The FCC issued a strong warning to hotels and businesses that they will face fines if they block Wi-Fi hot spots. The FCC said in October that Marriott International and its subsidiary, Marriott Hotel Services, had agreed to pay $600,000 to resolve an FCC investigation into whether Marriott intentionally interfered with and disabled Wi-Fi networks at a Tennessee convention center (see 1410060053). “Wi-Fi blocking violates Section 333 of the Communications Act, as amended,” said the public notice Tuesday. “The Enforcement Bureau has seen a disturbing trend in which hotels and other commercial establishments block wireless consumers from using their own personal Wi-Fi hot spots on the commercial establishment’s premises. As a result, the Bureau is protecting consumers by aggressively investigating and acting against such unlawful intentional interference.”

Google won't fix security flaws affecting about 60 percent of all Android users -- those who use Android 4.3 and earlier systems -- said Google Chief of Security for Android Adrian Ludwig. Google decided updating outdated browser versions was requiring hundreds of developers to write more than 5 million lines of code every month for just one browser, and in some cases “significant portions of the code” were changed, so it was no longer practical to make these changes. “Keeping software up to date is one of the greatest challenges in security,” Ludwig said in a Google Plus post, but a necessary one since using an “updatable browser will protect you from currently known security issues, and since it can be updated in the future it will also protect you against any issues that might be found in the future.” Google's decision is “is great news for criminals,” wrote Tod Beardsley, a software developer and blogger. “As a software developer, I know that supporting old versions of my software is a huge hassle,” he said. “I empathize with their decision to cut legacy software loose. However, a billion people don't rely on old versions of my software to manage and safeguard the most personal details of their lives. In that light, I'm hoping Google reconsiders if (when) the next privacy-busting vulnerability becomes public knowledge.”

Despite “saturation” in many well-developed Western European markets, unit smartphone shipments in Europe overall climbed nearly 14 percent last year to 200 million handsets, Futuresource Consulting said Monday in a report. The European tablet market also continues to grow, “but major markets have reached saturation point earlier than the industry expected,” Futuresource said. Although percentage growth in tablets equaled that of smartphones in 2014, growth in Western Europe “will slow further in 2015, with consumer shipments moving into decline by 2017,” it said. "We're seeing a smartphone growth bubble in Eastern Europe, perpetuated by the low level of ownership in many of its countries," the company said. "It's not all good news, as we expect growth to slow in 2015 as Russia -- the largest market in the region by some distance -- faces increasing economic uncertainty.” Across Europe, the Samsung and Apple “duopoly remains solid,” albeit with some market share being lost to Microsoft following its acquisition of Nokia’s devices business, the firm said. “This decline in smartphone prices was somewhat offset by a persistent shift towards higher-priced smartphones,” resulting in an overall increase in mobile handset average selling prices, it said. As for tablets, Apple and Samsung represented more than half of total units shipped in Europe last year, it said.

AT&T will emerge as the high bidder when results are eventually released from the AWS-3 auction, predicted analysts at Bank of America Merrill Lynch. They said in a Monday research note that AT&T will spend “upward” of $22 billion in the auction: “We are looking for management commentary with regard to what effect, if any, this spending will have on dividend increases and future share repurchase programs."

Tom Power, former deputy U.S. chief technology officer, was hired by CTIA Monday as general counsel and senior vice president, effective immediately. Power is also former chief of staff at NTIA and a former FCC staffer. Power replaces Michael Altschul, who will stay at the group temporarily to help ease the transition. Altschul was one of now FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler’s first hires when he became president of CTIA. “Tom brings a great mix of public policy, telecom and business experience to the CTIA team,” said Meredith Baker, CTIA president, in a news release.

The FCC should hold the TV incentive auction as planned next year, T-Mobile CEO John Legere told commissioners in meetings last week, said an ex parte filing posted Monday in docket 12-269. Legere met with all five FCC members, as well as key wireless staffers, the filing said. Legere “discussed the impact T-Mobile has had on competition in the industry for the benefit of consumers” and the importance of low-band spectrum, the filing said. Delaying the incentive auction “would only benefit AT&T and Verizon, which hold approximately 73 percent of the low-band spectrum today,” he said. T-Mobile needs low-band spectrum to compete against AT&T and Verizon, Legere argued. The timing of the auction has been in question, with commissioners saying at CES that they support a pause (see 1501120046). Industry officials tell us a 2016 auction works to T-Mobile's advantage because the spectrum aggregation rules approved for the auction limit buys by AT&T and Verizon, which could be changed under another administration.

Sprint said it will give T-Mobile customers a “guaranteed minimum” of $200 instantly for current working smartphones when they bring their wireless number to Sprint. Sprint also will continue to match all major U.S. carrier phone trade-in pricing, it said Friday. The offer runs through April 9 and can be combined with a contract buyout in which eligible T-Mobile customers can get up to $350 per line via a prepaid or reward card to cover their installment billing balance on their current phone or early termination fees, Sprint said. The carrier matches AT&T and Verizon pricing via the Sprint Buyback program but without the $200 switchover reward, a Sprint spokeswoman told us.

Paige Atkins was named associate administrator, Office of Spectrum Management, at NTIA, a key position within that agency on spectrum issues of concern to the wireless industry. She replaces Karl Nebbia, now at Wiley Rein. Atkins had been acting associate administrator since Nebbia left last year. An electrical engineer, Atkins was formerly vice president of Cyber and Information Technology Research at the Virginia Tech Applied Research Corp. and director-strategic planning and information at the Defense Information Systems Agency.

T-Mobile officials and economists working for the carrier met with FCC staff to urge changes to rules for the TV incentive auction, said a filing by the company in docket 12-269, posted Friday. T-Mobile flagged “the potential for interplay between the proposed structure of the extended rounds and the spectrum reserve in certain scenarios with high spectrum-clearing targets,” said the filing. “Under the current proposal, a large differential between bid prices and reverse-auction expenses could theoretically eliminate the spectrum reserve in the extended round and subsequent rounds despite exceptionally robust bidding by reserve-eligible bidders. The parties discussed technical solutions to avoid this outcome, which they said is most likely to occur in early rounds of bidding." The Competitive Carriers Association, meanwhile, reported on a second meeting with Gary Epstein and Howard Symons of the FCC Incentive Auction Task Force and Roger Sherman, chief of the Wireless Bureau, also about the incentive auction. Officials from Sprint and T-Mobile were also at the meeting, said a second filing in the same docket. “CCA discussed the competitive need for low-band spectrum and the critical importance of holding the incentive auction as quickly as possible.”

The National Public Safety Telecommunications Council is examining whether interference from LED and fluorescent lighting system ballasts are disrupting public safety radio systems, said a NPSTC news release. NPSTC asks public agencies to fill out an online questionnaire. In 2013, the FCC ordered one manufacturer to make changes to its LED lighting transformers after interference concerns emerged, NPSTC said. “More recently, some public safety agencies have reported interference from LED lights installed on agency radio towers, from fluorescent lighting installed at an incident command post, and from commercial buildings with large lighting systems.”