With the FCC’s signoff Thursday (CD March 14 p5), AT&T said its buy of Leap Wireless and its Cricket brand is now complete. “In the coming weeks, Cricket will be integrated with AT&T’s existing operations to create the new Cricket,” AT&T said in a news release (http://soc.att.com/1im20fl). “The new Cricket will shake up the no-contract segment with a combination of simple, low-cost rate plans; a terrific lineup of smartphones; and a great network experience. The new Cricket will have access to AT&T’s nationwide 4G LTE network covering nearly 280 million people. AT&T will gain access to Cricket’s distribution channels and will be able to expand Cricket’s presence to additional U.S. cities."

Cantor Telecom urged the FCC to approve rules that would allow the trading of spectrum rights in the 3.5 GHz band to maximize sharing. The firm is the telecom arm of Cantor Fitzgerald, a global financial services firm. The FCC has been examining whether the 3.5 GHz band can be used to promote use of small cells and sharing. Cantor said the FCC should think about allowing the establishment of an “electronic marketplace” by an experienced broker. “Cantor Telecom believes the adoption and use of a spectrum exchange through which future Priority and General Users in this band could trade and exchange spectrum based upon their needs at any given time would improve access,” Cantor said in a filing at the commission (http://bit.ly/1gqVNOD). “This type of exchange would significantly increase the liquidity of the spectrum, benefitting carriers as well as consumers ... by reducing costs and increasing the flexibility of use. Such an exchange would also support the Commission’s goal of maximizing the use of spectrum for the development of mobile broadband services."

NCTA continued to urge the FCC to move forward with an order permitting unlicensed national information infrastructure in the 5 GHz band. NCTA also stressed the importance to outdoor Wi-Fi systems of FCC rules that permit 1-watt outdoor access points in U-NII-1, it said in an ex parte filing in docket 13-49 (http://bit.ly/1nnxpmz). NCTA was at odds with Globalstar over rule changes allowing access of additional unlicensed spectrum in the 5 GHz band (CD March 3 p10). Globalstar said NCTA’s proposal of antenna requirements this month is a step toward resolving technical issues (CD March 10 p10). The filing recounts a meeting with NCTA, its members Time Warner Cable and Cablevision, and staff from Commissioner Ajit Pai’s office.

Oceus Networks believes a bi-directional sharing framework on the 1755-1780 MHz and 2155-2180 MHz bands that provides access to military users “could fulfill training requirements on remote bases and ranges with limited impact to auction revenues,” CEO Douglas Smith and other company representatives told Renee Gregory, aide to FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler, during a meeting Tuesday. Oceus customers, which include the military, first responders and critical infrastructure companies, have become interested in 4G LTE, and have identified a need for spectrum that would support 4G LTE, Oceus counsel Jay Chauhan said in an ex parte filing (http://bit.ly/1qA1WMP).

T-Mobile urged the FCC to adopt parties-in-interest disclosure requirements as part of process reform. In a filing at the agency Wednesday, T-Mobile said the “common sense, narrowly-defined” rules previously proposed by T-Mobile “are in keeping with the disclosure rules used for both corporate parties and amici curiae appearing in the Supreme Court of the United States and in the federal courts of appeal, and adopting such rules would promote transparency, encourage public confidence, and enhance agency decision-making” (http://bit.ly/1esCVL8). T-Mobile said its proposal would require only: “(1) disclosure of contributors that fund advocacy or support a significant portion of the filer’s budget, as well as any single entity or group of entities that accounts for more than 1/3 of the filer’s annual U.S. sales; (2) disclosure of contributors to third parties who author filed work product; and (3) disclosure of the filer’s association members and/or management team.”

The International Trade Commission ended an investigation of Nokia’s patent complaint against HTC, ITC said in a notice slated for Thursday’s Federal Register (http://1.usa.gov/1iBhvOK). The companies settled the patent dispute Feb. 7 (CD Feb 12 p13), ITC said: “There is no evidence that the proposed settlement will be contrary to the public interest.”

SoftBank Chairman Masayoshi Son’s pessimistic view of U.S. wireless competition doesn’t align with reality (CD March 12 p1), said Stephen Pociask, president of the American Consumer Institute, in a statement. “The reality is that consumers are benefiting from competition in the industry and the United States is the clear leader in the world in deployment and adoption of advanced 4G networks,” he said. “Consumers will continue to reap these benefits and more if the industry is allowed to innovate and isn’t saddled with unnecessary regulations in the name of protecting -- or propping up -- competitors. … Regulators must keep that in mind and not overreact to any one company’s rhetoric -- especially the FCC as it plans the incentive auction."

Representatives of the Wireless Internet Service Providers Association discussed the importance of the Connect America Fund, the rural broadband experiment program and the Remote Areas Fund to WISPs during a meeting with FCC Commissioner Mike O'Rielly. “They emphasized the need for Commission rules to be adopted and applied in a technology-neutral manner that affords providers of fixed wireless broadband services a fair opportunity to participate in the rural broadband experiment program and the Remote Areas Fund,” said a filing on the meeting (http://bit.ly/1gioNIp).

Verizon sharply criticized a Sprint proposal for a weighted spectrum screen for the FCC to use in weighing deals that include the acquisition of spectrum. “On the eve of the FCC adopting rules that will govern two spectrum auctions, Sprint has proposed a new, allegedly ‘easy to implement,’ spectrum screen that continues to ignore the biggest defect in the Commission’s application of the spectrum screen: the exclusion of 138 MHz of 2.5 GHz spectrum,” Verizon said in a filing (http://bit.ly/1lvSMx4). “Sprint proposes to apply complicated calculations to various spectrum bands on an urban, suburban, and rural basis to create a ‘weighted’ spectrum screen that, unsurprisingly, decreases the weight of Sprint’s 147 MHz of 2.5 GHz spectrum holdings to 11.1 MHz, at most.” Sprint made its proposal last month (http://bit.ly/1ep8aXt). “Sprint’s proposal would weight spectrum based on the cost to deploy and operate using that band, recognizing the reality that low-band spectrum is typically significantly more cost-effective to deploy than higher-frequency spectrum,” Sprint said at the time. The FCC is expected to take up spectrum aggregation rules at its May meeting (CD March 10 p1).

Support is broad for unlicensed spectrum in the TV band, said a coalition of public interest groups including the Consumer Federation of America, New America Foundation and Public Knowledge. The Public Interest Spectrum Coalition continues (CD March 11 p10) to want rules for the incentive TV auction to guarantee at least 24 MHz of spectrum for unlicensed use nationwide, PISC reiterated during a meeting with FCC Office of Engineering and Technology Chief Julius Knapp. “Broadcom, Google, Microsoft and other industry players maintain that if the band plan and repacking policies do not ensure at least four channels of 6 megahertz of unlicensed access in every market, including the most populated metro markets, the Commission will be killing off many emerging unlicensed use cases and the economic and social benefits that rely on low-band spectrum,” said a PISC ex parte filing on the Thursday meeting (http://bit.ly/1lT429S). “A diverse ecosystem of both low-band and high-band spectrum will be necessary to extend the benefits of unlicensed spectrum."