The Public Safety Bureau circulated for FCC action an item addressing call-forwarding requirements for non-service-initialized phones. Public safety officials said Tuesday that the commission circulated an NPRM that will pose various questions and help the FCC develop a time table for sunsetting a requirement that out-of-service cellphones can still call 911. Public safety answering points have complained of myriad prank 911 calls made from old, untraceable phones. APCO, the National Emergency Number Association and National Association of State 9-1-1 Administrators filed a petition in 2008 at the FCC seeking action in effort to stop fraudulent calls to 911 (see 0803050126).

An IEEE “conformity assessment steering committee” started work on an “open, industry-wide effort” to develop and deliver a standardized, “metrics-based” rating system for smartphone camera image quality, the group said Monday. The steering committee wants to engage carriers, camera designers and handset makers in creating a ratings system that will be “easily understandable for consumers,” it said. Developing a “standardized approach” to testing and certifying smartphone cameras “will provide great value to players throughout the camera phone supply chain, as well as consumers,” it said. Competitive smartphone models may have identical megapixel specs, but they’re capable of producing “varying image quality, which may cause dissatisfaction and confusion for consumers,” it said. “There is a need in the marketplace for a clear, concise and comprehensive definition of image quality that consumers of current and future mobile imaging devices worldwide could use in comparing products. We envision a rating system that would eliminate ambiguity about the image quality to expect from a given device and help consumers make better-educated buying decisions for their specific needs.”

Home furnishings retailer Ikea is showing a line of wireless charging furniture at Mobile World Congress. It embeds Qi technology and is due in stores in April. The Qi-powered bedside tables, lamps and desks will be available in stores in Europe and North America, with a global rollout to follow, said Ikea. The furniture shows consumers the “beauty and simplicity of wireless charging," said Menno Treffers, chairman of the Wireless Power Consortium, which backs the Qi standard. According to Bjorn Block, Ikea range manager-lighting and wireless charging, “Mobile phones are vital parts to people's lives at home and their desire to stay connected, and Qi addresses an unmet need to keep devices powered.” Qi, the dominant wireless charging technology, is available in 3,000 hotels, restaurants, airports and public locations worldwide, said the WPC. More than 80 Qi-enabled smartphones, 15 models of Qi-enabled cars and “countless” Qi mobile accessories are in the market, said WPC.

Mozilla will create Firefox OS devices with KDDI, LG U+, Telefónica and Verizon Wireless, Mozilla said in a news release Sunday. The companies will create Firefox OS phones for 2016, including flips, sliders and slates, it said. Firefox OS lets network operators and hardware manufacturers provide a "differentiated experience" and offers consumers a "more intuitive and easy-to-use experience," Mozilla said. The phones will include apps, cameras, email and Web browsing, LTE and VoLTE service and music players, it said.

4G Americas and the 5G Infrastructure Association-Public Private Partnership (5G PPP) signed a memorandum of understanding agreeing to cooperate in various areas as industry moves toward a “5G” world. The groups said Monday they'll cooperate on “basic system concepts for 5G spectrum frequencies to support the global regulatory process and preparation of future global 5G standards by identification of common interest and consensus building.”

The first-generation $399 Puls smart watch, available on a limited basis from the Will.i.am startup, i.am+, proves “the level of engineering capability and competence we can bring” to the wearables market, “including the whole back-end system that goes with it,” Phil Molyneux, the startup’s new president-chief operating officer, told us Friday. There’s “a fairly significant infrastructure” behind the Puls, including the proprietary, Android-derived operating system called AneedA that i.am+ developed with Nuance Communications, Molyneux said. “If we look into the future and the road map possibilities, it gives us multiple directions that we could branch out in and add onto that platform, using our proprietary operating system and user interface, and the apps that are already built into the current-generation product,” the former Sony Electronics president said. “We have a road map forward that I’m working on. ... I haven’t fixed with the team exactly where do we go, first, second or third step. So that’s work in process.” Molyneux wants to take “a little bit more time,” and perform “a little bit more due diligence, to make sure we’re taking the right strategic steps,” he said. In studying the markets and “geographies we should approach” with its forthcoming generations of wearable electronics, the U.S. and U.K. are a lock, but beyond that is open territory, Molyneux said. “We have a relationship with AT&T,” he said. “We partnered with them on the first-generation product. And of course, we have a relationship with O2 in the U.K.” In evaluating future market opportunities, “there are some mighty big populist [sic] countries in this world and some rapidly emerging economies and wealth levels that we have to take a look at,” Molyneux said. The company won’t hesitate to leverage the star power of its CEO, Will.i.am, where the opportunities are right, he said. Asked whether the company will aim to be a ubiquitous or niche brand of wearables within a year, Molyneux answered: “We’re going to be smart and steady. We’re a startup. We need to look at how we fund the company and manage the growth.” In the next 12 months, Molyneux anticipates taking “careful, meaningful steps, and as we scale the organization and operation as well as our supply base and reach, we can talk further about where do we go and which countries we go,” he said. “So this is not necessarily a race. This is smart, careful building for the long term.” In the past week, Molyneux hired Ro Peschken as chief financial officer, he said. She’s his former senior vice president-corporate controller at Sony Electronics in San Diego. Molyneux has “lined up” another key executive who’s “very experienced in supply-chain operations, from components, right the way through to the customer, and everything in between,” he said. Besides innovating and bringing to market differentiated forms of wearables, Molyneux wants to put his engineering team to work at devising “mechanisms” for boosting battery life of mobile devices, he said. “If we look at technology evolution over the past 10 years or so, batteries in general, energy in general, for mobile devices has been a struggle,” he said. “If you go to any airport, and have a look around where everybody’s standing, they’re all plugged into the power outlets at the airport. So I would say it’s an industry challenge to resolve. There are ways around it.”

The LTE-U Forum released its first report evaluating LTE unlicensed, showing how it can coexist with Wi-Fi and other technologies that share unlicensed spectrum, said a Verizon news release Monday. LTE-U extends LTE and LTE Advanced, so mobile operators can offload data traffic onto unlicensed frequencies more efficiently and effectively. “Unlicensed spectrum is designed to promote innovation and choices for consumers,” said Ed Chan, Verizon senior vice president-network technology and planning.

Test results by consultant V-Comm point to major interference issues if white space devices and wireless mics are allowed to use the 600 MHz guard band or duplex gap following the TV incentive auction, said CTIA representatives. They met with FCC officials Feb. 25 to answer their questions and explain the V-Comm test results, said a filing posted Monday in docket 14-166. CTIA explained V-Comm’s “parameters and the technical assumptions used in conducting the interference testing,” CTIA said. “V-COMM explained that unlike the other parties that provided technical data in this proceeding, its testing relied upon actual measured values rather than 3GPP [3rd Generation Partnership Project] standard defined values for receiver sensitivity and blocking.” Unlicensed operations in the TV spectrum are being examined more closely by the FCC as rules are written for the incentive auction, expected to get underway next year (see 1502260008).

Sprint will release the LG G Pad F 7.0 tablet March 13 and is offering several bundled promotions that give the tablet to customers who commit to LG smartphone contracts. New and existing Sprint customers with an active smartphone account can get the G Pad F for free in select retail channels with a new two-year service agreement, Sprint said. For $90 per month for 24 months and no money down, customers can lease the G3 smartphone with unlimited data, talk and text while on the Sprint network and get a gigabyte of data on the G Pad, the carrier said. Customers can buy the LG Flex2 smartphone for $95 per month for 24 months and $0 down for unlimited data, talk and text and get a gigabyte of data per month on the tablet. The tablet can also be purchased separately for $0 down, no finance fees and 24 $10 monthly payments, Sprint said. The 7-inch tablet has a WXGA IPS display and is built on a Qualcomm Snapdragon 410 1.2GHZ quad-core processor.

Rules requiring 911 communications providers to take reasonable measures to provide reliable service, as evidenced by an annual certification, took effect Friday, the FCC said in a notice in that day's Federal Register. It said initial certifications are due Oct. 15.