Pioneer will team with Treasure Data, a supplier of cloud-based data collection services, on a business alliance to develop telematics data services for the global automotive industry, the companies said Thursday. Using the Treasure Data cloud service, Pioneer will release new data and analytics-based services for automobile manufacturers and related businesses, including dealers, repair shops, insurance and rental car companies, they said. They also plan to “drive new research” on more effective use of automotive telematics data, they said in a news release (http://bit.ly/1lCfcRS).

Qualcomm said its Qualcomm Atheros subsidiary expanded distribution with Arrow Electronics for the U.S. and China and Codico for Europe in an effort to broaden support for QCA4002/4004, its low-power Wi-Fi platform designed for the Internet of Things. Qualcomm Atheros is offering an IoT development kit to enable low-power Wi-Fi in a range of connected products including light bulbs, home automation devices and security systems, it said in a Thursday news release (http://bit.ly/1oHVBuA).

In North America, LTE technology provided 33 percent of the total 391 million mobile connections for the first half of 2014, a 4G Americas report found. North America has 45 percent of all LTE connections worldwide; Asia Pacific has 36 percent; and Western Europe, more than 13 percent, it said Thursday in a news release (http://bit.ly/1r93FWz). Research for the report was done by Ovum, 4G Americas said. North America has an LTE penetration rate of nearly 36 percent, it said. Western Europe’s penetration rate is 8 percent, and Asia Pacific has a nearly 3 percent penetration rate, it said. Subscriber demand for mobile broadband data applications and services in the U.S. and Canada is driven in part by innovations in regulatory policy, new advanced LTE networks and significant smartphone penetration, 4G Americas said. Although LTE subscriptions remain low in Latin America, they're growing rapidly, with 4.8 million connections at the end of Q2 2014, “representing an annual increase of 900 percent at the end of the second quarter,” it said. Global LTE subscriptions grew 179 percent year-over-year from 2012 to 2013, it said. They're expected to grow 95 percent from 2013 to 2014 to reach 386 million subscriptions, it said.

The 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Thursday vacated its previous ruling that police need a warrant to acquire cellphone location data from service providers (CD June 13 p9). The decision (http://1.usa.gov/1qhBjxx) said a majority of the 11th Circuit judges voted to rehear the case en banc (No. 12-12928). The previous ruling had been seen as a remarkable victory for privacy advocates fighting for legal protection of electronic data (WID July 14 p1).

Lab and field tests conducted by Google, Federated Wireless and Virginia Tech show that fixed exclusion zones are not needed in the 3.5 GHz band, they said in a filing posted Thursday in FCC docket 12-354. The FCC is looking at use of the band for sharing and small cells, but questions remain about whether proposed exclusion zones are too large (CD Aug 25 p1). The filing follows a Tuesday meeting with commission staff, it said (http://bit.ly/1qh3D30). “Wi-Fi can operate within close proximity of the incumbent naval radar system without substantial degradation in performance,” the filing said. It said tests “demonstrate that fixed exclusion zones are not needed to protect the radar from interference from commercial operations and that dynamic exclusion zones can be implemented with existing technology."

The FCC must include wireless in its upcoming broadband progress report, since wireless services are the services “consumers are purchasing in the marketplace,” CTIA said in comments filed Thursday at the FCC on the commission’s Tenth Broadband Progress Notice of Inquiry. “It is time for the Section 706 report to embrace mobile broadband and the extensive role it plans in Americans’ lives,” CTIA said. In analyzing mobile broadband speeds the FCC should focus on existing offerings, the group said. “Such an approach is particularly warranted in the competitive mobile wireless sector, where providers are aggressively vying to provide the fastest speeds and most extensive network coverage.” CTIA said smartphone speeds have increased eightfold in just four years. The group urged the agency to avoid setting “arbitrary latency or usage thresholds,” which could exclude wireless offerings “widely deployed in the market and demonstrably valued by consumers.” The comments (http://bit.ly/1lD9OOn) were filed in docket 14-126.

The FirstNet board is getting five new members, the Department of Commerce said Thursday (http://1.usa.gov/1nyZaUz). Among major changes, Paul Fitzgerald, sheriff of Story County, Iowa, will no longer be a board member. Fitzgerald made headlines last year when he sharply criticized the leadership of the board (CD April 24/13 p1). Also leaving is Charles Dowd, a deputy police chief with the New York Police Department. But the board got two new first responders -- Chris Burbank, chief of police, Salt Lake City, and Richard Stanek, sheriff, Hennepin County, Minnesota. Also leaving the board are former Denver Mayor Wellington Webb and the board’s original chairman, former telecom executive Sam Ginn. Other new members are James Douglas, former governor of Vermont; Annise Parker, mayor of Houston; and Frank Plastina, a technology executive from North Carolina. Ed Reynolds, a former telecom executive, was reappointed. The department noted that the terms of office for Ginn, Dowd, Fitzgerald and Reynolds expired Aug. 20.

The FCC Wireless Bureau Wednesday sided with Geodesic Networks in a dispute with Auburn Data Systems over private operational fixed service (POFS) microwave point-to-point licenses at Naperville and Darien, both in Illinois. The bureau denied Auburn’s request that it reconsider grant of the licenses to Geodesic. Auburn had made a mutually exclusive application for the licenses. “We conclude that the Bureau did not prematurely grant Geodesic’s applications,” the bureau said (http://bit.ly/1oDIMkX). “Geodesic acceptably completed frequency coordination of its proposed operations, and it was not required to withdraw its applications once Auburn objected after the date Geodesic requested a response.”

NTelos selected Alcatel-Lucent to provide 4G LTE network services for its LTE buildout in West Virginia and parts of western Virginia, Alcatel said Wednesday. The network is to serve an additional 2.1 million people, Alcatel said. This is the third network expansion provided by Alcatel-Lucent since nTelos’s 2012 launch of its LTE network in 2013, Alcatel said. The company said it was worked with nTelos since 2000.

Worldwide phablet shipments, defined as smartphones with screen sizes from 5.5 to less than 7 inches, will reach 175 million units worldwide this year, passing the 170 million portable PCs expected to ship during the same period, said International Data Corp. (IDC). Next year, phablet shipments of 318 million are forecast to top tablet shipments, projected at 233 million for the year, IDC said. Phablets began picking up volume in 2012, but the category has already put pressure on the smaller end of the tablet market, where growth of 7-inch tablets has slowed, it said. IDC expects consumer replacement cycles to shift to larger-sized tablets, but that trend hasn’t made up for the falloff in shipments of smaller-sized tablets, which has led to lowered expectations for the tablet market in 2014 and beyond, IDC said. Apple’s expected entrance into the phablet space with the iPhone 6 this month is expected to bring more attention to phablets “as larger screen smartphones become the new norm,” said analyst Melissa Chau. IDC expects phablets to grow from 14 percent of the worldwide smartphone market this year to 32 percent in 2018. While consumers in mature markets including the U.S. and Western Europe are likely to own a combination of PCs, tablets and smartphones, “in many places the smartphone -- regardless of size -- will be the one connected device of choice,” IDC said. Falling average selling prices (ASPs) for phablets and smartphones will help drive the trend, it said, noting that in 2013, phablet ASP was $568 versus a regular smartphone at $320. This year, phablet ASP will drop to $397 while smartphone ASP falls to $291, it said. “Consumers are still trying to figure out what mix of [mobile] devices and screen sizes will suit them best,” analyst Tom Mainelli said. “What works well today could very well shift tomorrow as phones gain larger screens, tablets become more powerful replacements for PCs, and even smart watch screens join the fray."