Chat agents for Verizon Wireless pitched the carrier’s six-month free offer for Apple Music Wednesday, after the company announced Tuesday subscribers to its Beyond Unlimited and Above Unlimited plans would get the streaming music service for free beginning Thursday. “The promotion we offer is not a free trial, you get Apple Music free for 6 months if you have an Unlimited plan,” a chat agent told us. The monthly cost went up to $9.99 monthly after six months. Tuesday, Verizon noted it had been offering six months of Apple Music free to Unlimited customers and “starting January 17, Apple Music will be included in Beyond Unlimited and Above Unlimited plans,” plus tax. Customers opting for the lowest of the three Unlimited plans -- Go Unlimited -- will still be offered the six-month free offer for Apple Music, going up to $10 monthly after the promo period. Prices for the three subscription plans start at $40 per month for Go Unlimited (480p streaming, unlimited talk and text), $50 for Beyond (720p streaming and 22 GB data) and $60 for Above (720p streaming and 75 GB data). With the added Apple Music feature, subscribers to the top two plans can download songs or access streams on iOS and Android smartphones, smartwatches, smart speakers, computers and car playback platforms, said Verizon. “In times of congestion, your data may be temporarily slower than other traffic (only after 22 GB per month on Beyond Unlimited and 75 GB per month on Above Unlimited).” A Verizon spokesman didn't comment on the disparity in messaging but said for Beyond and Above customers who are signed up for the six-month Apple Music offer, "no action is needed for the new offer."

The 3.5 GHz band citizens broadband radio service band potentially will give businesses a bigger role in shaping how wireless is used, said wireless adviser firm Senza Fili. The band could be the future of sharing, the report said. “Even heavily trafficked licensed cellular and unlicensed bands are not used at capacity throughout the footprint and throughout the day, especially as we move from high-density urban locations toward rural areas,” it said. “Even new technologies such as 5G and Wi-Fi 6 cannot keep up with the increase in traffic, from both human users and IoT applications, without access to new spectrum or better spectrum reuse. And this is where spectrum sharing and densification play a major role.” A Google panelist sought such sharing earlier this week (see 1901150043).

The 6th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals upheld a lower court’s ruling it lacked jurisdiction over Chinese defendant ZTE in a suit brought by NTCH-West Tenn. “This is a case about jurisdiction. It involves unsuccessful and prolonged business ventures, numerous corporate partners and affiliates, and a foreign defendant,” ruled Judge Deborah Cook in the decision filed Wednesday. “The appeal concerns a simple question: Did NTCH-TN establish sufficient facts supporting the exercise of personal jurisdiction over Chinese defendant ZTE Corp.?” The appeals court panel decided it didn’t. The case involved network equipment ZTE sold the wireless carrier through sales-arm ZTE USA. NTCH initially bought the equipment for use by Florida subsidiary PTA-FLA and ran into problems, the panel said. When NTCH exited the Florida market, NTCH decided to install the equipment instead in Tennessee, where it “experienced the same network malfunctions that PTA-FLA had confronted in Florida,” the 6th Circuit held. NTCH-Tenn “proffers insufficient facts to make a prima facie showing” that ZTE’s connections with Tennessee “are substantial enough that it should reasonably have anticipated being hauled into court there,” Cook wrote: NTCH “fails to demonstrate that the district court improperly construed facts in favor of” ZTE. Judges Damon Keith and Joan Larsen were the other members of the 3-0 panel. NTCH didn't comment.

T-Mobile said it's permanently boosting LTE capacity in Atlanta before Super Bowl LIII. “Big crowds need to be able to stream, search, chat and share all they want,” T-Mobile said Tuesday.

Smartphones originated 51 percent of holiday retail traffic, Adobe Analytics reported Tuesday. Some $126 billion was spent online, up 16.5 percent over the year-ago span, with smartphones accounting for 31 percent, up 34 percent. Overall retail grew 4.5 percent. Christmas Day was again the season's most smartphone-centric shopping day. Visits and spending were 6 and 8 percent higher on weekends for mobile users, and the biggest mobile shopping days were Black Friday ($2.2 billion) and Cyber Monday ($2.1 billion). Conversions on smartphones declined 9 percent vs. the first eight months of 2018. Smartphone shoppers bought 30 percent less often than desktop shoppers, costing retailers $15 billion in lost sales.

The 28 GHz auction's bids stood at $696.2 million after six more rounds Tuesday. It closed at $695 million Friday (see 1901110041), the last day of bidding before Monday's snow day. The most recent round saw many spectrum blocks get bids as the number of those held aside has been falling.

The Blackfeet Tribe and other tribal interests asked the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit to schedule oral argument in United Keetoowah Band v. FCC, No. 18-1129, the appeal of the FCC’s March wireless infrastructure order. The issues "are of profound importance, especially to" such "tribal petitioners because the FCC misrepresents its powers to unilaterally decide whether it must comply with federal law,” the tribe said (in Pacer). Petitioners sought separate time at oral argument, as they got court OK to file their own brief.

New Street Research said a review of filings on T-Mobile buying Sprint shouldn’t be “comforting for those who think a decision is near or nearly certain to be favorable.” The ex parte filings provide the best evidence of what is being examined at the FCC, and by extension, DOJ, New Street said. “We have not yet seen any robust filings on conditions, suggesting that as least so far, the policy makers have not signaled to opponents that they are favorably inclined but would like to know what conditions could ameliorate what they regard as minor harms,” the firm emailed investors Sunday. “We also have not seen new filings on the ‘cable-as-competitor argument’ or the argument that Sprint can’t compete in a 5G world. We interpret the absence to suggest those arguments weren’t working so the advocates are not spending time on them.” The companies didn't comment.

T-Mobile and Sprint committed to keeping New York jobs and disputed Communications Workers of America and Public Utility Law Project concerns at the New York Public Service Commission (see 1901040041). "New T-Mobile will maintain the total number of direct employees in New York for at least two years following the Merger," the carriers replied in case 18-C-0396. The new company’s 5G network investment will mean “thousands” of company jobs in New York, they said. Within a year, the new company plans to employ 3,600 more direct U.S. employees than the two companies would have separately, they said. The deal won't harm low-income or minority communities in New York, “core customers for both companies,” the carriers said: They opposed any conditions. CWA and PULP pay "little to no attention" to PSC jurisdiction, limited to the indirect CLEC acquisition of Sprint's wireline business.

The 3rd Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals disagreed with a lower court that last March rejected as untimely a T-Mobile lawsuit against a local zoning board that denied the carrier's wireless antenna application in Wilmington, Delaware (see 1803270047). The appeals court remanded the case Thursday to the U.S. District Court in Wilmington. While disagreeing with T-Mobile that the zoning board’s oral decision qualified as a final action, the court agrees “jurisdiction was proper in the District Court because the timing requirement in the [Telecom Act’s] review provision is non-jurisdictional” and the carrier’s “supplemental complaint therefore relates back and cures the ripeness problem with the initial complaint,” wrote Judge Kent Jordan. “The District Court should thus have reached the merits of the dispute.” Judge Richard Nygaard joined the decision; a third judge, Thomas Vanaskie, retired after argument and conference but before the opinion was issued. Friday, T-Mobile and Wilmington didn’t comment.