The alleged perpetrator of a text message scamming scheme agreed to settle FTC charges over sending false text messages promising $1,000 gift cards in exchange for personal information, the FTC said in a Tuesday release (http://1.usa.gov/1uc6LQQ). The monetary judgment in the settlement, $2,863,000, will be mostly suspended due to the defendant Verma Holdings’ inability to pay. The settlement, approved unanimously by the commissioners, closes one of numerous FTC charges filed against 29 defendants in March 2013 over similar texting scams (http://1.usa.gov/1rtmMym).

The FCC Public Safety Bureau said it will hold in abeyance a request for a further waiver by Miami-Dade County, Florida, of the original June 26, 2008, deadline for completion of the rebanding of its 800 MHz radios. Sprint had requested the FCC ask several questions of the county before extending the waiver, the bureau said Wednesday. Sprint had said the rebanding had started in 2005 and “it is the last licensee, excepting those in border states, to return frequencies in the ‘old’ NPSPAC band to Sprint,” the bureau said. Much of the delay is attributable to Miami-Dade’s decision to replace, rather than reband, its 800 MHz communications system, the bureau said (http://bit.ly/Utj8Ye). “We impress on Miami-Dade the imperative of completing its firmware reprogramming in the shortest feasible time."

AT&T had its lowest postpaid customer churn ever in the second quarter, at 0.86 percent, it said Wednesday. The carrier also reported postpaid net adds of more than 1 million, the most in a quarter in nearly five years (http://soc.att.com/1pHpugE). Q2 consolidated revenue was $32.6 billion, up 1.6 percent over the year-earlier quarter. AT&T has about $6 billion cash on hand, headed into the AWS-3 auction, said John Stephens, AT&T chief financial officer. AT&T’s buy of DirecTV was approved without restrictions by Brazil’s antitrust regulator, he said. The carrier also completed the review process, without conditions, at the state level, which included Arizona, Hawaii and Louisiana, he said.

The FCC Wireless Bureau said it’s extending from Aug. 11 to Aug. 29 the deadline for reply comments on a T-Mobile petition seeking greater clarity in the commission’s data roaming rules (CD May 28 p9). T-Mobile is asking for a declaratory ruling containing guidance and “predictable” enforcement criteria for determining whether the terms of data roaming agreements meet the “commercially reasonable” standard adopted by the commission in its 2011 data roaming order. Blooston Rural Carriers, NTCA and the Rural Wireless Association had sought an extension until Aug. 25, citing a “significant number of rural mobile wireless carriers that have been affected by the issues addressed in T-Mobile’s petition,” the bureau said Wednesday (http://bit.ly/1jVM8Uz). The bureau said there’s “good cause to grant a short extension of time,” and T-Mobile has agreed to the extension.

The FCC Enforcement Bureau Tuesday imposed a penalty of $10,400 against Washington Gas Light for violating FCC rules requiring lighting on communications antennas. In 2011, the bureau had proposed a $13,000 fine against the gas utility for the violation. The bureau said Washington Gas maintains it notified the Federal Aviation Administration when a lighting outage occurred in 2010 and reminded the FCC it has a history of compliance with agency rules. “While we are not persuaded that Washington Gas notified the FAA of the lighting outage in a timely manner, we find that its history of compliance warrants a forfeiture reduction,” the bureau said (http://bit.ly/1r3IHtJ).

Verizon is focused on the need to “build cash on the balance sheet” to prepare for the FCC’s AWS-3 auction, Chief Financial Officer Fran Shammo said Tuesday during a call with investors. Shammo said Verizon for obvious reasons would not have much to say about how much it plans to spend in the AWS-3 auction, scheduled to get underway Nov. 13. Shammo also declined to say much at all about the TV incentive auction, saying the rules haven’t been finalized. “It’s hard for us to sit here and make a comment on something that has not been finalized,” he said. Verizon is aggressively managing the debt it carries, Shammo said. “You have seen us be very proactive in the marketplace, taking the opportunity of the low interest rate market, repositioning the debt that we borrowed at the close and repositioning our towers so we are strategically trying to push out the long-term debt longer at a more fixed, lower rate than we had,” he said. Verizon reported second quarter earnings Tuesday (http://vz.to/1nywpLS). The carrier reported $1.01 in earnings per share in Q2 on operating revenue of $31.5 billion.

The FCC released a small entity compliance guide (http://bit.ly/1rEya9D) for the “Operation of Unlicensed Level Probing Radars in the 5.925-7.250 GHz, 24.05-29.00 GHz and 75-85 GHz Bands.” The FCC amended its rules for use of the band in January (http://1.usa.gov/NBTfmi). The radars can be used to “identify water levels in rivers and dams or critical levels of materials such as fuel or sewer-treated waste, reducing overflow and spillage and minimizing exposure of maintenance personnel in the case of high risk substances,” the FCC said Monday. The document provides guidance for small companies, small governments and small non-profits.

CTIA and the Competitive Carriers Association called the release of the FCC’s AWS-3 Coordination Public Notice Friday (CD July 21 p12) an important step forward toward a successful auction. CCA President Steve Berry said he hopes the FCC will soon release a procedures public notice as well. “To determine whether to participate, CCA’s members need sufficient time and adequate information about the coordination process,” Berry said. “Maximizing information for prospective bidders, and maximizing timely access for AWS-3 licenses will be essential to ensuring that these bands are put to their highest use,” said Scott Bergmann, CTIA vice president-regulatory affairs. Verizon Federal Regulatory Affairs Senior Vice President Kathy Grillo called the notice “an important step” toward making necessary information available to bidders and “establishing a clear and predictable post-auction coordination process.”

Members of the Safety and Security in the Air Coalition held a series of meetings at the FCC to warn against allowing more use of cellphones on commercial flights, said various filings in docket 13-301. In the latest meeting Wednesday with FCC Commissioner Ajit Pai, members of the group said a cellphone could be used to help a terrorist communicate “in real time” with accomplices on the ground, on other parts of a plane or on other planes (http://bit.ly/1u8sJEn). Cellphones can also be used to act as switches on improvised explosive devices, the group said. The coalition represents the Association of Flight Attendants-CWA, the Transport Workers Union of America, the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers, and other groups opposed to liberalizing rules for cellphone use in-flight.

Mobile broadband should be subject to, at the most, transparency and “very limited” blocking provisions, CTIA said in its net neutrality comments, posted by the FCC Monday in docket 14-28. Any rules should mirror the 2010 prohibitions, the group said. “Mobile broadband customers fully expect access to all lawful content and applications, and providers have strong incentives to meet these expectations by optimizing the delivery of all content or applications that will not harm the network or undercut the experience of other users,” CTIA said (http://bit.ly/1o1iwFh). CTIA’s message was consistent with what the wireless industry as a whole has filed at the FCC (CD July 17 p1). Blocking provisions should cover only lawful websites and services “that compete with a particular broadband provider’s voice or video telephony offerings, subject to reasonable network management,” CTIA said. Transparency rules should be the same as those imposed in the 2010 net neutrality order, the group said. “Mobile wireless providers already disclose information regarding speeds (with appropriate disclaimers to account for the inherent variability of mobile service), prices, data caps (where applicable), and network management practices.”