Free State Foundation President Randolph May said in a blog post that a TracFone petition asking the FCC to declare states may not impose 911 taxes and fees on low-income customers who receive TracFone’s Lifeline wireless service at no charge has merit. “It seems to me a matter of common sense -- or sound policy, if you prefer -- that the FCC should not allow states to impose taxes or fees on no-charge Lifeline service that the FCC has sanctioned by rule for the purpose of promoting access to communications services for those who otherwise cannot afford service,” May wrote Friday.

FCC Commissioner Mike O’Rielly offered more evidence of the problem of pocket dialing 911 from cellphones. O’Rielly said in a blog post that he recently received a letter from Kelly Dutra, director of the Washington County Consolidated Communications Agency in Beaverton, Oregon. Dutra related that in the county, “butt-dialed” calls make up 30 percent of wireless 911 calls. Since 2005, that county had in place call taker systems that require emergency callers to speak or at least press a key, Dutra told O'Rielly. Even with the device, “15-20 percent of the calls that make it through the system are still butt dials with enough noise in the background for the system to treat it as an active call,” Dutra said.

Samsung profit was down sharply in Q3, largely as a result of declines in its mobile division, the company said Thursday. Samsung said net profit was down 49 percent from the year-earlier quarter to 4.14 trillion won ($4 billion). The biggest culprit was a 74 percent decline in Samsung’s mobile division, to 1.75 trillion won, where profit was the lowest since Q2 2011. In a call with analysts, Robert Yi, senior vice president-investor relations, said new wraparound screens, which debuted last month with Samsung’s Galaxy Note Edge, should help the company regain market share. Yi said the product opened to “rave” reviews on its design. The company also released the Note 4 in early October, he said. “It also received high marks for its high-resolution display and powerful multitasking capability.” Samsung shipped 102 million mobile phones in the quarter, Yi said. The company had 24.7 percent of global shipments last quarter, down from 35 percent a year ago, according to data released Thursday by Strategy Analytics. Apple is in second place with 12.3 percent of the market.

Younger U.S. consumers have shown more confidence in the security of mobile payments than the baby boom generation, a GfK report said. The generation known as millennials (defined in the report as generations Y and Z, ages 18-34) is twice as likely as older adults to view such payments as faster, easier or more efficient than other types of transactions, GfK said Thursday. At 67 percent, members of Generation Y (ages 24-34) reported being worried about the security of personal information when making mobile payments, the report said. Personal information, technology quality and other factors are likely holding mobile payment from full potential, it said. About 80 percent of mobile payers use their smartphones to make payments, 58 percent use tablets and 38 percent use both methods, it said.

The Samsung Gear S smart watch will go on sale at Sprint and AT&T stores Nov. 7, the carriers said Thursday. Gear S owners will be able to make and receive phone calls, send and receive text messages and reply to emails, said Samsung. The Gear S, running on the Tizen platform, has a two-inch touch-screen display, an onscreen keyboard and S Voice, which lets users respond to incoming messages. Bluetooth and Wi-Fi are built in, along with sensors including an accelerometer, gyroscope, compass, and sensors for heart rate, ambient light, UV and barometer, Samsung said. The water-resistant watch can play songs stored on the device or control music stored on a companion smartphone, according to literature. Memory is 512 MB and storage is 4 GB, Samsung said. Clock faces can be customized and wristbands are interchangeable, it said. The smart watch can be added to a Sprint Family Share Pack for a $10 per month line access charge, but Sprint is waiving the access charge through December 2015 for customers who add the watch as a new line of service to a Share Pack plan of 20 GB or higher, it said. Suggested retail price of the Gear S is $384 with a service plan or for no money down and 24 monthly payments of $16 under Sprint’s Easy Pay plan, it said. At AT&T, the Gear S will be available for $199.99 with a two-year agreement, and users can add the Gear S to a Mobile Share plan for $10 per month, the carrier said.

The FCC Wireless Bureau provided more time for interested parties to oppose AT&T’s buy of three spectrum licenses from Kaplan Telephone. Petitions to deny are now due Nov. 26, oppositions Dec. 8 and replies Dec. 15, said a public notice in docket 14-167. Petitions to deny were initially due Thursday.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit dismissed a legal challenge to an order by the FCC General Counsel in a licensing case because petitioner Toshiaki Saito “failed to exhaust administrative remedies” before seeking legal redress. The court handed down its brief order Wednesday. The FCC earlier called for dismissal of the case on the grounds that Saito failed to file a “timely application” at the agency for review of the order.

Larger smartphone screen sizes correlate with longer sessions of app usage, said a report from IHS and Mobidia Technology. The report covered more than 25 smartphone models and usage in the Germany, Japan, South Korea, the U.K. and U.S. Smartphones with higher-resolution screens have higher data consumption, but resolution is less important than physical screen size as an indicator of higher data use, the report said. "Companies building apps for the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus need to know what greater engagement these large screen iPhones will deliver for their genre of app, because higher engagement means more revenues through in-app purchases and advertising," said Ian Fogg, IHS senior director-mobile & telecommunications. The prevalence of large screens within the Android world means that “Android becomes a significantly more attractive platform than in years past,” it said. Streaming video and social networking apps have a stronger link between increased data consumption and screen size than do mobile games or chat apps such as WeChat and WhatsApp, the report said.

Mobile messaging company HeyWire Business is implementing text-to-911 capabilities for its Business Messenger app, a month ahead of an FCC deadline, the company said in a news release Wednesday. The app allows users to send and receive texts from their office phone numbers.

The FCC Wireless Bureau asked AT&T and Kaplan Telephone a series of questions Wednesday on a proposed deal in which Kaplan would sell the larger carrier three spectrum licenses, all in Louisiana. The licenses covered are a cellular B-block and two lower 700 MHz C-block licenses. Petitions to deny are due Thursday. To complete its review of the deal “we require additional information, documents, and clarification of certain matters discussed in the applications and other information provided to the Commission,” said a letter from the Wireless Bureau.