The percentage of adults accessing the Internet on their smartphones has grown to 55 percent, said a Leichtman Research Group survey on broadband access Thursday (http://bit.ly/16Cl5R5). About 78 percent of households get broadband in the home, and 94 percent of all households with Internet service have broadband, the survey found. Overall, 83 percent of households get an Internet service at home and 64 percent of broadband subscribers can also access the Internet on their smartphones. Nineteen percent of subscribers only access the Internet through their smartphones, compared to 12 percent in 2012, said LRG. The findings are based on a telephone survey of 1,304 households across the U.S.

Atlanta-based Reworx will recycle end-of-life Dish Network set-tops and other e-waste, including cables, remote controls, batteries and PC boards, in a new partnership, the companies said Thursday. Reworx hires individuals with disabilities and those who face barriers to traditional hiring, the companies said. Dish estimated its sustainability operations last year processed more than 26 million pounds of e-waste. The average Dish set-top lasts about seven years, it said. Reworx is the first e-waste recycler in Georgia to land the EPA’s “R2” certification, the companies said.

An Indiana wireless ISP challenged funding requests from carriers that have asked for Connect America Fund money in several census blocks. NewWays Networking is contesting about 100 census blocks where it says it can provide at least 3 Mbps dowload/768 kbps upload speeds. “Many of the requested areas do not show up as being served” on the National Broadband Map, NewWays said (http://bit.ly/15wUDhC), due to the map being based on data that’s a year old. Since the last data submission, NewWays has added two new towers and upgraded several more to provide faster service, it said. Texas co-op Hill Country Telecommunications also disputed the eligibility of some census blocks for funding (http://bit.ly/15xcCEC).

DigiGone’s video communications system and software platform was approved for use with Thuraya’s IP terminals. Thuraya is actively promoting DigiGone’s satellite communications solution “across their distribution channels in all vertical markets,” Thuraya said in a press release (http://bit.ly/1eJR6zA). “DigiGone will provide secure video and audio transmission for videoconferencing to Thuraya’s customers with satellite airtime costs much lower than other teleconferencing services.” The DigiGone system can be customized, “depending on users’ bandwidth speed requirements and their choice of audio and video quality,” it said.

An item related to the carriage dispute between Bloomberg and Comcast has been adopted and deleted from the FCC’s agenda for its Sept. 26 meeting, the commission said Wednesday (http://fcc.us/190MAoc). The item, which had been on circulation since February, concerns commission review of an order to resolve a complaint by Bloomberg that Comcast violated the news neighborhooding condition of the Comcast/NBCU merger, said the commission’s release. The details of the adopted item weren’t released. The FCC didn’t comment.

Belo Corp. shareholders voted to approve its purchase by Gannett. The acquiree expects to complete the $1.5 billion deal this year, Belo said in a news release Wednesday (http://bit.ly/1b6CtSP). Analysts said they expect the agreement to be approved by the FCC (CD June 14 p7).

Workers from a MetroPCS store in New York City’s Harlem neighborhood voted to join the Communications Workers of America, the union said Wednesday. The 7-1 vote “may seem small, but it’s a huge victory for these workers,” CWA said in a news release. MetroPCS merged with T-Mobile earlier this year. The vote “ensures representation on issues and fairness on the job,” the union said (http://bit.ly/18318GI). T-Mobile did not comment.

More objections were raised to a company’s first-of-its-kind parental verification service proposal that would fall under an FTC safe-harbor provision of the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act rule. Three companies participating in COPPA safe-harbor programs said in separate comments that AssertID’s proposal uses an untested way of verifying the identity of a parent of a child under 13 seeking to register with a website or mobile app. The comments were posted on the agency’s website under file No. P135415 after the comment period ended Friday (http://1.usa.gov/1fcZett). Two privacy groups had also objected to the plan (CD Sept 24 p11). The companies said AssertID’s proposal to check a parent’s social network on Facebook to confirm the parent’s identity covers uncharted territory. An executive at AssertID had no response, and had said the privacy groups’ concerns weren’t based on accurate information. “Given the untested nature of the ConsentID method in practice” and “the secret nature of the formula it employs, much more detailed commentary on the validity or efficacy of the method is effectively precluded,” said Aristotle, one of five FTC-approved safe harbor providers (http://1.usa.gov/16rk8BC). “AssertID has not adequately explained how using Facebook friends can stand in for verification.” Privacy Vaults Online said social verification is a “just developing” area, and the U.S. and EU nations are debating what it is. The FTC shouldn’t “tie its decision to a proprietary method,” said the COPPA safe-harbor provider (http://1.usa.gov/18qcOlQ). The agency and National Strategy for Trusted Identities in Cyberspace “may be called upon to define exactly what social verification is and establish the parameters within which it must operate to meet the NSTIC Guiding Principles and be accepted among the United States’ global trading partners,” said Privacy Vaults. “Choosing a proprietary method at this early stage risks preempting this much larger policy discussion that is taking place on the global stage.” Veratad Technologies doesn’t think AssertID reasonably calculated its primary method, said that online age and verification provider (http://1.usa.gov/1bGxz1M). “This approach to verification is entirely reliant on self-reporting, and may be colloquially described as the ‘I am who I say I am because I said so’ approach."

Sinclair agreed to buy the broadcast assets of eight TV stations owned by New Age Media for $90 million. Sinclair expects to complete the transaction by Q1, it said in a news release Wednesday (http://bit.ly/14IhdBb). The transaction includes stations located in the designated market areas of Wilkes-Barre-Scranton, Pa. and Tallahassee and Gainesville, Fla., it said. To comply with FCC ownership rules, Sinclair plans to sell the licenses of WSWB (CW) Wilkes-Barre-Scranton, WTLH (Fox) Tallahassee and WNBW (NBC) Gainesville to Cunningham Broadcasting Corp., it said. Sinclair also said it plans to sell WTLF (CW) Tallahassee to Deerfield Media.

NTT Docomo USA agreed to pay $100,000 to settle an FCC Enforcement Bureau investigation into whether the wireless carrier complied with the commission’s hearing aid compatibility rules. A consent decree covers alleged violations in 2011 and 2012 (http://fcc.us/1839VZm). “The settlement reached today also requires that NTT DOCOMO implement a robust and meaningful compliance plan that includes new operating procedures, comprehensive training of employees and agents, and additional reporting requirements,” the agency said in a news release. “Today’s enforcement action underscores our continuing commitment to ensuring that these consumers are not left behind and that they can broadly leverage advanced technologies and utilize the latest wireless devices,” said acting Chairwoman Mignon Clyburn.