Bid commitments in the 28 GHz band auction reached $695 million Friday, up from $694.1 million Thursday, with provisionally winning bids on 2,934 of 3,072 licenses, FCC results show. There were just two small new bids in Friday's final round. The FCC plans to transition to stage 3 Monday, requiring a bidder to "be active on 100% of its current bidding eligibility in each round."

ABI Research forecasts the global smartphone market will rise 4.1 percent to just under 1.6 billion shipments in 2019, with 5G and flexible displays the “catalysts” that will “galvanize” the industry and drive replacement-device growth. For 5G to become the “silver bullet” that smartphone vendors are pinning their hopes on will require that they adopt new consumer messaging strategies, it said Wednesday.

Local governments rejected FCC and CTIA opposition to their request to stay the agency’s September wireless infrastructure order that partly takes effect Monday. In a Tuesday reply (in Pacer) at the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, Seattle and other cities disagreed they didn’t meet legal burdens of showing irreparable harm or a likelihood of success (see 1901020039). “Although Respondents argue that little significant will occur, that contention is belied by their argument that the Order provides ‘immediate regulatory relief,’" the cities said. Harms to local governments are real and imminent, the cities said. Shot clocks require local governments to respond within 60 days to requests for access to government-owned property, then allow applicants to challenge any action or inaction within 30 days, meaning “there is not merely a likelihood but a certainty that litigation will result,” they said. Significant cost associated with local governments complying with the order will be “irreparable injury,” but a stay’s harm to industry won’t be that much, cities said. Opponents failed to rebut the “central point” that the order “conflates" Communications Act section 253(a) and (c) "by finding that fees that exceed costs are prohibitory and the only fair and reasonable fees are those limited to costs,” the localities said. “If Congress intended to preserve fair and reasonable compensation from preemption even when it effectively prohibited an entity’s ability to provide service, then it cannot be true that fair and reasonable compensation is limited to only that which is not prohibitory. … The notion that Section 253 permits the FCC to accomplish via preemption what it cannot do via regulation simply underscores that the agency’s view of 'preemption' is untethered from Constitutional bounds.”

Bid commitments ticked up to $692.2 million in the 28 GHz band auction Tuesday, with 2,939 of 3,072 licenses now having provisionally winning bids, FCC results show. Bids were at $690.7 million and PWBs at 2,938 Monday. Six more rounds are scheduled for Wednesday.

Telcos selling location data of Americans is “a nightmare for national security,” Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., tweeted Tuesday. He responded to a report claiming AT&T, T-Mobile and Sprint sold customers' real-time location data, which ended up in bounty hunters’ possession. Wyden cited T-Mobile CEO John Legere for allegedly telling the lawmaker “his company would stop selling customer location data to shady third parties.” FCC Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel urged an immediate investigation. “We only permit sharing of location when a customer gives permission for cases like fraud prevention or emergency roadside assistance, or when required by law,” an AT&T spokesperson said. “Over the past few months, as we committed to do, we have been shutting down everything else. We have shut down access for Microbilt as we investigate these allegations.” T-Mobile and Sprint didn't comment.

MQA added partners for its Master Quality Authenticated codec, it announced Monday. At CES, MQA will demonstrate a “proof of concept” with BlackBerry in an electric vehicle, said MQA CEO Mike Jbara. Tidal Masters is now available on all Android smartphones, having previously been available only to LG and Essential smartphone owners. The latest version of the USB Audio Player Pro app has an MQA decoder for Android smartphones available via an in-app purchase.

A startup seeks waiver of FCC rules on industrial, scientific and medical equipment to market a system for transmitting wireless power over distance. The system operates in the 24 GHz ISM band, “which enables it to achieve greater power transfer efficiency at longer distances,” Auspion filed, posted Thursday. It seeks waiver from Part 18 rules that say for a technology to be designed as ISM, it “must be designed to ‘generate and use locally’ RF energy … [and] the Auspion system does not satisfy the definition of ISM equipment.”

Sprint will debut a Samsung 5G smartphone this summer, said the carrier Monday. The phone will feature LTE/5G “dual-mode connectivity” in Sprint’s 2.5 GHz spectrum, it said. It also will support Sprint’s 1.9 GHz spectrum (band 25), 800 MHz spectrum (band 26) and other LTE spectrum bands for roaming, it said. Samsung didn’t comment. Sprint plans to launch its mobile 5G network in nine U.S. markets in 2019's first half. Sprint previously said it’s working with LG to deliver a 5G smartphone in the U.S. (see 1808140023).

California Governor's Office of Emergency Services renewed an FCC waiver request to test the wireless emergency alert system to transmit early earthquake warnings, after canceling a December test to focus on responding to wildfires (see 1811300008). The test is now planned for Feb. 6, between 11 a.m. and noon PST, in Oakland, in partnership with the U.S. Geological survey, said a Cal OES letter posted Thursday in docket 15-91: The test will assess the feasibility of "transmitting a ShakeAlert through the Integrated Public Alert and Warning System (IPAWS) WEA system to warn the public of imminent ground motion during an earthquake." If Feb. 6 isn't available, Feb. 13 at the same time would be a backup, the office said. Aliso Viejo and Laguna Beach, California, sought FCC waivers to allow commercial mobile service providers to participate in WEA tests on Feb. 6 at 3 p.m. PST. The tests are to ensure local officials understand how alerts will perform in their cities, which face natural hazards, including wildfires, said their requests (here and here).

The four major wireless carriers continue to invest in their networks, but the outlook for tower companies remains mixed, Macquarie’s Amy Yong wrote investors. “Verizon and AT&T have sent mixed signals to towers” with Verizon cutting capital expenditures twice in 2018 and AT&T signing a deal with Tillman, a competitor to the major players, she said Friday. “Both are focused on efficiencies and are allocating investments outside of macro-sites. However, capex is likely to stay steady to meet network demands.” Verizon is expected to spend $16 billion on capital expenditures and AT&T $23 billion in 2019, she said. “On the flip side, T-Mobile and Sprint remain in investment mode with T-Mobile likely to hit the high-end” of their $4.9 billion-$5.3 billion capex range and Sprint likely to spend $5 billion-$5.5 billion, she said. “T-Mobile is actively building out 600 MHz, while Sprint is investing across the board in macro-sites, 2.5 GHz build-out, and densification through small cells.”