The National Wireless Safety Alliance got its start four years ago, the outgrowth of 2013 industry summit focused on tower worker safety, Executive Director Duane MacEntee said during an FCC podcast released Thursday. “We had a lot of fatalities and it garnered a lot of, in my opinion, proper attention by authorities,” he said. “The fatality rate was very high. At one point, we were labeled as the most dangerous industry in the U.S. You don't want to be No. 1 in that regard.” The summit “was really the first time that collectively everybody got together representing multiple sectors of the industry to speak openly and honestly about what is needed in terms of changing that dynamic,” he said. The group offers a nationally recognized certification program for tower workers to ensure they are appropriately trained, MacEntee said. The podcast is hosted by Evan Swarztrauber, aide to Commissioner Brendan Carr.

Smart home solutions will increasingly rely on voice control, video and data analytics, sound recognition and artificial intelligence to simplify user experience, blogged Parks Associates Wednesday. U.S. broadband households own more than 10 connected devices, and as they buy more, they’re basing purchase decisions on a product’s ability to work with others they own, said Parks. But interoperability remains “a leading challenge," said analyst Chris O’Dell. Three-quarters of consumers who intend to buy a smart home device in the next year said the ability to work well with others is key to the purchase decision, but that's increasingly difficult when consumers buy stand-alone devices "at different times, from different brands, rather than purchasing smart home systems." Some 30 percent of computing and entertainment device owners report experiencing loss of wireless connectivity, naming routers as the most common source of the problems. Mesh networks and 5G could mitigate wireless issues, O'Dell said.

ARRL, which represents amateur radio operators, asked the FCC for a pause in docket 16-239, which proposes to remove limitations on the symbol, or baud, rate, applicable to data emissions in some amateur bands. The FCC sought comment in July 2016. ARRL asked for a pause “for the purpose of facilitating discussion among commenters of differences expressed in the record of this proceeding.” ARRL said, “We intend our effort to reach a common understanding of issues and to agree on proposals insofar as possible.” The filing was posted Thursday.

C Spire slammed T-Mobile for failing to address complaints about its lack of backhaul in rural markets as it pushes forward on a buy of Sprint, in an FCC filing posted Thursday in docket 18-197. “The only concrete information” T-Mobile has offered in response “pertains to the percentage of T-Mobile’s existing rural sites that have high speed backhaul ‘today,’” C Spire said: “This misses the point, perhaps intentionally. T- Mobile has a long record of providing inadequate coverage in rural America, instead having focused its buildout in and around major metropolitan areas.” T-Mobile responded March 11 that it has substantial high-speed backhaul capabilities for its rural facilities, and has concrete plans in place to further increase bandwidth to meet the performance requirements of the New T- Mobile network." Many details were redacted. Also Thursday, T-Mobile said it cut the ribbon at the Seattle Mariners’ stadium, which is now T-Mobile Park after the carrier bought the naming rights. T-Mobile filed at the FCC a blog by CEO John Legere. “How happy are you with your wireless service today?” Legere asks. “How about your cable or satellite service? Has it been getting better and cheaper lately? If you live in a rural community, do you feel like you have real choices for both mobile and broadband services? What about if you need support -- how is the customer service you get?”

Excitement about mobile photography innovations is “good news for the smartphone industry,” struggling to surpass “stagnant sales forecasts,” IHS analyst Wayne Lam said. Huawei Tuesday became the first vendor to incorporate a folded optics design that enables lossless optical zoom photography in a smartphone. Lam said Huawei and Samsung are investing heavily in mobile photography improvements, while Apple has “arguably been left behind in the current design cycle.” Other “radical” mobile photography designs are coming to market, including one from Nokia’s (HMD)/Light.co with a five-lens, selectable depth-of-focus camera. “Ultimately, competition breeds better products,” and the next wave to mobile photography, including time-of-flight and other “novel” optical sensors, “should give the industry confidence that smartphone innovations have longer legs than the naysayers have proclaimed,” said the analyst. As for Huawei's future in the U.S. market, Lam said the company's success in Europe "helps limit the immediate impact of pressures the company faces from the United States government. Short term, there doesn't appear to be a solution" to the situation in the U.S., he said, and Huawei will continue to focus on existing businesses.

The FCC Wireless Bureau seeks comment by April 15, replies April 26 on “next steps” toward reconfiguring the 39 GHz band in preparation for its auction, along with the upper 37 and 47 GHz bands. “The Bureau also temporarily freezes processing of future applications for transfers and assignments of 39 GHz licenses in order to facilitate the reconfiguration process and acts pursuant to section 316 to modify incumbents’ 39 GHz licenses in accordance with the Commission’s proposed order of modification,” says a Federal Register notice for Thursday.

An incentive auction in the 2.5 GHz educational broadband service band would maximize the educational value of the spectrum “by converting the leasing scheme’s implicit and inefficient subsidy into an explicit needs-based subsidy for educational broadband,” Tech Knowledge said Wednesday. EBS licensees have less experience managing spectrum than wireless providers, the group said. Providing direct subsidies makes more sense than the current regime, Tech Knowledge said. “In exchange for commercial use of its spectrum, a school board whose FCC license would be worth up to $157 million at auction is currently receiving an educational use benefit that amounts to $0.02 per K-12 student per month that can only be used to buy retail wireless broadband services from Sprint."

CTIA sought a “comprehensive national vision” on spectrum, meeting an aide to FCC Chairman Ajit Pai. “Smart spectrum policies -- including setting a five-year schedule of spectrum auctions, emphasizing free market principles such as exclusive flexible-use licenses, and modernizing government policies and procedures -- will unlock the enormous promise of 5G and spur U.S. global technological leadership,” CTIA filed, posted Tuesday in docket 18-122.

The FCC Office of Engineering and Technology sought comment Tuesday on a waiver request by Auspion for a system that transmits wireless power over distance. The technology uses the 24 GHz industrial, scientific and medical band “to provide power to, and/or charge, receivers located at various distances from the transmitter,” OET said. Auspion says it plans to market its system “exclusively for industrial, retail and enterprise applications, such as charging industrial robots, warehouse-based drones, and smartphones in conference rooms,” OET said. Comments are due April 25, replies May 10, in docket 19-83.

There has been “significant progress” in the 3.5 GHz citizen broadband radio service, Federated Wireless said in a meeting with FCC Public Safety Bureau staff. Commercial deployment is “imminent” with “full commercial activities to follow,” Federated said in docket 07-100. The company discussed “potential benefits for protection of incumbents, increased spectrum access, and reduced equipment costs that dynamic sharing could bring to the 4.9 GHz band,” Monday's filing said.