Chief Technology Officer Neville Ray and others from T-Mobile and Sprint met with FCC officials examining the companies’ proposed deal. The topic was the network engineering model for the combined company, said a filing in docket 18-197. “T-Mobile and Sprint described how the combined company would be uniquely positioned with complementary spectrum assets in the low, mid, and high bands to drive a robust, nationwide 5G network to the benefit of consumers,” the Thursday filing said. “The transaction would allow for a multiplicative effect for capacity due to the increase in number of cell sites, amount of spectrum available per cell site, and increases in spectral efficiency.” The companies said the model is “built upon T-Mobile’s ordinary course practices and models standalone T-Mobile, standalone Sprint, and New T-Mobile for both LTE and 5G.” The filing includes slides. The District of Columbia approved the deal last week (see 1810120021).

Dialog Semiconductor is licensing its power management integrated circuits to Apple, with a $300 million prepayment for product purchases over three years and as much also in cash. Apple will employ more than 300 Dialog engineers for R&D and award the semiconductor company a “broad range” of new contracts. The transition is expected to foster "deeper collaboration," Dialog said Thursday. The chipmaker plans to accelerate its transition to provide “differentiated custom and configurable mixed-signal ICs across a broader customer base” in IoT, mobile, automotive and computing & storage markets. Dialog is the manufacturer for wireless charging company Energous. Its CEO Steve Rizzone told us Thursday he expects that arrangement to continue and the new pact is a “win-win” for both companies. Dialog closed up 32 percent at $24.60 on U.S. over-the-counter markets, where it's usually thinly traded.

Echodyne asked the FCC for waiver so it can offer a device that makes ground-based use of the 24.45-24.65 GHz aeronautical radio navigation band. Echodyne originally intended to offer equipment that would operate as an airborne detect-and-avoid radar, consistent with the rules for the band. But industry and government customers want to use the band for ground-based security and surveillance (SSR), Echodyne said in docket 17-352. “This interest has been so strong that Echodyne has created a version of the radar optimized for ground-based use, the EchoGuard,” the company said. “This ground-based SSR radar can scan for drones in the air and vehicles and people on the ground.” This detect-and-alert role for the band “is complementary to the existing service allocation in the band and will not interfere with Echodyne’s use of the band for radionavigation,” the company said.

Competitive carrier Smith Bagley Inc. asked the FCC to investigate data Verizon submitted for the FCC’s move to decide which parts of the U.S. are eligible for support under the Mobility Fund II program. “SBI would not be making this request if Verizon’s data had any colorable claim of accuracy, but the fact is that Verizon’s data submission glaringly, systematically, and implausibly overstates the extent to which Verizon is currently delivering 5 Mbps 4G LTE broadband in SBI’s Tribal and rural service areas,” SBI said, posted Thursday in docket 10-90. It said Verizon’s data raises concerns about the challenge process for truly unserved areas. Verizon didn't comment.

The annual global economic value of Wi-Fi is $1.96 trillion, with projections it will pass $3.47 trillion by 2023, a report commissioned by the Wi-Fi Alliance found, the group said Tuesday. In the U.S., Wi-Fi contributes $499 billion, to climb to $993 billion by 2023, it said.

Ericsson CEO Borje Ekholm, Ericsson North America CEO Niklas Heuveldop and other top executives met last week with FCC Chairman Ajit Pai to express support for many of his policies. “Given the need for hundreds of thousands of new base stations expected in the U.S., reducing the time involved in tower siting is critical for maintaining the lead in 5G,” said a filing posted Wednesday in docket 14-177. The company said an order scuttling 2015 net neutrality rules “clears away a cloud of uncertainty over network slicing, a key component of 5G.”

The Rural Wireless Association supports the FCC draft order on the 3.5 GHz citizens broadband radio service band "that would employ county-based license sizes for PALs in the 3.5 GHz CBRS auction, and believes that the use of county-based license sizes will allow rural providers to participate in the 3.5 GHz auction for Priority Access Licenses,” RWA said Tuesday in docket 17-258. “The choice of counties plus the inclusion of a 15 percent rural service provider bidding credit acknowledges the needs and realities of wireless broadband customers in rural America and will ensure that PALs remain affordable and accessible to the small, rural providers.”

Headed into the World Radiocommunication Conference next year, the U.S. needs support of nations in its region, FCC Chairman Ajit Pai told the International Institute of Communications in Mexico City Wednesday. “On some issues, like spectrum, we simply cannot go it alone,” Pai said. “The Americas region continues to steadily advance regional proposals for the WRC-19. We are also deeply focused on the upcoming ITU Plenipotentiary Conference. We will need to work together to set the course for the future work of the ITU.” Pai highlighted FCC work he said is cutting unnecessary regulation and making spectrum available for 5G. On infrastructure, the FCC’s goal is simple, Pai said: “We will not let today’s red tape strangle the 5G future. That’s why the FCC has reformed its wireless infrastructure rules, and why we’ll keep doing so.”

The FCC Wednesday released the names of companies that filed applications to bid in the agency’s first high-band auctions. Among those with applications to bid in the 28 GHz auction, which will occur first, are AT&T Spectrum Frontiers, Verizon, T-Mobile, U.S. Cellular, Frontier Communications and Windstream. AT&T, Verizon Wireless, Cox, Starry Spectrum Holdings, T-Mobile, U.S. Cellular and Windstream headline those with applications to bid in the 24 GHz auction, which will follow.

The NFC Forum announced Tuesday publication of four adopted specifications. Connection Handover Technical Specification 1.4 lets users define additional specific services when two devices are paired using other wireless communications technologies including Bluetooth or WLAN by a tap of an NFC-enabled device while the Personal Health Device Communication spec 1.2 defines the exchange of ISO/IEEE 11073 messages used for personal healthcare devices, it said. Updates were made to NFC Digital Protocol spec 2.1 and NFC Controller Interface spec 2.1, it said.