NTCA said nearly 20 of its members were among those that submitted short-form applications to bid in the upcoming AWS-3 auction (CD Oct 2 p5). “This represents approximately one-quarter of all applications filed, demonstrating yet again the commitment of small telcos to providing state-of-the-art communications services for the benefit of rural America,” the group said Thursday.

The facts are in and they “reinforce yet again that the U.S. wireless market is a vibrant and competitive industry delivering network investment and welfare-enhancing benefits to consumers across the nation,” CTIA said in a Thursday letter to the FCC. U.S. carriers invested 120 percent as much in their networks in 2013 as the 28 EU nations combined, CTIA said (http://bit.ly/1uElkfL). The U.S. also “tops the charts in LTE subscribers and service,” and average mobile speeds in the U.S. were about 30 percent faster than in Europe and 55 percent faster than in the Asia-Pacific region last year, the group said. It said U.S. carriers need more access to spectrum to keep their momentum. “Making additional spectrum available remains critical to meeting consumer demand, promoting economic growth, and enhancing our Nation’s global competitiveness,” CTIA said. Scott Bergmann, vice president-regulatory affairs, signed the letter.

AT&T expects an order on circulation for the Oct. 17 FCC meeting (CD Sept 29 p3) to provide key relief that will help the wireless industry build the facilities it needs to manage growth, said Joan Marsh, AT&T vice president-federal regulatory, in a Thursday blog post (http://bit.ly/1xGET8b). The item is expected to offer “a series of straight-forward and sensible reforms consistent with programmatic requirements that will expedite environmental and historic preservation review of new and modified wireless facilities,” Marsh wrote. “We also believe the item will provide much needed clarification of certain federal statutes that were enacted to streamline state and local review of wireless infrastructure proposals.” The order should mean “more efficient and timely small cell deployments,” she said. “Similarly, we anticipate that the item will permit the collocation of new antennae without additional approvals in certain limited circumstances, for example on rooftops where a visible antenna already exists or within close proximity to an existing antenna array."

FCC Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel repeated her call for a national prize to go to someone who can find a way to make the use of spectrum below 5 GHz 50-100 percent more efficient over the next 10 years. Her comments came in remarks Thursday to the Marconi Society Anniversary Symposium. The winner would get 10 MHz of spectrum. “This is no small prize,” Rosenworcel said. “If the winner can find a way to use spectrum 50 or 100 times more efficiently, that 10 megahertz of spectrum could do the work of 500 to 1,000 megahertz of spectrum using today’s technology.” Rosenworcel said U.S. spectrum policy must entice federal agencies to give up spectrum rather than punish them if they don’t. “We need to find ways to reward federal authorities for efficient use of their spectrum so that they see benefit in commercial reallocation rather than just loss,” she said. “As part of this effort, we should consider a valuation of all spectrum used by federal authorities to provide a consistent way to reward efficiency.” The U.S. needs more Wi-Fi, Rosenworcel said: “It is time to give unlicensed spectrum its due.” Rosenworcel made similar comments at a Mobile Future Forum Monday (CD Sept 30 p1).

The FCC got the rules right for mobile in the 2010 net neutrality order and shouldn’t reverse course now, Mobile Future officials said in a series of meetings at the agency. “The 2010 open Internet principles grasped this uniqueness, and wisely gave wireless network operators the ability to manage their networks optimally rather than adopting a one size fits all approach,” Mobile Future said. “Changing the approach to mobile broadband at this stage would open the door to a raft of unintended negative consequences for consumers and for the open Internet itself.” The group released a copy of an ex parte filing on the meetings Thursday.

Verizon said it won’t “move forward with the planned implementation of network optimization for 4G LTE customers on unlimited plans.” FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler applauded the decision (http://bit.ly/1oEeuzN), calling it “a responsible action.” Wheeler sent Verizon Wireless CEO Dan Mead a letter in July asking about the carrier’s announcement it planned to slow data speeds on its LTE network starting in October, but only for the top 5 percent of data users on unlimited data plans. Wheeler said then he was “deeply troubled” by that development (CD July 31 p1).

Third place behind Apple and Samsung in the tablet wars is “up for grabs” among Amazon, Asus, Lenovo and other emerging vendors, ABI Research said Wednesday (http://bit.ly/10lBnlY). Lenovo in particular “is working to gain ground in the market,” and in 2019 is expected to ship 21 million tablets, or 7.3 percent of the global market, ABI said. This “would land it solidly in third place,” it said. Lenovo remains the world’s biggest PC supplier, but now sells more smartphones and tablets than it does PCs, and is the world’s third-largest tablet supplier, Lenovo itself said in the runup to the IFA show last month in Berlin. During 2013, the tablet market “exploded with new devices overwhelming consumers,” ABI said. “Leading tablet vendors quickly dominated the market, but are now feeling the squeeze and quickly losing market share control,” creating a “stall” in more advanced and mature markets like North America and Western Europe, it said. “This stall is giving other vendors the opportunity to close the prominent gap and claim third place. The dent emerging vendors are creating in the market is impressive, but continuing that success is going to be the real challenge.”

The FCC, acting at Verizon’s request, agreed to drop conditions imposed on various transactions involving Verizon Wireless due to Verizon Wireless’s then-partial foreign ownership by the U.K.’s Vodafone. Verizon had told the FCC the conditions were no longer relevant since Verizon now owns all of its wireless subsidiary. The agency agreed “that a material change in circumstance has occurred and that the basis for these conditions no longer exists,” said a Wednesday order from the Wireless and International bureaus (http://bit.ly/1BA7klV). In February, Verizon completed a $150 billion deal to buy out Vodafone’s 45 percent of Verizon Wireless.

PCIA’s members are very concerned about the lack of training available for wireless technicians, which is why the group got involved in efforts at Virginia State University in Petersburg to promote industry training (CD Sept 30 p10), said PCIA President Jonathan Adelstein in an interview. “Right now no training schools or community colleges are teaching how to install wireless infrastructure, but the field is growing rapidly with 4G and other upgrades that are going on,” he said. “There’s a need for a much larger workforce.” The U.S. education system has not kept up with the need for trained workers, he said. “We're hearing directly from our members that this is a problem.” Adelstein said PCIA has also created an apprenticeship program through the Department of Labor that will give workers on-the-job training. As carriers seek to “densify” their networks, antennas are getting closer to customers and other antennas, he said. “We need more people in the field who can deal with this congestion of both data traffic and antennas,” he said. Workers need to understand basic radio frequency principles as networks get more complex, he said. Adelstein also said PCIA is pleased the FCC plans to take on streamlining rules for distributed antenna systems and small cells (CD Sept 20 p3). “PCIA has been working for years on this very proceeding,” he said.

Global shipments of branded tablets will rise by a “disappointing” 2.5 percent in 2014, ABI Research said Tuesday (http://bit.ly/1tegvnG). Apple and Samsung continued to lead branded vendors in unit share during 2014’s first half, but with “mixed fortunes,” it said. First-half unit shipments of iPads fell 13 percent from a year earlier, while Samsung units were up 26 percent, it said. “The roller coaster ride from the leading two tablet vendors has market watchers looking to other vendors to create sustainable growth,” it said. “All eyes are on Lenovo as it is one of few to demonstrate consistent growth over the past year.” Lenovo remains the world’s biggest PC supplier, but now sells more smartphones and tablets than it does PCs, and is the world’s third-largest tablet supplier, Lenovo said in the run-up to the IFA show last month in Berlin. Meanwhile, DisplaySearch similarly sees tablet shipments rising only 2 percent this year, the company said Tuesday (http://bit.ly/1uagAwO). That’s a marked downgrade from the 14 percent growth DisplaySearch predicted in a previous forecast, the company said. It sees tablet demand growing by single digits through 2018.