The global smartphone applications processor (AP) market declined 5 percent in 2017 to $20.2 billion, Strategy Analytics reported. The top five companies in revenue were Qualcomm, Apple, MediaTek, Samsung LSI and HiSilicon, it said, with Qualcomm gaining share to finish the year at 42 percent revenue share. Apple had 22 percent and MediaTek 15 percent. The research firm estimated 64-bit smartphone AP shipments grew 15 percent, to 88 percent of total smartphone AP shipments, up from 71 percent in 2016. Analyst Sravan Kundojjala called 2017 a “very challenging year for low-cost and high volume players MediaTek and Spreadtrum,” which had sharp shipment declines due to slow road map progress and a steep decline in 3G AP demand. Qualcomm flagship and mid-range APs gained “strong acceptance” in 2017, said SA.

Exploiting the unique “form factor” with flexible OLEDs in smartphones or tablets, such as with devices with foldable screens, would be the “most important” way to boost the current low factory “utilization” and poor production yields for those displays, said Display Supply Chain Consultants CEO Ross Young on a Tuesday webinar. “The flexible nature of these products adds some functionality, or a cool factor,” to justify their premium positioning, said Young. Price is the “biggest impediment” to the adoption of flexible OLED displays, he said. Flexible OLEDs cost four times as much as LCD displays fashioned from low-temperature polycrystalline silicon, said Young. “It’s very risky for smartphone brands to adopt these high-priced components.” “Foldable” smartphones or tablets would be the ultimate differentiator, he said. “If you could fold your tablet, and have it serve as your phone, you could see display sizes growing to seven inches or eight inches, or even nine inches.” Despite the “many challenges,” he said that “it appears that production is going to start in small quantities by the end of this year."

Ericsson forecast 20 percent of global mobile data traffic will be on 5G networks in 2023, with 3.5 billion IoT cellular connections then. The first commercial deployments of 5G are likely this year, with 50 percent of U.S. mobile subscriptions expected to be on the standard in five years, the company said Tuesday. “The forecast for cellular IoT connections has nearly doubled since November,” Ericsson said. “New massive IoT cellular technologies … are fueling this growth.”

Somos, the toll-free numbering administrator, said the FCC got things right in a declaratory ruling and Further NPRM on toll-free texting. The agency released the ruling Tuesday. The FCC “took a big step today to ensure the integrity of Toll-Free and protect consumers from fraud,” said a Somos news release. “Consumers want to communicate more and more via messaging. Businesses want consumers to have confidence that, when they text a business’s Toll-Free Number, that the text is delivered to the intended recipient. The FCC’s action is the first step toward a vibrant, efficient, and trustworthy texting-to-Toll-Free system.”

The FCC shouldn’t rush a requirement that carriers be able to include multimedia in wireless emergency alerts, CTIA and T-Mobile said in replies on a Public Safety Bureau record refresh (see 1805290059 and 1805300010). “The record suggests that alert originators are not consistently or widely using embedded references to expand the capabilities of WEA to support multimedia content within the intended design and purpose of WEA,” CTIA said in docket 15-91. “The record demonstrates the significant technical and operational challenges of directly supporting multimedia content within WEA messages that would require fundamentally restructuring the WEA system.” Though other WEA features “may ultimately prove beneficial and viable, further study is required to evaluate the impact of such changes to the existing WEA infrastructure and ensure that good intentions do not jeopardize the stability of this valuable alerting tool,” T-Mobile said.

Metro Two-Way failed to appear at a prehearing conference on a proceeding to decide whether the company is qualified to remain a licensee (see 1805040009), said a ruling by FCC Chief Administrative Law Judge Richard Sippel. As a result, all of Two-Way’s licenses were revoked, Sippel said.

Verified first responders may individually subscribe to FirstNet at more than 5,300 AT&T stores nationwide and online, the company announced Monday. Some agencies don’t provide wireless plans and devices to personnel, so this lets responders sign up under a personal account, the carrier said.

The Public Safety Bureau approved limited waiver of FCC emergency alert system and wireless emergency alert rules to let carriers to participate in a test by the Missouri State Highway Patrol. MSHP's exercise will be a “combined live EAS and end-to-end WEA test” on July 17, with a backup date of July 19, the bureau said. A May letter said “the record of success of previous WEA alerts sent by the state has been sufficiently inconsistent that MSHP believes that, given recent events across the nation, ‘it is imperative the MSHP test its ability to send WEA alerts … and expose the public to the type of messages they may receive during times of crisis,’” the order said. “We are persuaded by the MSHP Letter that the proposed test of the EAS and WEA will help educate the public, and ensure that MSHP personnel are sufficiently well trained in how to use the EAS and WEA.”

The FCC Wireless Bureau approved a request by AT&T for waiver to meet population-based, rather than geographic-based, construction benchmarks for a lower 700 MHz B block license serving the Bethel, Alaska, market. The Rural Wireless Association raised objections, and renewed them Monday. “As the Commission has previously stated, 'Alaska is indeed unique among other markets in the 700 MHz band,’” said Monday's order. “Challenges of bringing widespread service to Alaska are not present in any other state to the same degree.”

The National Weather Service said it reviewed the comments on a record refresh on multimedia enhancements to wireless emergency alerts and agrees with those who want requirements. The FCC received comments in May, including from the NWS, on whether to mandate including multimedia content in alerts (see 1805290059 and 1805300010). The NWS “agrees with the numerous public safety organizations that support the incorporation of multimedia to improve the life-saving capability of WEA,” the service replied Monday in docket 15-91. “Information graphics, inundation maps, video, American Sign Language and other forms of multimedia can cut across traditional language barriers and help guide people out of harm’s way.”