FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler knows the TV incentive auction won’t be easy, but the FCC is determined to get the rules of the road right, he told the GSMA Mobile World Congress. “Let there be no mistake about the degree of difficulty of this undertaking,” Wheeler said, according to prepared remarks released Monday (http://fcc.us/1hlG1nS). “We are attempting something never done before. But as with our original spectrum auctions twenty years ago, the risks are well worth taking. The Incentive Auction presents a two-part challenge of making the right fact-based policy decisions in an open and transparent manner and building user-friendly back-end systems and ensuring that they are exhaustively tested and ready to work from the start. We know the world is watching, and we will get this right.” Spectrum remains a priority for the commission, Wheeler said. “We are committed to bringing more spectrum capacity to market and fast.”

Signs are that FirstNet could be stalled two years after the law approving the national first responder network was enacted, former Seattle Chief Technology Officer Bill Schrier warned in a blog post. Schrier, who is FirstNet’s designated point of contact in Washington State, said the network has made a only few dozen hires to date. “Two years into a $7 billion project and only 25 full-time staff have been hired!?” he asked (http://bit.ly/OzFEwv). The public reaction to FirstNet also seems to be changing, he said. “I've been speaking to groups of public officials and police chiefs and emergency managers and firefighters and other responders in Washington State about FirstNet since May, 2013,” Schrier said. “Lately, the mood of the audiences is starting to change. ‘Yeah, yeah, we've heard you say that before, Bill, but what’s happening now? Where’s the beef?’ I'm starting to feel a bit like a computer software salesman pushing vaporware. ‘Oh yes, that feature will be in our next release slated to come out in 2017.'” In a separate blog posted by Urgent Communications, FirstNet General Manager Bill D'Agostino said real progress is being made. “Our work so far has been focused on putting the foundational building blocks in place for getting this network up and running,” he said (http://bit.ly/MrWSK7). “We want to get the job done as expeditiously as possible, but we have one opportunity to get it right and we understand this tremendous responsibility.”

U.S. Cellular and partner carrier King Street Wireless expanded their 4G LTE network into new markets in Iowa, Maine, New Hampshire, North Carolina and Wisconsin, Ericsson said Tuesday. The manufacturer said it worked on the 4G LTE network expansion, including providing base stations and network implementation services. The expansion helped U.S. Cellular “support the launch of Apple devices,” said U.S. Cellular Chief Technology Officer Michael Irizarry in an Ericsson news release. Cities covered by the latest network expansion include Cedar Rapids, Iowa, Madison, Wis., and Portland, Maine.

Consumers “will be wary” of the new biometric mobile payment feature in Samsung’s coming Galaxy S5 smartphone, predicted Eden Zoller, Ovum principal analyst-consumer. The feature will enable users of the S5 to use fingerprint authentication for mobile payments with PayPal merchants. But Ovum thinks consumers will “need some convincing due to security concerns,” said Zoller. Forty-nine percent of respondents in Ovum’s 2013 Consumer Insights Survey ranked lack of security as their main concern with mobile payments, she said. “Consumers already worried about the security of established m-payment mechanisms are likely to view a new technology and process with suspicion,” she predicted. But Samsung is a “hugely popular smartphone brand with global reach, while PayPal is a trusted payments service provider,” so the partnership on the S5 represents a “powerful combination,” she said. PayPal also stressed that fingerprint authentication is a secure feature based on a Fast Identity Online (FIDO) Alliance-ready software implementation with all credentials stored remotely in the cloud, she said. PayPal was the first member of the FIDO Alliance to produce such a mobile payment solution. Other FIDO members include BlackBerry, Google, Lenovo and Microsoft. The PayPal fingerprint authentication feature will go live when the S5 ships in 26 markets in April, including the U.S. and U.K., PayPal said in a news release. The only information the device will share with PayPal is a “unique encrypted key that allows PayPal to verify the identity of the customer without having to store any biometric information” on PayPal’s servers, it said. Other S5 features include Download Booster, a Wi-Fi technology for boosting data speed by bonding Wi-Fi and LTE simultaneously, Samsung said in a news release. The version of the S5 offered by Sprint in the U.S. will support Pinsight Touch, a nationwide, open platform for near field communication-enabling mobile applications and services, the carrier said.

The Competitive Carriers Association said rules designed for the Canadian 700 MHz auction (CD Feb 24 p5) show that the U.S. can safely impose spectrum aggregation limits in the TV incentive auction. “The record-breaking results from the Canadian … auction are proof-positive that spectrum aggregation limits will encourage participation and will raise substantial revenues at auction,” said CCA President Steve Berry in a news release. “The similarities between the lead-up to Canada’s 700 MHz auction and the current arguments here in the U.S. over spectrum aggregation limits are remarkable, and I strongly encourage the FCC to look to the success of the Canadian auction and, like Industry Canada, adopt up-front spectrum aggregation limits.” CCA planned to file its arguments at the FCC Monday.

Global Satellite Communications urged the FCC to ensure that its Globalstar service isn’t affected by unlicensed users operating in its spectrum. Global Satellite is concerned about its Globalstar customers in government and emergency management “who depend on their Globalstar devices in disaster recovery situations,” it said in a letter to Chairman Tom Wheeler in docket 13-49 (http://bit.ly/1fNUB3H).

Members of the Public Interest Spectrum Coalition questioned in a meeting with FCC Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel whether expanding access to unlicensed spectrum is getting adequate attention at the agency. PISC cited the growing amount of carrier traffic unloaded onto Wi-Fi, said an ex parte filing on the meeting (http://bit.ly/1hqqkKO). Despite the current and growing importance of unlicensed spectrum for the economy and a steady stream of positive statements from the commission, the advocates expressed concern that expanding access to unlicensed spectrum does not actually seem to be a priority at the Commission. The continued uncertainty and lack of action on any pro-unlicensed item makes it “harder for investors, entrepreneurs and developers to believe that the FCC is serious about developing next generation businesses and technologies in this country,” it said. Staff from Public Knowledge and New America Foundation were at the meeting on behalf of PISC.

Apple and Samsung told the U.S. District Court in San Jose they failed to reach agreement during a mediation session on part of their long-standing patent infringement dispute, said a joint court filing by the two companies Friday. The companies are seeking a settlement to avoid moving forward with a planned March 31 trial over a lawsuit in which Apple claims Samsung violated multiple Apple patents in its Galaxy S3 smartphone and other recent devices, including Apple’s Siri voice search technology. Apple CEO Tim Cook and Samsung co-CEO J.K. Shin met for a daylong mediation session earlier this month, but the session and followup phone calls between the two companies on the mediator’s proposed settlement were “unsuccessful,” they said in the court filing. Apple and Samsung said they “remain willing to work through the mediator” to resolve the patent dispute.

Sprint representatives asked FCC officials for advice on an expected filing providing data to the FCC on special access charges. “Sprint explained that it is working diligently to prepare its data in expectation of the special access data request and asked for guidance regarding several aspects of the data collection,” Sprint said in an ex parte filing on the meeting (http://bit.ly/1eqia1N). “Specifically, the meeting participants discussed the appropriate format in which to submit requested data on purchase price, market trials, IRUs [Indefeasible Rights of Use], and wireless backhauls. Sprint also sought clarifying details on how it will be expected to populate date, CLLI [Common Language Location Identifier], and zip4 information fields."

Global mobile device market trends continue to change rapidly, Tom Mainelli, IDC research director-tablets, told the Digital Entertainment World Conference Thursday. Consumers, for example, are holding on to their mobile devices for longer periods than in the past, he said. Consumers are, on average, keeping PCs for four or more years, tablets for three or more years, and smartphones two or more years, said Mainelli. However, consumers tend to keep iPads a little longer than Android tablets, he said. “If you buy a $79 Android tablet at CVS you're probably not going to keep it for four years,” he said. Consumers will likely start pushing off replacing their smartphones even longer because “we're sort of getting to a point in hardware where” small improvements in new models “really don’t drive people to buy a new phone,” he said. “Phablets” -- mobile devices that are a cross between smartphones and tablets -- were a “punch line” in Q1 2013, said Mainelli. But they were 15 percent of global smartphone shipments in Q4 2013, he said.