CTIA warned there could be legal issues with an FCC proposal that would require wireless carriers to submit data to the commission on cell site outages during and after disasters, which would be released to the public (CD Jan 22 p2). The proposal is “arbitrary and capricious” and “would unlawfully interfere with wireless carriers’ First Amendment rights,” CTIA said in a filing posted by the FCC Wednesday (http://bit.ly/1hjPBqp). CTIA’s objections were similar to those made by AT&T. “The proposal will mislead the public about wireless service availability, with consumers believing that the percentage of inoperable cell sites is equivalent to the proportion of a carrier’s service territory where service is unavailable when disasters occur,” CTIA said. “The proposal will not increase incentives to increase network resiliency. If anything, it will increase incentives for providers to restore inoperable cell sites as quickly as possible, even where that approach would undermine restoration of actual service.” Verizon Wireless also objected. “The proposed wireless outage reporting and disclosure rule would unnecessarily impose new obligations that provide no clear value to consumers, particularly given carriers’ own competition-driven efforts to give customers information about their wireless coverage, and could even penalize service providers for making important investments in diverse wireless networks and service restoration practices,” the carrier said (http://bit.ly/KGVenP). T-Mobile said (http://bit.ly/KHzck7) the information the FCC wants carriers to file “does not accurately reflect the available geographic coverage or resiliency of networks after a disaster."

A federal appeals court upheld a lower court’s decision that the Town of Greenburgh, N.Y., had unlawfully denied Crown Castle’s application to install a distributed antenna system (DAS) in public rights of way (http://1.usa.gov/1cWoAVt). The town’s decision was not supported by substantial evidence, therefore violating Section 332 of the Communications Act, the court said. The town had concluded Crown Castle failed to demonstrate a need for the facilities, because they were “either purely speculative or for the apparent benefit of a single client.” The 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled Friday that the town’s determination was not supported by substantial evidence. The town’s determination on “aesthetic intrusion” was also not supported by substantial evidence, the court said. The court “made several notable findings that are important for the DAS and wireless industries,” law firm Davis Wright said in a blog post Tuesday (http://bit.ly/LHum7b).

Most smartphone users are sharing their location through at least one app, said a study released Tuesday by location app Life360 and online research company VeraQuest (http://bit.ly/1juVr9K). More than 60 percent of smartphone owners use at least one location-sharing app on their phone and 36 percent use two or more, and 41 percent of adult smartphone owners are more willing to share their location today than they were five years ago, the research found. VeraQuest surveyed 1,169 teens and adults who own a smartphone, it said.

The Mobile EAS Coalition urged the FCC to consider a more holistic and integrated approach to improving emergency notification procedures as it looks to improve wireless network reliability. This includes encouraging the voluntary deployment of M-EAS by TV broadcasters “and voluntary inclusion of M-EAS receiving capability in the devices distributed by wireless carriers,” the coalition said in comments in docket 13-239 (http://bit.ly/19LDSkP). The coalition asked the commission to look beyond the potential to improve the wireless broadband infrastructure itself, “and create incentives to improve overall emergency communications to citizens,” it said. The FCC also should support the recommendations of the Communications Security, Reliability and Interoperability Council III and embrace the dual use opportunity presented by the M-EAS system, it said.

Sonos added fledgling subscription-based Beats Music to its roster of content services. Beats Music began streaming to subscribers Tuesday, claiming a library of 20 million licensed tracks from Universal Music, Sony Music and Warner Music, and announced partnerships earlier this month with AT&T Wireless and Target. The service is $9.99 a month after a one-week free trial. Users who signed up at Target get a one-month free trial. Users enter musical preferences when they sign up for the service and a personalized selection of albums and playlists is delivered four times a day to their accounts, Beats Music said. In addition to musical preferences, the service bases curated selections on time of day, activity and “additional cultural and contextual clues,” it said. Beats Music will be available to AT&T Wireless customers on an individual plan basis and with a multi-line account for up to five family members and 10 devices for $14.99 a month with the first 90 days free, the company said. Currently, Target is the only retail source for prepaid Beats Music gift cards, which will be available in denominations of $10, $25 or $50. Beats Music didn’t immediately respond to questions about additional partners, including wireless music system partners.

The Consumer Electronics Association is sponsoring the “Mobile Medical Apps (MMA) Roadshow: Managing App Development under FDA [Food and Drug Administration] Regulation,” said a CEA news release Thursday (http://bit.ly/Ll80cj). The MMA “aims to demystify the FDA requirements for new entrant app developers and identify best practices” among app producers, it said. CEA joins six universities, more than a dozen industry trade associations and the FDA in support of the MMA, it said.

CTIA expressed concerns about a proposal by the Hearing Industries Association, which CTIA said would expand the breadth of the hearing-aid compatibility (HAC) rules to “universal regulatory coverage.” CTIA “has significant concerns with any requirement that all handsets offered in the United States meet HAC requirements,” the group told the FCC in an ex parte filing (http://bit.ly/1gWwWkj). “Such a blanket approach faces significant legal challenges, as it appears to be inconsistent with Section 102 of the Twenty-First Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act of 2010."

Sprint asked the FCC for a limited waiver of the agency’s Telecommunications Relay Services rules in order to permit federal video relay service toll-free “front door” phone numbers and 10-digit numbers into the Internet-based TRS Numbering Directory. “Permitting these federal ‘front door’ and ten-digit numbers into the database will increase the ability of taxpaying deaf and hard of hearing Americans to reach federal employees and will reduce the number of calls placed through the federal TRS fund,” Sprint said (http://bit.ly/1jaj4nH).

Improved location targeting will create a “tipping point” for mobile advertising sales in 2014, said a BIA/Kelsey report released Thursday (http://bit.ly/LkbsUq). Currently, mobile encompasses 12 percent of consumer media consumption, but only 3 percent of U.S. ad dollars are spent on mobile, said BIA/Kelsey Vice President-Content Michael Boland, who wrote the study. “We see a few factors that will counterbalance this in the coming year, including location-targeted ads and the ability to measure effectiveness through attribution technologies,” he said in a release (http://bit.ly/1b6hT34). BIA/Kelsey is a local media consulting and research company. The report was produced with location-based mobile advertising company Verve Mobile.

The FCC Office of Engineering and Technology released modified rules for measuring spectrum emissions by level probing radar (LPR) devices operating on an unlicensed basis in the 5.925-7.250 GHz, 24.05-29.00 GHz, and 75-85 GHz bands. LPR devices are used to measure water basin levels and coal piles, among other applications, OET said (http://bit.ly/1dTpAum). “Manufacturers have had a difficult time demonstrating compliance with the rule’s low emission limits for certain types of level-measuring applications in fiberglass or polyethylene (plastic) tanks or in open air,” OET said. Certification of LPR equipment under the new rules requires “measuring emissions in the main beam of the LPR antenna, while adjusting the emission limits in Part 15 for devices so measured to account for the significant attenuation that occurs upon reflection of those emissions,” OET said. “These emission limits will protect any nearby receivers from encountering any increase in interfering signal levels."