T-Mobile USA will begin offering Apple products on its network in 2013, Deutsche Telekom CEO René Obermann said Thursday at a webcast conference in Germany. T-Mobile CEO John Legere implied in a separate presentation during the conference that the products T-Mobile offers will include the iPhone, but did not say what other devices it might make available. “When we do announce what we're going to deploy, it will clearly be better and more effective” than recent media reports have suggested, he said. A T-Mobile spokesman said additional information on T-Mobile’s Apple offerings would be available later. An Apple spokesman confirmed that T-Mobile would begin carrying the company’s products next year, but declined to discuss specific models.

The FCC will hold field hearings to scrutinize communications resiliency in the wake of Superstorm Sandy, Chairman Julius Genachowski announced. The storm hit the East Coast starting Oct. 29 and knocked out a quarter of the cell sites in affected areas, with outages lingering long after. The hearings will begin in early 2013, starting in New York, and focus on access to 911, how resources are shared, emergency permitting and dependency on electric power and fuel, the FCC said. The agency will look at wired and wireless resiliency and produce recommendations for a stronger network, it said. Questions of new technology and jurisdictional tension remain concerns, officials told us.

Hawaii’s Enhanced 911 Board asked the FCC to “take affirmative action that will enable the deployment of text-to-9-1-1,” Chairman Clayton Tom and Executive Director Thera Bradshaw said in a filing. The Hawaii Enhanced 911 board supports FCC efforts to impose text-to-911, they wrote. “We encourage the Commission’s action as soon as possible to ensure at least the basic requirement that wireless carriers deliver 9-1-1 text messages to Public Safety Answering Points that are ready and willing to accept texting.” The board said it also wants the FCC to require the use of a “bounce back” message that would alert the sender “that they need to make a 9-1-1 voice call when a text cannot be delivered to a PSAP.” While the board knows additional compliance deadlines and other rules for text-to-911 need to be considered in a further notice of proposed rulemaking, “we encourage the Commission not to delay the first step and to adopt basic requirements now,” Tom and Bradshaw said (http://xrl.us/bnzuec).

A 911 task force identified the “vulnerability of newer technologies” in a preliminary report about Verizon 911 failures during the June 29 mid-Atlantic derecho wind storm. Traditional hard-wired connections meant power loss didn’t result in loss of a dial tone or service, it said. The report named VoIP and standard Internet Protocol as two very different technologies that, when the power’s out, lose “access to 9-1-1 once the back-up battery contained within the equipment, drains,” the 911 directors said. Cellphones also encounter problems due to network congestion and the possibility of physical damage to cell sites, the report said.

The Association of Public-Safety Communications Officials pressed the FCC in a meeting with David Furth, deputy chief of the Public Safety Bureau, to move forward “as soon as possible” on a “basic requirement” that wireless carriers be able to deliver emergency texts to 911 call centers. “We have ... been encouraged by recent successful trials of text-to-9-1-1 capability utilizing existing texting technology,” said an ex parte filing (http://xrl.us/bnv67i). The order should require that “there be a ‘bounce back’ message informing the sender to make a 9-1-1 voice call when a text cannot be delivered,” APCO said. “APCO International understands that compliance deadlines and other implementation rules related to the order will need to be considered in a further notice of proposed rulemaking. However, deferring action on the basic requirement would only lead to uncertainty and delay serious consideration of implementation issues and requirements."

The FCC established a pleading cycle on a proposed spectrum swap between failed merger partners AT&T and T-Mobile. In the proposed swap, AT&T would get 5 to 20 MHz of PCS spectrum in 54 cellular marketing areas. T-Mobile would get in return 10 to 20 MHz of PCS spectrum in 43 CMAs. “Our preliminary review further indicates that in 35 CMAs, AT&T and T-Mobile would exchange equal amounts of PCS spectrum; in 12 CMAs, AT&T would gain 10 megahertz of PCS spectrum; and in 8 CMAs, T-Mobile would gain 5 to 10 megahertz of PCS spectrum as a result of the proposed transaction,” said the notice from the Wireless Bureau (http://xrl.us/bntd7i). T-Mobile would also pick up a 10 MHz AWS-1 license covering Spokane, Wash. Petitions to deny are due Oct. 23, oppositions Nov. 2 and replies Nov. 9. In June, T-Mobile and Verizon Wireless agreed to a spectrum swap for the purchase and exchange of AWS licenses in 218 markets (CD June 26 p1). The companies did not make formal announcements about the deal, but applications were filed at the FCC Aug. 10, a T-Mobile spokesman said Wednesday.

The FCC Enforcement Bureau is cracking down on the sale of illegal signal jamming devices on the Internet. The bureau served notice Friday it’s issued two separate citations, posting both on the FCC’s main webpage. The bureau issued a citation against a Florida man, for allegedly selling wireless signal jammers on Craigslist.org. Richard Naparty had advertised the device on the Internet site as a “high power cell phone and wireless device jammer with an effective distance of 100 ft. radius. Great for restaurants, doctors offices, stores or just plain fun,” the FCC quoted the ad as saying.

Colorado telecom companies are struggling to form a consensus on the state’s plan to overhaul its telecom rules and high-cost fund, as demonstrated by reply comments with the Colorado Public Utilities Commission made public after our deadline Wednesday. The PUC initiated the new rulemaking in August, heard initial comments Aug. 29, is holding meetings throughout September and will formally address concerns in hearings Oct. 1-4. Colorado’s biggest companies show broad agreement on deregulating VoIP and reducing the state’s high-cost fund but parties are still divided on whether the state commission should help fund broadband. Rural advocates have previously worried about how the reform may hurt rural broadband buildouts (CD Sept 10 p5).

Verizon is completing power audits of all facilities, a review expected to conclude in the Washington region by the end of October and nationwide by March, Senior Vice President Kyle Malady told House lawmakers Wednesday. The telco will have better monitoring equipment in place by 2013, he said. Verizon understands the need to communicate better with public safety answering points and the public during disasters, he said. The Subcommittee on Emergency Preparedness, Response and Communications held the hearing on the challenges and future of resilient communications, which emphasized the problems of Verizon as well as the new technologies emergency responders are facing. Its prime focus was Verizon’s June 29 failure to maintain power in Northern Virginia during the derecho wind storms and subsequent 911 outages.

Through Sept. 11 International Broadcasting Convention, RAI Amsterdam -- http://xrl.us/bnj8h5