PCIA filed an amicus brief with the Supreme Court in support of the FCC in City of Arlington, Texas, v. FCC, which is set for oral argument Jan. 16. The case examines whether the court should uphold FCC authority to issue a 2009 order requiring local authorities to make decisions on tower and other wireless facility siting applications under an FCC-imposed shot clock, but could also lead to broader review of the Chevron doctrine, which requires federal courts to defer to an agency’s interpretation of a statute, as long as that interpretation is deemed “reasonable.” “Consumers want expanded wireless access, public safety agencies need it, and providers stand ready to offer it,” PCIA said (http://xrl.us/bn8w2h). “But there is a logjam in this otherwise robust market: localities’ sometimes lengthy delays in granting siting approvals.” The FCC “acted well within its delegated authority in issuing its ruling in this case,” PCIA said. “There was no jurisdictional ambiguity for the Commission to resolve. The Court can and should affirm the decision ... without resolving the Chevron question at the heart of Petitioners’ argument.”
JSI Capital Advisors encouraged the FCC to reformulate its quantile regression analysis, make “fair and well-reasoned decisions” on outstanding USF waivers, bring the RLEC Connect America Fund and Remote Areas Fund to fruition, and hold a “carefully executed” rulemaking proceeding on the transition to all-IP networks. “All could potentially be white knights for RLECs in 2013, but such regulatory miracles will require consistent, ingenious, and sensible input from the RLEC industry,” the telecom analysts said in a research note (http://xrl.us/bn8wyy). JSI also called the FCC’s current approach to intercarrier compensation reform flawed: “Carriers that invest in critical infrastructure and provide vital telecommunications services in rural areas of the nation must be able to depend on a more equitable regulatory process than the one we are now seeing from the FCC."
Consumers activated more than 50 million iOS and Android devices between Christmas Day and New Year’s Eve, the highest ever weeklong result, mobile application analytics provider Flurry said Wednesday. The final week of 2012 was also record-setting for app downloads -- consumers downloaded 1.76 billion apps during that period, including 328 million downloads on Christmas Day, Flurry said. U.S. consumers made 604 million app downloads during the period -- 34.3 percent of the global total; China had 183 million downloads, while the U.K. had 132 million, Flurry said. “It’s not surprising that the U.S. continues to lead the rest of the world, especially since the fast-closing second place China does not celebrate Christmas (only 3 [percent] of China’s population is Christian),” Flurry said in a blog post. There were several weeks since late November when there were more than a billion app downloads per week, and that is likely to become the norm in 2013; Flurry said it predicts there will be more than 2 billion app downloads per week during Q4 2013. Flurry said it based its results on data released by Google and Apple, as well as data from more than 260,000 apps. The company’s analytics service is included in more than 25 percent of all apps downloaded through the App Store and Google Play (http://xrl.us/bn8wxg).
The “highly longitudinal nature” of mobile broadband performance data raises concerns about the level of resolution of data to be collected in the FCC’s upcoming mobile measurement effort, a Princeton University computer science professor told the FCC, according to an ex parte filing made by an FCC attorney (http://xrl.us/bn8wvv). The FCC could minimize privacy concerns by discarding unique identifiers, Professor Arvind Narayanan said. Ideally each handset should also independently randomize timing to reduce patterns, he said.
The information and communications technology (ICT) industry needs to become more efficient in its energy usage to reduce its carbon footprint, researchers from the Centre for Energy-Efficient Telecommunications and Bell Labs said in a recent report in the American Chemical Society journal Environmental Science & Technology. The ICT industry currently produces more than 830 million tons of CO2 annually -- about 2 percent of global CO2 emissions, the same amount the aviation industry produces, researchers said. That figure is likely to double by 2020, making it important for ICT companies to make green investments in the telecom infrastructure, researchers said. The industry can reduce its emissions by investing in more effective power usage, more energy efficient equipment and increasing the use of renewable energy sources to power their equipment and related facilities, researchers said (http://xrl.us/bn8wti).
Harris Corp. requested authority to construct and operate a 3.8-meter C-band earth station in an application to the FCC International Bureau (http://xrl.us/bn8wrn). The earth station would be used “in connection with a critical project for the Federal Aviation Administration,” it said. SES Americom is seeking authority to operate the SES-3 satellite in the C and Ku bands to replace AMC-1 at 103 degrees west, it said in its application (http://xrl.us/bn8wss).
Consumer confidence in digital music formats grew in 2012, sparking a fifth successive record year for singles and strong performances from digital albums and streaming services, the British Phonographic Industry said Wednesday. Figures from the Official Charts Co. showed that Britons streamed audio tracks more than 3.7 billion times last year, the equivalent of 140 music streams for every household in the U.K., it said. Digital album sales were up nearly 15 percent to 30.5 million, while CD sales dropped almost 20 percent to around 70 million, it said. Combined volume sales of digital and physical albums fell overall by around 11 percent to 100.5 million in 2012, it said. Sixteen digital albums sold more than 100,000 digital copies, but despite the growth in digital formats, CDs are still popular with fans, accounting for more than two-thirds of total sales compared with a 30 percent share for digital albums and 0.4 percent for vinyl LPs, it said. Last year was encouraging for U.K. artists and for music’s digital future, said BPI Chief Executive Geoff Taylor. Despite tight market conditions, the quality of music and digital innovation by U.K. labels signal good potential for domestic growth and a greater share of the global music market, he said.
FCC compliance filings for two new Research In Motion BlackBerry devices were released as of Monday. Both of the devices -- identified as Models RFF91LW and RFH121LW -- are smartphones, though the FCC-posted documents do not specify that they are models RIM plans to introduce when it launches its BlackBerry 10 OS later this month. The RFF91LW filings indicate that model can run on AT&T’s LTE and GSM networks, as well as EDGE and WCDMA (http://bit.ly/VkvBIr). The RFH121LW filings did not indicate RIM had yet tested that model for use on specific networks (http://bit.ly/ZPtUtu).
Carriage negotiations between Suddenlink and News Corp. were continuing at our deadline Monday, Suddenlink said. Their existing contract is set to expire Jan. 2 at 5 p.m. “We've made progress in our negotiations and, if more time is needed, we'll ask for an extension,” a Suddenlink spokesman said. It set up a website (http://xrl.us/bn8paf) to provide updates on the talks. A News Corp. spokesman didn’t immediately comment.
NTIA is seeking the Office of Management and Budget’s “emergency review” of the $135 million FirstNet state and local implementation grants, according to a notice published Monday in the Federal Register. NTIA wants to award the grants “no later than June 1, 2013” and to begin the application process in the first quarter of 2013, the notice said (http://xrl.us/bn8o9r). NTIA said it “must receive clearance for the [grant] application and reporting requirements” by Monday, the day the notice was published. That deadline matters, NTIA said: to “(1) ensure applicants have reasonable notice of the federal funding opportunity; (2) provide applicants sufficient time to complete and submit their applications; and (3) allow NTIA adequate time to properly execute the application review process and make the awards.” OMB declined comment on the review’s status but according to the notice is set to receive comments and recommendations through Jan. 7.