SiBeam is partnering with the NYU Wireless research center at the New York University Polytechnic School of Engineering as an industrial-affiliate sponsor of fundamental research that is creating 5G, a news release from SiBeam said Monday. The FCC is exploring the potential of mobile radio services in the millimeter-wave radio spectrum, which researchers believe could increase today’s mobile data capacity by a thousandfold or more, the release said. SiBeam and NYU Wireless recently filed comments in response to the FCC notice of inquiry aimed at exploring the potential of mobile radio services in bands above 24 GHz, SiBeam said in the release. NYU Wireless filed recommendations on global competitiveness and regulation, safety and feasibility and timing as it seeks to shape and accelerate the 5G future, it said.

Motorola Solutions said the FCC is on the right track in proposing some changes to rules governing Part 74 Remote Pickup (RPU) stations. RPUs are a type of broadcast auxiliary station used by broadcasters to transmit audio and video from remote sites to studios or other production centers. The Wireless Bureau proposed the changes in a February NPRM. Motorola is a leading manufacturer of two-way radios used under Part 90 and other sections of the FCC’s rules, the company said. “Motorola Solutions currently markets and sells such radios to broadcasters and other program production entities for remote pickup applications,” Motorola said in its filing posted Friday. “As such, it has experienced the negative impact of the obstacles that are created by certain outdated technical provisions of Part 74 that the instant Notice is proposing to correct.” It urged the FCC to complete work on the NPRM and put in place final rules this year. The comments were filed in docket 15-36.

An FCC order making changes to rules on trunking in the 150-174 MHz and 421-512 MHz private land mobile radio bands takes effect May 4, after it was published in the Federal Register Friday. The order was approved by the FCC in March, at the request of the Public Safety Communications Council (see 1503110061). The FCC dropped a requirement that applicants who operate trunked stations on Public Safety Pool channels be required to demonstrate that the proposed station's service contour won't be overlapped by any incumbent station's interference contour. The FCC also amended its rules on the treatment of mobile stations to clarify how to protect 150-174 MHz band mobile stations associated with a base station.

CTIA posted a list of apps for blocking unwanted calls to cellphones and posted videos on how to use them. “By using these kinds of apps and features, you make the decision of who you want to hear from, and who you want to block,” Krista Witanowski, CTIA assistant vice president-regulatory affairs, said in a Friday consumer advisory. “What could be considered a nuisance call for one, may be important to someone else,” she wrote. “That’s why it’s important blocked calls and texts are directed by the user, not by the wireless carrier.”

Consumers spent twice as much time viewing online video on a tablet as on a smartphone in 2014, said Adobe Digital Index’s U.S. Digital Video 2014 Inaugural Report. Mobile device video viewing is also expected to overtake desktop viewing by Q4 of 2016, the report said. By year-end 2014, TV Everywhere consumers logged 21 billion authenticated videos, an increase of 266 percent above 2013 totals. Of those TV Everywhere authentications, 64 percent of them were on mobile devices, Adobe said.

FiberTower won a partial victory in a court case challenging a 2012 FCC order canceling 689 wireless spectrum licenses it held in the 24 and 39 GHz bands, for failure to meet the agency’s “substantial service” performance standard during the license term. In a decision Friday, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit vacated the FCC’s order on 42 of the licenses, on which FiberTower had stated on its renewal applications that construction had occurred. FiberTower proposes to use the licenses to offer wireless backhaul. The court also ordered the FCC to again consider its request for an extension of substantial service requirement for the other licenses as well. The company told the court last year (see 1410150093) that it filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in July 2012, but as long as it held the licenses it “maintained a pathway for restructuring the company around its industry-leading technology and customer-development efforts in the 24 and 39 GHz bands.” The Wireless Bureau’s “substantial service analysis was predicated on the finding that there was no ‘construction of any facilities whatsoever’ in any of the terminated license areas,” Judge Judith Rogers wrote on behalf of the court panel. In its filings, the FCC “overstates its position in maintaining that it 'had no notice of FiberTower’s specific objections,’” Rogers said. The court vacated the orders denying the requests for renewal “so that the Commission may rule on FiberTower’s requests in light of an accurate understanding of the license renewal record,” Rogers wrote. The burden “for challenging the Commission’s denial of waiver and extension is heavy,” she said, citing precedent. But “the Commission has acknowledged that the proportion of licenses that have been built out may be relevant to its extension analysis.” FiberTower was represented by Akin Gump on the appeal.

The FCC should craft rules for the TV incentive auction that don’t advantage any potential bidders, Mobile Future said in a letter Thursday to FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler. “It is a matter of record that open and inclusive auction design principles -- like those used in the AWS-3 auction -- are essential to achieving auction outcomes that best serve mobile consumers, the public interest, and innovators alike,” Mobile Future said. “It is also imperative for the Commission to take steps to prevent certain self-interested competitors from ‘gaming the system.’ Mobile Future urges the Commission to recognize the realities of the AWS-3 auction and learn from this experience when crafting rules for the incentive auction.”

Cheryl Leanza, policy advisor to the United Church of Christ, stressed the importance of designated entity rules in spectrum auctions, in a meeting with Maria Kirby and Renee Gregory, aides to FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler. Leanza tied DE issues to media ownership rules, said an ex parte filing in docket 09-182. Leanza “thanked the office for the Chairman’s previous statements in support of media ownership diversity and urged the Chairman to follow through on all related issues with equal degrees of speed,” the filing said.

The FCC Wireless Bureau released a pleading cycle on a proposed spectrum deal between AT&T and Pine Cellular. Under the proposed swap, AT&T would lease from Pine Cellular spectrum under one lower700 MHz B-block license in parts of Arkansas, the bureau said Thursday. Pine Cellular would in turn lease from AT&T spectrum under one partitioned lower 700 MHz B-block license, three partitioned lower 700 MHz C-block licenses and four partitioned personal communications service licenses in parts of Oklahoma, the bureau said. Petitions to deny are due May 4, oppositions May 14 and replies May 21.

AT&T said NAB complaints about problems with TV white spaces databases raise real concerns for AT&T as well. NAB recently filed an emergency petition at the FCC asking the agency to suspend operation of the TV white spaces (TVWS) database system until “serious flaws” are corrected in the system (see 1503190056). “These issues are important,” AT&T Vice President Joan Marsh said in a blog post Thursday. “Policymakers increasingly view spectrum sharing as policed by a database-driven frequency manager as critical to the future of U.S. spectrum policy.” Marsh said the TV white spaces deployment has been slow, but the FCC is promoting spectrum sharing everywhere from the TV band following the upcoming incentive auction to the 3.5 GHz band. “Even in the best circumstances, real time external monitoring and management of a complex interference environment is a tall order,” Marsh said. “But we now learn that database providers have not been able to effectively maintain information on less than 600 TV white space devices. This raises serious questions about the ability of a database to patrol the complexities involved in robust spectrum sharing, including in the 3.5 GHz band.”