Pioneer will team with Treasure Data, a supplier of cloud-based data collection services, on a business alliance to develop telematics data services for the global automotive industry, the companies said Thursday. Using the Treasure Data cloud service, Pioneer will release new data and analytics-based services for automobile manufacturers and related businesses, including dealers, repair shops, insurance and rental car companies, they said. They also plan to “drive new research” on more effective use of automotive telematics data, they said in a news release (http://bit.ly/1lCfcRS).
Lab and field tests conducted by Google, Federated Wireless and Virginia Tech show that fixed exclusion zones are not needed in the 3.5 GHz band, they said in a filing posted Thursday in FCC docket 12-354. The FCC is looking at use of the band for sharing and small cells, but questions remain about whether proposed exclusion zones are too large (CD Aug 25 p1). The filing follows a Tuesday meeting with commission staff, it said (http://bit.ly/1qh3D30). “Wi-Fi can operate within close proximity of the incumbent naval radar system without substantial degradation in performance,” the filing said. It said tests “demonstrate that fixed exclusion zones are not needed to protect the radar from interference from commercial operations and that dynamic exclusion zones can be implemented with existing technology."
The FCC must include wireless in its upcoming broadband progress report, since wireless services are the services “consumers are purchasing in the marketplace,” CTIA said in comments filed Thursday at the FCC on the commission’s Tenth Broadband Progress Notice of Inquiry. “It is time for the Section 706 report to embrace mobile broadband and the extensive role it plans in Americans’ lives,” CTIA said. In analyzing mobile broadband speeds the FCC should focus on existing offerings, the group said. “Such an approach is particularly warranted in the competitive mobile wireless sector, where providers are aggressively vying to provide the fastest speeds and most extensive network coverage.” CTIA said smartphone speeds have increased eightfold in just four years. The group urged the agency to avoid setting “arbitrary latency or usage thresholds,” which could exclude wireless offerings “widely deployed in the market and demonstrably valued by consumers.” The comments (http://bit.ly/1lD9OOn) were filed in docket 14-126.
The FirstNet board is getting five new members, the Department of Commerce said Thursday (http://1.usa.gov/1nyZaUz). Among major changes, Paul Fitzgerald, sheriff of Story County, Iowa, will no longer be a board member. Fitzgerald made headlines last year when he sharply criticized the leadership of the board (CD April 24/13 p1). Also leaving is Charles Dowd, a deputy police chief with the New York Police Department. But the board got two new first responders -- Chris Burbank, chief of police, Salt Lake City, and Richard Stanek, sheriff, Hennepin County, Minnesota. Also leaving the board are former Denver Mayor Wellington Webb and the board’s original chairman, former telecom executive Sam Ginn. Other new members are James Douglas, former governor of Vermont; Annise Parker, mayor of Houston; and Frank Plastina, a technology executive from North Carolina. Ed Reynolds, a former telecom executive, was reappointed. The department noted that the terms of office for Ginn, Dowd, Fitzgerald and Reynolds expired Aug. 20.
Though not an exhibitor at IFA, Microsoft chose the second of two IFA media days Thursday to hold its first global event for Nokia Lumia smartphones since taking over the Nokia Devices and Services business in the spring (CD April 28 p15). The venue, a weddings and conference center called Kaufhaus Jandorf, was seven miles east of the Messe Berlin fairgrounds, so the event’s 10 a.m. start time ensured that no one attending the Microsoft event could also make it to an 11 a.m. Samsung news conference at Hall 7.3 on the IFA grounds. In the end, Samsung devoted its news conference to Ultra HD TVs and home appliances, not to smartphones and tablets. But Chris Weber, Microsoft corporate vice president-mobile device sales, missed no opportunity at the event to compare smartphones from competitors Apple and Samsung unfavorably with Nokia Lumia devices. The rival products carry “an expense premium,” Weber said. Photos taken in low light with a Galaxy phone “were not worth the PowerPoint space” when compared with similar shots taken with a new Lumia 830 phone, he said. Microsoft hailed the Lumia 830 as an “affordable flagship that delivers high-end innovations such as optical image stabilization and PureView imaging to more people.”
NTelos selected Alcatel-Lucent to provide 4G LTE network services for its LTE buildout in West Virginia and parts of western Virginia, Alcatel said Wednesday. The network is to serve an additional 2.1 million people, Alcatel said. This is the third network expansion provided by Alcatel-Lucent since nTelos’s 2012 launch of its LTE network in 2013, Alcatel said. The company said it was worked with nTelos since 2000.
Worldwide phablet shipments, defined as smartphones with screen sizes from 5.5 to less than 7 inches, will reach 175 million units worldwide this year, passing the 170 million portable PCs expected to ship during the same period, said International Data Corp. (IDC). Next year, phablet shipments of 318 million are forecast to top tablet shipments, projected at 233 million for the year, IDC said. Phablets began picking up volume in 2012, but the category has already put pressure on the smaller end of the tablet market, where growth of 7-inch tablets has slowed, it said. IDC expects consumer replacement cycles to shift to larger-sized tablets, but that trend hasn’t made up for the falloff in shipments of smaller-sized tablets, which has led to lowered expectations for the tablet market in 2014 and beyond, IDC said. Apple’s expected entrance into the phablet space with the iPhone 6 this month is expected to bring more attention to phablets “as larger screen smartphones become the new norm,” said analyst Melissa Chau. IDC expects phablets to grow from 14 percent of the worldwide smartphone market this year to 32 percent in 2018. While consumers in mature markets including the U.S. and Western Europe are likely to own a combination of PCs, tablets and smartphones, “in many places the smartphone -- regardless of size -- will be the one connected device of choice,” IDC said. Falling average selling prices (ASPs) for phablets and smartphones will help drive the trend, it said, noting that in 2013, phablet ASP was $568 versus a regular smartphone at $320. This year, phablet ASP will drop to $397 while smartphone ASP falls to $291, it said. “Consumers are still trying to figure out what mix of [mobile] devices and screen sizes will suit them best,” analyst Tom Mainelli said. “What works well today could very well shift tomorrow as phones gain larger screens, tablets become more powerful replacements for PCs, and even smart watch screens join the fray."
Data roaming shouldn’t be controversial, but the market by itself won’t fix problems, said T-Mobile Vice President-Federal Regulatory Affairs Kathleen Ham in a blog post (http://t-mo.co/1sZPPrL). In May, the carrier asked the FCC for a declaratory ruling providing guidance and “predictable” enforcement criteria for determining whether the terms of data roaming agreements meet the “commercially reasonable” standard adopted in the commission’s 2011 data roaming order (CD May 28 p9). Comments on the petition are in and the verdict was nearly unanimous, Ham said. “Except for AT&T and Verizon, of course, virtually every party weighing in at the FCC supports T-Mobile’s proposed benchmarks, as well as the other necessary minor clarifications,” she wrote Tuesday. “Consumers should not have to forgo T-Mobile’s ‘Un-carrier’ benefits simply because they work in or travel through coverage gaps or hard-to-build areas. Nor should local and regional carriers be unable to attract customers who aren’t content to stay always within their home markets."
T-Mobile wants to sell senior notes due in 2023 and 2025 to raise money, including funds for November’s AWS-3 auction, said a prospectus filed Wednesday by the carrier at the SEC (http://1.usa.gov/1A6W8fO). “We intend to participate in the FCC’s upcoming auction of AWS-3 spectrum, and if we are successful in the auction process, we anticipate that a portion of the net proceeds of this offering would be used to acquire such spectrum.” The filing doesn’t say how much T-Mobile hopes to raise through the offering.
The FCC rejected a request by the Competitive Carriers Association for a 30-day extension of the reply comment deadline on the FCC’s June 10 Connect America Fund further NPRM. Replies are due Monday. CCA asked for more time so it could study the first round of comments as well as comments on the commission’s 10th Broadband Progress Notice of Inquiry. “Extensions of time are not routinely granted and we do not believe that circumstances cited by CCA warrant a grant of additional time,” the agency said Wednesday (http://bit.ly/Z7ruaL).