial almost six months after the pleading cycle closed on the transaction Oct. 27. The licenses are in New Mexico and Texas. Last week, AT&T asked the FCC to approve the buy, which is a “relatively small transaction” and “will generate numerous significant public interest benefits without any harm to competition,” AT&T said. T-Mobile said in a filing posted by the FCC Tuesday that the deal should be approved only if AT&T is required to adhere to Plateau’s “long-standing” roaming agreement with T-Mobile. Without the condition, “once this transaction is consummated, the Plateau system would be integrated into AT&T’s network, subjecting T-Mobile to AT&T’s less favorable roaming practices in the Plateau service area,” T-Mobile said. The filings are in docket 14-144.

The FCC Public Safety Bureau approved a set of six channels for use nationwide by 700 MHz deployable trunked systems. The channel set is the one earlier recommended by the National Public Safety Telecommunications Council and the National Regional Planning Council, an order released Thursday said. A joint NPSTC/NRPC working group had selected the six channels, at the behest of the FCC, based on public safety and industry feedback (see 1502200031). The channels are 37-38, 61-62, 117-118, 141-142, 883-884 and 939-940. Regional planning councils “may now incorporate these channels into their plans for deployable trunked systems provided any region with a T-Band market must give priority to these channels, in that market, to any public safety T-band incumbent seeking to relocate from the T-band,” the bureau said. A trunked radio system is a computer-controlled two-way radio system that allows sharing of relatively few frequency channels among a large group of users.

T-Mobile blasted away at a white paper filed last month at the FCC by Mobile Future, which said economics, not spectrum scarcity, is what has kept carriers like T-Mobile from making bigger investments serving rural America (see 1503170049). The Mobile Future paper was authored by American Rural CEO Diane Smith. “Mobile Future and American Rural falsely represent themselves as populist entities,” T-Mobile said Thursday in a filing in docket 12-268. “They are not. AT&T and Verizon fund Mobile Future’s operations and largely shape its advocacy.” American Rural never before filed in the proceeding and Smith “is also employed by Mobile Future, which, in turn, receives the majority of its financing from AT&T and Verizon,” T-Mobile said. Data released as part of the paper point to the opposite of the conclusions drawn by Mobile Future, T-Mobile said: “The availability of low-band spectrum is central to competition in rural areas because these frequencies largely determine whether, when, how, and where wireless carriers deploy broadband services.” Mobile Future is proud to have among its members the two national carriers serving the most rural subscribers, the group said in response. "With countless analyst reports touting T-Mobile's spectrum holdings and marketplace success, T-Mobile continues to hold much more spectrum per subscriber than any other major player," Mobile Future said. "T-Mobile clearly has one message for Wall Street and another for the FCC. Competition is hard but shooting at the messenger doesn’t change the facts."

Ikea chose P9030 Qi-compliant magnetic induction transmitters from Integrated Device Technology to embed in its furniture and accessories for wireless charging of enabled portable devices, IDT said in a Wednesday announcement. The products will be available this month in Ikea stores throughout North America and Europe, Ikea announced at last month’s Mobile World Congress (see 1503020002). In addition to the furniture, Ikea also has developed a line of charging pads and a wireless charger that consumers can build into furniture themselves using IDT components, IDT said. The P9030 transmitter complies with the Wireless Power Consortium’s Qi standard, delivering a 5-watt single-chip in a compact package, IDT said. IDT wireless power transmitters and receivers also have been designed into smartphones, phone accessories, wearables and charging stations, it said.

FirstNet plans a special meeting via teleconference Friday, starting at 10 a.m. EDT, said a notice in Wednesday's Federal Register. The FirstNet board is scheduled to consider a third notice on the definition of a “public safety entity” under the law that created FirstNet. Members of the public may listen in by dialing 1-888-997-9859 and using passcode 3572169, FirstNet said. “Due to the limited number of ports, attendance via teleconference will be on a first-come, first-served basis.”

Amazon’s smartphone shopping app is “winning the battle” for shoppers in the U.S., but it hasn't achieved “the same dominance” in at least 10 other countries internationally, said an Informate Mobile Intelligence report that tracked and measured consumer use of smartphones in 12 countries during February. The U.S. has the highest installed penetration of shopping apps at 60 percent, followed by India at 46 percent, the report said. The other 10 countries measured had a “median reach” of about 18 percent, it said. "Amazon is the number-one shopping app in the U.S. and by quite a margin." Amazon's reach among American consumers was 34 percent during the period, more than the combined reach of the Nos. 2- and 3-ranked shopping apps from Walmart and eBay, it said. Yet, globally, “Amazon has yet to show similar command as it competes with more local players,” the research firm said.

The FCC’s approval of spectrum sharing rules for the 3.5 GHz band is a big step toward flexibility and a new way of looking at spectrum, John Leibovitz, deputy chief of the Wireless Bureau, said in a blog post. In an earlier era of “high-powered analog transmissions, it made sense to put different radio uses on different bands, everywhere in the United States,” he said. But the silos also limited flexibility, he said. “As evidence, one need only look at the innumerable exceptions, footnotes, or other asterisks that have been added to the rules over the years to accommodate uses that do not fit within neat regulatory boxes,” he said. “With the new 3.5 GHz rules, the Commission enables a new model that uses modern technologies -- spectrum sensing, cloud computing, and others -- to break down some of the old categories.” Work remains, including authorizing Spectrum Access System providers and establishing auction procedures for the new priority access licenses, he said. “We expect multi-stakeholder groups to agree on procedures for coordinating use in the band. And, as with any new spectrum band, technology vendors will have to design equipment that meets the technical requirements spelled out in the rules.” The FCC approved an order on the band Friday (see 1504170055).

Twenty-three non-national wireless carriers represented by the Competitive Carriers Association Wednesday asked the FCC to expand the amount of spectrum set aside for competitors to AT&T and Verizon in the TV incentive auction. The three-block reserve now in the rules for the auction is “too small to enable competitive carriers to secure sufficient spectrum in this important new frequency band,” their letter to the FCC said. “Increasing the size of the reserve helps fulfill Congressional goals and advances the public interest in promoting wireless broadband deployment.” The FCC should expand the maximum size of the reserve to four 10-MHz blocks, while limiting the amount of reserve spectrum that any one bidder can buy to 20 MHz, the small carriers said. CCA’s two biggest members, Sprint and T-Mobile, didn't sign the letter. “The very fact that twenty-three small, reserve-eligible carriers, all of whom are CCA members, have come together to stress the importance of the 600 MHz incentive auction should send a clear message to the Commission that these carriers must have a meaningful opportunity to bid on and win spectrum in the upcoming auction,” said Steve Berry, CCA president, in a news release. "Although some rural carriers buy spectrum and provide service to consumers, CCA's letter is unfortunately more of the same posturing -- rent seeking by certain companies who want to buy at a discount now, decline to build, and then later sell at a profit,” responded Mobile Future Chairman Jonathan Spalter. “There is simply no basis for the FCC to increase the size of the reserve."

The 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said a zoning board in Paramus, New Jersey, violated federal law in denying a wireless tower siting application jointly submitted by Sprint and T-Mobile, agreeing with the federal district court in the District of New Jersey. The "effective prohibition" of wireless service violated the Communications Act, the 3rd Circuit panel said in an April 20 opinion in case number 14-2954. A "significant gap in wireless coverage existed within the area presented, the monopole proposed would adequately fill that gap, and [the carriers] had adequately considered alternative sites before arriving at the ones proposed." A distributed antenna system would be insufficient because it would be susceptible to outages, less flexible and cover a smaller gap, the court said. The wireless carriers don't bear the burden of proving that every potential alternative is unavailable, it said. The zoning board's denial of Sprint and T-Mobile's zoning variance violated the act's “effective prohibition” language, and wasn't based on “substantial evidence” required by the act and Municipal Land Use Law, so the 3rd Circuit affirmed the District Court. T-Mobile had urged the 3rd Circuit to affirm, in all respects, the lower court's judgment, Wiley Rein said Wednesday.