Worldwide revenue from tablet games is forecast to reach $13.3 billion by 2019, up from $3.6 billion this year, said a Juniper Research report. Growth will be fueled by improved storage capacity of devices, better graphics, increasing mobile broadband penetration and consumers’ preference for convenience and ubiquity, Juniper said in a Tuesday news release (http://bit.ly/1p74HRt). The next year “could be critical” for smaller, independent games developers, it said, because in a market with more than a million apps, more investment will be needed to gain consumer awareness.
A new survey showed that most Americans want technology that will allow them to be located with more accuracy when they make a 911 call from inside their homes, the Find Me 911 Coalition said Tuesday (http://bit.ly/1qpe6bW). The group released an online survey of more than 1,000 respondents that said two-thirds of wireless subscribers thought emergency responders could locate them at least to their block, if they call 911 from inside their homes. “Only 6 percent of cell phone owners correctly responded that the information would likely only be accurate to the neighborhood level or worse,” the coalition said. Sixty-three percent said they would consider switching providers if it meant they could be more accurately located when they make an indoor call to 911, the survey found. “When people dial 9-1-1 on their cell phones, they think the operator can find their location to send help,” said Jamie Barnett, director of the coalition and former FCC Public Safety Bureau chief. “Unfortunately, the carriers have chosen cheaper, less effective location technologies, and people are dying because emergency responders can’t find them.” The coalition is supported by TruePosition, a company that offers alternative technology for locating wireless 911 callers (http://bit.ly/1pHjVRV). Carriers fired back at the coalition. “The latest from Jamie Barnett and his client, location vendor TruePosition, only reveals their objective to derail efforts by CTIA and its member companies to find a viable solution,” said Scott Bergmann, CTIA vice president-regulatory affairs. “It doesn’t help public safety or consumers to continue to press for mandates that existing technology can’t deliver.” Carriers understand the importance of delivering “precise, accurate information” to PSAPs, but TruePosition’s technology is “just one solution among many, and carriers should be allowed to choose the service that best fits their technology needs,” said Steve Berry, president of the Competitive Carriers Association. “We are not aware of any viable solution for precise wireless indoor location information available today,” he added. AT&T made a filing at the FCC Tuesday, questioning claims the coalition has made of poor wireless carrier performance on 911 calls in Washington, D.C. Verizon and T-Mobile have made similar filings at the agency (CD Aug 20 p9). “Unfortunately, rather than contributing to the serious conversation about wireless E911 and indoor location accuracy, apparently the FindMe911 Coalition has decided to continue (in bad faith) to draw erroneous conclusions from data collected by the FCC from various [public safety answering points] throughout the country,” AT&T said in a filing in docket 07-114.
Nokia representatives urged the FCC to adopt net neutrality rules for wireless similar to those adopted in 2010 and explained the advantages of 5G technology, in a meeting with aides to Chairman Tom Wheeler, said an ex parte filing posted Tuesday in docket 14-28. “Specialized services, offered for a fee, could be a significant source of value creation throughout the mobile broadband ecosystem while preserving key elements of network neutrality such as non-discrimination and no-blocking,” the filing said (http://bit.ly/1BYU9Om). A paper submitted by Nokia said 5G will offer an expected peak data rate higher than 10 Gbps, compared with the 300 Mbps LTE offers today and “virtually zero latency.” The technology of 5G “supports the huge growth of machine-to-machine type communication, also called Internet of Things, through flexibility, low costs and low consumption of energy,” Nokia said (http://bit.ly/1svNJ2A). It warned that more spectrum will be required to put 5G in place: “This means looking at new spectrum bands such as millimeter wave and centimeter wave, and using available spectrum efficiently."
The FCC Office of Engineering and Technology extended the deadline for filing reply comments on a petition by the Association of Global Automakers asking the agency to rethink a March order extending the upper limit of the 5725-5825 MHz U-NII-3 band to 5850 MHz (http://fcc.us/XffL9d). The auto industry plans to use the spectrum for dedicated short-range communications systems designed to help drivers avoid accidents (CD Jan 16/13 p1). The automaker group sought the extension, citing the “complex issues” raised by opponents of its reconsideration petition. Replies were due Monday. The new deadline is Sept. 2, said the OET public notice on docket 13-49 (http://bit.ly/1viNLzV).
T-Mobile expanded its Simple Choice plan from five lines to 10 lines per account. While the “old guard telecoms continue to force families and small business into shared data plans,” T-Mobile family plans have a dedicated LTE data bucket per person or per device, T-Mobile said Tuesday in a news release (http://t-mo.co/1p7aXbU). Every Simple Choice customer gets unlimited data, talk and text, and a dedicated bucket of LTE data starting at up to 1 GB, it said. T-Mobile also said that starting Sept. 3, adding a tablet to a postpaid Simple Choice plan costs $10 a month. The company will match a customer’s smartphone LTE data plan, up to 5 GB a month, reserved for use on that tablet, it said in another release (http://t-mo.co/1q1t1Jz).
The Copyright Office is amending its regulations on cellphone unlocking so consumers can circumvent their network connections, said a Federal Register notice Monday (http://1.usa.gov/YVLmOc). Cellphone owners can also circumvent their networks when “authorized by the operator of the network,” it said. President Barack Obama signed the Unlocking Consumer Choice and Wireless Competition Act (S-517) Aug. 1, which allows for such circumvention (http://1.usa.gov/1olIjUh) (CD Aug 4 p15). The House and Senate approved the bill in July (CD July 28 p11).
Net neutrality for mobile broadband is especially critical given the reliance of young, low-income, minority and rural populations on mobile devices and networks for their main Internet access, said representatives of the New America Foundation’s Open Technology Institute and the National Hispanic Media Coalition in an FCC ex parte filing. The public interest group officials reported on a meeting with Priscilla Delgado Argeris, aide to Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel (http://bit.ly/1p8REoD) in a filing in docket 14-28. “While the Commission should reclassify broadband Internet access over both fixed and mobile networks as a Title II service, the Commission can also rely on its concurrent authority under Title III to impose open Internet protections as public interest obligations on carrier use of spectrum,” the groups said.
The FCC Consumer and Governmental Affairs Bureau sought comment Monday on a petition by Rubio’s Restaurant Inc., seeking further clarification of the agency’s Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) rules. Rubio’s asked the FCC to confirm that callers who get “prior express consent” from a called party “are not liable under the TCPA for dissemination of informational, non-telemarketing alerts, to telephone numbers that have been reassigned without the caller’s knowledge,” the bureau said (http://bit.ly/1l9cDq4). Rubio’s also asked the FCC to confirm that the TCPA “does not apply to intra-company messaging systems which are not aimed at consumers and [are] never intended to reach the public,” the bureau said. Comments are due Sept. 24, replies Oct. 9.
Almost all commenters agree, the FCC should reconsider a decision to adopt more stringent limits for out-of-band emission (OOBE) for operations in the 5.8 GHz band, the Utilities Telecom Council said in reply comments filed at the FCC (http://bit.ly/1pYJRc7). The FCC sought comment in July on seven petitions for reconsideration of its March 31 order that opens up the parts of the 5 GHz band for Wi-Fi and other unlicensed use (http://fcc.us/XffL9d). Cisco opposed several of the changes urged by the recon petitions (CD Aug 15 p1). The OOBE limits are not needed to protect Terminal Doppler Weather Radar systems, contrary to Cisco’s arguments, UTC said. “Moreover, these OOBE limits would dramatically impair the performance and increase the cost of deploying of fixed point-to-point and point-to-multipoint systems in the 5.8 GHz band,” the group said in comments posted Monday by the FCC in docket 13-49. UTC, which represents electric utilities, said utilities and other critical infrastructure industries make use of the band for point-to-point communications.
Given Apple’s “unparalleled functionality and design capabilities” and its “market clout,” the impending launch of the iWatch, if it happens at all, “could be just what smart watches need to move into the mainstream,” said Charles Annis, DisplaySearch vice president-manufacturing research, in a blog post Monday (http://bit.ly/1txgFtG). Though virtually all that’s known about the iWatch belongs “in the realm of speculation,” Apple’s display manufacturing partner, LG Display, is believed to be ramping up production of 1.3- and 1.5-inch QVGA AMOLEDs on plastic substrates, he said. “If these are for the iWatch, it could be an indication that Apple has prioritized image quality over battery life. Another benefit of AMOLED on plastic is that it can be extremely thin, light and rugged.” Since LG Display currently has a limited amount of flexible AMOLED capacity, “yield rates may well determine when the iWatch launches as well as initial volumes,” he said. DisplaySearch estimates average yield rates above 60 percent would allow LG Display to produce more than 10 million panels in 2014, he said. “Apple has an incredible track record of successfully creating completely new markets. So although we are not exactly sure about unit numbers or if Apple will release its first generation smart watch in September or November, or if it will slip to 2015, we are very excited about the prospect of the iWatch pushing flexible plastic AMOLEDs from their current niche status into mainstream consumer product."