More affordable data plans drove a 46 percent jump in embedded cellular connections in tablets last year, but data consumption on tablets via embedded cellular connections lags smartphone data usage by half, said NPD’s retail tracking service. Consumers have been buying tablets with 3G and 4G connectivity “and just not activating them,” said Brad Akyuz, director-connected intelligence, but more attractive data plans have led to an uptick in connections. While there has been an increase in tablet connections, tablet users average 1 GB of data usage per month compared with 2 GB by smartphone users, NPD said. Tablets sold with data contracts grew from 7.1 million in 2012 to 10.4 million last year, despite an overall decline in sales of cellular-capable tablets from 16 percent of total tablet sales to 12 percent in 2013, NPD said. The top four carriers added roughly 1.5 million new tablet subscribers in Q4, with AT&T and Verizon accounting for nearly 90 percent of the connections, said NPD. It also reported a “healthy increase” in the number of connections through mobile and smartphone hotspots among consumers, with some 7.8 million consumers connecting tablets to the Internet via cellular hotspot, 6 million via smartphone hotspots and 1.8 million via an external mobile hotspot device.

T-Mobile’s “Uncarrier” strategy made 2013 “a great year for us,” CEO John Legere said Tuesday during a conference call with investors. T-Mobile added a net 1.6 million subscribers in Q4, including a net 869,000 branded postpaid subscribers and a net 112,000 branded prepaid subscribers. The No. 4 U.S. carrier added more than 4.4 million net subscribers during 2013. Legere said that growth is proof of the “tremendous market response” consumers have given to T-Mobile’s Uncarrier strategy, in which the carrier has used new policies -- including no longer using service contracts, improving its device upgrade plan and allowing free international data roaming -- to lure customers away from its larger competitors. T-Mobile said it expects to add another 2-3 million postpaid subscribers during 2014. T-Mobile ended Q4 with a $20 million net loss primarily due to costs associated with the Uncarrier strategy, though the carrier ended the year with a $35 million net profit, according to an SEC filing. Legere declined to comment about continued speculation about the viability of a potential Sprint/T-Mobile merger, but said the carrier continues to believe the U.S. wireless industry is “ripe for further consolidation."

U.S. Cellular and partner carrier King Street Wireless expanded their 4G LTE network into new markets in Iowa, Maine, New Hampshire, North Carolina and Wisconsin, Ericsson said Tuesday. The manufacturer said it worked on the 4G LTE network expansion, including providing base stations and network implementation services. The expansion helped U.S. Cellular “support the launch of Apple devices,” said U.S. Cellular Chief Technology Officer Michael Irizarry in an Ericsson news release. Cities covered by the latest network expansion include Cedar Rapids, Iowa, Madison, Wis., and Portland, Maine.

Nearly one in three American broadband users watches video on a mobile phone at least once a month, with the average user watching 1.7 hours of video on a mobile phone weekly, a Parks Associates survey found. It estimated smartphone ownership in North America will top 300 million units by the end of 2016. U.S. tablet owners are 1.3 times more likely than smartphone owners to buy a product using a shopping app, the company said.

Consumers “will be wary” of the new biometric mobile payment feature in Samsung’s coming Galaxy S5 smartphone, predicted Eden Zoller, Ovum principal analyst-consumer. The feature will enable users of the S5 to use fingerprint authentication for mobile payments with PayPal merchants. But Ovum thinks consumers will “need some convincing due to security concerns,” said Zoller. Forty-nine percent of respondents in Ovum’s 2013 Consumer Insights Survey ranked lack of security as their main concern with mobile payments, she said. “Consumers already worried about the security of established m-payment mechanisms are likely to view a new technology and process with suspicion,” she predicted. But Samsung is a “hugely popular smartphone brand with global reach, while PayPal is a trusted payments service provider,” so the partnership on the S5 represents a “powerful combination,” she said. PayPal also stressed that fingerprint authentication is a secure feature based on a Fast Identity Online (FIDO) Alliance-ready software implementation with all credentials stored remotely in the cloud, she said. PayPal was the first member of the FIDO Alliance to produce such a mobile payment solution. Other FIDO members include BlackBerry, Google, Lenovo and Microsoft. The PayPal fingerprint authentication feature will go live when the S5 ships in 26 markets in April, including the U.S. and U.K., PayPal said in a news release. The only information the device will share with PayPal is a “unique encrypted key that allows PayPal to verify the identity of the customer without having to store any biometric information” on PayPal’s servers, it said. Other S5 features include Download Booster, a Wi-Fi technology for boosting data speed by bonding Wi-Fi and LTE simultaneously, Samsung said in a news release. The version of the S5 offered by Sprint in the U.S. will support Pinsight Touch, a nationwide, open platform for near field communication-enabling mobile applications and services, the carrier said.

Global Satellite Communications urged the FCC to ensure that its Globalstar service isn’t affected by unlicensed users operating in its spectrum. Global Satellite is concerned about its Globalstar customers in government and emergency management “who depend on their Globalstar devices in disaster recovery situations,” it said in a letter to Chairman Tom Wheeler in docket 13-49 (http://bit.ly/1fNUB3H).

The Competitive Carriers Association said rules designed for the Canadian 700 MHz auction (CD Feb 24 p5) show that the U.S. can safely impose spectrum aggregation limits in the TV incentive auction. “The record-breaking results from the Canadian … auction are proof-positive that spectrum aggregation limits will encourage participation and will raise substantial revenues at auction,” said CCA President Steve Berry in a news release. “The similarities between the lead-up to Canada’s 700 MHz auction and the current arguments here in the U.S. over spectrum aggregation limits are remarkable, and I strongly encourage the FCC to look to the success of the Canadian auction and, like Industry Canada, adopt up-front spectrum aggregation limits.” CCA planned to file its arguments at the FCC Monday.

Apple and Samsung told the U.S. District Court in San Jose they failed to reach agreement during a mediation session on part of their long-standing patent infringement dispute, said a joint court filing by the two companies Friday. The companies are seeking a settlement to avoid moving forward with a planned March 31 trial over a lawsuit in which Apple claims Samsung violated multiple Apple patents in its Galaxy S3 smartphone and other recent devices, including Apple’s Siri voice search technology. Apple CEO Tim Cook and Samsung co-CEO J.K. Shin met for a daylong mediation session earlier this month, but the session and followup phone calls between the two companies on the mediator’s proposed settlement were “unsuccessful,” they said in the court filing. Apple and Samsung said they “remain willing to work through the mediator” to resolve the patent dispute.

Members of the Public Interest Spectrum Coalition questioned in a meeting with FCC Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel whether expanding access to unlicensed spectrum is getting adequate attention at the agency. PISC cited the growing amount of carrier traffic unloaded onto Wi-Fi, said an ex parte filing on the meeting (http://bit.ly/1hqqkKO). Despite the current and growing importance of unlicensed spectrum for the economy and a steady stream of positive statements from the commission, the advocates expressed concern that expanding access to unlicensed spectrum does not actually seem to be a priority at the Commission. The continued uncertainty and lack of action on any pro-unlicensed item makes it “harder for investors, entrepreneurs and developers to believe that the FCC is serious about developing next generation businesses and technologies in this country,” it said. Staff from Public Knowledge and New America Foundation were at the meeting on behalf of PISC.

Sprint representatives asked FCC officials for advice on an expected filing providing data to the FCC on special access charges. “Sprint explained that it is working diligently to prepare its data in expectation of the special access data request and asked for guidance regarding several aspects of the data collection,” Sprint said in an ex parte filing on the meeting (http://bit.ly/1eqia1N). “Specifically, the meeting participants discussed the appropriate format in which to submit requested data on purchase price, market trials, IRUs [Indefeasible Rights of Use], and wireless backhauls. Sprint also sought clarifying details on how it will be expected to populate date, CLLI [Common Language Location Identifier], and zip4 information fields."