The FCC Wireless Bureau granted, in part, Specialized Mobile Relay’s request for authority for new Part 90 private land mobile radio facilities in the New York/New Jersey metropolitan area. The Utilities Telecom Council had objected. The application sought authorization to operate on frequency pairs 451/456.0375 MHz, 451/456.0750 MHz, 451/456.1 MHz and 451/456.1125 MHz in Brooklyn, Staten Island and Jamaica (Queens), New York, and Edison, New Jersey. Because those are former power radio service frequencies, SMR’s frequency coordinator asked UTC for concurrence, but UTC refused, the bureau said Monday.The bureau agreed with UTC arguments that “some of SMR’s proposed operations would appear to have an unacceptable effect on critical infrastructure industry operations.” The bureau approved the applications, but only for frequency pairs 451/456.075 MHz and 451/456.1 MHz at four locations and for frequencies 456.075 MHz and 456.1 MHz at one location. The other applications were dismissed.

AT&T will carry the Samsung Galaxy S 5 mini in its retail stores and online beginning March 20, the carrier said Monday. The Galaxy S 5 mini has a 4.5-inch 720 x 1280 display and an 8-megapixel rear camera. AT&T customers can buy the mini in charcoal black for $0 down on an AT&T Next plan at $14.30 per month for 24 months, $17.88 per month for 18 months or $21.48 per month for 12 months, AT&T said. Users can also buy the phone for $99 with a two-year contract or for $428 with no contract, the carrier said.

The FCC and NTIA plan a two-day workshop on establishing a model spectrum city program April 15-16 at FCC headquarters, the agencies said Monday in a joint notice. They took comments on the proposal for model cities last summer (see 1409020051) and recently met with those who filed comments to seek additional advice. The notion of a model city was first put forth by the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology in its July 2012 spectrum sharing report. “This workshop will further explore different aspects of the Model City program including the concept, scope, governance, process, technical considerations and funding alternatives,” the agencies said.

CTIA filed at the FCC an opinion by the European Commission’s Scientific Committee on Emerging and Newly Identified Health Risks on potential health effects of exposure to electromagnetic fields, which said there are no health risks from cellphone use. “Overall,” epidemiological studies on radiofrequency and electromagnetic fields exposure from mobile phones “do not show an increased risk of brain tumours,” the report said. “They do not indicate an increased risk for other cancers of the head and neck region.” There is “a lack of evidence” that cellphones affect cognitive functions in humans, said the report, filed March 13 in docket 13-84. “While effects have been found in individual studies, these have typically been observed only in a small number of endpoints, with little consistency between studies.”

FirstNet is asking for comments by April 13 on proposed interpretations of how it should operate under the spectrum law, which created it. The national network for public safety is seeking comment on such issues as what equipment can be used on its network, the nature and application of its required network policies and the presentation of a state plan and “its implications for the rights and duties of other stakeholders, and the rights of States choosing to assume responsibility to build and operate a radio access network in said State,” a notice published in the Federal Register said Friday. In keeping with the Administrative Procedure Act, FirstNet is seeking comment on “foundational legal issues, in addition to technical and economic issues,” the notice said.

The FCC Wireless Bureau granted a waiver request Friday from the PTC-220 group of seven Class I freight railroads, waiving the commission’s Section 90.729(b) power and antenna height limits and Section 90.723(f) coordination limits subject to conditions meant to ensure PTC-220 operations don’t cause harmful interference to other licensees on the 220 MHz band. PTC-220 has been acquiring spectrum on the 220 MHz band and leasing it to the Southern California Regional Rail Authority and other commuter railroads to implement positive train control communications technology. The FCC said it will require PTC-220 to provide a 30-day written notice to licensees about its intent to site a PTC base station that takes advantage of the waived power and antenna height limits, meet a predicted 38 dBu field strength at the license area’s border unless all affected co-channel licensees agree to a higher field strength and meet bright-line frequency and geographic spacing requirements meant to further reduce the risk of interference. The FCC said it is also requiring PTC to provide 30-day written notice to potentially affected Phase II licensees about deployment of a planned waiver-enabled PTC transmitter when the licensee is within 200 kHz and 20 kilometers of the transmitter. The FCC noted opposition to the waiver request from the BEC and DEMCO electric cooperatives, respectively located in South Carolina and Louisiana, but said it disagree with the cooperatives’ “blanket assertion that deployment of waiver-enabled PTC transmitters will harm existing 220 MHz Band stations or limit future expansion by incumbent licensees.”

The Communications Workers of America and NAACP called on the FCC to reject bids made by two designated entities controlled by Dish Network in the AWS-3 auction. The groups sent a letter to commissioners Thursday questioning how Dish, a company with a $34.6 billion market capitalization and $14.6 billion in annual revenue, could qualify for bidding credits designed to help small businesses buy spectrum licenses. The two DEs, Northstar Wireless and SNR Wireless, were the winning bidders for $13.3 billion worth of licenses for $10 billion (see 1501300051). “While the AWS-3 auction was an enormous success, DISH's unusual bidding tactics coupled with its abuse of the designated entity rules are creating a cloud over the auction,” the groups said. “We expect that the FCC will reject DISH's attempt to qualify as a small business eligible for $3.25 billion in taxpayer subsidies.” The letter was filed Thursday in docket 12-268. At Dish, "we respectfully disagree with the criticism of the Designated Entity program, and we are confident that we fully complied with the DE rules in the AWS-3 auction, which were unanimously approved by the full Commission," a Dish spokesman emailed us Friday. "The DE program has been successful in providing much smaller entities the ability to access stronger capital structures, which has facilitated their meaningful participation in an auction process from which they would otherwise be precluded. Our approach -- publicly disclosed ahead of the auction -- was based on DE investment structures that have been approved by the FCC in past wireless spectrum auctions, including structures used by AT&T and Verizon."

The FCC's net neutrality order, released Thursday, finds that mobile should be subject to the same rules as fixed broadband. In comparison to the 2010 net neutrality order, wireless is no longer “nascent,” the agency found. The “Mobile broadband marketplace has evolved, and continues to evolve,” the FCC said. “Mobile broadband networks are faster, more broadly deployed, more widely used, and more technologically advanced than they were in 2010.” The order notes the proliferation of wireless devices designed to access the Internet, with more than 127 million devices with LTE wireless connections already in the market. Wireless carriers of the past had a “well-established record” of trying to keep applications behind a carrier-controlled "walled garden,” though that is no longer the case, the FCC said. But consumers must still be protected “from mobile commercial practices masquerading as ‘reasonable network management,’” the order states. The text attempts to counter arguments made by CTIA and wireless carriers against imposing the same rules on mobile that are imposed on fixed broadband. Though Chairman Tom Wheeler had singled out T-Mobile as a supporter of the order at the Feb. 26 meeting (see 1502260043), the order specifically notes objections the carrier had filed at the agency. “Although mobile providers generally argue that additional rules are not necessary to deter practices that would limit Internet openness, concerns related to the openness practices of mobile broadband providers have arisen,” the order said. “The confoundingly complicated and confusing 400-page net neutrality rule book the FCC released today may be a windfall for Beltway telecom lawyers and lobbyists, but for the rest of us who care about the future of our open and innovative Internet, not so much,” Mobile Future Chairman Jonathan Spalter said. PCIA President Jonathan Adelstein, a former Democratic FCC commissioner, also expressed concerns. “The wireless infrastructure industry’s biggest concern is how these voluminous rules impact capital expenditures, and the jobs, economic growth, and technological development that come with them,” Adelstein said. “Any reduction of wireless investment would hurt the U.S. in the global marketplace.”

The Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers and Association of Global Automakers joined the Intelligent Car Coalition, the coalition said Wednesday. They join AT&T and the Computer and Communications Industry Association on the steering committee for the newly formed group. "Connected cars benefit all of society by using advanced technologies to save lives, fuel, money, and carbon emissions,” said Catherine McCullough, coalition executive director. “The automotive, telecom and tech fields were separate, but now they are merging. These innovations are developing at a rapid pace, and we must engage with each other in a nimble, coordinated way to ensure that the safety, mobility, and environmental benefits of connected cars are available to everyone.”

Over 1.5 billion, or one in three, airline boarding passes will be issued via mobile devices by 2019, said a report by Juniper Research. Airports’ transition to mobile near field communication ticketing will be delayed, it said. About 745 million boarding passes will be delivered through mobile devices this year, Juniper said. Frequent flyers are more likely to use mobile boarding passes, it said. Fifty-three percent of airlines have mobile boarding passes via apps, which will increase to 91 percent by 2017, according to airline IT specialist SITA, Juniper said. Local bus and subway NFC-ticketing will increase because of the frequency of consumer purchases, it said.