Apple landed publication Thursday of a Dec. 6 patent application on using “human sleep detection” to adjust an iPhone’s alarm setting that allows the user to get a full night’s rest, said Patent and Trademark Office records. “Most people do not fall asleep right away when they go to bed,” said the application (20190104985) listing six inventors, including sleep scientist Roy Raymann, a former Apple executive who joined the healthcare research startup SleepScore Labs two years ago. Even someone who goes to bed at “an appropriate time” to get eight hours of sleep will often end up with only six or seven hours “when the alarm goes off in the morning” because of tossing and turning during overnight periods of sleep "latency," it said. The mobile device “can help the user feel more rested by automatically adjusting an alarm,” delaying the wakeup time “based on the determined sleep onset latency,” it said. The science inside the device can also study recent sleep-latency trends to suggest "an earlier bedtime," it said. The application didn't say who would phone the boss when the alarm-delay function causes the user to oversleep. Apple didn’t comment.

The Enterprise Wireless Alliance questioned whether the Wireless Infrastructure Association had effectively killed a move to a new process for licensing 800 MHz expansion/guard band spectrum. During a meeting last week with a majority of the certified 800 MHz frequency advisory committees (FACs), Wireless Bureau staff said, “FCC leadership” had rejected a round-robin application approach, EWA recounted Wednesday. EWA said the rejection was surprising: “Matters involving coordination of Part 90 Private Land Mobile Radio spectrum rarely -- if ever -- cause a ripple with the Commission’s leadership, which typically relies on the recommendations of its resident experts” in the bureau. EWA noted the WIA was one FAC that never agreed to an amended memorandum of agreement but also didn’t express reservations. If WIA had objected earlier, its concerns could have been addressed, EWA said. “WIA’s belief that the current process will work fine even if 2,000+ applications are dumped into an inter-FAC concurrence regimen that typically handles only a few applications daily seems to EWA to be the product of magical thinking,” the alliance said. “EWA fears it will produce hundreds of mutually exclusive applications that will have to be sorted out one-by-one without a clear standard for determining priority.” The Land Mobile Communications Council complained Tuesday no agreement is in sight (see 1904090044). “After attempting for a year to develop a workable coordination process, we see little likelihood that further effort would produce a solution acceptable to all FACs given WIA’s position that no solution is needed,” said EWA President Mark Crosby. “At no point did WIA nor its leadership advocate any recommendation independently to the FCC regarding the Memorandum of Agreement we have with other FACs. The FCC made its decision on its own. Implications to the contrary are presumptuous, mischaracterize the facts, and are plainly incorrect,” a WIA spokesperson emailed. “As a market leader in frequency coordination, WIA will continue to work closely with other FACs and the FCC on establishing a fair process. WIA would support the round robin approach if the FCC adopts it and will support the FCC’s determination on how to proceed. WIA will strive to achieve a successful process and look forward to this important work.”

There was bipartisan agreement among Senate Commerce Committee members Wednesday that the federal government's practices for collecting broadband coverage data remain deficient and that Capitol Hill needs to begin taking action. Senate Commerce and others on the Hill repeatedly have raised those issues in recent years. NTIA's increased role in coordinating federal work on broadband mapping got scrutiny earlier this month at a Senate Appropriations subcommittee hearing on the Commerce Department's fiscal year 2020 budget request (see 1904020070). Deficiencies in the FCC's data collection practices was a central issue at a Senate Communications Subcommittee hearing last month on rural broadband (see 1903120069).

LAS VEGAS -- There are “great things going on at ATSC,” besides 3.0 “implementation stuff,” but Mark Richer plans no role once he retires as president in mid-May, he told us at the NAB Show. “My little toe will be available to be put in the water if ATSC needs my advice or counsel,” but “I’m really, truly retiring,” he said.

There was bipartisan agreement among Senate Commerce Committee members Wednesday that the federal government's practices for collecting broadband coverage data remain deficient and that Capitol Hill needs to begin taking action. Senate Commerce and others on the Hill repeatedly have raised those issues in recent years. NTIA's increased role in coordinating federal work on broadband mapping got scrutiny earlier this month at a Senate Appropriations subcommittee hearing on the Commerce Department's fiscal year 2020 budget request (see 1904020070). Deficiencies in the FCC's data collection practices was a central issue at a Senate Communications Subcommittee hearing last month on rural broadband (see 1903120069).

LAS VEGAS -- There are “great things going on at ATSC,” besides 3.0 “implementation stuff,” but Mark Richer plans no role once he retires as president in mid-May, he told us at the NAB Show. “My little toe will be available to be put in the water if ATSC needs my advice or counsel,” but “I’m really, truly retiring,” he said.

FCC-certified frequency advisory committees (FACs) failed to reach agreement on 800 MHz application processing protocols after a year of trying, the Land Mobile Communications Council said Tuesday. The delay will slow licensing of 800 MHz expansion/guard band spectrum, LMMC said. The FCC recently reminded the FACs “they must adopt processes that eliminate entirely the prospect of multiple FACs submitting applications to the FCC that are mutually exclusive,” the council said. Two proposals have failed, the LMMC said: “Failure to reach agreement on an alternative approach may result in the FCC adopting processes that the FACs will be obligated to implement.”

With Colorado poised to enact net neutrality legislation, observers said the state might be less likely than others to attract a lawsuit. Longtime net neutrality supporter Colorado Gov. Jared Polis (D) is expected to sign SB-78 to restrict high-cost support or other state broadband funding to companies that adhere to open internet principles, and require government entities give preference in procurements to ISPs that follow rules.

With Colorado poised to enact net neutrality legislation, observers said the state might be less likely than others to attract a lawsuit. Longtime net neutrality supporter Colorado Gov. Jared Polis (D) is expected to sign SB-78 to restrict high-cost support or other state broadband funding to companies that adhere to open internet principles, and require government entities give preference in procurements to ISPs that follow rules.

The House Rules Committee appears likely to clear at least some of 17 amendments to the Save the Internet Act net neutrality bill for floor consideration this week, said communications sector lobbyists and officials in interviews. A final vote on HR-1644 is expected Tuesday afternoon or Wednesday morning.