The Wireless Broadband Alliance supported deployment of Wi-Fi location-based services (LBS) Wednesday. A WBA paper said Wi-Fi LBS opens up a wider range of possibilities for location-based services and analytics in areas like emergency services, entertainment and retail. LBS also provides an opportunity for service providers and others in the industry to innovate and create a competitive advantage, WBA said. The WBA report “clearly indicated that LBS over Wi-Fi is seen by service providers as one of their most important monetisation strategies,” CEO Shrikant Shenwai said in the news release. “This is a further illustration of how Wi-Fi is continuing to evolve beyond connectivity, to enable a wide range of value-added services.”

FCC net neutrality rules pose a potential threat to LTE broadcast, which lets wireless carriers multicast over their networks, said Daniel Lyons, a visiting fellow with the American Enterprise Institute’s Center for Internet, Communications and Technology Policy, in a blog post Wednesday. The traditional way carriers transmit video, as an individual copy of requested content to each consuming device, “makes little sense when multiple people are consuming the same content at the same time, as many do during the Super Bowl or other live sporting events,” Lyons said. LTE broadcast uses a portion of the network to transmit one copy of the content to multiple devices. The net neutrality order doesn’t directly address LTE broadcast, Lyons said. But it could potentially violate the order’s paid prioritization ban, he said. “Because carriers must reserve a portion of cell capacity to engage in LTE broadcasting, a creative lawyer might argue that LTE broadcast allows a carrier to use ‘resource reservation’ to ‘directly or indirectly favor some traffic over other traffic’ in violation of the Commission’s prohibition, if done ‘in exchange for consideration’ or ‘to benefit an affiliated entity,’” he said. LTE broadcast would also be a strong candidate for a waiver of the ban, as allowed by the order, Lyons said. “It is also possible that the FCC would consider LTE broadcast a non-BIAS [broadband Internet access] service that is exempt from the Open Internet rules, like the cable company’s facilities-based VoIP service or IP television,” he said. “One can describe LTE broadcast as an ‘application-level’ service that shares capacity with the carrier’s broadband service but does not itself offer access to large portions of the Internet.”

Comments are due May 11, replies May 26, on a Feb. 9 NPRM on how the FCC can promote efficiency and flexibility in 800 MHz mid-band spectrum. The deadlines came after the NPRM was published in Wednesday's Federal Register. “The Commission seeks comment on whether to create new, full-power 12.5 kilohertz interstitial channels in the 800 MHz Mid-Band,” the notice said. “The Commission also seeks comment on appropriate interference protection criteria for interstitial channels, including a proposal from the Land Mobile Communications Council (LMCC) to amend the rules to adopt new ‘Interstitial 800 MHz Coordination Procedures.’”

Consumers Union is asking the FCC to stop telemarketers from finding loopholes in the Telephone Consumer Protection Act and using robocalls to cellphones, said a CU news release Wednesday. CU said it added to the series of petitions submitted to the FCC in support of the act by delivering about 130,000 petition signatures to the agency Wednesday. Some telemarketing and financial service companies are lobbying the FCC to allow “wrong party” robocalls to cellphones, which would subject consumers to intrusive calls if the company obtains a number previously owned by someone else, or if a debt collector associates a number with the wrong person, CU said. It's working to pressure phone companies to offer free, effective call blocking tools to stop unwanted and illegal robocalls.

Participation in Virgin Mobile's broadband Lifeline pilot project was “considerably less” than the company had planned, with only hundreds of customers in any given month instead of the 2,500 anticipated, the company said in a letter to the FCC posted Wednesday in docket 11-42. Requiring a contribution, either upfront or in the form of a monthly recurring charge, even if relatively small, “is a significant barrier to participation,” said the company. “Any broadband Lifeline program should be designed with the extremely cash-constrained consumer in mind.” About 70 percent of Virgin Mobile’s Assurance Wireless Lifeline subscribers report having no access to the Internet at home or elsewhere, and “may not have hardware available to access the internet using broadband service,” the company said. The pilot was part of the agency’s Lifeline broadband pilot program to collect data on how the Lifeline program can be structured to increase broadband adoption among low-income Americans. Virgin Mobile said it offered four options to 104,000 Massachusetts customers and 150,000 Ohio customers. The company said it offered the choice of an initial device fee of $10 or $50, and an activation fee of either $20 upfront with no recurring monthly fees or no upfront charge with a $20 monthly fee.

The FirstNet board met Wednesday but decided not to release an expected draft request for proposal. FirstNet acting General Manager TJ Kennedy told reporters the board continues to make progress toward the launch of the network and said meetings the board held Tuesday and Wednesday were productive. There are a few parts of RFP where FirstNet’s Finance Committee wanted additional detail from staff, Kennedy said. “We’ll be doing that over the next several weeks,” he said. The RFP will be released “hopefully not too long from now,” he said. FirstNet officials wouldn't say what concerns the Finance Committee had with the RFP that delayed its release. Other FirstNet committees have signed off on the RFP.

Sengled announced the Boost LED bulb with a built-in Wi-Fi signal repeater and two antennas that can extend connectivity throughout a household. It's designed to address decreasing Wi-Fi signal performance that occurs the farther a Wi-Fi device is located from a transmitter, said Robin Foreman, Sengled North America vice president-marketing and business development. Problems occur when users connect smartphones, tablets, gaming consoles or home automation devices, “since the signal may be obstructed by walls or objects or the device may be too far away to get a strong signal,” said Foreman. The smart bulb can be controlled from a free app via smartphone or tablet that lets users configure the Wi-Fi signal and control light levels, said the company.

Verizon will test and deploy Ciena’s metro-optimized 6,500 packet optical technology and the Cisco Network Convergence System on portions of its next-generation 100G metro network this year, said Verizon in a news release Tuesday. Verizon plans to turn up live traffic in 2016. The move will deliver improved scalability, functionality and efficiency and give customers high-capacity video and wireless solutions, Verizon said.

Verizon seems like a likely buyer of Sprint spectrum if that carrier puts some of its extensive holdings for sale on the secondary market, BTIG analyst Walter Piecyk said Tuesday in a blog post. Piecyk said Verizon needs spectrum and may be able to buy it from Dish Network and Sprint, while still participating in the TV incentive auction. “Sprint could sell at least 60 MHz of spectrum to all three existing wireless operators and not violate the existing spectrum screen,” he wrote. “It’s not clear how much spectrum Sprint would be willing to sell but we believe that existing wireless operators would likely be interested in a minimum of a 20 MHz and unlikely more than 40 MHz.” Piecyk said AWS-3 spectrum isn't included in the screen until the spectrum is within three years of being cleared. Verizon has more than 40 percent of U.S. postpaid customers with roughly 18 percent of available spectrum “and the data usage of its existing customers continues to rise,” Piecyk wrote. “Sprint has more spectrum than any operator resulting from its effective foreclosure on the 2.5 GHz spectrum band, which is quickly becoming the go to capacity source for operators around the world.”

The Rural Wireless Association will participate in CTIA’s Super Mobility 2015 conference in September, RWA said in a news release Tuesday. The conference is CTIA’s remaining big annual meeting. “The strategic partnership underscores the importance of urban and rural carriers working together to meet consumer demand for mobile technology, according to the leadership of both associations,” RWA said. RWA said it will host a Rural Wireless Summit Sept. 9-11, kicking off with a reception in the Rural Wireless Pavilion and Lounge on the trade show floor.