A Juniper Research study puts the advertising spend on smart watches at $69 million by 2019, up from $1.5 million this year, the company said Tuesday. Growth in smart watch advertising will be driven by high-profile brands including Apple entering the category and will correlate to increased consumer acceptance of wearable technology, the report said. The emergence of an additional consumer screen would likely stimulate interest among advertisers, though until a user threshold is reached most ad spends are likely to take the form of ad hoc campaigns, it said. Brands will need to develop advertising formats designed for the limited real estate of a smart watch screen, and behavioral differences between smartphone and smart watch usage are likely to challenge advertisers, Jupiter said. “With consumers viewing smartwatch screens for seconds rather than minutes, advertisers will have markedly less time to engage their audience,” it said.

The Automotive Safety Council filed in support of proposed FCC rules that would allow vehicular radar operations in the 76-81 GHz band (see 1504080035). “ASC supports the proposal to extend the frequency band available for vehicular radar usage,” the group said. “This will support wider sweep bandwidth needed for certain high resolution radars for short range applications, which is a key enabler for some advanced safety features (such as pedestrian detection / protection).” The comments were filed in docket 15-26. “As with radar technologies operating within the 76-77 GHz band, expanding the operational range to 76-81 GHz will only further increase the availability of safety technologies for vehicles, while also promoting future comfort and convenience systems available through autonomous vehicle driving,” Mercedes-Benz USA said.

NTIA, the FCC and other federal agencies have made “substantial progress” toward the goal the administration set in 2010 of making 500 MHz of spectrum available for wireless broadband in 10 years, NTIA said in its Fifth Interim Progress Report, released Tuesday. Between October 2010 and September 2014, NTIA and the FCC recommended or identified for study for potential reallocation up to 589 MHz of spectrum, NTIA said. NTIA highlighted AWS-3 spectrum and the AWS-3 auction, the 3.5 GHz shared spectrum band and unlicensed use of 5 GHz spectrum. The report sets out goals for the year ahead, including the evaluation of actual federal spectrum use in five bands covering 960 MHz of spectrum. “In cooperation with the FCC and other stakeholders, NTIA will develop sharing options to accommodate new and innovative broadband applications and devices in the 5 GHz bands,” NTIA said. “With the benefit of public comment, NTIA and the FCC will further refine the definition of the Model City concept to promote innovative spectrum-sharing technologies. The FCC will continue efforts toward making spectrum above 24 GHz available for mobile services.”

The FCC Wireless Bureau sought comment on an April 1 request by AT&T for permission to use Power Spectral Density (PSD) measurements in complying with the commission’s radiated power limits for 800 MHz cellular operations in parts of Missouri. “AT&T specifically proposes a PSD limit of 250 watts/MHz in non-rural areas and 500 watts/MHz in rural areas, and includes a study that purports to show that implementing PSD-based power limits in the Cellular Service would not cause harmful interference to public safety deployments,” the bureau said. The bureau asked for comment “particularly with respect to any potential adverse impact on public safety operations in the adjacent bands and neighboring Cellular licensees.” Comments are due April 30, replies May 11. The FCC asked similar questions in a November further NPRM focused on further streamlining cellular service rules.

The FCC released the agenda for its workshop with NTIA on a model city program on spectrum sharing technologies. The workshop kicks off Wednesday at 1 p.m. at FCC headquarters. It continues the next day with remarks scheduled by FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler. The workshop will “explore different aspects of the Model City including the concept, scope, governance, process, technical considerations and funding alternatives,” the FCC said Monday. The program was recommended in a report by the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (see 1404070044) and would pick one or more cities that agree to streamline regulations to allow for more ready testing of innovative uses of spectrum. City officials in Chicago and Washington, D.C., told the FCC last year they would be interested in taking part in the program (see 1409030034).

The FCC Public Safety Bureau released a public notice offering what it said was further clarity on the process by which it will accept applications for expanded coverage or additional channels from public safety licensees that decide to remain in the 800 MHz Expansion Band, at 815-816/860-861 MHz. The applications will be “subject to pre-coordination” and will be accepted only on or after a filing date established by the Public Safety Bureau and the Wireless Bureau, upon completion of band reconfiguration in each National Public Safety Planning Advisory Committee region, the bureau said.

The American Gas Association and Edison Electric Institute’s Feb. 12 petition for expedited declaratory relief from the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) is “overly broad,” said NARUC in comments posted Monday in docket 02-278. AGA and EEI’s petition asks the agency to confirm that when a customer provides a telephone number to an energy utility, it constitutes “’prior express consent’” to receive autodialed or recorded nontelemarketing informational calls. NARUC agreed utilities should be allowed to send notifications about outages and restoration of service, and with “summer storms on the horizon,” the agency should immediately declare that those calls are exempted from TCPA as calls made for emergency purposes. But an exemption should be limited to those calls, the filing said. Wireless customers "should not have to pay for other communications from utilities that they may not wish to receive," according to NARUC.

The FCC Wireless Bureau posed questions Monday to both Cellular Network Partnership (CNP) and KanOkla Telephone Association, which have asked for the FCC's blessing on a deal in which KanOkla would sell three lower 700 MHz C block licenses in Oklahoma to CNP. The letter to CNP asks for details on the company’s plans, “including the timeline, to provide fixed broadband or any other service using the spectrum that it would acquire under the Proposed Transaction.” The CNP letter notes that in two of the license areas CNP already has 47-59 MHz of below-1-GHz spectrum and the deal would increase its concentration to 51-71 MHz. “Provide a detailed explanation of why this additional concentration of below-1-GHz spectrum, specifically, would not preclude rival service providers and potential new entrants from expanding or entering into these two markets, and how its acquisition is necessary to enhance or expand services to the Company’s customers,” the letter said.

Local governments don't generally do a good job regulating small cells and distributed antenna systems (DAS), said Jonathan Kramer, principal attorney-Telecom Law Firm, Monday during a webinar hosted by NATOA. “We don't regulate buzzwords and we don't regulate technology,” he said. "We're not allowed to regulate technologies under federal law, but we are, and should, be regulating community asthetics." As wireless companies move away from using cell towers, they will need to install tens of thousands of small cells and DAS in communities to continue to have good coverage, which gives those companies and municipalities a chance to work together, said Gabriel Garcia, director and senior counsel-CPS Energy. The carriers will need citywide installation sites, access to poles, electricity connections, fiber backhaul, predictable city procedures and right-of-way permitting, he said. Wireless carriers will want cities to have rights of way throughout the city, their own traffic light poles, fiber lines along rights of way and control of rights of way outside the zoning process, Garcia said. A license agreement needs to benefit both parties, he said. “The general bargain is that the local government would grant a master license for the provider to install small cells or DAS anywhere in the city,” Garcia said.

The FCC Wireless Bureau Monday denied a request for a waiver by Spectrum Networks Group (SNG) so subsidiary M2M Spectrum Networks can offer a third-party service providing machine-to-machine communications using 900 MHz Business/Industrial/Land Transportation channels. When the bureau sought comment last summer, the Enterprise Wireless Alliance (EWA), Motorola Solutions and the Utilities Telecom Council raised concerns, (see 1408130033). SNG responded, arguing that “the record provides clear evidence that M2M is able and ready to deploy its network with dispatch.” SNG’s applications request a total of more than 2,000 channels in approximately 150 of the 186 basic economic areas, "including the last remaining 900 MHz B/ILT channels in most of the top-ten markets where channels are still available," the bureau said. "It also intends to seek additional 900 MHz B/ILT channels after it satisfies the loading requirements on its initial channels. Grant of the waiver request could thus have a significant effect on the nature of the 900 MHz B/ILT band. We are reluctant to grant waiver requests that effectively circumvent the Commission’s rulemaking function."