The FirstNet board met Wednesday but decided not to release an expected draft request for proposal. FirstNet acting General Manager TJ Kennedy told reporters the board continues to make progress toward the launch of the network and said meetings the board held Tuesday and Wednesday were productive. There are a few parts of RFP where FirstNet’s Finance Committee wanted additional detail from staff, Kennedy said. “We’ll be doing that over the next several weeks,” he said. The RFP will be released “hopefully not too long from now,” he said. FirstNet officials wouldn't say what concerns the Finance Committee had with the RFP that delayed its release. Other FirstNet committees have signed off on the RFP.

Sengled announced the Boost LED bulb with a built-in Wi-Fi signal repeater and two antennas that can extend connectivity throughout a household. It's designed to address decreasing Wi-Fi signal performance that occurs the farther a Wi-Fi device is located from a transmitter, said Robin Foreman, Sengled North America vice president-marketing and business development. Problems occur when users connect smartphones, tablets, gaming consoles or home automation devices, “since the signal may be obstructed by walls or objects or the device may be too far away to get a strong signal,” said Foreman. The smart bulb can be controlled from a free app via smartphone or tablet that lets users configure the Wi-Fi signal and control light levels, said the company.

Verizon will test and deploy Ciena’s metro-optimized 6,500 packet optical technology and the Cisco Network Convergence System on portions of its next-generation 100G metro network this year, said Verizon in a news release Tuesday. Verizon plans to turn up live traffic in 2016. The move will deliver improved scalability, functionality and efficiency and give customers high-capacity video and wireless solutions, Verizon said.

Verizon seems like a likely buyer of Sprint spectrum if that carrier puts some of its extensive holdings for sale on the secondary market, BTIG analyst Walter Piecyk said Tuesday in a blog post. Piecyk said Verizon needs spectrum and may be able to buy it from Dish Network and Sprint, while still participating in the TV incentive auction. “Sprint could sell at least 60 MHz of spectrum to all three existing wireless operators and not violate the existing spectrum screen,” he wrote. “It’s not clear how much spectrum Sprint would be willing to sell but we believe that existing wireless operators would likely be interested in a minimum of a 20 MHz and unlikely more than 40 MHz.” Piecyk said AWS-3 spectrum isn't included in the screen until the spectrum is within three years of being cleared. Verizon has more than 40 percent of U.S. postpaid customers with roughly 18 percent of available spectrum “and the data usage of its existing customers continues to rise,” Piecyk wrote. “Sprint has more spectrum than any operator resulting from its effective foreclosure on the 2.5 GHz spectrum band, which is quickly becoming the go to capacity source for operators around the world.”

The Rural Wireless Association will participate in CTIA’s Super Mobility 2015 conference in September, RWA said in a news release Tuesday. The conference is CTIA’s remaining big annual meeting. “The strategic partnership underscores the importance of urban and rural carriers working together to meet consumer demand for mobile technology, according to the leadership of both associations,” RWA said. RWA said it will host a Rural Wireless Summit Sept. 9-11, kicking off with a reception in the Rural Wireless Pavilion and Lounge on the trade show floor.

CableLabs joined NYU Wireless, New York University’s research center, to advance development of 5G, a NYU Polytechnic School of Engineering news release said. CableLabs joins Intel, Qualcomm, Samsung and nine others in the industry in the partnership with NYU Wireless, in pursuit of faster connections and greater access. The FCC recently began exploring the potential of mobile services in the millimeter-wave radio spectrum, which NYU Wireless is working on to develop fundamental science and mathematical channel models needed to develop 5G equipment, said NYU.

The mobile money market is expected to grow from $12.34 billion in 2014 to $78.02 billion by 2019 -- a compound annual growth rate of 45 percent, said a report from MarketsandMarkets, according to the research firm's Monday news release.

Samsung will pre-install Microsoft services and apps on its Android devices and offer “secured mobile productivity” for consumers and businesses through a Microsoft Office 365 and Samsung Knox Business Pack, the companies said Monday. Samsung Knox enables customers to switch easily between personal and business profiles on their devices in a secure way, said the companies. For consumers, Samsung will pre-install Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote, OneDrive and Skype on select Samsung Android tablets, they said. The Samsung Galaxy S6 and Galaxy S6 edge will come with 100 GB of additional free cloud storage for two years through Microsoft OneDrive, they said.

Telecommunications Industry Association officials explained TIA's take to FCC staff on hearing aid compatibility (HAC) rules, in light of a recent public notice seeking comment on possible changes to the rules (see 1502230045). “TIA emphasized the need for greater clarity on the specific problems with HAC [that] warrant changes to the existing regulatory framework, and urged the Commission to adopt a notice of proposed rulemaking should it intend to make significant changes to the HAC regulations as this would ensure that there is a full record to understand and support any changes,” said the filing in docket 10-254.

The FCC and the Food and Drug Administration released an agenda on their joint all-day workshop March 31 on “Promoting Medical Technology Innovation -- The Role of Wireless Test Beds.” The workshop starts at 9 a.m. and will be at FCC headquarters. “The workshop will convene experts from industry, medicine, academia, and government to focus on the role of wireless medical test beds and their influence on the development of converged medical technology for clinical and non-clinical settings,” the agencies said. FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler and Commissioner Mignon Clyburn are among those slated to speak.