Sprint gained product buying leverage from its $22 billion sale to SoftBank, but won’t likely see the full impact until next year, said Sprint Chief Financial Officer Joe Euteneuer at a Goldman Sachs conference Thursday. While Sprint suffered shortages of iPhones in the past, getting enough inventory may no longer be an issue, Euteneuer said. “All the vendors are looking at us now and realize we are one company,” he told us. “As much as we are a standalone independent entity, from a purchasing standpoint they realize we are one buying company and we gained some leverage.” Sprint will start deploying so-called tri-band mobile phones late this year capable of delivering LTE services using the 1.9 MHz, 800 MHz and 2.5 GHz spectrum bands, he said. Sprint acquired the 2.5 GHz capability when it bought Clearwire earlier this year. “We plan on putting it out there and it’s something that we are going to hang our hat on because 2.5 GHz means a lot to us,” Euteneuer said. Sprint, which expects to have 200 million points of presence for its Network Vision LTE by year-end, expects to start deploying LTE across its 800 MHz band in early 2014, while Clearwire’s 2.5 GHz network of 5,000 towers will get it by year-end, Euteneuer said. Sprint will start installing 2.5 GHz on its 38,000 towers in first-half 2014, he said. Sprint expects to have LTE go network-wide by mid-2014, Euteneuer said. Sprint has 40 percent LTE coverage in some markets, including Chicago, Fort Wayne and Indianapolis, Euteneuer said. Sprint had LTE in 151 U.S. cities June 30, the company has said. Sprint’s push in 4G comes with the financial backing of SoftBank, which owns 78 percent of the carrier and supplied it with a $1.9 billion capital infusion before the closing in July, Sprint has said. The two companies won’t be fully integrated for about two years, Euteneuer said. Sprint had 56.1 million wireless customers June 30, down from 56.3 million a year earlier. The number of postpaid customers inched up to 32.8 million from 32.5 million a year earlier, while prepaid -- services sold under the Virgin and Boost brands -- slipped slightly to 15.21 million from 15.41 million.

The text of the FCC’s inmate calling service order was released Thursday, about seven weeks after a divided FCC voted 2-1 to limit the rates that ICS providers can charge prisoners to make interstate calls. The Communications Act’s requirement of just and reasonable rates applies to “all Americans,” the order said (http://fcc.us/1asJlJt): “There is no exception in the statute for those who are incarcerated or their families.” The order requires ICS providers to charge “cost-based rates” to inmates and their families, and requires all ICS providers to submit data on their underlying costs “so that the Commission can develop a permanent rate structure.” Commissioner Ajit Pai released a 21-page dissenting statement (http://fcc.us/1911dxM) challenging the legality of the order. Its “full-scale rate-of-return regulation” will not survive judicial review, he said. Other than “a jejune request for comment on ‘any other proposals,'” the commission “did not apprise stakeholders that rate-of-return regulation was under consideration,” Pai said, calling the order “arbitrary and capricious in light of the evidence contained in the record.”

A House proposal would remove the so-called “integration ban,” which the FCC adopted and requires cable operators to use CableCARDs in their set-top boxes. House Commerce Committee Subcommittee Vice Chairman Bob Latta, R-Ohio, and Rep. Gene Green, D-Texas, introduced the bill Thursday. “By one estimate, the prohibition has cost cable operators and consumers more than $1 billion since it went into effect in 2007,” Latta said in a statement. “In today’s ultra competitive video marketplace, cable operators have no incentive to make it more difficult for their customers to use their preferred devices to access their video programming services.” Green called the bill “a surgical approach that preserves FCC authority in the retail set top box market.” NCTA applauded the legislation in a news release. “This targeted and bipartisan bill will retire an outdated FCC rule -- known as the integration ban -- that burdens cable consumers and operators with needless costs, wastes energy and violates principles of competitive neutrality,” said NCTA President Michael Powell in a statement. There have been more than $1 billion in unnecessary costs since 2007, he said.

NATPE Budapest will relocate to Prague in 2014 and become NATPE Europe, said the organization in a news release Thursday. CEO Ron Perth said Prague is expected to provide the organization “more flexibility.” The move will also place all market and studio screening activities in one location, the release said. NATPE Europe will be June 23-26 at the Hilton Prague Hotel.

T-Mobile representatives raised concerns about a proposal by Dish Network to “take a period of up to thirty (30) months to elect whether to use its 2000-2020 MHz AWS-4 band spectrum for uplink or downlink use” and the effect on the proposed H-block auction, in a meeting with FCC Wireless Bureau Chief Ruth Milkman and other commission officials, said an ex parte filing. The T-Mobile officials also raised broader questions about the TV incentive auction. “T-Mobile encouraged the Commission to engage in improved outreach to broadcasters, noting the importance of strong broadcaster participation in the incentive auction so that the Commission can achieve the revenue goals set by Congress in the Spectrum Act,” the filing said (http://bit.ly/15wquK5).

Sprint and Canadian telco Rogers Communications said Thursday they will team up to bring Internet content to Canadian cars beginning in 2014. Sprint Velocity-enabled cars shipped to Canada will use Rogers’ wireless services, the companies said. The Sprint Velocity service provides users with entertainment as well as driving directions, car diagnostics and other services through a dashboard touchscreen. The service also gives users wireless connectivity for their mobile devices. The presence of more than 20 million vehicles in Canada gives Rogers a “strong growth opportunity in the connected auto segment,” said Mansell Nelson, vice president-advanced business solutions, in a news release. A March 2012 Juniper Research study predicted there will be about 100 million connected cards on the road by 2016, Sprint and Rogers said (http://bit.ly/15wUECa).

A survey sponsored by the Let’s Change the Name Campaign showed that 63 percent of respondents either would approve of broadcast TV stations refraining from using the current name of the Washington Redskins NFL team, or don’t care if broadcasters stopped using the name. About 37 percent would disapprove of broadcasters who stopped using the name, the campaign said in a news release. Nearly 85 percent of respondents said they would continue supporting the team even if it were renamed, it said. The FCC should convene an open meeting “to discuss voluntary cooperation by media outlets with popular opinion in avoiding hateful speech in broadcasting,” said Reed Hundt, a campaign member and former FCC chairman. The survey, conducted through Survey Monkey, was distributed to a random pool of 100 Washingtonians, the campaign said.

The FCC Wireless Bureau granted the Enterprise Wireless Alliance’s request for a waiver to allow applicants for new or modified stations in the 470-512 MHz, 806-824/851-866 MHz, and 896-901/935-940 MHz bands to operate while applications are pending before the commission. The Thursday order said the rules treat private land mobile radio applicants differently and operators of stations below 470 MHz are permitted to operate the proposed station during the application’s pendency for up to 180 days, beginning 10 days after the application is submitted to the commission. “Based on the record before us, we conclude that EWA has presented sufficient facts to meet the standard for grant of a waiver,” the order said (http://bit.ly/19546ru). “We agree with EWA that the large number of narrowbanding-related applications and the attendant temporary increase in processing time for all ... applications is a unique or unusual factual circumstance for which waiver relief is appropriate."

The FCC Media Bureau is poised to hit the Oct. 15-29 target for the low-power FM filing window, staffers in the bureau’s Audio Division said Thursday during the FCC meeting. The division worked on the LPFM licensing track and made changes to Form 318 to implement eligibility terms and the criteria adopted in the rulemaking proceeding, said Parul Desai, an adviser in the division. Hundreds of applicants have taken advantage of the Consolidated Database System to start the application process, she said. The commission dismissed 4,000 Auction 83 proposals to prepare for new LPFMs, she said. Of the 6,350 Auction 83 applications for FM translators that were on file in December 2012, “only eight have not either been dismissed, provided the opportunity to submit a long-form application, or given the opportunity to submit a settlement agreement,” said Jim Bradshaw of the Audio Division. The bureau’s efforts could result in the authorization of 1,700 new FM translator construction permits during 2013, he said, a 30 percent increase in the number of authorized translators in the U.S. Acting FCC Chairwoman Mignon Clyburn urged the commission to prepare for what could be hundreds or tens of thousands of applications filed in the LPFM window. The sustainability of the LPFM service “is directly tied to its ability to attract listeners in our urban centers,” she said. “These stations will be able to achieve significant coverage of densely populated neighborhoods.” Commissioners Jessica Rosenworcel and Ajit Pai agreed that new LPFM stations will foster diversity and localism. When the window opens, Rosenworcel said she hopes applicants will show the FCC “in force how low-power FM can become a more vibrant part of community broadcasting, a source of new content, a driver of new music, [and] a platform for unique local news.” Pai praised the bureau for hitting the intended target date of the LPFM filing window. “I encourage community organizations across the country to take advantage of this opportunity and look forward to hearing the programming they will produce in the years to come.”

Governors need to establish a statewide governance structure to prepare for, respond to and prevent cyberattacks, said the National Governors Association in a paper presented to Congress Thursday (http://bit.ly/19CNNUU). In many states, chief information security officers (CISOs) are responsible for developing and carrying out information technology security policies, and they have limited responsibility over statewide cyber networks, said NGA. The sharing of cyberthreat information with the private sector and local governments is handled by the state homeland security agencies, which is “further complicating the overall cybersecurity governance structure,” said NGA. Governors can grant their chief information officers or CISOs the authority to “develop and steer a coordinated governance structure ... that can greatly improve coordination and awareness across agencies that operate statewide cybernetworks,” said the paper. States need to do risk assessments to identify information assets, “model different threats to those assets” and allow for planning to conduct those threats, said NGA. Hands-on activities and exercises are needed as part of the assessments to establish “sound business practices and use existing resources,” said the paper. States must monitor threats to mission-critical systems with technologies and business practices that will “identify potential threats, track all stages of cyber attacks in real time, and offer mitigation techniques and options for any resulting loss or damage,” said NGA. The NGA Resource Center for State Cybersecurity will issue a series of reports on actions governors can take on critical areas in the mid and long term over the next year, said the paper. NGA will lead efforts through the Council of Governors to collaborate with the Departments of Defense and Homeland Security on how the National Guard can be used to protect both state and federal efforts.