Federated Wireless, which is building a proprietary spectrum access system leveraging “advanced cognitive radio techniques,” said Thursday it has raised $5 million in a series A funding round, backed by parent company Allied Minds (http://bit.ly/1iKLwk1). The company hopes to address “a growing deficiency in spectrum, made scarce by an explosion in use of wireless communications and in particular, video content delivery,” it said.

The FCC Enforcement Bureau proposed a $25,000 fine against a Bay Shore, New York, man for allegedly operating a radio transmitter without a license and interfering with the radio communications system of the Melville Fire District, also in New York. Newsday reported that Drew Buckley, of Bay Shore, was charged with chanting “aah, la, la” and other “gibberish” on Melville Fire Department’s radio frequency over a period of nine months before he was arrested last year (http://nwsdy.li/TBBTsk). Buckley’s alleged actions demonstrate “a deliberate disregard for public safety and the Commission’s authority and rules, warranting a substantial penalty above our normal sanction for unlicensed operations that interfere with licensed communications,” the bureau said Thursday (http://bit.ly/1jRHaSZ).

The Los Angeles Regional Interoperable Communications System (LA-RICS) asked the FCC to act on a December 2012 petition seeking a waiver of FCC rules so it can launch operations in 700 MHz “reserve” spectrum. The detailed design of its system is to be complete in September and LA-RICS needs to know whether it can use that spectrum, said a filing Tuesday in docket 13-39 (http://bit.ly/Vrtmd8). Without the waiver LA-RICS would have to launch in currently allotted channels, the authority said. Making changes later would “create substantial delays” and significantly increase costs, the authority said. LA-RICS is designed to provide communications for 34,000 first responders in an area with 10 million residents, it said.

Android-powered wearable-device owners are “highly engaged” smartphone users who access a variety of apps and use “significantly more data” than average Android users, according to data from Nielsen. Smart watches are a quarter of wearable devices used by Android users, while fitness trackers are 60 percent, Nielsen said. MHealth (mobile health) devices are 8 percent of wearable owners’ devices, Nielsen said. The average Android owner uses 5.61 GB of data a month, while the average Android owner using a wearable Bluetooth device uses 9.49 GB, Nielsen said. The average data usage for wearable-device owners on Wi-Fi networks is 74 percent higher than that of all adult Android users, Nielsen said. In February, 2.5 million Android users owned a wearable device -- such as a fitness tracker or smart watch -- up five times from September, it said. Wearables owners used their devices an average of 14 times during the month, it said. Data was gathered using Nielsen on-device software installed with permission on roughly 5,000 panelists’ Android and iOS smartphones.

Only a small percentage of U.S. broadband households are “very likely” to buy a smart watch this year, said a Parks Associates study released Wednesday. It canvassed 10,000 broadband households in Q1 and found only 4 percent very likely to buy a smart watch in the next 12 months, it said. That’s double the percentage of broadband households that actually acquired a smart watch last year, though nearly half said they received one as a gift, it said. The survey identified Samsung as the leading brand and found 20 percent bought direct from the manufacturer, 18 percent from Amazon, 17 percent from Best Buy, it said (http://bit.ly/TwAX8t).

The FCC Wireless Bureau rejected a petition by Blanca Telephone asking the agency to find that the agency erred in not imposing a uniform time limit or “shot clock” on all data roaming negotiations as part of its 2011 data roaming order (CD April 8/11 p1). Blanca “presents no material error or omission in the Commission’s Data Roaming Order or any additional new facts warranting reconsideration,” the bureau said Wednesday (http://bit.ly/1wyi9nP). A decision to consider requests for time limits on a “case-by-case basis” provides “appropriate flexibility” in negotiations “while allowing parties to seek Commission intervention if a negotiating partner unduly delays a particular negotiation.”

FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler has a “keen interest” in improving the environmental compliance and historic preservation review process that’s critical to the buildout of wireless facilities, FCC Wireless Bureau Chief Roger Sherman said in brief remarks at the start of an FCC workshop Tuesday. Sherman said the issues “span many bureaus” and must be addressed “agency-wide.” The FCC sees National Historic Preservation Act (NHPA) and National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) rules as “important legal obligations” and the FCC intends to meet its obligations “in a manner that best advances our primary mission of making communications services available to the public,” he said. Wheeler wants FCC staff to look for ways “we can streamline, expedite and simplify” enforcement of the rules, he said. “Stay tuned for developments in this area.” Sherman said the FCC has relied on two key programmatic agreements for more than 10 years on compliance with the NHPA, covering collocation of wireless antennas and telecommunications projects (http://1.usa.gov/UGFVR2). The programmatic agreements “turned what had been a completely disorganized mess into a basically functioning series of steps,” said Jeffrey Steinberg, deputy chief of the bureau’s Spectrum and Competition Policy Division. The workshop updated various siting topics, including the Antenna Structure Registration Process and communications towers and archeology. Roger Kirchen, compliance manager at the Virginia Department of Historic Resources, said, given the layers of history in the state, carriers face “a really complex environment” as they build out facilities. The state alone has 122 Civil War battlefield study areas, covering 1.2 million acres, he said. “That leaves probably about 10 acres in which you can build cell towers in Virginia,” Kirchen joked. Joelle Gehring, an FCC biologist, said the agency is required to look at endangered plants as well as animals as it reviews siting applications.

Representatives of Oceus Networks explained the progress the company has made providing U.S. military users with “tactical broadband wireless systems using commercial 4G LTE technologies,” in a series of meetings with FCC officials, according to ex parte filings posted Tuesday. The company met with both David Goldman, aide to Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel, and Brendan Carr, aide to Commissioner Ajit Pai, said the filings in docket 13-185. “The team spotlighted the need for the U.S. military to train on these tactical systems domestically on remote training ranges and bases and the need for long-term spectrum access,” Oceus said (http://bit.ly/TrQ4zY).

The FCC should rely on the standards process for “rolling out” solutions for more accurate indoor wireless calls to 911, 4G Americas officials said in a series of meetings at the agency. The group also discussed “various technology approaches” to improve the accuracy of wireless indoor location information and the “importance of avoiding any mandate -- either explicitly or implicitly -- of a proprietary technology standard,” said a filing Friday in docket 07-114 (http://bit.ly/UFqTej). Kris Rinne, chair of the board, and Chris Pearson, president of 4G Americas, met with all of the FCC commissioners except Chairman Tom Wheeler.

The FCC Wireless Bureau approved two waiver requests from Sprint allowing the carrier to deploy 800 MHz wideband operations in parts of Northern California and Nevada National Public Safety Planning Advisory Committee (NPSPAC) regions before the ongoing 800 MHz band reconfiguration is completed there. Granting the waivers “will permit LTE deployment in most of the counties within the Northern California and Nevada NPSPAC regions, providing Sprint’s subscribers access to these valuable broadband wireless services while protecting the remaining public safety entity from harmful interference,” the bureau said (http://bit.ly/1v2e3BV), saying taking the step is in the public interest. The 800 MHz rebanding is complete in both regions, except for two sites licensed to San Bernardino County in Northern California and one site licensed to the county in Nevada, the bureau said.