The FCC Wireless Bureau sought comment on a proposal by American Tower Corp. (ATC) for a complete waiver of a requirement that it inspect the lighting on its towers, including “all automatic or mechanical control devices, indicators, and alarm systems associated with the antenna structure lighting to insure that such apparatus is functioning properly.” ATC previously got a partial waiver and must do the inspections annually rather than on a quarterly basis, the bureau said (http://bit.ly/1jY5WCC). ATC argues that “[a] complete waiver would relieve ATC of its existing obligation to make annual on-site inspections of towers, an obligation that no longer serves any discernable purpose, and would further the public interest by encouraging other tower owners to implement technologically advanced monitoring systems,” the bureau said. Comments are due Feb. 14, replies Feb. 22.

Ericsson said Samsung will pay an initial $650 million, along with future royalty payments, as part of a cross-licensing agreement to end ongoing patent disputes between the companies (http://bit.ly/1btidco). The agreement covers the companies’ patents on the GSM, UMTS and LTE standards both companies use for their devices and networks, which had been the subject of a series of lawsuits beginning in 2012 in U.S. District Court in Tyler, Texas, and complaints at the U.S. International Trade Commission (CD Jan 29/13 p16). Ericsson said it is committed to licensing its standard-essential patents on fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory (FRAND) terms “for the benefit of the industry.” The company “always viewed litigation as a last resort,” said Ericsson Chief Intellectual Property Officer Kasim Alfalahi in a news release. Samsung said it too has “always preferred negotiations over litigation, and will continue adhering to [FRAND] licensing principles to assist in our industry’s advancement” (http://bit.ly/L3KUWv).

A Sprint/T-Mobile US merger would be an effective challenge to the Verizon Wireless-AT&T “duopoly,” T-Mobile CEO John Legere said Monday on Bloomberg TV. “We all need better scale and capability,” he said. “The question starts to be, how do you take the maverick and supercharge it? We either need more spectrum and capability and a lot more investment, or we need consolidation.” Speculation about possible discussions between Sprint majority owner SoftBank and T-Mobile majority owner Deutsche Telekom has continued in recent months, though experts have said a merger between the No. 3 and No. 4 U.S. carriers could encounter trouble with federal regulators (CD Dec 17 p1). Sprint is certainly not T-Mobile’s only consolidation option, and “from a standpoint of companies consolidating to get better scale, I'm open to looking at options,” Legere said. Sprint and T-Mobile did not comment. Sprint separately announced Monday that its 4G LTE network has expanded into 40 additional markets, including Milwaukee and Salt Lake City. The carrier’s 4G LTE network now covers 340 markets (http://bit.ly/1hEC7pk).

AT&T confirmed Monday that it “does not intend” to bid for U.K. telco Vodafone in the immediate future. The U.K. Panel on Takeovers and Mergers had asked AT&T to say whether it planned to bid for Vodafone following recent speculation about a possible offer. AT&T can’t make an offer for Vodafone for the next six months because of the statement, unless Vodafone agrees to the bid’s submission, another company makes an offer or the British government decides Vodafone’s circumstances have significantly changed (http://soc.att.com/1fi49ao).

Sprint began implementing a “workforce reduction plan” Jan. 16 in a bid to cut costs, it said in an 8-K filing Thursday with the SEC. The carrier plans to disclose about $165 million in severance and other costs related to the job cuts as part of its Feb. 11 Q4 earnings report (http://1.usa.gov/1l6Ccrm).

T-Mobile charged that a Nov. 13 paper by Mobile Future on spectrum aggregation limits in the TV incentive auction distorts the record. T-Mobile supports limits on how much spectrum any carrier can buy in the auction, a position opposed by Mobile Future. “Mobile Future treats vastly different types of spectrum as if they were of equal value,” T-Mobile said (http://bit.ly/KVMKJE). “The analysis attempts to draw parallels between AT&T’s and Verizon’s dominance of Auction 73, where they won 71.66 percent of the total MHz/POPs auctioned, to Clearwire’s acquisitions of 2.5 GHz spectrum in Auction 86. This analogy overlooks important differences between the large blocks of unencumbered ‘beachfront’ 700 MHz spectrum and the patchwork of 2.5 GHz spectrum licenses, which requires many more sites to provide the same coverage and provides significantly weaker indoor penetration capabilities.” Mobile Future also does not offer a complete view of wireless markets in 2014, T-Mobile said: “Mobile Future’s focus on the changing control of various licenses during the last ten years should not distract from today’s market reality: AT&T and Verizon have gained control of the vast majority of the most valuable wireless spectrum.” Mobile Future fired back. “While the facts in Mobile Future’s paper might be inconvenient for T-Mobile and its parent Deutsche Telekom, there is nothing in their filing that actually refutes them,” Mobile Future said in response. “The study carefully documents the successful history of the Commission’s auction and secondary market reforms and the wide range of beneficiaries of those policies, most especially the American people and the mobile innovators working so hard to meet their wireless needs. T-Mobile has actively participated in the secondary market and also in some spectrum auctions, while staying home for others. That is their right, but those business and network decisions are not the government’s job to make or to fix. Rather than pivoting to seek government advantage, T-Mobile would do better to focus on competing in a free and open market where they seem to be doing quite well without the government’s help."

The FCC Public Safety Bureau sought comment on its fifth annual Report to Congress on State Collection and Distribution of 911 and Enhanced 911 Fees and Charges. The report is required by the NET 911 Act, which became law in 2008. The act “requires, among other things, that the Commission report whether 911 fees and charges collected by the states, the District of Columbia, U.S. territories, and Indian territories (states and other reporting entities) are being used for any purpose other than to support 911 and Enhanced 911 (E911) services,” the bureau said Friday (http://bit.ly/1dVat92). “With this Public Notice, the Commission formally solicits public comment on the Fifth Report, the information provided to the Commission by states and other reporting entities, and the reported expenditure of funds for Next Generation 911 ... services.” Comments are due Feb. 24, replies March 24.

Children aged 2 to 4 spend the most time with educational media, including mobile apps, said a Joan Ganz Cooney Center study released Friday (http://bit.ly/1fbNFAw). But overall, mobile apps are still not the preferred form of educational media, the study found. And, as children age, they become more infrequent users of mobile devices or computers for educational activities. Thirteen percent of children aged 2 to 4 use educational programs on mobile devices or computers, compared to only 6 percent of children aged 8 to 10. Overall, children aged 2 to 10 spend far less time with education apps on mobile devices -- 5 minutes per day on average -- than they do watching educational television -- 42 minutes per day on average. Additionally, “Educational content on mobile devices was ranked lowest in learning by parents in every subject area,” said the report, which surveyed 1,577 parents of children aged 2 to 10. The Cooney Center studies children’s education and is backed by technology companies such as Microsoft and Intel, as well as cable companies like Comcast and government organizations such as the Department of Education.

NTCH urged the FCC to reverse last month’s grant of Dish Network’s request for flexible use (CD Dec 23 p1) of its AWS-4 spectrum and for a one-year extension of terrestrial network buildout requirements. The waiver of the buildout deadline “was inconsistent with long and consistent FCC precedent regarding the grounds for providing construction build-out relief,” NTCH said in docket 13-225 (http://bit.ly/19QUQyn). By granting Dish the right to make its uplink/downlink election up to 30 months from the date of the waiver order, the commission gave Dish a huge advantage in the auction by allowing it to unilaterally increase the value of the adjacent H block by the election it makes, said the small wireless carrier. The Wireless Bureau “clearly would not have taken the actions absent Dish’s commitment to pay the H block cash,” NTCH said referring to Dish’s agreement to bid nearly $1.6 billion in the auction should the FCC approve its waiver. “The question of first impression here is whether the commission itself may engage in conduct which it would be unlawful for one of its employees to engage in.” The waiver gives Dish an unfair advantage in the H-block auction, which began Wednesday, said NTCH. “The integrity of the auction is necessarily distorted from the start by the imbalance in the fairness of the bidding process.” Dish and the bureau had no comment. Observers of early bidding rounds expect Dish to buy most of the spectrum (CD Jan 23 p4).

Verizon Wireless is determined to “provide a wide range” of hearing-aid compatible handsets for its subscribers, company representatives told FCC staff during a recent call, said an ex parte filing. “As the Commission considers HAC requirements for third-party application providers, we stated that it is important that the FCC remain consistent with its prior interpretations of the Twenty First Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act of 2010 (CVAA) that confine the obligations of providers and device manufacturers to the services they directly provide to consumers,” Verizon said (http://bit.ly/1hPjNdM).