Neustar added area code 854 for portions of South Carolina served by the existing 843 code, the North American Numbering Plan Administrator said in a news release Monday (http://bit.ly/1ienhsG). Neustar had forecast that numbers in the 843 area code would be exhausted by the end of 2015, it said.

Verizon Wireless federal regulatory executives touted during a meeting with FCC staff Wednesday the carrier’s improvement in delivering timely location information for public safety answering points. The executives told an aide to FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler and staff from the Public Safety Bureau that the carrier is “part of the solution” and was taking steps to continue improving the location information it sends to PSAPs, Verizon Wireless said in a filing. Those steps include making caller location information available within an average of 12-15 seconds, and within 25 seconds for 99 percent of all 911 calls where info is available. Verizon Wireless said it’s also working with E911 vendors to improve chipset sensitivity to GPS signals and working on enhancements to its A-GPS location accuracy solution for voice over LTE. Verizon Wireless also “remains on track” to make text-to-911 available to PSAPs by a voluntary May 15 deadline. The carrier will offer PSAPs three text-to-911 options, including two that are already available. The third option will be ready in Q1, Verizon Wireless said. Each of the options will include bounceback message capability (http://bit.ly/1lamshL).

The multiyear iPhone deal that Apple signed with China Mobile will also have “implications” for Sprint, Wells Fargo Senior Analyst Jennifer Fritzsche said Monday. The iPhone 5s and iPhone 5c will be available via China Mobile’s network of retail stores and at Apple retail stores across mainland China starting Jan. 17, Apple said Sunday in a news release. It’s “clearly a meaningful” announcement for Apple, said Fritzsche. China Mobile is the world’s largest mobile operator, with more than 760 million customers, making it seven times larger than Verizon, she said. China Mobile, like Sprint, is deploying the TDD LTE 4G service on the 2.5 GHz spectrum, she said. Until now, the iPhone hasn’t supported the 2.5 GHz band, she said. With the “significant scale” that China Mobile “brings to the table, it is our understanding that future versions of the iPhone device will now support this band,” she said. That’s a “significant positive” for Sprint shares, she said. Apple, however, didn’t immediately comment on its plans. Of the “Big 4” carriers, Sprint is the only one using the TDD version of LTE, she said. The iPhone “continues to be the most embraced high end” smartphone in the U.S., so having the device support the spectrum band and the TDD LTE technology “should strengthen Sprint’s competitive position in future quarters,” she said. Sprint shares, however, closed 1.8 percent lower Monday at $9.68.

The FCC should expand the kinds of spectrum included in its screen to evaluate potential spectrum concentration issues, Verizon officials said in a meeting with FCC Commissioner Mike O'Rielly. The FCC should update the screen “to include all suitable and available spectrum,” said an ex parte filing on the meeting (http://bit.ly/1jBGbv4). “They noted that Sprint is aggressively deploying its 2.5 GHz Broadband Radio Service and Educational Broadband Service spectrum to provide 4G LTE service, confirming that this spectrum must be added to the screen. The Commission should also add to the screen the 40 MHz of AWS-4 spectrum held by Dish. As it stands today, the spectrum screen cannot provide a meaningful tool to evaluate potential spectrum concentration issues because it omits substantial amounts of spectrum that are available for, and are actually being used to provide, commercial mobile broadband services."

The Obama administration asked U.S. District Judge Jeffrey White to dismiss a case on the constitutionality of warrantless collection of data by the National Security Agency, arguing that a trial threatens national security. White is overseeing a case brought in San Francisco by the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) and others, Jewel v. NSA. Among the documents released by the government Friday was one that acknowledged that President George W. Bush authorized NSA’s bulk data collection on phones calls and the Internet in the weeks following the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks (http://bit.ly/1gSAOFR). “President Bush issued authorizations approximately every 30-60 days,” wrote James Clapper, the director of national intelligence, in a post on the DNI’s Tumblr page. “Although the precise terms changed over time, each presidential authorization required the minimization of information collected concerning American citizens to the extent consistent with the effective accomplishment of the mission of detection and prevention of acts of terrorism within the United States. NSA also applied additional internal constraints on the presidentially authorized activities.” EFF criticized the administration’s claims. “Surprisingly, in these documents and in the brief filed with them, the government continues to claim that plaintiffs cannot prove they were surveilled without state secrets and that therefore, a court cannot rule on the legality or constitutionality of the surveillance,” EFF said in response (http://bit.ly/1jBE22C). “For example, despite the fact that these activities are discussed every day in news outlets around the world and even in the president’s recent press conference, the government states broadly that information that may relate to Plaintiffs’ claims that the ‘NSA indiscriminately intercepts the content of communications, and their claims regarding the NSA’s bulk collection of ... metadata’ is still a state secret."

Entercom donated KWOD(AM), Salem, Ore., to the Minority Media and Telecommunications Council. MMTC plans to train new entrants in broadcast ownership, said Entercom and MMTC in a press release (http://bit.ly/1hzQCuX).

The Senate Commerce Committee sent S.Res. 157 to the full Senate Thursday. The bill, which the committee cleared in late July, would express the sense of the Senate that phone service must be improved in rural areas and that no entity may unreasonably discriminate against users in those areas. Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., who introduced S.Res. 157 with Sens. Deb Fischer, R-Neb., and Tim Johnson, D-S.D., has expressed concerns that call completion issues persist despite FCC action (CD July 31 p1).

The FCC Media Bureau reiterated that Jan. 1 is the compliance deadline for apparatus covered under closed captioning capabilities. The rules governing closed captioning requirements for video programming delivered using Internet protocol “specify what apparatus are covered by the new requirements and how they must implement closed captioning,” the bureau said in a public notice (http://bit.ly/1ciD4D1).

The FCC Media Bureau granted Pappas Arizona a “failing station” waiver, allowing it to assign the license of its station KSWT-TV, Yuma, Ariz., to Blackhawk Broadcasting. The FCC approved the application for assignment of KYMA-DT, Yuma, to Blackhawk this year, the bureau said in a letter (http://bit.ly/JWsRkS). The combined operation of the stations will pose minimal harm to diversity and competition and allowing KSWT to operate in tandem with a stronger station “will help it to become a more viable local voice in the market, through a definite improvement in facilities and programming,” it said.

NAB bought the assets of the Content and Communications World and the Satellite Communications Conference and Expo (SATCON) New York-based events from JDEvents. The conferences will complement NAB’s existing trade shows and events, NAB said in a press release (http://bit.ly/1fBJI76). The association’s goal is to grow both the attendee and exhibitor base “of what has emerged as an important East Coast venue for the content community,” it said.