Wireless Telecommunications

Software on iPhones and Android smartphones help mobile apps like Uber and Facebook to pinpoint a user’s location, making it possible to order a car, check in at a local restaurant or receive targeted advertising. But 911, with a far more pressing purpose, is stuck in the past. U.S. regulators estimate as many as 10,000 lives could be saved each year if the 911 emergency dispatching system were able to get to callers one minute faster. Better technology would be especially helpful, regulators say, when a caller can’t speak or identify his or her location.

Generally speaking, pollsters are ill advised to ignore cellphone users, if only because they’d be missing half of the country. But there’s another reason that pollsters need to include cell users: The demographics of those with and without access to landlines is stark. Nearly two-thirds of Hispanic adults in the United States live in households that are wireless-only. More than half of black adults and Asian adults do, as well.

Frontier, Consolidated and Windstream told the Federal Communications Commission that to leverage wireless spectrum bands like 3.5 GHz to address rural broadband gaps, the current license size should be changed. In a recent joint FCC filing, the three service providers, which are all recipients of the regulator’s CAF II program, say that the larger license sizes—specifically partial economic areas (PEAs)—are too big and too expensive. As a result, the trio added that PEAs would preclude “potential participation from carriers considering deploying fixed wireless in very rural areas.”

[Commentary] It’s been two and a half years since AT&T and Nokia developed a private, secure, reliable and high-capacity LTE network for smart grid technology, and began selling it to utility companies and others. So far, AT&T doesn’t have anything to show for it.

The White House is banning its employees from using personal mobile phones while at work in the West Wing, despite concerns among some staffers that they’ll be cut off from children and other relatives trying to reach them.  “The security and integrity of the technology systems at the White House is a top priority for the Trump administration and therefore starting next week the use of all personal devices for both guests and staff will no longer be allowed in the West Wing,” press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said.

The US Department of Commerce and the First Responder Network Authority (FirstNet) announced that all 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, and the US Virgin Islands have accepted FirstNet and AT&T’s proposals to design and build a broadband network for the public safety community. Guam, the Pacific Territories of American Samoa, and the Mariana Islands have until March 12, 2018, to make their decision. 

The Federal Communications Commission announced it has settled its investigations of five providers that received improper payments from the Lifeline program. Noting that the companies have already repaid the program for improper payments, the FCC found that the public interest would be served by adopting the Consent Decrees, which resolve the Notice of Apparent Liability for Forfeitures issued to the companies. As part of each settlement, the companies have agreed to make additional payments to the U.S.

Localities could see their internet options limited by proposed Federal Communications Commission rules that would increase priority access license areas and lengths for the 3.5 GHz “innovation” band.

Apple, facing questions from users and tech analysts about reduced performance in older iPhones, acknowledged that its latest software curtails the computing power of some models to prevent unexpected shutdowns. It was a rare statement from the company that shed light on how Apple internally dealt with a growing user complaint. The statement came two days after John Poole, founder of the computer-performance testing group Geekbench, wrote a blog post illustrating how iPhone computing performance slows as battery health declines on iPhone 6s and iPhone 7 devices.

Meredith Attwell Baker, President and CEO of CTIA, has agreed to a five-year contract extension that will keep her as the head of the leading wireless industry group. Baker joined CTIA in 2014 and oversees the wireless industry’s political advocacy as well as key industry initiatives.  Under her leadership, CTIA has broadened its reach attracting new members to reflect the growing importance of mobile to the US economy.  CTIA has also invested in the technical and policy expertise needed for tomorrow’s challenges, launched a new annual convention, and developed key programs to help enable t