Federated Wireless, which is building a proprietary spectrum access system leveraging “advanced cognitive radio techniques,” said Thursday it has raised $5 million in a series A funding round, backed by parent company Allied Minds (http://bit.ly/1iKLwk1). The company hopes to address “a growing deficiency in spectrum, made scarce by an explosion in use of wireless communications and in particular, video content delivery,” it said.

Android-powered wearable-device owners are “highly engaged” smartphone users who access a variety of apps and use “significantly more data” than average Android users, according to data from Nielsen. Smart watches are a quarter of wearable devices used by Android users, while fitness trackers are 60 percent, Nielsen said. MHealth (mobile health) devices are 8 percent of wearable owners’ devices, Nielsen said. The average Android owner uses 5.61 GB of data a month, while the average Android owner using a wearable Bluetooth device uses 9.49 GB, Nielsen said. The average data usage for wearable-device owners on Wi-Fi networks is 74 percent higher than that of all adult Android users, Nielsen said. In February, 2.5 million Android users owned a wearable device -- such as a fitness tracker or smart watch -- up five times from September, it said. Wearables owners used their devices an average of 14 times during the month, it said. Data was gathered using Nielsen on-device software installed with permission on roughly 5,000 panelists’ Android and iOS smartphones.

The Edison Electric Institute asked the FCC to clarify that Telephone Consumer Protection Act rules don’t prevent electric utilities from using text messages and prerecorded calls to tell customers about outages, information on programs for low-income programs or other information. EEI made a filing Tuesday in docket 02-278 following a meeting between an association official and staff from the Consumer and Governmental Affairs Bureau (http://bit.ly/TmUoQU). Many customers rely on wireless phones as their main point of contact, which could trip TCPA rules, the group said.

The Los Angeles Regional Interoperable Communications System (LA-RICS) asked the FCC to act on a December 2012 petition seeking a waiver of FCC rules so it can launch operations in 700 MHz “reserve” spectrum. The detailed design of its system is to be complete in September and LA-RICS needs to know whether it can use that spectrum, said a filing Tuesday in docket 13-39 (http://bit.ly/Vrtmd8). Without the waiver LA-RICS would have to launch in currently allotted channels, the authority said. Making changes later would “create substantial delays” and significantly increase costs, the authority said. LA-RICS is designed to provide communications for 34,000 first responders in an area with 10 million residents, it said.

T-Mobile welcomes Supreme Court review of T-Mobile South v. City of Roswell, Georgia, a case that takes on tower siting rules, said Kathleen Ham, vice president-federal affairs, Thursday in a blog post. The court last month agreed to hear the case, from the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals (http://1.usa.gov/1mwRFzZ). While the FCC respects “the role of municipalities in the siting process and its actions have been well within the bounds set by Congress, a number of cities and towns across the country continue to find ways to delay or halt altogether the deployment of wireless infrastructure,” Ham wrote (http://t-mo.co/1qeubT8). “Some impose arbitrary restrictions on the number of carriers that can put antennas on a single tower, while others require multiple public hearings for the upgrade and replacement of existing antennas or charge thousands of dollars for a simple permit to switch out copper wires for fiber optic facilities.”

The FCC Enforcement Bureau proposed a $25,000 fine against a Bay Shore, New York, man for allegedly operating a radio transmitter without a license and interfering with the radio communications system of the Melville Fire District, also in New York. Newsday reported that Drew Buckley, of Bay Shore, was charged with chanting “aah, la, la” and other “gibberish” on Melville Fire Department’s radio frequency over a period of nine months before he was arrested last year (http://nwsdy.li/TBBTsk). Buckley’s alleged actions demonstrate “a deliberate disregard for public safety and the Commission’s authority and rules, warranting a substantial penalty above our normal sanction for unlicensed operations that interfere with licensed communications,” the bureau said Thursday (http://bit.ly/1jRHaSZ).

Only a small percentage of U.S. broadband households are “very likely” to buy a smart watch this year, said a Parks Associates study released Wednesday. It canvassed 10,000 broadband households in Q1 and found only 4 percent very likely to buy a smart watch in the next 12 months, it said. That’s double the percentage of broadband households that actually acquired a smart watch last year, though nearly half said they received one as a gift, it said. The survey identified Samsung as the leading brand and found 20 percent bought direct from the manufacturer, 18 percent from Amazon, 17 percent from Best Buy, it said (http://bit.ly/TwAX8t).

The FCC Wireless Bureau rejected a petition by Blanca Telephone asking the agency to find that the agency erred in not imposing a uniform time limit or “shot clock” on all data roaming negotiations as part of its 2011 data roaming order (CD April 8/11 p1). Blanca “presents no material error or omission in the Commission’s Data Roaming Order or any additional new facts warranting reconsideration,” the bureau said Wednesday (http://bit.ly/1wyi9nP). A decision to consider requests for time limits on a “case-by-case basis” provides “appropriate flexibility” in negotiations “while allowing parties to seek Commission intervention if a negotiating partner unduly delays a particular negotiation.”

Representatives of Oceus Networks explained the progress the company has made providing U.S. military users with “tactical broadband wireless systems using commercial 4G LTE technologies,” in a series of meetings with FCC officials, according to ex parte filings posted Tuesday. The company met with both David Goldman, aide to Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel, and Brendan Carr, aide to Commissioner Ajit Pai, said the filings in docket 13-185. “The team spotlighted the need for the U.S. military to train on these tactical systems domestically on remote training ranges and bases and the need for long-term spectrum access,” Oceus said (http://bit.ly/TrQ4zY).

Ketchikan, Alaska, was granted a waiver by the FCC Wireless Bureau to allow licensing of a Common Carrier Fixed Point to Point Microwave Station in the 6425-6525 MHz band, said a bureau order released in Tuesday’s Daily Digest (http://bit.ly/1iu8gVB). It said Ketchikan demonstrated it has no reasonable alternative to using frequencies in the 6425-6525 MHz band.