ACA International, which represents credit and collection professionals, asked the FCC to clarify how predictive dialers are treated under the Telephone Consumer Protection Act. While a predictive dialer, which dials a list of phone numbers and connects answered dials to people making calls, can be an Automated Telephone Dialing System (ATDS), it’s not necessarily one, ACA said. The TCPA prohibits automated calls to cellphones, emergency lines, a hospital emergency number, a physician’s office or a hospital room, among other protected phone lines. “That a predictive dialer can be an autodialer if it meets the statutory definition of an autodialer” does “not (and cannot) mean that it must be an ATDS under the TCPA,” ACA said (http://bit.ly/1vBaT8t). “Fundamentally, the statutory elements of an ATDS must be met in order for equipment to be considered an ATDS under the statute.” The filing, posted by the FCC Wednesday, was in docket 02-278.

Accessories supplier Pong Research bowed a line of Pong cases for the Samsung Galaxy S5 smartphone, the company said Wednesday in a news release (http://bit.ly/1z7LGH7). Pong cases have what the supplier calls “intelligent antenna technology.” They're embedded with a micro-thin, gold-plated antenna that redirects wireless signals away from the user’s head and body, reduces exposure to potentially harmful wireless energy, and optimizes the device’s outbound signal to the tower, the company said. They've been tested in FCC-certified labs, and have been “proven to reduce exposure to wireless energy while also increasing a device’s outbound signal strength,” it said.

National Frequency Coordination formally withdrew its request at the FCC to be approved as a Part 90 frequency coordinator. The request had been slammed by various groups, including the Utilities Telecom Council, the National Public Safety Telecommunications Council and APCO (CD July 2 p10). NFC said it may “submit a new application that fully addresses concerns raised” about its application. The filing in docket 14-75 was made by NFC Tuesday and posted by the FCC Wednesday (http://bit.ly/1xhO4cy).

Intel agreed to pay $144,000 and implement a three-year compliance plan to resolve an investigation into whether Intel employees had tested prototype smartphones and tablets before the FCC certified them, the FCC Enforcement Bureau said Wednesday. Intel had imported devices in question for its business customers so they could “develop their own devices for potential sale to the general public,” the bureau said. Intel also admitted exceeding import quotas and displaying a device model at a trade show without the required notice to potential customers and the public that it had not yet been authorized by the commission, the bureau said. “The Commission’s rules impose restrictions and conditions on these activities to ensure that unauthorized devices are not prematurely distributed to retailers and then sold to the general public,” the bureau said (http://bit.ly/1o9DFdo). “These devices, if not in full compliance with the Commission’s technical requirements, could cause harmful interference to other electronics and radio communications devices.” “After an in-depth study and working with the FCC’s Spectrum Enforcement Division, Intel and the FCC have reached an agreement on a Consent Decree to address the policy exceptions made by Intel’s staff,” emailed a company spokesman. “Intel is pleased to put this matter behind us."

SouthernLINC Wireless debuted a push-to-talk (PTT) app that connects any domestic wireless carrier’s smartphone to the SouthernLINC Wireless network. The app, Mototalk, allows users to send push-to-talk calls from SouthernLINC Wireless phones wherever a 3G, 4G or Wi-Fi data network is available, SouthernLINC said Tuesday in a news release (http://bit.ly/1mRl3B4). The app also allows iPhone and Android users from another U.S. carrier to download and use it to communicate via PTT with a SouthernLINC phone, it said.

The FCC Office of General Counsel said in a filing with a federal court that a credit collection agency violated the Telephone Consumer Protection Act by autodialing an electric utility’s customer after he failed to pay an electric bill. The 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals asked the FCC for an advisory opinion as it weighs Albert A. Nigro v. Mercantile Adjustment Bureau. National Grid had hired MAB to collect an outstanding balance of $67 allegedly owed by Nigro’s deceased mother-in-law. MAB transmitted an autodialed message to Nigro 72 times over nine months, the FCC said Monday in 2nd Circuit docket 13-1362 (http://bit.ly/1vsEoZT). In December 2010, Nigro filed a complaint against MAB in federal district court, arguing that MAB had violated the TCPA by transmitting autodialed and prerecorded messages to a cellphone without his consent, the FCC said. The lower court sided with MAB and Nigro appealed. The FCC said the appeals court should reverse. “Nigro did not supply his cellular telephone number in the course of ’the transaction that resulted in the debt owed,'” the FCC said. “The mere fact that Nigro provided his number to National Grid did not convey his consent to be called regarding that debt,” the agency said. “Nor is there any other evidence showing that Nigro had consented to the debt collection calls at issue in this case."

The FCC should “make as much funding available for as many experiments as possible” as the agency does a series of rural broadband experiments, Competitive Carriers Association President Steve Berry said in a meeting with Jonathan Chambers, chief of the Office of Strategic Planning. Berry said many CCA members submitted informal expressions of interest to take part in the experiment, said an ex parte filing posted Tuesday in docket 10-90 (http://bit.ly/1rcAyGG). An order is circulating that would set aside up to $100 million for such experiments (CD June 30 p3) .

The near field communication (NFC) market is expected to reach $16.25 billion by the end of 2022, a Markets and Markets report said. The major NFC players include U.S. companies Broadcom and Texas Instruments, France-based Inside Secure, and Germany-based Infineon Technologies, Markets and Markets said Monday in a news release (http://bit.ly/1jDg8iz). The uptake in the technology is driven in part by the supply chain, it said. Many companies are intensifying their research and development practices, “to implement advanced technology in smartphones and other wearable devices for fast and secure transactions, and communication between devices,” it said. The Americas is the largest market by geography because the major part of the electronics and semiconductor industry is based in the U.S., Canada and Mexico, it said.

The FCC should streamline its environmental and historic review process for distributed antenna systems and small cells by “categorically excluding facilities that meet a technology-neutral, volume-based definition,” PCIA officials said in a meeting with Louis Peraertz, aide to Commissioner Mignon Clyburn. “Because these facilities have, at most, a de minimis effect on the environment, the FCC has authority to propose the exclusion,” PCIA said. PCIA reported on the meeting in a filing in docket 13-238, posted by the FCC Monday (http://bit.ly/1k76c0B).

The FCC should waive its “former defaulter rule” and clarify that post-auction payments will be due in early 2015, not in 2014, as it finalizes rules for the AWS-3 auction, said AT&T Vice President Joan Marsh in a meeting with Deputy Wireless Bureau Chief John Leibovitz, said a filing posted by the FCC Monday in docket 14-78 (http://bit.ly/1iO27Uw). All of Marsh’s comments were in keeping with reply comments AT&T filed on the auction rules (http://bit.ly/1pJxHmt), AT&T said. The former defaulter rule requires companies to make larger upfront payments for licenses if they ever defaulted on a license or were delinquent on a debt owed to a federal agency (CD June 3 p1).