American and British touch-screen smartphone owners prefer handsets with display sizes between 5 and 5.5 inches, a Strategy Analytics survey has found. Though slightly more respondents rated the 5.3-inch device in their top three, a higher proportion chose the 5-inch “prototype” as the device “they would most likely consider purchasing for their next smartphone,” the research firm said. Nearly a quarter (23 percent) of respondents canvassed ranked the 5-inch prototype as their favorite overall, with an additional 27 percent placing it in their top three, it said. Though 16 percent ranked the 5.3-inch prototype as their favorite overall, another 36 percent “placed this device in their top three,” it said. Device prototypes of 6 inches or larger and 4.5 inches or smaller “were least preferred overall,” it said. Respondents were most likely to be interested in a device that had a display that was up to 1.5 inches larger than their current smartphone, it said. Respondents initially showed overall preference for the thinner prototype, 6 mm rather than 8 mm, it said: “Yet when told that the thicker device could provide a third more battery life, the majority of respondents instead opted for the thicker prototype. What is clear is that respondents prioritize battery life over a thin design. Crucially, however, this does not mean that manufacturers can make very thick devices in order to provide much larger batteries." Today's iPhone 6 Plus has 5.5-inch display, while the iPhone 6 has a 4.7-inch display.

SoundHound and Westwood One created a mobile ad platform for radio stations, they said in a news release Monday. SoundHound for Radio lets radio stations “interact with listeners, brands, and advertisers” and became available Monday, the companies said. The platform enables broadcasts to work with the SoundHound app “in a new way that gives not only the song information, but also attribution,” they said. When listeners use the SoundHound music recognition app on a station that has implemented SoundHound for Radio, “the results resolve to a branded station page including content, a contest, or coupon engagement opportunities,” the companies said. Local stations will control the ad information displayed, and the platform includes real-time analytics, said SoundHound and Westwood One.

A Deutsche Telekom spokesman Tuesday denied a report in the New York Post that DT CEO Timotheus Hoettges has made clear he would prefer a deal with Sprint to one with Dish Network. Hoettges said it in a meeting with investors at an RBC Capital Markets road show in Toronto last week, the tabloid reported. The paper “asked us to confirm a couple of statements” from Hoettges at the conference, the spokesman said in an email. “We did not do so because they were false.” DT is the majority owner of T-Mobile USA. Industry observers said last week a DT/Dish deal likely would pass muster with U.S. regulators if it is proposed (see 1506040051). T-Mobile CEO John Legere was in Washington Tuesday for a series of meetings on Capitol Hill and at the FCC, he said on social media.

CTIA sued to strike down a Berkeley, California, ordinance that requires retailers to make "unsubstantiated and false statements about the alleged effects of cellphones, which would contradict the findings from independent health and scientific organizations," said the association in a Monday news release. Berkeley's City Council May 26 unanimously adopted an ordinance, Requiring Notice Concerning Radio Frequency Exposure of Cell Phones, No. 7,404-N.S., the filing said. The ordinance says the disclosures and warnings that accompany cellphones generally advise consumers not to wear them against their bodies, but the disclosures and warnings often are buried in fine print and not written in easily understood language, or are accessible only by looking for the information on the device itself, the lawsuit said. The ordinance requires cellphone retailers to give all customers who buy or lease a cellphone a notice that warns of the dangers as follows: "To assure safety, the Federal Government requires that cell phones meet radio frequency (RF) exposure guidelines. If you carry or use your phone in a pants or shirt pocket or tucked into a bra when the phone is ON and connected to a wireless network, you may exceed the federal guidelines for exposure to RF radiation. This potential risk is greater for children. Refer to the instructions in your phone or user manual for information about how to use your phone safely." The FCC has said it's confident the federal government's conservative health and safety standards for cellphones fully protect public health, CTIA said. Leading global health organizations such as the American Cancer Society, National Cancer Institute, World Health Organization and the Food and Drug Administration all concurred that wireless devices are not a public health risk, it said. "Berkeley's Ordinance plainly violates the First Amendment," said CTIA's representing counsel Theodore Olson, of Gibson Dunn. "The ordinance also unlawfully interferes with FCC regulations and contradicts the federal government's determination -- based on extensive scientific evidence -- that cellphones approved for sale in the United States do not pose a public health risk. It is unconstitutional to force cellphone retailers to communicate false, misleading and inflammatory information about their products. It is unfortunate that Berkeley would incite unfounded public anxiety and fear about a product that is so important to its citizens' everyday lives." The association had previously won a fight against San Francisco’s cellphone labeling law (see report in the Sept. 11, 2012, issue). The Berkeley City Council did not have an immediate comment Monday.

The 5.1-inch Samsung Galaxy S6 active smartphone will be available exclusively from AT&T stores and online beginning Friday, and customers can get a free Galaxy Tab 4 8.0 tablet with purchase if they sign a two-year agreement, said AT&T. The S6 active has IP68-certified casing that's water resistant up to 1.5 meters for 30 minutes, shock resistant and dust proof, said the carrier. Zero-down AT&T Next pricing options for the smartphone include $23.17 over 30 monthly payments; $28.96 for 24 payments or $34.75 for 20 payments, said AT&T. In another promotion, consumers who buy the Galaxy S6 active with a two-year agreement can get a Samsung wireless charging pad for half off, said the carrier. The $49 charging pad supports Qi and PMA charging standards.

AT&T, which plans to start allowing Wi-Fi calling this year, said it views it as a complement to its network coverage, "not as a way to compensate for network coverage limitations." The carrier knows "Wi-Fi is a good technology if you are not going to be mobile," emailed a company spokesman Thursday. "Cellular is far more available, reliable and secure. What customers want most is to be connected with high-speeds everywhere they go." Executives at other carriers said much the same at a Telecommunications Industry Association conference last week, as those companies have either already introduced Wi-Fi calling on their networks or plan to do so soon (see 1506020044).

LTE deployment continues to grow rapidly, with nearly 635 million total connections worldwide as of Q1, 4G Americas said Friday. That's a 151 percent increase year-over-year, the group said. In North America, 44 percent of mobile connections are LTE, compared with 9 percent worldwide, 4G Americas said. “North America continues to prove its leadership in LTE with metrics such as population coverage, share of market and penetration,” said Chris Pearson, president of 4G Americas. “This foreshadows the future of mobile broadband in the Americas and the important influence that LTE carries as it helps lay the foundation for 5G in 2020 and beyond.” There are 68 commercial LTE networks deployed in the U.S. and Canada, with 180 million LTE connections as of March, a gain of 66 million new LTE subscribers in 12 months, the group said.

Chinese smartphone maker Nubia launched its 2015 flagship Z9 in New York Thursday with a “borderless” 5.2-inch screen design, 16-megapixel camera with image stabilization and fingerprint sensor technology. The high-end Android phone includes Frame Interactive Technology (FiT), which allows users to control the phone using grip and gesture-based controls that include touching the side of the phone. Users can launch the 16-megapixel camera by turning the phone sideways and placing four fingertips on the edge of the screen, for instance, and they can take one-handed “selfies” by squeezing the handset, said the company. The phone includes optical image stabilization for the camera and uses a Snapdragon 810 processor. The Z9 will be available in three models when it ships in Q3: 32GB Classic ($564), 64GB Elite ($645) and Exclusive ($725), a 64GB model with fingerprint sensor technology, said the company.

Consumers have lots of defenses against unwanted robocalls, Verizon said in a blog post Wednesday, the day the FCC said new rules on automated calls are to get a vote at the commission’s June 18 meeting (see 1505270048). “We understand that unwanted robocalls can be a bother, and we stop many robocalls before they reach consumers,” the carrier said. “We monitor our networks to detect spikes in suspicious calls, and then work with law enforcement and with other communications companies to shut down illegal robocallers.” There are “dozens of free call-blocking apps from a wide variety of developers” available on the App Store and Google Play, and CTIA offers a list of apps for all operating systems, Verizon said. The FCC appears poised to stand up to industry in its proposed declaratory ruling on the Telephone Consumer Protection Act, the National Consumer Law Center (NCLC) and the National Association of Consumer Advocates said Thursday in a news release. “We applaud the FCC chairman for upholding the essential consumer protections” in the TCPA, said NCLC attorney Margot Saunders. “The industry petitions would have gutted this key consumer law and exposed consumers to a tsunami of unwanted robocalls and texts to their cell phones.”

Mobile phone data and mobile Twitter use are helpful in estimating crowd sizes, said researchers at the Data Science Lab at Warwick Business School in the U.K. “Using a football stadium and an airport as case studies, we present evidence of a strong relationship between the number of people in restricted areas and activity recorded by mobile phone providers and the online service Twitter,” they said in a paper. “Our findings suggest that data generated through our interactions with mobile phone networks and the Internet may allow us to gain valuable measurements of the current state of society.” Measuring crowd size is difficult, as evidenced by “the hugely varying estimates we see of the number of people at protests,” said Federico Botta, lead researcher on the project. “We found that this automatically generated data provides an excellent basis for estimating the size of a crowd. Quick and accurate measurements of crowd size could be of vital use for police and other authorities charged with avoiding crowd disasters."