Charter Communications and Samsung are partnering on 5G and 4G LTE wireless network field and lab trials around the U.S., with the work having started over the summer and set to run through the rest of the year. Samsung said Tuesday the 5G trials are evaluating fixed-use cases that employ its pre-commercial 28 GHz network and equipment, and the 4G trials are being done at 3.5 GHz, using its 4G LTE small-cell technology in outdoor environments. Charter blogged it "will emphasize an 'Inside-Out' strategy" focused first on indoor wireless offerings, then outdoor. It said after it next year launches its mobile wireless service "as a Wifi first" mobile virtual network operator (see 1611030041), it will look to boost the quality, speed and capacity of its wireless service using 3.5 GHz band and millimeter wave spectrum. Charter hopes the FCC, as it looks at opening the 3.5 GHz shared band, will set licensing rules "that would ensure and encourage investment and deployment by new entrants, including Charter." Sprint and Ericsson, meanwhile, said they did the first U.S. 2.5 GHz Massive MIMO (multiple input, multiple output) field tests using Sprint spectrum and Ericsson’s 64T64R (64 transmit, 64 receive) radios, in Seattle and in Plano, Texas. “The two companies are preparing for commercial deployment next year, with Massive MIMO radios capable of increasing Sprint’s network capacity up to ten times,” Sprint said. “This technology is a tremendous competitive advantage for Sprint, enabling us to maximize our deep 2.5 GHz spectrum holdings,” said John Saw, chief technology officer. “Massive MIMO will be key to meeting our customers’ growing demand for unlimited data, as well as offering Gigabit LTE and 5G services.”

Apple unveiled what it called the future of the smartphone Tuesday. It brought to the devices a neural engine, 4K and high dynamic range video, facial recognition biometrics, wireless charging and animated emojis. Preorders begin Friday for the 64 GB and 256 GB iPhone 8 (starting at $699) and 8 Plus (starting at $799), with Sept. 22 availability at $999 for the iPhone X (shipping on Nov. 3). The Qi wireless charging standard, which has a wide lead, got a bump from launch of the iPhone 8 and X smartphones. Apple announced Qi-based wireless charging products from Belkin and Mophie. Phil Schiller, senior vice president-worldwide marketing, referenced the many Qi-certified devices available in public spaces that can charge the new phones. “A lot of great devices” will begin to come to market “particularly because of iPhone 8 and iPhone 10,” said Schiller. He teased Apple’s AirPower charging mat that’s designed to charge multiple Apple products -- a phone, Watch and AirPods in a case. Devices begin charging simultaneously when placed on the mat, and the devices work together. With AirPower, Apple believes it can make the wireless charging experience “better” and “move the entire industry forward,” Schiller said. “We hope people love it, that it encourages others to create more advanced solutions based on technology like this.” Apple will work "to incorporate these benefits into the future of the standards to make wireless charging better for everyone,” he said. AirPower is due next year.

Concern that a few, large tech companies will dominate the market is leading some to want to "rewrite" antitrust enforcement considerations from a consumer protection focus to other various goals, which may disregard people's welfare, said acting FTC Chairman Maureen Ohlhausen in remarks prepared for a Georgetown University antitrust symposium Tuesday. Regulators don't have a "crystal ball" to figure out how and where these new technologies should develop and be used, she said: "Second-guessing" the market without showing harm to consumers substitutes consumer preferences with regulatory ones. Ohlhausen said the idea that top tech companies could widen their market advantages in the future is "uncertain" since many understand they have a "tenuous" hold on their current position. She suggested regulators need more "empirical evidence" on how markets lose "their dynamism, innovation, and creativity" before trying to restructure them. Ohlhausen rebuffed arguments that technological advancements that disrupt current business models are considered "pernicious." She said enforcers should address behaviors that undermine the competitive process and governments should remove barriers to market entry and competition. Ohlhausen discussed "predatory pricing" and network effects, saying the current framework is "sufficiently flexible" to address such issues. "Antitrust enforcement should always turn on the specific facts of each individual case and the likelihood of actual consumer harm," she said: Regulators should bring cases where consumer interest is harmed and refine tools that show likely harm.

Free Press said network investment was up since the FCC's 2015 net neutrality order reclassified broadband as a Communications Act Title II service, contrary to some claims. "The majority of publicly traded broadband providers’ own financial disclosures report investment increases, and the Commission’s Form 477 deployment data shows a remarkable level of new, higher capacity deployments by broadband providers across the board," the group said in a filing posted Monday in docket 17-108 on a meeting with Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel and aides. "Commenters incorrectly claiming some harm to investment from Title II focus on a supposed change in aggregate total capital investment. Their manipulated totals stem from vague and unspecified tabulations for the broadband industry as a whole, and they distort the amount invested by certain providers while ignoring freely available public statements explaining individual firms’ decisions."

Verizon said "one-touch, make ready" (OTMR) could speed fiber and small-cell buildouts. "Rapid fiber and small cell deployment can face obstacles, with often significant delays in getting access to poles for new fiber and small cell attachments," said a filing Monday in FCC docket 17-79 on meetings with Commissioner Brendan Carr and aides, and with aides to Chairman Ajit Pai. Verizon said in some areas, electric utilities can take nine months to complete the pole-attachment process, with fiber attachments sometimes taking a year or longer. "The sequential nature of make-ready work means that one party’s delay in completing its make-ready work often delays other parties’ ability to begin their make-ready work," the telco said: "Make-ready is often not completed until well beyond" rule deadlines. Verizon repeated "strong support" for OTMR, "a proposal that would allow attachers, as well as pole owners, the option to use pole-owner-approved contractors to coordinate and do all work to add a new attachment."

Local officials urged the FCC to protect local laws promoting "competitive broadband access" in apartment buildings and other multiple tenant environments. "The Commission lacks the legal authority to insert itself into the relationship between local governments and property owners via Section 253 preemption authority" of the Communications Act, said a filing Friday in docket 17-142 of representatives of Boston; Portland, Oregon; and Maryland's Anne Arundel and Montgomery counties on a discussion with Wireline Bureau staffers. The local officials -- who included NATOA President-elect Mike Lynch of Boston and who filed August reply comments on the agency's inquiry (see 1708230040) -- said the FCC wouldn't have any ability to exercise Title II telecom authority if it adopts its proposal to reclassify broadband as a Title I information service. They said the FCC "must include additional local voices" on its Broadband Deployment Advisory Committee, which recently added a third local representative (see 1709010046).

Incompas wants to work with the FCC and others to create a process for reviewing confidential and highly confidential information from large-scale transactions in connection with the net neutrality proceeding, said an ex parte filing posted Friday in docket 17-108 on a Wednesday meeting between Incompas and aides to Chairman Ajit Pai and Commissioners Jessica Rosenworcel and Brendan Carr, plus staff from the Office of General Counsel. Incompas also met Thursday with an aide to Commissioner Mike O’Rielly. Incompas also discussed its motion to modify the protective orders in some deals.

The FCC Wireline Bureau wants to refresh the record on the 2011 intercarrier compensation transformation further notice, said a public notice Friday. The bureau seeks comment on “the network edge for traffic that interconnects with the Public Switched Telephone Network,” tandem switching and transport, and “transit (the non-access traffic functional equivalent of tandem switching and transport).” The bureau wants to refresh the record to reflect developments since the Further NPRM such as “the transition of certain terminating traffic to bill-and-keep,” and “implementation of the adopted mandate to move all traffic to bill-and-keep.”

Thirty-one members were appointed to the FCC Advisory Committee on Diversity and Digital Empowerment (see the personals section of this issue), said a public notice Friday. The committee's first meeting is Sept. 25. NetCommunications President Julia Johnson will be chair, and ShootingStar Broadcasting CEO Diane Sutter will be vice chair, the PN said. Other members include Comcast Vice President-Global Policy Rudy Brioche, former Commissioner Henry Rivera, National Association of Black-Owned Broadcasters President Jim Winston and Verizon Vice President-Public Policy Donna Epps. Former Commissioner Kathleen Abernathy is also on the ACDDE, listed as "Subject Matter Expert/Special Government Employee. "Three working groups will assist the ACDDE: Broadcast Diversity and Development, Digital Empowerment and Inclusion, and Diversity in the Tech Sector. “The composition of these three working groups will be announced in the future,” a release said. The agency designated docket 17-208 for public comments on the ACDDE, the PN said.

The FCC gave states and eligible telecom carriers not under state jurisdiction until Nov. 17 to certify they're properly using federal high-cost support under Section 54.314(d) of the agency's rules. A brief waiver from an Oct. 1 filing deadline is "justified by the special circumstances that states only recently were able to access through the [High Cost Universal Broadband] portal the Phase II geospatial information reported" to Universal Service Administrative Co. on July 3, said a Wireline Bureau order in Thursday's Daily Digest.