The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit will allow other tribes and the National Trust for Historic Preservation to file interventions in United Keetoowah Band v. FCC & USA, No. 18-1129, a case challenging the FCC’s March infrastructure order. Wednesday, the court left in place the revised rules, which took effect last month (see 1808150074). The other parties allowed to file are the Peoria Tribe of Indians of Oklahoma, the Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribes, the Mescalero Apache Tribe, the Apache Tribe of Oklahoma, the Tonkawa Tribe of Oklahoma and the Alabama-Quassarte Tribal Town, said a Thursday order. The D.C. Circuit said a schedule for filing briefs will be established in a future order.

Horizon Hobby agreed to pay a $35,000 fine and implement a compliance plan to end an FCC Enforcement Bureau investigation of whether it sold audio/video transmitters for use with drones that weren't compliant with rules. “Horizon Hobby admits that it marketed AV transmitters that did not comply with the Commission’s equipment marketing rules,” said a consent decree released Thursday. RF devices must “comply with the Commission’s technical requirements and do not interfere with authorized communications,” the bureau said. “Because the noncompliant AV transmitters could operate in bands that are reserved for important operations, including Federal Aviation Administration Terminal Doppler Weather Radar, they must not be marketed or operated by anyone. Moreover, entities that rely on amateur frequencies in operating compliant AV transmitters must have an amateur license and otherwise comply with all applicable laws.” Horizon Hobby operates several websites that advertise and sell fully assembled drones, parts and accessories to hobbyists, including for use in drone racing, the bureau said: the company stopped selling the noncompliant transmitters after receiving a letter of inquiry in December. It didn’t comment.

Verizon will offer YouTube TV and Apple TV 4K in its broadband package in four 5G cities when it launches in the second half of the year. The carrier also said Tuesday that Indianapolis is joining Houston, Los Angeles and Sacramento as the first 5G cities. “YouTube TV will give you more than 60 of your favorite live TV channels and with Apple TV you can select all the movies and TV shows you want from iTunes, Netflix, and Prime Video,” Verizon said.

Laptops and tablets are showing “surprising resilience” despite a 4 percent drop in global shipments year on year, Strategy Analytics reported Wednesday. The 2018 connected computing market installed base is at 1.5 billion units globally, with household penetration at 30 percent, said SA. Consumers are paring down the number of computing devices they own, holding on to them longer and replacing them less regularly, said the researcher. Connected computing device unit sales are projected to grow from 354 million this year to 403 million in 2022, revenue rising from $148 billion to $156 billion. “People use devices based on what makes the most sense at any given time,” said analyst Eric Smith, and while smartphones fill much of that need, laptops and tablets are the “go-to devices for long-form entertainment and work.”

T-Mobile customers can get a free Pandora Plus subscription (a $54.89 value) for a year through a partnership, the music streamer blogged Wednesday, good from 4:59 a.m. EDT Aug. 28 until 4:59 a.m. EDT Aug. 29. Pandora called it "the first step" in news to come from the companies. Pandora Plus is the company's $4.99 monthly mid-tier offering to listen to a curated list of songs according to channel sans commercials, lacking on-demand capability of Pandora's Premium $10-per-month plan. T-Mobile also announced a relationship with Live Nation, giving its customers access to last-minute reserved seats at concerts and discounted tickets.

The Nebraska Court of Appeals dismissed CTIA’s lawsuit against the Nebraska Public Service Commission, as expected (see 1808080022). In an order forwarded to us this week, the court allowed an industry stipulation to resolve the state USF case. The association sued the Nebraska PSC over last year’s order to pursue a connections-based contribution mechanism but was expected to drop its appeal after the PSC revised certain definitions (see 1807250053).

The FCC shouldn’t offer census-tract-sized licenses as part of the licensed tier of the 3.5 GHz citizens broadband radio service band, CTIA said in a meeting with Erin McGrath, aide to Commissioner Mike O’Rielly. “The current licensing scheme for the CBRS, with 74,000 separate license areas based on census tracts and an average population of 4,400 per area, is significantly smaller than the license areas used for comparable spectrum in the rest of the world,” CTIA said in docket 17-258. “Census tract licensing would have significant drawbacks, including that it would create administrative complexity for the Commission, licensees, and Spectrum Access System Administrators; raise significant interference concerns; reduce the value of the spectrum; and raise the cost of designing and deploying networks, thereby harming rural investment.”

Sprint said it's working with LG Electronics USA to deliver the first mobile 5G smartphone in the U.S. in the first half of next year. “Sprint customers will be among the first in the world to experience the incredible speed, reliability and mobility of 5G on this innovative handset built for the country’s first mobile 5G network when it launches,” Sprint said Tuesday.

CTIA said there's “near unanimity among calling parties, service providers and consumers” the FCC should address the Telephone Consumer Protection Act, now that the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit in March overturned key parts of a 2015 order and declaratory ruling (see 1803160053). CTIA reported on meetings with aides to Chairman Ajit Pai, and Commissioners Mike O’Rielly and Jessica Rosenworcel. “The Commission has an opportunity to fix the unworkable TCPA rules that expose good faith callers to unnecessary risk of litigation and inhibit consumers from receiving wanted calls,” the association filed in docket 18-152. CTIA opposed launch of a new database of reassigned phone numbers, which it said "would present significant financial, operational and technical challenges” with “no impact on mitigating illegal, unwanted robocalls."

Sprint said the different approach to siting small cells in Los Angeles illustrate why areas that cooperate with industry will get 5G first. The company earlier “discussed the negative effects of excessively high pole attachment rates and access to municipal rights-of-way, as well as the time-consuming delays wireless carriers face when deploying small cells and densifying their wireless networks,” said a filing in FCC docket 17-79. In the city of Los Angeles, the application process runs about six months, Sprint said. “The total application fee per site is $350,” the carrier said. Los Angeles County’s process is protracted and costly. The entire process, which includes many sequential steps, takes a year or more and imposes application fees of $9,820. Moreover, these fees are only the upfront, one-time costs. The annual recurring fees vary based on who owns the poles.” The carrier has 500 small cells in the city and none in the county's unincorporated portions, the filing said. The county didn’t comment. AT&T drew similar contrasts in a recent filing (see 1808130041).