The global market for smart watches and other wearables will surpass $8 billion in 2018, based on an 18 percent compound annual growth rate the next four years, RNR Market Research said in a report. It estimated 130 million wearable devices will ship worldwide in 2018. The U.S. is the “single largest revenue base for this global market, and is expected to maintain its dominance” the next four years, it said. The global “ecosystem” for wearables, including components and materials for smart watches and other wearable devices, worth more than $4 billion, will surpass $14 billion by 2018, when market penetration of wearable devices will reach just under 50 percent, it said. It estimated current market penetration at just over 18 percent globally.

The Computer & Communications Industry Association filed in support of a May T-Mobile petition asking for “predictable” enforcement criteria for determining whether the terms of data roaming agreements meet the “commercially reasonable” standard adopted by the FCC in its 2011 data roaming order (CD May 28 p9). “Granting T-Mobile’s Petition will not amend the Data Roaming Order in any way, but instead help the Commission realize the goals initially sought in its adoption,” CCIA said (http://bit.ly/1q10Yc6). By most accounts, “dominant carriers are leveraging their market power to impose prohibitive higher rates at the expense of small carriers,” CCIA said. Reply comments were due Wednesday in docket 05-265.

The FCC set the pleading cycle for T-Mobile’s proposed $50 million buy of lower 700 MHz A-block licenses from CenturyLink subsidiary Actel. The companies contend the deal “would allow T-Mobile to expand its coverage and offer improved services to its customers,” said a Wednesday public notice (http://bit.ly/1qqzg5G). “The Applicants further contend that T-Mobile would become a stronger competitor in the subject markets and nationwide, which would enhance competition and improve the quality of services in the mobile wireless marketplace.” The deal would give T-Mobile 12 MHz of spectrum in 179 counties in all or parts of 50 cellular market areas, the agency said. After the buy, T-Mobile would hold 32-82 MHz of spectrum in each of those CMAs. According to the PN, T-Mobile does not own any spectrum below 1 GHz in those markets. Petitions to deny are due Sept. 3, oppositions Sept. 15 and replies Sept. 22. In April, T-Mobile wrapped up its $3.3 billion acquisition of low-band spectrum from Verizon, giving the carrier for the first time a significant amount of sub-1 GHz spectrum (CD April 24 p10). T-Mobile is widely expected to be a major player in next year’s TV incentive auction of 600 MHz spectrum.

Samsung Electronics America will pay $2.3 million to settle with the Justice Department over allegations of providing inaccurate country of origin claims to resellers, said a DOJ news release (http://1.usa.gov/1thUGXL). The company was accused of causing “the submission of false claims for products sold on General Service Administration (GSA) Multiple Award Schedule (MAS) contracts in violation of the Trade Agreements Act” (TAA), said the department Tuesday. “Samsung caused resellers of its products to sell items on their GSA MAS contracts in violation of the TAA by knowingly providing inaccurate information to the resellers regarding the country of origin of the goods.” The government said that “Samsung represented to the resellers, who in turn represented to federal agencies, that the specified products were made in TAA designated countries, generally Korea or Mexico, when the specified products were in fact manufactured in China, which is not a TAA designated country.” The allegations began with Robert Simmons, a former Samsung employee who made the claims under whistleblower provisions, which let the whistleblower share in any recovered money. Simmons’ share has not yet been determined, said the DOJ. The case was filed in U.S. District Court for Maryland. DOJ and Samsung noted there’s been no finding of liability related to the case. “Samsung Electronics fully cooperated with the DOJ’s investigation, and the claims resolved by the settlement are allegations only,” emailed a Samsung spokeswoman. “There has been no determination of wrongdoing by the company. We are committed to working with the government, and abiding by its regulations."

NTCA supported a petition by NTCH asking the FCC to require carriers to publicly disclose roaming rates agreed to in privately negotiated commercial contracts (CD Aug 20 p7). In a filing, NTCA said its members offer “a wide range of wireless services to their customers,” with all respondents to its latest survey saying they offer their wireless customers voice mail and text messaging (http://bit.ly/1oRl8ar). “These carriers face significant challenges, the ability to access wholesale mobile wireless roaming services at reasonable rates chief among them,” NTCA said. More than half of NTCA members that tried to negotiate data roaming or in-market roaming agreements with other providers categorize the experience as “moderately to extremely difficult,” the group said. The comment was filed in docket 05-265 and posted by the FCC Wednesday.

T-Mobile slammed claims by the FindMe911 Coalition of poor performance by carriers on wireless 911 in Washington, D.C. In July, Verizon made similar arguments against the coalition (http://bit.ly/1uT5gqd), which is funded, at least in part, by TruePosition, a company that offers alternative technology for locating wireless 911 calls. The coalition acknowledges initial funding by the vendor on its website (http://bit.ly/1pHjVRV). “FindMe911 continues to push sensationalist headlines rather than facts as it tries to manufacture a crisis that simply does not exist,” T-Mobile said in a Monday FCC filing (http://bit.ly/1yVqPUM). “The information the coalition presents says very little about the availability of accurate E911 location estimates during an emergency call, and far more about FindMe911’s desire to drum up controversy where there is none to promote the business interests of TruePosition.” Data obtained by the coalition indicate nine out of 10 wireless 911 calls made in D.C. in the first half of 2013 “were delivered without the accurate location information needed to find callers who are lost, confused, unconscious or otherwise unable to share their location,” the FindMe911 group said in a July news release (http://bit.ly/VE42Qy). A coalition spokesman said 911 call center officials themselves believe wireless 911 location accuracy is a critical issue. “How many lives must be lost before carriers acknowledge there is even a problem?” the spokesman said in response to T-Mobile. “Data from across the country has proven that 911 call takers are not getting the life-saving location data they need to find wireless callers, yet carriers continue to cast blame, quibble and complain."

Sprint is the launch carrier for Sharp’s first Aquos-branded smartphone for the U.S. market, Sprint said in a news release Tuesday. The Aquos Crystal will be available through Sprint and its prepaid brands Boost Mobile and Virgin Mobile USA and to SoftBank in Japan as a result of the Sprint/SoftBank merger, Sprint said. Currently, Spark is available in 27 markets offering average wireless speeds of 6-15 Mbps, Sprint said, and the carrier hopes to reach 100 million users with Spark by year-end, it said. Phone availability hasn’t been announced.

The 3650-3700 MHz band is important to the critical infrastructure industry (CII) and should be excluded from spectrum dedicated to a Citizens Broadband Radio Service, the American Petroleum Institute said in comments posted by the FCC Monday in docket 12-354. “In reliance on the Commission’s current rules many CII companies already have made significant investments in the 3.65 GHz band, which fills a gap in the Commission’s broadband spectrum allocations for CII use,” API said (http://bit.ly/1lfzRey). API represents oil and gas producers.

The FTC approved its final orders and settled charges against movie ticket seller Fandango and credit score monitor Credit Karma, said an agency news release Tuesday (http://1.usa.gov/XxUOH2). FTC complaints against Fandango (http://1.usa.gov/O6pZ6M) and Credit Karma (http://1.usa.gov/1f19QtS) alleged their mobile apps made consumer data, such as credit card information, “vulnerable to interception by third parties,” it said. The complaints also alleged the companies disabled their Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) certificate, which would have protected consumer data, it said. In the Credit Karma complaint, the FTC said even after the company addressed the disabled SSL certificate in February, it then released an Android version of its app with the same unvalidated SSL certificate. Both companies have since addressed their SSL deficiencies, said the complaints. The settlement, announced in March, requires the companies to establish “comprehensive security programs” and to “undergo independent security assessments every other year for the next 20 years,” it said (CD March 31 p8).

The FCC should reject petitions of reconsideration filed by T-Mobile and Sprint (CD Aug 13 p1) asking the agency to change key parts of its May 15 spectrum holdings order, which restricted the ability of AT&T and Verizon Wireless to buy licenses in the TV incentive auction, said Gregory Vogt, visiting fellow at the Free State Foundation, Tuesday in a blog post. Increasing the amount of spectrum set aside for competitive carriers, as proposed by T-Mobile, is “anti-competitive” and could mean lower auction receipts, Vogt wrote (http://bit.ly/1tdB1Ij). Sprint is also wrong in its recommendations that the FCC change how spectrum is treated under its screen, he said: “Although unrelated in a direct sense to the spectrum auction, the request does represent another attempt by competitors to skew competitive analysis in their favor."