Comments are due Aug. 29 on a joint proposal by NTIA and the FCC for a program that would test advanced spectrum sharing technologies in a model city, after a notice was published in the Federal Register Tuesday (http://1.usa.gov/1l0zsqg). The model city program was initially recommended by the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology. The program could “facilitate large-scale sustainable facilities for systems-level testing in real-world environments across multiple frequency bands, potentially including selected federal and non-federal frequency bands,” the agencies said. Responses to the notice will determine “whether NTIA and/or the FCC may need to undertake additional actions or initiate formal proceedings,” the notice said. Comments to the FCC should be filed in docket 14-99.

European drug maker Novartis will license Google’s “smart lens” technology for “all ocular medical uses,” Novartis said in a Tuesday news release (http://bit.ly/1ylO6AR). “Google’s key advances in the miniaturization of electronics complement Novartis’s deep pharmaceuticals and medical device expertise,” Novartis said. “Novartis aims to enhance the ways in which diseases are mapped within the body and ultimately prevented.” The company said it will focus on two areas: diabetic patients and those with presbyopia, the diminishing ability to focus on near objects.

Dish Network spectrum is valuable for Verizon, wrote New Street Research analysts in an email to investors Sunday. With 38 percent of industry revenue and just 16 percent of industry capacity, Verizon has a tremendous amount of value at stake if capacity utilization were to approach 100 percent, they said. Verizon should increase its share of industry capacity slightly in the upcoming FCC spectrum auctions, and “Dish is the only asset that would meaningfully narrow the gap,” they said. Dish may have lost two near-term options with AT&T’s plan to buy DirecTV “and the path to value realization may be less clear as a result,” they said. “The intrinsic value of Dish’s assets is unchanged,” New Street said. The most compelling transaction for both affected parties would be for Verizon to acquire Dish, said the analysts.

The FCC should adopt a three-tier access system for the 3.5 GHz band, based on recommendations by the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology, public interest groups told the FCC in comments posted by the agency Monday. The FCC is examining the band for shared use and small cells. Under that proposal, tiers would be offered for incumbent access, priority access and general authorized access, said comments by the Dynamic Spectrum Alliance, Public Interest Spectrum Coalition and WhiteSpace Alliance (http://bit.ly/WdaSxk) in docket 12-354. The groups said geographic exclusion zones “should be based on actual deployment scenarios and sized solely to protect incumbent users.” The FCC “should minimize protection zones for incumbents as much as possible, by adopting requirements that are based only on the interference tolerance of incumbent operations and not the tolerance of potential new operations,” the groups said.

FCC wireless location accuracy rules shouldn’t cover underground mass transit systems “until a test bed proves that suitable indoor location systems, specifically proven in the underground mass transportation environment, are commercially available, cost effective, and technology and air interface neutral,” said Transit Wireless’s comment posted Monday in docket 07-114 (http://bit.ly/1rb4Nyb). Transit said it’s building out a distributed antenna system covering “the nation’s largest mass transportation infrastructure,” the New York City subway system. The company cited the “lack of record regarding current indoor location technologies for their effectiveness and accuracy in the underground mass transportation environment.” Also filing in the docket, the National Association of State EMS Officials, National Association of EMS Physicians, National Association of EMTs and National EMS Management Association urged the FCC to impose indoor location accuracy standards on carriers. “Accurate location information can assist in finding indoor callers quickly, and improved response times translate directly to improved medical outcomes in life-threatening cases,” the groups said (http://bit.ly/1jIcA4c).

The wireless industry needs prompt decisions on zoning applications in order to continue to grow, CTIA said in an amicus brief in T-Mobile South v. Roswell, Ga. The case, to be heard this fall by the Supreme Court (CD May 6 p12), examines whether local governments have to provide detailed written explanations when they deny carriers’ applications to build new cell towers in their jurisdictions. “The wireless industry is facilities-based and depends on quick and effective judicial review of local zoning decisions to meet the ever-growing consumer demand for more and better wireless services,” CTIA said in Supreme Court docket 13-975 (http://bit.ly/1nektZH). Carriers still face “too many cases of obstruction and delay” when they file applications with local governments to build wireless facilities, the group said. “While the whole community benefits from having a new facility and thus better service, usually only nearby landowners who object to the facility have enough of an incentive to communicate with their representatives or attend meetings to protest.”

NTIA and the FCC Office of Engineering and Technology sought comment on a public-private partnership to create a spectrum test city, as expected (CD July 11 p19). The model city would be used for “demonstrating and evaluating advanced spectrum sharing technologies” in a real-world environment, said Friday’s joint public notice from the agencies (http://bit.ly/1r4jeDZ). The notion of a model city was first put forth by the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology in its July 2012 spectrum sharing report. “It is too soon to know what a ‘Model City’ might entail and what aspects would fall within the jurisdiction of the NTIA and/or the FCC,” said OET Chief Julius Knapp in a blog post (http://fcc.us/1r4kaIv). “For example, the model city could be developed as a public-private partnership and implemented under existing provisions such as the FCC’s experimental licensing program. What is clear is that there is a high likelihood that both NTIA and FCC will have a role to play, particularly because most of the spectrum is shared between federal and non-federal users.”

AT&T notified the FCC it sold its stake in América Móvil and no longer has any relationship with the Mexican wireless carrier (http://bit.ly/1jjtw0s). AT&T told the commission it was required to file notice as a condition of a November 2009 order approving AT&T’s buy of Centennial (http://bit.ly/1waibQG). AT&T asked that the bureau “conclude that these changes are sufficient to deem the America Movil commitments now null and void,” it said in a filing posted by the FCC Thursday in docket 08-246.

The FCC is getting set to release a public notice asking for comment on spectrum model cities, as recommended by the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology, said NTIA Administrator Larry Strickling Thursday at the Commerce Spectrum Management Advisory Committee meeting. NTIA, the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy and the FCC are considering proposals for a “test city” to be a real-world environment for trying out new business models, applications and services, said Tom Power, deputy federal chief technology officer, in April (CD April 7 p2).

PCIA filed a brief in support of T-Mobile in T-Mobile South v. Roswell, Ga., a case headed for Supreme Court review (CD May 6 p12). The case examines whether local governments have to provide detailed written explanations when they deny carriers’ applications to build new cell towers in their jurisdictions. It will be argued during the court’s next term, which begins in October (http://1.usa.gov/1iQXU16). Wireless services provide “unparalleled benefits that make them a national priority,” PCIA said Thursday (http://bit.ly/1rbVZFM). Industry relies on “robust deployment of wireless infrastructure in all its forms, ranging from communications towers that can expand wireless coverage in rural and unserved areas to small antenna installations that can boost capacity in urban centers.” The 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals incorrectly interpreted a key section of the Telecom Act in siding with Roswell, PCIA said. The court’s decision “allows localities to issue siting denials without an accompanying explanation, thus preventing applicants from receiving a final decision on their wireless siting applications in the ‘expedited’ manner the statute commands.” The Competitive Carriers Association also filed in support of T-Mobile. The 11th Circuit ruling would lead to “costly and drawn-out litigation that interferes with growth and competition in the wireless service industry,” CCA said. It said members “often require more approvals to build or upgrade their networks than the ‘incumbent’ providers, and therefore are impacted disproportionately by impediments created by the siting application review process."