The FCC Enforcement Bureau proposed a fine of $6,000 against small carrier Assist Wireless for “apparently willfully and repeatedly” violating the commission’s hearing aid compatibility status report filing requirements, in a notice of apparent liability released Tuesday. The carrier failed to “timely file” its hearing aid compatibility status report for 2012, said the NAL (http://bit.ly/N7cFig).

AT&T continues to have “strong support for public safety issues” and thinks it’s time to begin discussing indoor location accuracy for E-911, officials told an aide to FCC Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel Thursday, an ex parte filing said (http://bit.ly/1ghud66). The “FCC should be careful to ensure that any proposed rules on location accuracy are aligned with proven capabilities of the current state of technology and they should set realistic accuracy benchmarks that the industry and public safety can embrace,” the filing said. AT&T said the partnership between the industry and the public safety community “has been highly successful in resolving public safety issues in the past, and it remains the best approach for resolving the indoor location accuracy issues raised in the upcoming proceeding."

AT&T executives asked the FCC to “move expeditiously” to issue an NPRM on AT&T’s request for a rule change allowing a power spectral density (PSD) power limit in the 800 MHz band and to issue an order adopting CTIA’s plan for new geographic licensing rules, in a meeting Monday. The AT&T executives told FCC acting Wireless Bureau Chief Roger Sherman and other FCC officials that both issues have been pending for years, saying CTIA filed its petition for the licensing rule change in 2008. CTIA, NTCA and the Rural Wireless Association jointly lobbied in April on a “consensus approach” that would convert all current authorized Cellular Geographic Service Areas (CGSA) to geographic licenses and would allow carriers to claim “unserved” areas greater than 50 square miles under existing Phase II procedures, AT&T said in an ex parte filing. The Wireless Bureau can “move immediately” to adopt an order on the licensing plan with an accompanying FNPRM on open issues, as well as adopt “an interim waiver of the requirement to file minor modifications that do not change the CGSA during the pendency of this FNPRM,” AT&T said. The carrier told the FCC it can proceed with the licensing rules change independently of its request for a new PSD rule, saying PSD “can be implemented under either the current cellular licensing rules or the new rules for geographic licenses. Once the current CGSAs are converted to geographic licenses, AT&T will maintain the power limits at border sites as needed to maintain the current [Study Area Boundary].” AT&T said it believes the FCC should consider its PSD petition using the same standard it used in its order on Sprint’s petition seeking a rule change for [Specialized Mobile Radio] licenses on the 800 MHz band. The commission considered “whether public safety licensees would be ’subject to increased harmful interference when [Economic Area]-based 800 MHz SMR licensees comply with or exceed the [current] protections,'” AT&T said. The carrier said its PSD petition demonstrated that “public safety will not experience increased harmful interference as a result of the requested PSD rule change,” and no entity has proven that’s untrue since the petition was filed more than two years ago. AT&T also urged the FCC to approve its South Florida PSD waiver request “as soon as any remaining issues have been addressed."

Radisys introduced a high-capacity MPH6 media processing card to support the processing requirements for large deployments of real-time telecom services. The card enables mobile operators, IP multimedia subsystem platform providers and over-the-top service providers to deliver voice over LTE, HD videoconferencing and high-capacity multimedia transcoding services, Radisys said in a news release (http://bit.ly/1eXXFO7). The card overcomes video-over-LTE transcoding challenges and delivers scalability and reliability, Radisys said. It’s compatible with the MPX-12000 Broadband Media Resource Function, the company said.

The FCC should establish a “safe harbor reflecting a minimum level of due diligence” that a Lifeline eligible telecom carrier “should employ to screen for duplicates,” five ETCs told an aide to Chairman Tom Wheeler Thursday, an ex parte filing said (http://bit.ly/1aVLQbC). “It is clear that ETCs can be close to perfect at screening for intra-company duplicates, but they cannot be perfect. The lack of perfection, however, does not signal that an ETC has ignored the Commission’s rules or exploited the Lifeline program,” they said.

Nokia and HTC said they reached a settlement ending all pending patent litigation between the companies and signed a patent collaboration agreement. HTC agreed to pay Nokia an undisclosed amount of money and will allow Nokia access to its LTE patent portfolio. All other terms of the agreement are confidential, the companies said Monday. The agreement “validates Nokia’s implementation patents and enables us to focus on further licensing opportunities,” said Paul Melin, Nokia chief intellectual property officer, in a news release (http://nokia.ly/M9bui5).

Verizon has been “part of the solution” in improving wireless E-911 location accuracy, two Verizon executives told aides to FCC commissioners Ajit Pai and Mike O'Rielly, as well as officials from the Public Safety Bureau, during a meeting Thursday. Verizon has made caller location information available within an average of 12-15 seconds, and within 25 seconds for 99 percent of all wireless E911 calls when information is available, the telco said in an ex parte filing. Verizon is also working with E911 vendors to improve chipset sensitivity to GPS signals and to improve related network capabilities. Verizon said it’s also enhancing its A-GPS location accuracy solution for VoLTE “in ways that will improve indoor accuracy,” including coupling location data from satellite systems and the Observed Time Difference of Arrival positioning feature with GPS data (http://bit.ly/NzQMJj).

Sprint CEO Dan Hesse declined to comment specifically on continued speculation about a possible Sprint/T-Mobile US merger, but said during a Tuesday conference call with investors that he continues to believe further consolidation of the U.S. wireless industry beyond top carriers Verizon Wireless and AT&T “would be healthy for the competitive dynamic of the industry. It would be better for the country, and better for consumers, and I still believe that that’s very much the case.” The Wall Street Journal reported Monday that Sprint and T-Mobile were rethinking the feasibility of a merger after FCC and Department of Justice officials publicly signaled concerns about a possible deal. Some industry observers said those statements were nearly unprecedented, with one saying they constituted “regulation by raised eyebrow” (CD Feb 6 p1). Sprint added a net 58,000 postpaid subscribers during Q4, beating analysts’ consensus expectations that the No. 3 carrier would report a net loss of 365,000 subscribers during the quarter. Sprint also added 322,000 prepaid subscribers and 302,000 wholesale and affiliate subscribers during the quarter. Sprint lost a net $1.04 billion for the quarter on $9.14 billion in operating revenue. The carrier had a net loss of $1.35 billion for the same period in 2012. Sprint shares closed up 2.73 percent at $7.90.

The FCC Wireless Bureau said it’s extending the deadline for consumer signal boosters marketed, distributed and sold in the U.S. to meet new commission technical standards to April 30. The FCC had set the deadline at March 1, but has determined an extension was necessary because of “unforeseen delays” in developing equipment testing procedures for the boosters, it said Tuesday. The extension will also give the FCC “additional time to certify Consumer Signal Boosters under our new rules and will provide consumers with additional choices among compliant Consumer Signal Boosters."

AT&T believes now is the right time “to begin discussing Indoor Location Accuracy for E911,” executives from the company said during a meeting Friday with Louis Peraertz, aide to FCC Commissioner Mignon Clyburn, and a legal intern. The AT&T executives also urged the FCC to ensure any rules on location accuracy “are aligned with proven capabilities of the current state of technology and they should set realistic accuracy benchmarks that the industry and public safety can embrace.” The FCC should also continue to seek guidance from the Communications Security, Reliability and Interoperability Council on indoor location accuracy benchmarks, AT&T said in an ex parte filing (http://bit.ly/1eO0lOg).