The FCC gave final approval to several hundred licenses purchased in the AWS-3 auction, including many bought by AT&T, Verizon and T-Mobile. “Thanks to the FCC license grants today for AWS-3 spectrum, T-Mobile now has additional bandwidth in key markets that will strengthen our data network even more for our customers,” said T-Mobile Senior Vice President Andy Levin in an emailed statement Wednesday. Levin said T-Mobile’s focus is now on the TV incentive auction: “Now we are on to the next challenge — winning low-band spectrum in the auction next year. That will improve our service to customers everywhere, whether they are deep inside an urban office building or alongside a road in rural America. The next auction will make or break the future of wireless choice.”

Sony will invest about $374 million in Sony Semiconductor technology centers in Nagasaki and Yamagata, Japan, to boost monthly production capacity of stacked CMOS image sensors for smartphones and tablets by 45 percent to 87,000 by September 2016, the company said in a Tuesday news release. “Stacked CMOS image sensors deliver superior image quality and advanced functionality in a compact size,” Sony said. “Demand for these image sensors is anticipated to further increase, particularly within the expanding market for mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets.”

The FCC Public Safety Bureau said it's updating the FCC’s Public Safety Answering Point Text-to-911 Readiness and Certification Registry. The notice is intended to warn wireless carriers and other providers of interconnected text messaging services “of the effective readiness date of those PSAPs for which the Bureau has received the updated information,” the Tuesday notice said. “Also, the Bureau reminds covered text providers that they should periodically review the text-readiness of PSAPs in their service areas and reach out to these PSAPs as necessary to coordinate implementation of text-to-911 service.” Covered text providers must start routing 911 text messages to requesting PSAPs within six months, the bureau said.

FiberTower could come back from near death as a result of a decision last week by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, said broadcast lawyer Harry Cole of Fletcher Heald in a blog post. The court last week vacated an FCC order canceling 42 of 689 licenses held by the wireless backhaul company, but told the FCC to revisit a request for an extension on the build out requirements of the other licenses as well (see 1504030042). “If you took the long odds and bet against the FCC in FiberTower’s last gasp effort to keep its 689 licenses alive, lucky you!” Cole wrote. “FiberTower’s 689 licenses appear to live on. The likelihood that the FCC will eventually relent and leave them all in place is impossible to gauge at this point, but at least FiberTower’s prospects are better now than they were before the Court’s opinion.”

FirstNet is providing additional time for comments on proposed interpretations of how it should operate under the spectrum law, which created it. Comments had been due April 13 (see 1503130064). The new deadline is April 28, said a notice published Tuesday in the Federal Register. This the second time FirstNet has asked for such comments. "This extension responds to numerous inquiries from interested parties that have requested additional time to respond based on the significant nature of the Second Notice," FirstNet said.

Sennheiser representatives met with Julius Knapp, chief of the FCC Office of Engineering and Technology, and other officials to say wireless mics "and white space devices use different technology and serve different purposes,” said an ex parte filing at the commission. “They should not be regulated identically.” Sennheiser showed its “top-of-the-line Digital 9000 wireless microphone system, demonstrating the technological innovations of the industry and showing how professional wireless microphone operators scan the UHF frequency range and take other steps to find clear spectrum for wireless microphone use,” the company said. The filing was posted by Tuesday in docket 12-268.

The FCC Wireless Bureau sought comment on a request for waiver by ACR Electronics for the ACR SARLink Combined 2-Way Communicator Personal Locator Beacon, used to locate people in remote areas. ACR needs a waiver because the device doesn't conform to FCC rules, the bureau said Tuesday. Rules require that emergency radio beacons transmit a distress signal on 406.0-406.1 MHz, to communicate with the COSPAS-SARSAT satellite system and a lower-powered signal on frequency 121.5 MHz, used by search-and-rescue (SAR) personnel as a homing beacon. The SARLink doesn’t include the latter capability, the bureau said. Instead, the SARLink “incorporates two-way text messaging capability through the Iridium satellite system,” the bureau said. “ACR asserts that this capability will provide better distress alerting and locating assistance than a 121.5 MHz homing beacon because SARLink users will be able to text SAR personnel directly and provide location information in addition to the Global Positioning System data encoded in the COSPAS-SARSAT message, such as physical landmarks and obstacles.” Comments are due May 7, replies May 22.

The SEC alleged 12 companies and six individuals defrauded investors by offering to help clients apply for licenses in the 800 MHz expansion and guard bands, claiming "money from thin air" when the potential payoff was allegedly very small. The SEC brought the action in federal district court in Arizona against David Alcorn and Kent Maerki who “orchestrated the offering fraud through Janus Spectrum,” a Glendale, Arizona-based company, said a Monday SEC news release. “Janus Spectrum and the fundraising entities claimed that investors could profit because Sprint and other major wireless carriers needed licenses in this spectrum,” the SEC said. “In fact, the value of the licenses was small because this spectrum cannot support cellular systems and is generally used for ‘push-to-talk’ services for local law enforcement or businesses like pizza delivery companies that require less bandwidth.” Michele Layne, director of the SEC’s Los Angeles Regional Office, said Janus and its supporters “allegedly engaged in the unregistered offer and sale of securities in violation of the federal securities laws and repeatedly lied to investors regarding the value and use of the FCC licenses,” according to the news release. Janus could not be reached for comment.

ZTE announced the global debut of its affordable Blade S6 Plus smartphone Monday through eBay. The $299.99 device upgrades the 5-inch Blade S6 with a larger 5.5-inch 720p display while keeping the same Qualcomm Snapdragon 615 octa-core chipset, Adreno 405 image processor, Android 5.0 operating system and customizable MiFavor 3.0 user interface, ZTE said. The Blade S6 Plus also has an infrared function that allows the phone to act as a remote control for products including TVs, set-top boxes, air conditioning units and digital cameras, the company said.

Autonet Mobile and AT&T said Autonet Mobile’s telematics system and services are coming to the automotive market via AT&T’s 4G LTE network. The mobile applications will let consumers access their cars from smartphones, let car original equipment manufacturers update vehicles while they’re on the road, and protect proprietary vehicle information when connected to the cloud, they said Monday. Car owners will be able to remotely and securely control their vehicles from a smartphone, find and track vehicle location, receive health reports for maintenance, get alerts when airbags are deployed and connect mobile devices through the vehicle’s Wi-Fi hot spot, the companies said. Autonet’s technology will enable carmakers to monitor how vehicles perform, fix problems and boost vehicle performance via over-the-air updates, they said.