TracFone has been working with healthcare organizations, “including most of the leading Health Maintenance Organizations,” since 2012 to enroll Medicaid patients in its SafeLink Wireless Lifeline program, it said in an FCC filing. In addition to standard SafeLink features, including a handset and 250 minutes a month of airtime, the Medicaid members get unlimited text messaging with their healthcare provider, toll-free member services calling and Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act-compliant communications with their providers, TracFone said (http://bit.ly/1lC4GJ9). The program has been a success, the carrier said. “It has improved access to health care providers for the Medicaid community, and has resulted in cost savings for the providers,” TracFone said. “More importantly, it has facilitated real time communications between health care providers and patients.”

Global smartphone display resolution is improving quickly, with HD (720 × 1280) and full HD (1080 × 1920) resolution smartphone manufacturing growing the fastest this year, said DisplaySearch analyst Shawn Lee in a blog post. The “key drivers” of the growth are the adoption of LTE, application processor development and display cost reductions, he said. China Mobile, the largest telecom operator in China, said its sales target for 4G mobile phone devices is 100 million this year, he said. China Mobile changed the LTE specification and LTE models must now support five modes, including TD-LTE, TD-SCDMA, GSM, LTE FDD and WCDMA, he said. To meet that requirement, smartphones “will need more components, requiring” a larger printed circuit board assembly, he said. That means 4G smartphones will use displays of at least 4.5 inches, he said. With such a large display, smartphone makers prefer to use HD for mid-range LTE smartphones and full HD resolution fabrication will be increasing even faster, he said. Prices of 5-inch HD a-Si TFT LCD have fallen by 16 percent since the end of 2013, while 5-inch FHD LTPS LCD prices fell by 13 percent, he said. To meet the requirements of mid- and low-end smartphones, most driver integrated circuits (ICs) for HD and full HD resolution don’t include RAM to increase outputs and reduce cost, he said. Most HD and full HD driver ICs are manufactured in 8-inch semiconductor foundries, but those fabs also produce fingerprint sensors, CMOS image sensors, 4K TV driver ICs, touch controller ICs and some analog ICs, he said. If the demand from those other ICs is too large, it may “reduce the output volume of mobile phone driver ICs, which despite having high volume, do not provide high profits compared to the other ICs,” he said.

The FCC’s Consumer Advisory Committee recommended that the agency hold a workshop to explore streamlining experimental licensing for medical device experimentation, said a notice posted by the FCC Monday. The workshop could help identify “tools and consensus standards to monitor and assess the performance of wireless technologies in healthcare environments” and “assess the need for national wireless medical testbed centers with equipment, expertise, licenses, and support staff,” the committee said (http://fcc.us/1dIyOQx).

Wal-Mart.com agreed to pay the federal government $120,000 to end an investigation of whether the Wal-Mart subsidiary had violated FCC rules on the sale of wireless mics. “In response to the Commission’s investigation, Wal-Mart.com USA acknowledged that it had not previously included on its website the required consumer alert and that a supplier had not obtained an equipment authorization for one wireless microphone model until after it was offered for sale,” said a notice from the FCC Enforcement Bureau (http://bit.ly/1mr66Dy). “The company agreed to implement a robust three-year plan to ensure future compliance with these requirements."

Video delivered to mobile devices through wireless networks is on pace to account for 8 percent of mobile video traffic by 2018, an increase from 1 percent in 2014, according to a new report, The Mobile Video Market 2014 to 2018, from ingleyCONSULTANCY (http://bit.ly/1lyrvgR). The report defines mobile video as video delivered over IP to a mobile device through a data plan with a mobile network service provider, distinct from Wi-Fi, said President Carol Ingley. “Coupling the growth of mobile devices with an insatiable appetite for video translates to a dramatic change in habits as well as a significant growth market for mobile video,” said the report. With improved wireless broadband connections and lower data prices, mobile video could become more dominant than video delivered over cable or Wi-Fi, Ingley said. Global mobile video will represent two-thirds of all mobile traffic by 2018, the report says. “Mobile video may turn out to be one of the most disruptive services that the world has seen in a long time,” said the Mobile Video Market report. However, the report lists diverse “growth drivers or suppressors” affecting mobile video, including spectrum availability, the limits of 4G LTE, data pricing and the size of mobile screens. “If the growth of mobile video follows the traditional hockey stick model, then there will be significant growth,” said the report. “But there are many, many market challenges facing mobile video."

The Government Accountability Office found a mixed reception to the FCC’s use and enforcement of wireless spectrum buildout requirements, it said in a 70-page report released Friday (http://1.usa.gov/O6w1UW). “Stakeholders GAO interviewed generally said that buildout requirements are effective in meeting two of four goals commonly cited in FCC documents and statute -- encouraging [spectrum] licensees to provide services in a timely manner and preventing the warehousing of spectrum,” GAO said. “Stakeholders had mixed views on the effectiveness of buildout requirements in meeting two other goals -- promoting innovative services and promoting services to rural areas -- largely because they believed that other tools could better address these goals.” Stakeholders had mentioned tools such as including “greater use of spectrum licenses that allow a wider array of uses and providing licensees with subsidies to serve rural areas.” The report found that licensees and industry back the requirements. GAO said it consulted with the FCC in putting together the report. GAO did not make recommendations. GAO found that “infrequent” FCC delays in processing filings occasionally caused trouble for licensees and cited 19 filings, needing either agency approval or dismissal, that were filed four or more years ago. Some stakeholders suggested there be more clarity in buildout requirements, with some telling GAO there should be “greater detail about what could constitute substantial service or about the engineering parameters licensees should use in their required notifications.”

BlackBerry is targeting breaking even on its hardware business by fiscal 2016 starting in March 2015 as it “focuses on making money” on sales, BlackBerry CEO John Chen said Friday on an earnings call. The company, which for years lost money on hardware, signed new manufacturing agreements with Foxconn and Wistron last year, replacing Jabil Circuit as its primary supplier. The first fruits of the new pact with Wistron are expected to arrive this spring with shipments of a new version of the Bold smartphone based on the BlackBerry-7 operating system, Chen said. The Bold, which will retail in international markets for about $200, will ship first in Indonesia, he said. Releasing a new Bold underscores continuing demand for BlackBerry’s original operating system, which remains a strong seller in emerging markets due to a lower price than BlackBerry-10 based models. Most of BlackBerry’s fiscal Q4 shipments were BlackBerry-7-based models. BlackBerry sold 3.4 million smartphones to consumers in fiscal Q4, 2.3 million of which had BlackBerry-7 software, the company said. The new Bold is expected the lead the way for BlackBerry’s lower priced models, which will include the Z3 and Q20, the latter being dubbed the “classic” for its featuring a QWERTY keyboard and track pad.

NTIA’s Commerce Spectrum Management Advisory Committee’s working group on enforcement identified a series of key questions that should be asked as CSMAC takes a deeper dive on enforcement issues. NTIA posted a report from the group prior to CSMAC’s meeting Friday (http://1.usa.gov/1o53e3I). “What proof would a potential victim system have to supply in making an interference complaint?” the group asked. “How would (harmful?) interference be defined and who would specify the measurement process? ... How would the cost of detecting and mitigating the interference be distributed?” Enforcement issues loom large as the administration pushes spectrum sharing, CSMAC officials said at the group’s December meeting (CD Dec 12 p2).

The FCC Wireless Bureau formally sought comment on a request by designated entity (DE) Grain for clarity on whether the attributable material relationship rule applies to spectrum deals in the secondary market (CD March 6 p14). Grain was part of a multiparty spectrum deal also involving AT&T and Verizon Wireless last year. Grain asked for clarity on how a sale of the spectrum it obtained would affect its status as a DE. Comments are due April 25, replies May 9 (http://bit.ly/1jasgtx).

Sprint warned the FCC of possible “interconnection and/or interoperability” issues between the two major text control center providers, as it and other carriers work on making it possible for subscribers to send emergency text messages. “In Sprint’s view, this could potentially represent an obstacle to wide-scale deployment and availability of text-to-911 service at public safety answering points nationwide and across the wireless industry,” Sprint said in a filing reporting on calls carrier representatives held with Public Safety Bureau officials (http://bit.ly/1hYGquZ). Sprint said it has to date received “approximately 20 requests to implement text-to-911 service” from various PSAPs.