Sprint expanded its wireless coverage and capacity footprint to enhance the availability of communications during emergency weather events. The better wireless coverage footprint and overlap will compensate if a cell site is affected by a natural disaster, Sprint said Monday in a news release (http://bit.ly/1nYeUD2). It also plans to provide enhanced wireless data and voice capacity “due to modernized network hardware and software,” and a “reduction of blocked voice calls during mass calling events,” it said. If a hurricane or tropical storm threatens the operation of Sprint’s network, the company’s network disaster recovery unit and emergency response team will implement a standard emergency response about 24-72 hours before the storm’s predicted to make landfall, it said. Sprint said it has thousands of permanent generators installed at all of its wireless and wireline switches, about 250 additional cell sites and cell sites that serve Atlantic coastal communities and the Gulf Coast states. C Spire, meanwhile, said it’s waiving its activation fee and up to $4.50 in monthly service fees for Wireless Priority Service (WPS) use on its network for qualifying emergency response agencies. WPS provides emergency response agencies with a higher priority connection during a crisis or natural disaster. Agencies use WPS authorized cellphones by dialing *272 before the destination phone number, C Spire said. WPS charges typically include a $10-per-line activation fee, which will be waived for approved emergency responders, along with up to $4.50 in service fees. All users will still be charged $0.75 per minute for all WPS calls, C Spire said (http://bit.ly/1pMPMP8). C Spire noted the waiver as part of its preparations for the 2014 Atlantic hurricane season, which officially began Sunday. C Spire also said its category-5 hurricane-ready “super switches” in Mobile, Alabama, and Hattiesburg, Mississippi, will continue to provide additional protection to its network along the Gulf Coast (http://bit.ly/1rDO1sl).

Comments are due July 14, replies Aug.2, on a further NPRM on proposed rules for a new Citizens Broadband Radio Service in the 3550-3650 MHz band (http://bit.ly/1kjnjRG), the agency said Monday. The FCC approved the notice at its April 23 meeting (CD April 24 p4).

The FCC set comment deadlines on proposed competitive bidding procedures for the AWS-3 auction, scheduled to start Nov. 13. The comment dates were published Monday in the Federal Register (http://1.usa.gov/1mK5nNa). Comments are due June 9, replies June 23. The FCC approved service rules for a 65 MHz AWS-3 auction on March 31 (CD April 1 p1), setting the stage for the agency’s first major spectrum sale since 2008.

After years of trying, AT&T has caught up with Verizon Wireless and both now each have about 34 percent of the U.S. wireless market, said Chetan Sharma Consulting in a report released this weekend. Verizon had been on top since it bought Alltel in 2008/2009, but AT&T was able to catch up with its recent acquisition of Leap, the report said (http://bit.ly/1m2gwr7). It said T-Mobile “continued to impress” with a 66 percent share of all U.S. carrier Q1 net adds. U.S. mobile data service revenue was also up sharply in Q1, with carriers seeing a collective $25.9 billion, up 23 percent from the year-ago period and four percent from the previous quarter, the firm said. It predicted the U.S. this year will be the first nation to cross the $100 billion mark in mobile data services revenue.

The Standing Rock Sioux Tribe asked FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler to consider setting aside TV spectrum in Indian Country for tribes to use. Rules for the incentive TV auction are “great for small carriers,” but the FCC could do even more good by designating some of the 600 MHz spectrum for the use of the tribes, wrote Dave Archambault, chairman of the Fort Yates, North Dakota-based tribe (http://bit.ly/1jBoMNn). “Best evidence” suggests that broadband deployment in tribal areas is under 20 percent, he said, and the 600 MHz spectrum is ideal for “comprehensive wireless service.”

At least one “brave” wireless carrier is on its own volition deactivating cellphones found in a prison, CellAntenna attorney Marjorie Conner said in a call with an official from the FCC Wireless Bureau, said an ex parte filing posted Friday. Conner said other carriers are unwilling to take that step. The meeting was in part to update the FCC on CellAntenna meetings with carriers, and much of the information in the filing was redacted (http://bit.ly/1kdLrUo). Conner did not reveal the identity of the carrier that’s deactivating phones. “Each carrier has responded differently to CellAntenna’s entreaties to cooperate,” said the filing in docket 13-111. CellAntenna’s product line includes devices designed to help prison officials detect contraband cellphones (http://bit.ly/1hjH3Eo). Last year, the FCC released an NPRM asking a battery of questions about combating contraband cellphones in correctional facilities (CD May 1/13 p1).

CTIA asked the FCC to delay by 30 days the June 11 deadline for reply comments on proposed changes to the commission’s wireless location accuracy rules. Under rules proposed in February (CD Feb 21 p1) carriers for the first time would have to meet standards for wireless calls made indoors. In initial comments, carriers asked the FCC to wait for voluntary agreements rather than impose new rules (CD May 14 p10). CTIA noted that more than 300 commenters filed in the initial round. “More than 40 of these comments were substantive in nature and many raised complex issues regarding the technical feasibility of the rules and discussed various location technologies,” CTIA said in a filing posted by the FCC Friday in docket 07-114 (http://bit.ly/1kdE8MH). Providing additional time would give everyone a chance to “evaluate the record regarding various technologies and the proposed rules and to prepare submissions enabling the Commission to make a decision based on a fully developed record,” CTIA said.

The National Public Safety Telecommunications Council petitioned the FCC for a modification of Part 90 rules to enable railroad police to use frequencies reserved for public safety interoperability. NPSTC reminded the FCC that eligibility already extends beyond law enforcement, fire and emergency medical operations to include school buses, beach patrols and others. “Railroad Police have an increasing need for effective and expeditious communications interoperability with members of local and state law enforcement, fire and emergency medical organizations who do meet the Commission’s eligibility requirements,” NPSTC said (http://bit.ly/1rpas4k). NPSTC said train traffic in the U.S. is increasing, saying U.S. Class I railroads moved 233,819 carloads of crude petroleum in 2012, up from 65,751 in 2011 and 29,605 in 2010. All forms of transportation are subject to “the potential threat of terrorism” and “the safety of the public demands the best communications possible,” NPSTC said. The FCC posted the petition Friday as part of proceeding PRM14PS.

Samsung’s quality assurance lab asked the FCC Wednesday for 180 days of confidentiality through Nov. 24 on an equipment authorization grant for a mobile device with the model designation SM-T2558, filings at the commission’s Office of Engineering and Technology show (http://bit.ly/1tTOPXu). The few details available for public view at the OET site depict the SM-T2558 as a mobile phone. Chinese authorities in April certified the SM-T2558 for sale in China through China Mobile (http://bit.ly/1mv8mJe), and reports there described the SM-T2558 as a tablet sporting a seven-inch high-resolution screen. Documents filed at the FCC described the SM-T2558 as both a “portable handset” and “portable tablet” with WCDMA, WLAN, Bluetooth and RFID functionality as well as “ANT+” interoperability support. Samsung declined comment on specs or U.S. marketing plans for the SM-T2558.

A text message spammer was ordered by the U.S. District Court in Los Angeles to pay $148,309 and found in violation of a 2011 FTC consent decree, said a Thursday FTC release (http://1.usa.gov/1powfXO). It said Phil Flora sent over 29 million text messages promising “free” $1,000 gift cards to Walmart and Best Buy. The original FTC settlement alleged consumers were paying unwanted fees for receiving Flora’s text messages and that he was selling information collected through responses to the text messages. In March 2013, the FTC cited Flora as a defendant in a new enforcement action, it said. The U.S. District Court in L.A. eventually reached a decision against Flora (http://1.usa.gov/1nHsZVy) and held him in civil contempt for violating the FTC settlement (http://1.usa.gov/1jxAloy), the agency said. Neither Flora nor his representatives could not be reached for comment.