The International Trade Commission will consider whether to ban imports of several models of HTC smartphones, after it voted Thursday to begin an investigation under Section 337 of the Tariff Act of 1930 on the products. Nokia requested the investigation May 23, alleging the HTC cellphones infringe its patents. Nokia has said the infringing models include the HTC One S, One V, One X, Evo 4G LTE, Droid Incredible 4G LTE, Droid DNA, One X+, One VX, First and One (CD May 31 p14). Nokia is requesting limited exclusion and cease and desist orders. The ITC said HTC Corp. of Taiwan and HTC America Inc. of Bellevue, Wash., are respondents. HTC declined to comment beyond confirming the ITC started an investigation against it in case No. 337-TA-885, said a company spokeswoman.

What they see as India’s recent trend towards trade and investment barriers -- disregarding intellectual property rights, barring market access and closing investment sectors -- represent a troubling trend the Obama administration should address at this week’s U.S.-India Strategic Dialogue, 35 members of the House Ways and Means Committee said in a Thursday letter to Obama and trade-related agency heads. The meeting provides a “timely opportunity to encourage India to pursue market-based policies and reforms instead of erecting barriers that hurt U.S. exporters, investors, and workers, as well as its own citizens,” the letter said. The administration should focus on reducing tariffs -- India’s are some of the highest in the world -- as well as reducing opaque, discriminatory procedures, the letter said. Such regulations include local content requirements on procurement of electronic goods.

Sprint Nextel’s Boost Mobile will add its fourth LTE-equipped smartphone this year, launching LG’s Optimus F7 on Thursday without a contract at $299. The Android 4.1-based Optimus F7 has a 4.7-inch LCD, 1.5 GHz processor and eight-megapixel camera. It adds to Boost’s lineup of LTE-based models as Sprint sharpens the focus of its prepaid business on smartphones, which accounted for 75 percent of that segment’s Q1 sales, Sprint executives have said. Boost previously offered 4G WiMAX models, the last of which was introduced on Clearwire’s network 18 months ago, a Sprint spokeswoman said Thursday. The push in prepaid comes as Sprint continues to expand its Network Vision LTE rollout, having 13,500 cell sites at the end of Q1 and a goal of reaching most of the 38,000 it has plans for by year-end. Sprint’s LTE service is in 110 U.S. markets, up from 88 in March. Sprint remains on schedule to shut down Nextel’s former network by June 30, having only a “small amount” of subscribers remaining on it, the spokeswoman said. Sprint had 1.3 million subscribers on the Nextel network in March, having converted 264,000 to its postpaid service in Q1, the company has said. Boost, which targets customers focused on voice and text services, and Virgin Mobile, which is targeted for data, had 15.68 million customers March 31, up from 14.96 million a year earlier, Sprint has said. The prepaid business had a decline in average revenue per user to $26.08 from $26.82 a year ago, while monthly churn dropped to 3.26 percent from 3.62 percent, the company has said. Prepaid revenue improved to $1.22 billion in Q1 from $1.2 billion a year earlier, Sprint has said. Sprint remains poised to introduce BlackBerry’s keyboard-equipped Q10 this summer, the company spokeswoman said Thursday, declining comment on the exact date. Sprint was among the few U.S. carriers that didn’t offer BlackBerry’s touch-based Z10 when it was introduced earlier this year.

The city council of Lee’s Summit, Mo., voted unanimously Thursday to bring Google Fiber to its community, making it the ninth municipality around Kansas City, Kan., and Kansas City, Mo., to sign on to the gigabit-speed service in recent months. Google Fiber confirmed the news on its blog (http://bit.ly/11Q6rmL). The city has about 91,000 residents. The council members voted on three different agreements related to allowing Google to come in and install its fiber. The Lee’s Summit agreements said Google will provide free broadband service for a certain period of time, as in other municipalities, and may provide free Wi-Fi hotspots in “certain areas of the City where there is a high concentration of pedestrian activity, such as downtown and shopping centers.” Google will connect “various City facilities and other public facilities, including schools and libraries” with its broadband for free through a 10-year-period effective with the agreement’s approval, the agreement said (http://bit.ly/15q788z). It stipulated that Google must pay applicable right-of-way permit fees, building permit fees and land use approval fees. “In consideration of the free City services, the City will allow Google Fiber to have rent-free equipment attachments and locations while free City services are provided,” the agreement said. “When free City services are not being provided, market rate rentals will be negotiated.” Google acquired the “the right to install, operate, and maintain utility equipment and fiber housing structures (known as ‘huts') on land owned by the City,” according to the document. Lee’s Summit will receive a 5 percent video services franchise fee out of Google Fiber’s gross revenue from video services sales in the area. “Mayor, I've been waiting three years to make this motion,” Councilmember Brian Whitley said when introducing the first agreement. “This is actually probably the best motion I've ever made in my career.” But Councilmember Ed Cockrell, despite being receptive to Google, worried about Lee’s Summit trees. He mentioned a town “that had all their trees whacked off” by Google in the right of way. “I understand tearing up streets -- that’s a whole other different issue,” Cockrell said. He said he worried about citizens rallying “because we killed Mother Nature” like in another Google Fiber community. “There was an absolute disregard for that city and that public,” Cockrell said. Rachel Hack, Google’s Kansas City community manager, guessed he was talking about a community along 39th Street in Kansas City, Mo., she said. “One of our contractors was clearing trees that were in the right of way growing up into the utility lines, and admittedly, some of them did not look good when they were done,” Hack told the council members. Google is working with that community and also plans to work within Lee’s Summit ordinances. “No timelines yet to announce for our expansion cities,” Hack added, describing plans in 2013 and 2014 for the two central Kansas City municipalities. But the expansion city builds will be moving “much more quickly” than in the central Kansas City area, she said. She encouraged Lee’s Summit to engage with the groups curious about innovation and high-speed possibilities that have emerged in Kansas City.

June 24 Alabama 800 MHz Public Safety Regional Planning Committee meets, 10 a.m., Calhoun County Emergency Operations Center, 507 Francis St. W., Jacksonville -- elinsley@mobilecounty.net

Three Republican Congressmen pressed NTIA again on the Colorado broadband stimulus project known as the EAGLE-Net Alliance, a $100.6 million grantee of the Broadband Technology Opportunities Program focused on connecting the state’s schools. NTIA Administrator Larry Strickling should provide answers to several questions by July 8, said Pennsylvania Rep. Tim Murphy, chairman of the Subcommittee on Oversight, Oregon Rep. Greg Walden, chairman of the Subcommittee on Communications and Technology, and Colorado Rep. Cory Gardner in a joint letter sent Thursday. The Republicans have criticized the project over the last several months, questioning its finances and alleging overbuilding. The letter’s questions address the same issues, asking about finances and how the network’s design and plans changed over time. It also requests copies of communications between NTIA and EAGLE-Net related to these topics. NTIA and EAGLE-Net have defended the project’s work, disputing the overbuilding allegations and maintaining that finances are in order. Earlier this year, NTIA indicated that EAGLE-Net, which was suspended for five months related to its environmental review process, will likely require more time as well as more money to continue its work. The project is looking for a third-party operator of the network and additional investment.

Clearwire’s board reversed course again Thursday, declaring its preference for a full Sprint Nextel buyout over Dish Network counteroffer after Sprint raised its offer to buy the minority portion of the company it doesn’t already own for $5 a share. Sprint’s revised bid “represents the best path forward for the company and is in the best interest of our unaffiliated stockholders,” Clearwire CEO Erik Prusch said in a statement (http://bit.ly/17qm2Cx). Sprint’s revised bid is 60 cents higher per share than Dish’s $4.40 per share bid, which Clearwire’s board recommended to its shareholders last week. Sprint’s previous high bid was $3.40 per share (CD June 14 p8). Clearwire’s board moved a stockholder vote scheduled for Monday to July 8. Dish’s tender offer currently remains valid until July 2. Sprint’s revised bid won over at least four stockholders that had previously opposed its buyout plans -- Mount Kellett Capital Management, Glenview Capital Management, Chesapeake Partners Management and Highside Capital Management. Sprint said the four investors plan to sell their stock, which totals 9 percent of Clearwire, to Sprint whether or not a vote to accept Sprint’s bid passes. Dish did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The number of broadcast-only homes is on the rise for the second year in a row, a 2013 Home Technology Monitor study by market research firm GFK shows, according to a blog post by the company (http://bit.ly/15nrQ8V). “We're seeing 19.3 percent of TV homes reporting broadcast-only reception, compared with a level of 17.8 percent in 2012, and as low as 14 percent as recently as 2010,” said Dave Tice, GFK senior vice president-media and entertainment, in the blog post. In 2013, roughly 22 million homes rely only on broadcast rather than pay TV, Tice said. However, Tice said the study points to cost savings rather than viewing behavior as the motivator behind the shift. He said more than 60 percent of respondents said they cancelled pay TV service to cut costs, while “far fewer mentioned cord-cutting because of online viewing options.” Tice said. “Broadcast-only levels are even higher among minority and lower-income homes, as well as with younger householders,” he said in the blog post. Although Tice admitted online streaming and other video options might also be driving cord cutting, he said the data doesn’t point to them as the “primary driver” behind the shift. “It’s really been driven by economics,” said Tice. “Whether it remains that way going forward is anybody’s guess.” “GFK’s research should put to bed the myth that broadcast TV is dying,” said an NAB spokesman.

The FCC Wireless and Wireline bureaus issued a notice Thursday approving 39 winning bids among the 795 winning bids in last year’s Mobility Fund Phase 1 auction. The winners agreed to build out service in five different states (http://bit.ly/15o7gFz). The biggest awards were $2.6 million to Pine Belt Cellular to provide service in Perry, Ala., and $2.6 million to Plateau Telecommunications for Guadalupe, N.M. Four winning bids by Sagebrush Cellular, all covering parts of Montana, were found to be in default (http://bit.ly/15o8VuF).

The International Trade Commission wants comments by July 15 on public interest factors related to a possible limited exclusion order banning imports of patent-infringing products from Roku containing program guide and parental control technology. An administrative law judge found no violation of Section 337 of the Tariff Act of 1930 in the ITC investigation, which was requested by Rovi, Starsight Telecast, United Video Properties and Index Systems. But the ALJ recommended that if the commission reverses that finding, it should issue a limited exclusion order.