The FCC Wireline Bureau extended for six months a waiver allowing porting of numbers outside of local access and transport area boundaries in the U.S. Virgin Islands. The carrier sought extension to continue to serve some 7,000 wireless customers by routing their calls outside the island after last year’s storm (see 1806200060). It's “in the public interest to extend the waiver,” the bureau said in docket 95-116. “We exhort Sprint to expeditiously resolve this issue.”
Wi-Charge is pushing infrared for wireless charging and hopes to see products from third-party companies in the market next year, Chief Marketing Officer Yuval Boger told us in New York Thursday. Apple’s inclusion of Qi in the Apple 8 and X smartphones was seen as a tipping point for wireless charging (see 1804090021). Boger called Qi an “interim solution” because of placement limitations and AC-charging requirements. Wi-Charge can charge up to 15 feet, with no AC power required in receivers, Boger said. Initially, Wi-Charge is targeting smart home applications and tablets used in airport restaurants and other public spaces, Boger said, but smartphones are the “holy grail” for wireless charging at a distance. The FCC imposes safety limits on how much RF or ultrasound energy is allowed, but infrared, because it’s light-based, is classified as a Class 1 laser product under Food and Drug Administration regulations. The FDA has categorized Class 1 devices as safe under all conditions of normal use, the executive said, comparing a Wi-Charge transmitter to a laser mouse.
AT&T officials laid out the carrier’s position on the need for revised wireless siting rules in meetings with FCC staff. Among the topics was “the FCC’s authority under Section 253 of the Communications Act to require cost-based fees and adopt safe harbor fees for access to the rights-of-way and municipal right-of-way infrastructure,” AT&T said Thursday in docket 17-79. “We commend the FCC for confronting these issues and encourage it to continue positioning the United States to be the leader in the race to 5G.”
5G networks will play a “paramount role” in autonomous vehicle connectivity, and by 2025, the vehicles will upload more than 1 TB of vehicle and sensor data a month to the cloud, an increase from the 30 gigabytes uploaded currently from “advanced connected cars,” said Gartner. With 5G networks' extra efficiency, communications service providers can use that to seize “future opportunities” with manufacturers of self-driving vehicles “in the fields of driver safety and data processing and management,” it said Thursday.
Verizon asked the FCC to revoke an April change in the Mobility Fund challenge process rules by the Wireless and Wireline bureaus (see 1805020064). The bureaus increased the buffer radius from 250 meters to 400 meters, Verizon said. The revised radius “will allow challengers to successfully challenge a one square kilometer area with as few as two speed test points,” Verizon said in docket 10-208. The company said the revised challenge process could “result in widespread false positives, i.e., presumptively successful challenges of large areas that are in fact well-served by 4G LTE, particularly if providers cherry-pick test points with an aim of minimizing actual coverage.”
LTE is becoming the most used wireless cellular technology, with 38.5 percent share in Q1, 5G Americas said Friday. North America leads the world with 76 percent of connections LTE, the group said. “Latin America and the Caribbean had significant growth of LTE market share to 31.5 percent at the end of 1Q,” 5G Americas said. “5G is on the horizon and will be built upon the most solid of foundations -- LTE,” said President Chris Pearson. “We are already hearing news of planned 5G deployments beginning later in 2018 and early 2019, however, LTE will continue to grow until 2022, when we will begin to see some substantial uptake in 5G connections.”
AT&T said Thursday that more than 1,000 public safety agencies in 52 states and territories have signed on to FirstNet, “nearly doubling the network’s adoption since April.” Among them are 11 state patrol agencies, AT&T said.
Nearly two-thirds of teens say they wish they could “self-limit” the time they spend on their smartphones, reported the Screen Education advocacy group Thursday. Screen Education, which bills itself as “dedicated to mitigating the negative consequences of screen addiction,” canvassed just over 1,000 teens online in April and found 68 percent said they attempted to reduce smartphone use, and 37 percent said they tried to persuade a friend to do so.
The FCC Enforcement Bureau established a pleading cycle Thursday on a complaint by Paperkidd Productions & Publishing and Jarrell Curne alleging Verizon Wireless’s offerings of phone service violate “the Communications Act’s prohibition against unjust and unreasonable discrimination.” A June complaint said Verizon “violated Sections 201(b), 202, 205, 206, 207, 215, 217, and 218 of the Act, by failing to furnish communication services upon reasonable request.” The complaint seeks damages totaling $101.5 million. The bureau instructed Verizon to file its request for interrogatories and “serve an answer to the complaint that complies with this Notice of Formal Complaint” by July 18. The pleading cycle wraps up Aug. 8. The docket is 18-140. Verizon didn't comment.
The growing aftermarket in advanced driver-assistance systems (ADAS) is grappling with integrating advanced functions from smartphones and other electronics, a Society of Automotive Engineering panel at CE Week was told Wednesday. Ted Cardenas, marketing vice president for Pioneer’s car electronics division, said the dashboard has evolved and most new cars with integrated systems make it more challenging to integrate advanced functionality. With the smartphone evolving “about every four months,” Cardenas said Pioneer is focusing on developing an interface that can tie technologies together in the vehicle, “and it might not even be a smartphone.” John Waraniak, Specialty Equipment Market Association vice president-vehicle technology, predicted more personalization is coming for cars and their occupants.