Wireless mic maker Shure asked the FCC to extend by 45 days comment deadlines on two NPRMs examining the future of the devices in 600 MHz spectrum. “An extension is warranted because the Notices propose many substantial changes in technical and operational rules that will require significant evaluation, testing and analysis,” Shure said in a motion filed in docket 12-268: “The filing periods encompass the winter holidays when many team members will be out of the office and traveling.” Without an extension, comments would be due Feb. 19, replies March 12. Shure said the proposed rule changes would “dramatically alter wireless microphone operations and virtually restructure the entire wireless microphone industry” in the U.S. In October, the FCC approved the NPRMs, which seek comment on unlicensed use of the TV spectrum following the incentive auction and more specifically rules for wireless mics.

FCC adoption of two minimum sales prices for spectrum in the incentive auction will discourage competition and lower the amount of money the auction generates for taxpayers, said the Competitive Carriers Association, Computer & Communications Industry Association and T-Mobile in reply comments to oppositions to petitions for reconsideration in docket 12-268 Monday, the deadline for such comments. In their own filings, the New America Foundation and Public Knowledge disagreed with the WMTS Coalition over whether petitions opposing unlicensed use in Channel 37 are premature. Low-power TV interests and Sennheiser asked the FCC to overturn some auction decisions, and NAB attacked CTIA’s “cheerleading” for FCC decisions that “abrogate the rights of broadcasters.” CTIA’s “wholehearted support for each of the Commission’s decisions harming broadcasters draws into sharp focus exactly how imbalanced the Commission’s Report and Order is,” NAB said.

T-Mobile told the FCC that prospective guidance and predictable enforcement criteria on the “commercially reasonable” standard in the data roaming order “would be invaluable to carriers in negotiating and reaching agreements,” in an ex parte filing posted Friday in docket 12-268. The carrier also said that in the 600 MHz auction, a four-block maximum reserve would promote competition and expand opportunity “by preventing the dominant players, which already control more than 70 percent of the nation’s low-band spectrum resources, from choking off competitors’ access to the spectrum resources needed to offer wireless services indoors and in rural areas.”

Integrated Device Technology announced a new family of magnetic induction wireless power transmitters for next-generation wireless charging products to be used in wearables, furniture and smartphones. The P9235 and P9236 transmitters are compliant with the latest Wireless Power Consortium (WPC) Qi standard, and the P9234 is a Power Matters Alliance (PMA)-compliant device, it said Thursday. IDT is also introducing a proprietary-mode device that operates at up to 1 MHz of resonance frequency, allowing for a smaller coil, IDT said. The P9230A dual-mode transmitter supports WPC and PMA standards, it said. IDT customers are designing wireless power transmitters into a variety of applications, including mobile phone charging pad stations and wearable applications, said Arman Naghavi, general manager-analog and power division. The new lineup offers customers “greater programmability, ease of use and reduced overall development cost for faster product introduction,” he said. Although this round of transmitters doesn’t support Rezence, the standard from the Alliance for Wireless Power (A4WP), an IDT spokesman told us the company is working with a limited group of qualified customers on magnetic resonance charging. IDT said in September it's working with Intel on developing wireless charging solutions based on magnetic resonance that are expected to be in the market next year. Capabilities touted by the A4WP charging technology include simultaneous charging of lower and higher power devices and the integration of charging devices into tabletops, the companies said. Meanwhile, 17.5 million cars with wireless chargers are expected to sell in 2020, IHS said Thursday. The global market for in-car wireless charging is projected to top $600 million in 2020, it said.

After 22 rounds, the AWS-3 auction has reached more than $28.7 billion in provisionally winning bids, demonstrating strong momentum for the 2016 broadcast spectrum incentive auctions, and showing that Dish Network’s spectrum is of high value, some analysts said. By the end of Round 22, bidding for spectrum covering the New York City area reached more than $1.7 billion, and more than $615 million was bid for spectrum in the Washington, D.C., area, according to the FCC website. AT&T and Verizon are likely top bidders, some analysts said.

The FCC should stay the course and allow robust unlicensed use of the TV band, Google and Microsoft said in an FCC filing. Unlicensed should be allowed to use a channel in the duplex gap, guard bands separating LTE from incumbent licensed services, and Channel 37, they said. The firms opposed petitions by GE Healthcare, Qualcomm and others for reconsideration of the incentive auction order. “Several of these parties base their petitions on the claim that unlicensed services cannot coexist alongside licensed services under any set of technical rules,” said a filing in docket 12-268. “This is plainly incorrect. It is always possible to avoid harmful interference by adjusting operating parameters such as transmit power, signal timing, spectral separation, and physical separation, and unlicensed devices in the 600 MHz band are no exception.” Also posted in the same docket Friday, Mobile Future opposed various recon petitions seeking changes to the rules. “The Commission should reject requests to reimburse Low Power television stations or wireless microphone users for the costs associated with relocation following the Incentive Auction, because those entities are not eligible for reimbursement of relocation expenses under the Spectrum Act,” Mobile Future said. “The Commission similarly should reject requests to protect LPTV and TV Translator stations in the repacking process as inconsistent with the Spectrum Act.”

NAB filed comments Wednesday in support of various petitions for reconsideration by broadcasters urging the agency to make sure broadcasters don’t pay a price if they're forcibly relocated if they don’t sell their licenses in the TV incentive auction. Some 31 parties filed recon petitions on the order in September (see 1409170044). CTIA also filed comments Wednesday, opposing some petitions for reconsideration while supporting others.

Discussions with Canada and Mexico to coordinate spectrum use in advance of the incentive auction could lead to a regionally harmonized “band plan for the Americas” similar to what was tried with the 700 MHz band plan, said Incentive Auction Task Force Chairman Gary Epstein on a panel at the Americas Spectrum Management Conference Wednesday. Though wireless industry officials at the discussion endorsed a regional or global 600 MHz band plan as a positive, NAB Executive Vice President-Strategic Planning Rick Kaplan said it would be unlikely to succeed because the FCC's proposed variable band plan would be unattractive internationally. Because the plan involves “broadcast and wireless sharing the same yard,” it will be a hard sell outside the U.S., he said. “It's a bad plan.”

The FCC decision to delay the TV incentive auction wasn’t much of a surprise and shouldn’t lead any of the four national wireless carriers to rethink their likely participation, financial analysts and other industry observers told us. AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile and Verizon all need, to one extent or another, low-band spectrum and so will go big in the auction, analysts agreed. Several observers said some spacing between this month’s AWS-3 auction and the incentive auction could help the carriers get their incentive auction plans in order. The FCC recently opted to delay the start of the auction from mid-2015 until early 2016 (see 1410240048).

The FCC voted 5-0 in an order not to adopt a cap on the amount of aggregate interference that broadcasters can receive after the post-incentive auction repacking (http://bit.ly/1sRxY97). The item had been set for the commission’s Friday open meeting, but was deleted from the agenda after being approved, officials said. Along with declining to adopt the cap requested by numerous broadcast commenters (see 1407080021), the item included an order adopting a methodology – called the ISIX methodology -- for calculating the interference broadcasters would receive from wireless carriers after the auction, and a Further NPRM seeking comment on that methodology once the FCC has learned from carriers how their networks will be deployed.