LAS VEGAS -- Most Americans use their phones mostly to access the Internet and for data, rather than to make actual voice calls, said economist Coleman Bazelon of The Brattle Group during a Consumer Electronics Show panel Tuesday. He and other speakers on a panel discussing wireless touched on a key topic of CES 2013, the overwhelming importance of data to fueling wireless growth. Bazelon has consulted for CEA and CTIA on spectrum issues.

A status hearing is scheduled for 8:30 a.m. Feb. 7 in the case of Bartholomew Caso, 62, who pleaded not guilty last month to charges of selling unregistered securities in Preferred Spectrum Investments. Investigators for the Palm Beach (Fla.) Police Department said Caso had told investors that Preferred “purchased license applications from the Federal Communications Commission for airway frequencies."

Carriers asked the FCC to allocate more money to Phase II of the Mobility Fund, arguing in reply comments this week that $500 million annual support for wireless eligible telecom carriers to accelerate mobile deployment is not nearly enough, and pales in comparison to the support offered to ILECs. But Verizon Wireless cautioned that consumers and business could suffer if the fund gets too large.

Reply comments to the FCC’s proposed rules for making on-screen emergency alerts more accessible to people with trouble seeing and hearing show a wide rift between disability advocates and industry groups and companies over how such rules should apply to IP-based video and devices that can display such video. AT&T, Verizon and CTIA each largely supported comments made earlier in the docket by the CEA, Entertainment Software Association (ESA) and Telecommunications Industry Association (TIA) urging the commission to limit its new accessibility requirements to devices and services of broadcasters and multichannel video programming distributors (MVPDs). But Telecommunications for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing, Inc. (TDI), along with seven other groups that work on behalf of the deaf and blind, argued the rules should apply to all video distributors.

Large and small carriers reiterated their stances on how the FCC should structure a spectrum screen, in replies to a notice of proposed rulemaking in docket 12-269. Sprint Nextel, T-Mobile and public interest groups urged the commission to separately evaluate a licensee’s spectrum holdings below 1 GHz. AT&T and Verizon Wireless asked the commission to allow the screen to function as a safe harbor. Replies were due Monday.

LAS VEGAS -- Qualcomm CEO Paul Jacobs kicked off the Consumer Electronics Show Monday evening with a preshow keynote on the future of mobility and a pitch for small-cell technologies as well as other products made by his firm. Jacobs highlighted a new generation of smartphones and tablets, which will put more demands than ever on wireless infrastructure, and announced a new generation of processors, the Snapdragon 800 for smartphones. He didn’t dwell on the widely feared spectrum crunch brought on by the kinds of smartphones and tablets he highlighted.

The FCC got its argument wrong, said petitioners in the Arlington, Texas, v. FCC Supreme Court case, defending what they see as the rights of municipalities against the possibility of federal encroachment. The case examines the Chevron doctrine, which dates to 1984 and concerns a federal agency’s ability to determine its own jurisdiction. The petitioners, NARUC, the State and Local Legal Center and other parties had argued that de novo review is appropriate in cases determining an agency’s jurisdiction (CD Nov 21 p1). The FCC and T-Mobile, the Competitive Carriers Association and PCIA have defended Chevron deference to agency authority (CD Dec 21 p1). The petitioners’ 31-page reply in docket 11-1545 (http://xrl.us/bn9xin) insisted on their original interpretation.

Progress toward combining T-Mobile USA and MetroPCS remains very positive, executives from both carriers said Tuesday during a presentation at a Citigroup investor conference. T-Mobile CEO John Legere said he believes the entire process is progressing ahead of schedule and that he’s “anxious that we will become the new company relatively soon."

Verizon Wireless and AT&T say they had a record-breaking Q4, with both releasing some information on their performance ahead of official quarterly earnings announcements set for later this month. Verizon Communications, which owns a majority of Verizon Wireless, will release its full Q4 earnings Jan. 22; AT&T plans to release its full results Jan. 24.

LAS VEGAS -- USTelecom President Walter McCormick said a quick tour of the massive floor at the Consumer Electronics Show will demonstrate to anyone who pays attention why the FCC should act on the group’s December petition for declaratory ruling asking the agency to determine that ILECs should no longer be considered dominant in providing switched access services. Others on a panel chaired by McCormick expressed hope that the FCC’s Technology Transitions Policy Task Force will mean the FCC becomes better able to keep up with the speed of technological change.