Many more U.S. adults are protecting smartphones with a password, but nearly half are sharing those passwords with others and more than half are sending or receiving intimate content with those smartphones, said McAfee Tuesday (http://on.wsj.com/MrEfq9). Sixty-nine percent secure their smartphone with a password, up from 39 percent in 2012, said a news release about the survey. But 46 percent of those surveyed share that password with another individual, McAfee said. “With all the stories we've heard about intimate photos being leaked, it’s hard to believe people are still sharing their passwords,” said Gary Davis, vice president of McAfee consumer business. “Ultimately, they're increasing the risks of these photos becoming public and possibly jeopardizing their identity and reputation.” The conclusions were drawn from 1,519 online surveys conducted Dec. 3-16 of U.S. adults ages 18 to 54.

AT&T said it would offer a cheaper mobile data plan aimed at families with multiple smartphones or other mobile devices. AT&T said Saturday its new “Mobile Share Value” plans would cost less than its standard shared data plans when it includes at least a 10 GB-per-month bucket of shared mobile data. A value plan at the 10 GB tier would cost from $130 per month to cover two smartphones, with each additional device on the plan costing an extra $15. A 50 GB plan would cost $405 per month for two devices (http://soc.att.com/LDrrwQ). It’s unclear how the other three top U.S. wireless carriers will react to AT&T’s plans, which are “still at a premium to Sprint and T-Mobile US, but a clear discount to Verizon,” said Wells Fargo analyst Jennifer Fritzsche in a note to investors. AT&T added a net 566,000 postpaid wireless subscribers during Q4, ending the quarter with a net $6.9 billion profit on $33.2 billion in revenue.

The FCC released an updated list of eligible areas for the reverse auction that will award up to $50 million in one-time Tribal Mobility Fund Phase I support (http://bit.ly/1akSPus). Bidding in the auction is to begin Feb. 25. “The updated list reflects changes to the eligible areas for Auction 902 based on authorizations of support and default determinations from the initial auction of Mobility Fund Phase I support, Auction 901,” the Wireless and Wireline bureaus said Monday in a public notice (http://bit.ly/1aX955H).

The FCC’s rules on indoor location accuracy for wireless calls to 911 “have to change” and the agency will take up rules mandating benchmarks for carriers to meet at its Feb. 20 meeting, Chairman Tom Wheeler said in a blog post. “When the original 911 rules for wireless providers were first adopted, they were built on the assumption that the primary place consumers would use their wireless phones would be outside,” Wheeler said (http://fcc.us/LwLsVR). “But today, the vast majority of wireless calls are made from indoors, including 911 calls made from wireless phones. Commercial location-based services are raising consumers’ expectations -- if a smartphone app can locate them within seconds, why can’t a 911 call center?” States led by California have raised concerns that current requirements aren’t good enough. In comments filed at the FCC last year, carriers urged the FCC to proceed with caution and to base next steps on work already under way by the FCC’s Communications Security, Reliability and Interoperability Council (CD Sept 17 p13). The FCC held a workshop in November where Wheeler said the agency would do more. “I have been pro-911 and pro-911 location since the beginning of the location challenge,” he said at the time (CD Nov 19 p1).

General comments from the Department of Justice, culminating in remarks by Assistant Attorney General Bill Baer Thursday (CD Jan 31 p14), sound an “ominous” note on the prospects for how regulators would view a Sprint/T-Mobile deal, Stifel Nicolaus said Friday in a research note. “We believe DOJ has been sending an increasingly ominous message about a possible Sprint/T-Mobile merger, starting with broad DOJ comments last year about preferring a wireless market with four national carriers,” Stifel said. “We believe that Sprint/T-Mobile could fight DOJ opposition in court, but their efforts could be complicated by potential resistance from the FCC -- as were AT&T/T-Mobile’s -- and this time the FCC has the added incentive of wanting to ensure the four national wireless carriers bid in upcoming spectrum auctions."

With rumors of a Sprint/T-Mobile deal continuing to swirl, Assistant Attorney General Bill Baer, head of the Justice Department’s Antitrust Division, is expected to go out of his way Thursday night to discuss the importance of DOJ blocking the earlier AT&T/T-Mobile deal. Baer’s comments came in prepared remarks he is to deliver to the New York State Bar Association. “Since AT&T terminated its effort to eliminate T-Mobile as a rival, T-Mobile has spearheaded increased competition in wireless services,” Baer said. “Shortly after the merger was abandoned, T-Mobile announced a $4 billion investment in modernizing its network and deploying 4G LTE service. It then made a series of moves to offer cheaper and better customer contracts, including offering plans without annual contracts and selling Apple’s iPhone 5 on better terms than the competition."

T-Mobile’s buy of 700 MHz A-block licenses from Verizon is only a first step as the acquirer looks to buy more low-band spectrum, said Vice President Kathleen Ham in a blog post. “We believe the acquisition of Verizon’s A-Block will provide us with a good base of low-band spectrum, but it does not eliminate our need to continue to add to our portfolio,” Ham wrote (http://bit.ly/MlYsxD). “Even though interference and other problems previously associated with the A-Block are rapidly diminishing, thanks in part to an interoperability deal brokered by the FCC with AT&T and DISH, not all of the spectrum will be immediately usable.” The buy gives T-Mobile “just 6 MHz of low-band spectrum on average nationwide -- much less than the big two,” AT&T and Verizon, she said. “Clearly, low-band spectrum will remain highly concentrated in the hands of the two largest carriers.” The buy was announced in early January (CD Jan 7 p1).

There is broad industry agreement that the FCC’s spectrum aggregation policies are “flawed,” Sprint representatives said in a meeting with FCC Wireless Bureau staff. “Most notably, the Commission’s current tool -- the ’spectrum screen’ -- for assessing the likelihood of competitive harm arising from a particular spectrum acquisition fails to accurately reflect the critical competitive differences between bands available for mobile broadband,” Sprint said (http://bit.ly/1fn8TM9). “As Sprint explained, these differences significantly affect the ability and cost of a firm to deploy and operate a network using specific frequency bands. These varying costs and feasibility of deployment between bands directly affect the ability of firms to effectively compete in response to another firm’s attempt to exercise market power -- the key inquiry of the Commission’s spectrum screen."

Partial Economic Area (PEA) licenses aren’t a satisfactory alternative as a license size for the upcoming incentive TV auction, said representatives of the Rural Wireless Association and NTCA in a meeting with FCC officials. PEAs “remain too large to ensure the auction participation level necessary to ensure dissemination of licenses to small businesses and rural telephone companies,” the groups told the FCC in an ex parte filing. “For many carriers, the use of PEAs would preclude auction participation in much the same way as Economic Areas. … This is particularly true for carriers west of the Mississippi River.” The two associations want the FCC to offer license in the smaller Cellular Market Area-sized licenses.

Verizon Communications is on track to close its purchase of Vodafone’s stake in Verizon Wireless by Feb. 21, Verizon Communications said Tuesday after its shareholders approved the telco’s plan to issue up to 1.28 billion new shares of Verizon stock to help pay for the buyout. Verizon said it’s still waiting for the High Court of England and Wales to approve the buyout, but has received FCC clearance.