Consumers are waiting longer than ever to trade in their mobile devices -- “an all-time high of 3.7 years,” said Assurant, which tracks consumer trade-ins. Devices are also worth more, $141.02 in Q2, compared with $110.87 a year earlier. Android devices saw a “notable” 37% increase in value, while Apple devices were up 20%, Assurant said. “The number one device turned in from trade-in and upgrade programs, and the only 4G model, was the iPhone 11, accounting for 31% of the top five models,” the Tuesday report said: “For the fifth consecutive quarter, the number one Android device turned in … was the Samsung Galaxy S21.” Apple customers held their devices for an average of 3.8 years, Android 3.5.

Representatives of EchoStar, Public Knowledge and the Open Technology Institute at New America met with an aide to FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel in support of a 60-day mandatory unlocking requirement on handsets. They also urged the FCC to clear use of the lower 12 GHz band for fixed wireless and address a revised spectrum screen, a filing Tuesday in docket 24-186 and other dockets said. “Nothing stands in the Commission’s way to unleashing 500 MHz of spectrum in the 12.2-12.7 GHz band for fixed 5G broadband services,” they said: “The Commission’s current spectrum policies have not imposed or enforced effective limits on spectrum aggregation.” Representatives of the three groups have been making the rounds at the FCC (see 2408090037).

Viaero Wireless told the FCC on Tuesday that absent further funding from Congress it will suspend a program for removing Huawei gear from its network. Viaero said it installed Huawei radio access network gear at nearly 900 cellsites “over the course of many years.” It must replace “all this RAN equipment, as well as other Huawei gear used for backhaul (microwave) and core switching.” Viaero is “exhausting its own financial resources to fund parts of the project, including payments to third-party vendors, well in advance of receiving reimbursement from the FCC,” a filing in docket 18-89 said. Based on recent assessments of the scope of work ahead and the company’s financial resources, “by the end of 2024, Viaero will be required to suspend work on this project if additional funding from Congress is not provided,” the filing said. Congress is considering, but has not yet approved, legislation providing an additional $3.08 billion for the FCC’s Secure and Trusted Communications Networks Reimbursement Program (see 2408090041).

D-Wave Quantum, working with Japan’s NTT Docomo, announced a quantum optimization pilot that spurred “demonstrable mobile network performance improvements.” Using D-Wave’s quantum computing technology, Docomo reduced congestion at base stations by decreasing paging signals during peak calling times by 15%, the companies said. Docomo “plans to deploy the hybrid-quantum solution ... across its Japanese branch offices in the coming months,” a Tuesday news release said: The tech helps the carrier “predict future movement patterns and determine the best combination of base stations to re-establish connections as devices move between tracking areas.”

Select Spectrum, which runs an online spectrum marketplace, announced Tuesday it's making citizens broadband radio service priority access licenses available nationwide. “Building upon the success of the Spectrum Marketplace in facilitating several hundred 2.5 GHz transactions, we are thrilled to add a range of capabilities including the availability of CBRS PALs on a national scale,” said Andreas Bitzarakis, managing director-broadband. Select Spectrum “enables users to geographically partition licenses to acquire rights to exactly the coverage they need to match their specific requirements,” according to a news release.

FCC Commissioner Geoffrey Starks joined Rep. Marc Veasey, D-Texas, last week to discuss the importance of student connectivity at Lady Bird Johnson Middle School in Irving, Texas. “Students’ education simply doesn’t stop when they exit the school building,” Starks said Monday: “That’s why a reliable internet connection at both school and at home is vital to reaching their potential.” Starks voted last month to approve an order and Further NPRM that lets schools and libraries use E-rate support for off-premises Wi-Fi hot spots and wireless internet services (see 2407180024). Commissioners Brendan Carr and Nathan Simington dissented. “Closing the digital divide is not a burden but an opportunity to invest in students and families, give them the resources to be innovative and empower them to solve issues that our communities face,” Veasey said.

Shortwave Modernization Coalition (SMC) representatives told the FCC the group met with other federal agencies about the group’s proposal that the commission launch a rulemaking to amend eligibility and technical rules for industrial/business pool licensees to authorize licensed use of frequencies above 2 MHz and below 25 MHz for fixed, long-distance, non-voice communications (see 2305010053). The proposal has faced pushback, particularly from amateur radio operators (see 2308180033). SMC met with spectrum officials at NTIA “and based on those discussions reached out to several federal spectrum users and were successful in having meetings with the spectrum staff” at NASA, NOAA, the National Institute of Standards and Technology and the U.S. Coast Guard, a filing posted Monday in RM-11953 said. SMC “explained that the shortwave band has been used for nearly nine years through multiple experimental licenses granted to several parties, and that multi-year experience mirrors the use that would be authorized by the pending proposal.”

Most people “drastically” underestimate “the level of connectivity they rely on for everyday tasks,” Mobile UK said in a report released Monday. While 40% of people in the U.K. believe they are connected to fewer than four devices, the average number is really 14, with some using as many as 38, the report said. “Only one in five people (19.35%) were realistic about how connected they are.” The group said its study demonstrates the public's acceptance of mobile infrastructure and the need for ensuring everyone is connected. “Perceptions of mobile infrastructure especially since COVID-19 have positively shifted,” the group said: “Mobile infrastructure is now a fundamental part of the national infrastructure that requires further national government support to ensure the provision of connectivity for all.”

The FCC’s voluntary cyber-trust mark program should focus on protecting the security and privacy of IoT devices, the Future of Privacy Forum (FPF) said in a comment posted Monday in docket 23-239. An increasing number of IoT and consumer devices contain sensors “that measure sound, visuals, movement, temperature, pressure, and other information involving users, bystanders, and the surrounding environment,” the forum said. “As sensors on devices collect more data about users and their environments, those who operate those devices are able to create detailed profiles that may include intimate personal information,” the FPF said: This aggregation of personal data “may allow those collecting it to learn or infer sensitive information about people, or to track people’s behaviors across different spaces.” Comments were due Monday on a Further NPRM on the program, which FCC commissioners approved in March (see 2403180046).

The Committee on Foreign Investment in the U.S. has levied nearly $70 million in penalties so far this year, including a $60 million fine against T-Mobile after the carrier violated its national security agreement (NSA). The undated announcement was the first time CFIUS named a company it has penalized. It comes after CFIUS last year issued a record-setting four penalties and in April proposed expanding its enforcement powers, underscoring its recent focus on punishing violators and increasing penalties. The action against T-Mobile was tied to a 2018 NSA between CFIUS and the carrier. CFIUS found that “between August 2020 and June 2021, in violation of a material provision of the NSA, T-Mobile failed to take appropriate measures to prevent unauthorized access to certain sensitive data and failed to report some incidents of unauthorized access promptly to CFIUS, delaying the Committee’s efforts to investigate and mitigate any potential harm.” A T-Mobile spokesperson said Friday that several years ago the carrier “experienced technical issues during our post-merger integration with Sprint that affected information shared from a small number of law enforcement information requests out of the hundreds of thousands that we process each year.” There was no data breach or intrusion “and no bad actor was involved,” the spokesperson said in an email: “We take matters like this seriously. We reported this in a timely manner, and the issue was quickly addressed.”