The FCC is on strong jurisdictional footing in moving forward on wireless infrastructure rules, said Seth Cooper, senior fellow at the Free State Foundation. “The Commission’s reform proposals are based on express statutory authority and backed by the Constitution,” Cooper wrote Tuesday. “Shot clocks, deemed granted remedies, limits on excessive fees, and similar reforms don’t require local governments to directly implement a federal regulatory scheme. ... Court precedents reinforce these conclusions.”

Sprint deployed more outdoor small cells in its most-recent quarter than in the previous two years combined and now has thousands, said Scott Santi, head-network deployment and operations. “With our massive Next-Gen Network investment we’ve significantly ramped up our numbers,” Santi blogged Tuesday. “We also use small cells indoors, from hotels to airports, stadiums to concerts halls and more. We have several types of small cells, including the award-winning Sprint Magic Box." He said "this low cost, self-configuring all-wireless small cell provides indoor coverage averaging up to 30,000 square feet. And it improves data speeds on average” by 200 percent.

The Internet Innovation Alliance urged the FCC to conclude mobile broadband is a fully “functional” substitute for fixed broadband in its next report under a Telecom Act Section 706 mandate. Commissioners voted 3-2 in February to keep a 25/3 Mbps fixed benchmark and concluded mobile isn't a full substitute (see 1802050002). IIA cited a CivicScience survey it commissioned that nearly equal numbers of U.S. consumers preferred mobile broadband to fixed broadband for accessing the internet, and 26 percent favored fixed wireless to 23 percent mobile. Twenty percent had no preference, while 14 percent preferred fiber. Seven percent preferred DSL, 4 percent liked other services, 3 percent cited satellite broadband, and 3 percent prefer dial-up service. CivicScience surveyed at least 10,000 U.S. consumers in June. The results should indicate to the FCC it should “take a fresh look to update, modernize, and acknowledge the essential equivalence of mobile broadband access to fixed access in its approach” to the Section 706 reports, IIA said Tuesday.

Hours before the 3 p.m. EDT start of Amazon Prime Day (see 1807160059), NPD reported that its Checkout receipt-mining service found online consumer tech dollar purchases jumped 16 percent in the 12 months ended May from the same period a year earlier. E-commerce shopping “continues to increase across the consumer electronics landscape,” said NPD Monday. The average spending per purchase declined 7 percent year over year, “indicating that while more purchases are being completed online, these transactions are increasingly from categories that have items with lower average selling prices,” it said. NPD estimates 43 percent of the U.S. adult online-buying population made at least one consumer tech product purchase in the 12 months ended May, an increase of six percentage points from a year earlier, it said. Mobile phone accessories (22 percent) were the most popular items purchased, followed by portable audio (18 percent) and portable chargers (13 percent). “Growing online purchase frequency, especially of lower priced ‘grab and go’ items such as phone cases, screen protectors, portable chargers, and wired headphones, is shifting customer traffic from in-store to online,” said Stephen Baker, NPD vice president-industry adviser. “This shift is why today’s retailers focus on driving consumers into the store for big ticket, highly interactive purchases like TVs, where a benefit can be seen to shopping in a physical store, and allowing the online channel to focus on more transactional consumer interactions.”

Expect smartphone displays to “move rapidly” toward 18:9 and wider aspect ratios in 2018's second half, said IHS Markit Monday. Smartphones using 18:9 and wider aspect screens are forecast to increase to 66 percent of total smartphone shipments in Q3, up from their 10 percent share in the same period last year, said IHS. After Samsung’s release last year of a Galaxy phone with an 18.5:9 aspect ratio and Apple’s debut of an iPhone with a 19.5:9 screen, “most smartphone brands have similarly followed suit by applying wider aspect screens to their 2018 lineup to keep up with product differentiation,” it said. “Improvements in display technologies have hastened the expansion of the wider screen adoption in smartphones.” Initially, flexible OLED had the advantage for fashioning 18:9 or wider screens, but “rapidly improving designs” have allowed LCD to close the gap, it said.

Smith Bagley countered Verizon arguments for the FCC to rethink an April change in the Mobility Fund challenge process rules by the Wireless and Wireline bureaus. The bureaus increased the buffer radius from 250 meters to 400 meters, which Verizon said will mean the challenge process is less effective (see 1806220041). “The Reconsideration Order reflects an understanding of the fact that, if the testing parameters are too rigorous, less challenges will be undertaken because the burdens and costs associated with the data collections will be too great,” said Smith Bagley, an eligible telecom carrier in three Western states, in docket 10-90. “This result must be avoided because it would increase the likelihood that inaccuracies in unsubsidized coverage claims made by incumbent carriers will go undetected, and service areas that should be eligible for MF-II support will in fact be deprived.”

General Motors said it's significantly expanding the number of its vehicles with vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) technology, based on dedicated short-range communications in the 5.9 GHz band. GM, with Toyota the main proponent of DSRC, faced criticism for offering it in only one low-volume vehicle, the Cadillac CRS (see 1803140055). That’s changing, GM told the FCC in docket 13-49. GM said it plans to offer V2V in its Cadillac Crossover by 2023 and then extend it to all of its Cadillac line. “Using V2V, compatible vehicles can be notified of hazardous road conditions, traffic light status, changing work zones and more,” GM said. “With a range of nearly 1,000 feet, drivers can be alerted to threats in time to avoid a crash.” The FCC is examining possible changes to its allocation in the band with an eye to sharing with Wi-Fi (see 1805240058).

Sony’s Tokyo parent company applied July 9 to register the “QN” plain-text trademark for a wide variety of possible commercial tech products, including TVs, speakers, headphones and smartwatches, Patent and Trademark Office records show. Sony already has “QN” in commercial use as part of a model-number designation for consumer accessories, including AC chargers and lithium-ion battery packs for smartphones. Sony didn’t comment Friday.

The order streamlining Part 22 rules governing cellular service licensees approved at Thursday's FCC commissioners' meeting (see 1807120033) was released Friday (see here).

The Wi-Fi Alliance isn’t enthusiastic about the 4.9 GHz band now dedicated to public safety, the group said in a filing on FCC meetings in docket 17-183. “The limited bandwidth and in-band and adjacent band incumbent operations at 4.9 GHz appear to preclude the suitability of this band as a candidate for Wi-Fi operations.” The alliance encouraged prompt action on Wi-Fi in the 5.9 GHz band. “The Wi-Fi industry is eager to maximize the use of this valuable spectrum resource following the resolution of the current regulatory uncertainty,” the group said. The alliance also welcomed an FCC focus on the 6 GHz band, as promised by Chairman Ajit Pai (see 1806200058). “Dramatic increase in use of Wi-Fi without a meaningful increase in the midband spectrum available for Wi-Fi access has resulted in spectrum congestion that Wi-Fi Alliance only expects to worsen over time.” Alliance CEO Edgar Figueroa and others from the group met with Commissioners Mike O’Rielly and Jessica Rosenworcel, aides to the other commissioners and Julius Knapp, chief of the Office of Engineering and Technology.