CTIA and the Competitive Carriers Association called the release of the FCC’s AWS-3 Coordination Public Notice Friday (CD July 21 p12) an important step forward toward a successful auction. CCA President Steve Berry said he hopes the FCC will soon release a procedures public notice as well. “To determine whether to participate, CCA’s members need sufficient time and adequate information about the coordination process,” Berry said. “Maximizing information for prospective bidders, and maximizing timely access for AWS-3 licenses will be essential to ensuring that these bands are put to their highest use,” said Scott Bergmann, CTIA vice president-regulatory affairs. Verizon Federal Regulatory Affairs Senior Vice President Kathy Grillo called the notice “an important step” toward making necessary information available to bidders and “establishing a clear and predictable post-auction coordination process.”

Members of the Safety and Security in the Air Coalition held a series of meetings at the FCC to warn against allowing more use of cellphones on commercial flights, said various filings in docket 13-301. In the latest meeting Wednesday with FCC Commissioner Ajit Pai, members of the group said a cellphone could be used to help a terrorist communicate “in real time” with accomplices on the ground, on other parts of a plane or on other planes (http://bit.ly/1u8sJEn). Cellphones can also be used to act as switches on improvised explosive devices, the group said. The coalition represents the Association of Flight Attendants-CWA, the Transport Workers Union of America, the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers, and other groups opposed to liberalizing rules for cellphone use in-flight.

The FCC Wireless and Wireline bureaus approved the $650,000 winning bid of Triangle Communications for Tribal Mobility Fund Phase I support in Fort Belknap, Montana, the site of the Fort Belknap Indian Community. The Friday notice directed the Universal Service Administrative Company to pay the company. The initial payment is equal to one-third of the total winning bid amount, the notice said (http://bit.ly/1moE2yg). It said winners “will be subject to a performance default payment if it fails or is unable to meet its coverage requirement, other service requirements, or fails to fulfill any other term or condition of Tribal Mobility Fund Phase I support.” The co-op provides telecom services in 39 exchanges located in 16 Montana counties (http://bit.ly/1jYHdlX).

The FCC shouldn’t adopt new tower siting rules that “would restrict opportunities for government and industry to collaborate on creative, innovative solutions to difficult siting challenges,” city government leaders from two Colorado cities -- Arvada and Thornton -- told FCC Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel and her senior legal adviser, David Goldman, during a meeting Tuesday, Kissinger Fellman lawyer Kenneth Fellman said in an ex parte posted Friday. Fellman, Arvada City Council member Bob Fifer and Colorado Communications and Utility Alliance President Todd Barnes, communications director for Thornton’s city government, told Rosenworcel and Goldman that there are multiple examples of “creative wireless facilities siting” in Colorado and Washington, the ex parte said. A “one-size-fits-all rule” is inappropriate for defining a “substantial change in physical dimensions” of a tower or base station, Barnes and Fifer said. The officials also urged the FCC to allow local courts to handle any violations of the new tower siting rules because many jurisdictions don’t have the financial resources to retain counsel in Washington or to travel there to “defend local decisions” (http://bit.ly/1tfhztg).

Apple and Samsung have implemented “positive security measures” to secure fingerprint data collected from smartphones, but more work remains, said a Friday release from Sen. Al Franken, D-Minn. Franken asked both companies -- Apple last fall, Samsung in May -- for information about the security measures for Apple’s Touch ID and Samsung Galaxy S5’s fingerprint scanner (CD May 15 p15). “What I got was mostly good news,” Franken said of the responses from Apple (http://1.usa.gov/1u0uLq0) and Samsung (http://1.usa.gov/UfY9rR), both released Friday. “Both companies encrypt and isolate fingerprint data on their devices and have designed their systems so that fingerprint data cannot be removed from those devices, either in person or over the Internet.” Franken highlighted areas he believes need improvement. “Both companies have not taken any further steps to prevent criminals from bypassing fingerprint readers with a spoofed print,” he said. “That problem needs to be fixed, since fingerprint readers are becoming a gateway to a range of powerfully sensitive information.” Apple and Samsung had no immediate comment.

Assist 123, a Las Vegas-based carrier, agreed to pay $1.3 million to resolve a cramming investigation, the FCC said Wednesday. The FCC said the company allegedly billed wireless customers for a Concierge/Directory Assistance subscription text messaging service they didn’t want or authorize (http://bit.ly/1nbEgyQ). The FCC received more than 2,600 pages of complaints and inquiries from consumers “who alleged that they were repeatedly charged for subscription services that they had never authorized, including directory assistance, movie and theater listings, restaurant locator service, driving directions, news and financial information, and lottery results,” the agency said. The FCC said this is the third cramming action it has taken this week, along with a proposed $7.62 million fine against Optic Internet Protocol Monday and a proposed $1.6 million fine against Net One International released Tuesday.

The FCC asked the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit to reject long-standing challenges to the commission’s 800 MHz rebanding order filed by James Kay and Charles Guskey. “Neither Guskey nor Kay has standing to litigate,” the FCC said. “Neither Guskey nor Kay holds any 800 MHz licenses. Not surprisingly, then, their papers in this Court do not (and cannot) establish that they have suffered any concrete injury caused by the FCC’s orders restructuring the 800 MHz spectrum band.” The Monday pleading was in Case No. 06-1076 (http://bit.ly/1nDghYi). The FCC issued the landmark rebanding order in 2004 to address interference issues for public safety in the 800 MHz band.

After a monthslong search, T-Mobile US said Tuesday Andy Levin was named senior vice president and head of the Washington, D.C., office, replacing Tom Sugrue, who retired in April. Levin is former general counsel at Clear Channel, which he left four years ago. More recently he has been a managing partner at Traveling Light Partners. He’s also a former House staffer and Verizon veteran. After Sugrue left, T-Mobile did an extensive search for a replacement, industry officials said. The appointment is effective July 21. T-Mobile Vice President Kathleen Ham has been filling in as acting head of the D.C. office.

European drug maker Novartis will license Google’s “smart lens” technology for “all ocular medical uses,” Novartis said in a Tuesday news release (http://bit.ly/1ylO6AR). “Google’s key advances in the miniaturization of electronics complement Novartis’s deep pharmaceuticals and medical device expertise,” Novartis said. “Novartis aims to enhance the ways in which diseases are mapped within the body and ultimately prevented.” The company said it will focus on two areas: diabetic patients and those with presbyopia, the diminishing ability to focus on near objects.

Comments are due Aug. 29 on a joint proposal by NTIA and the FCC for a program that would test advanced spectrum sharing technologies in a model city, after a notice was published in the Federal Register Tuesday (http://1.usa.gov/1l0zsqg). The model city program was initially recommended by the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology. The program could “facilitate large-scale sustainable facilities for systems-level testing in real-world environments across multiple frequency bands, potentially including selected federal and non-federal frequency bands,” the agencies said. Responses to the notice will determine “whether NTIA and/or the FCC may need to undertake additional actions or initiate formal proceedings,” the notice said. Comments to the FCC should be filed in docket 14-99.