Google made its new Wi-Fi router, OnHub, available for pre-order, the company said in a blog post Tuesday. The cylindrical router contains internal antennas, automatically adjusts to avoid network interference and allows users to prioritize devices and choose which receive the fastest speed, Google said. OnHub can be managed through a mobile app available on Android and iOS devices, which displays bandwidth and network diagnostic data, the release said. Google said the router can be pre-ordered for $199.99 from the Google Store, Amazon and other retailers, and will be made available in stores in the coming weeks.

The Interactive Advertising Bureau’s Technology Laboratory seeks comment through Sept. 18 on its upgrade to the IAB Display Creative Guidelines, an IAB release said Monday. “The updates were developed by the IAB Display Creative Working Group, in response to ongoing IAB exploration of the benefits of HTML5 technology,” the release said. “The revised guidelines include major changes to key specs for the IAB Universal Ad Package (UAP) and IAB Display and Mobile Rising Stars, which address issues such as file weights and packaging for optimal load performance when HTML5 is deployed,” it said. “Other ad units, rich media guidance, and the display creative glossary of terminology have been reworked as well,” it said. "For years, the 'IAB Display Creative Guidelines' have served as a critical foundation for digital marketing, and this timely update gives us yet another step up the ladder to conversion,” said IAB Technology and Ad Operations Senior Vice President Scott Cunningham. “HTML5 is rapidly becoming the go-to for creating captivating ads that work across multiple screens,” said AOL Premium Experiences Platforms Director of Production Services Aaron Wood, who co-chairs the IAB Display Creative Working Group. IAB Tech Lab members AOL, Celtra, Crisp Media and PointRoll contributed ad units for the initial specification tests before taking the updated "IAB Display Creative Guidelines" to comment, and AOL provided a test environment and analysis during the examination phase, the release said. The IAB HTML5 for Digital Advertising Guidance Working Group is developing a revised "HTML5 For Digital Advertising Guide," which will “directly support the updated ‘IAB Display Creative Guidelines’ with actionable insights and recommendations for using HTML5 effectively in display ad creative,” it said. The guide is expected to be released this fall.

The House Communications Subcommittee will continue its review of broadband infrastructure investment this fall, said David Redl, GOP chief telecom counsel for the House Commerce Committee, during a Monday panel hosted by the Technology Policy Institute in Aspen, Colorado. “What we can do, in the short term, you saw us start to tee that up in July,” Redl said, citing a broadband investment hearing from last month (see 1507220058). He said this area is “a place where we think the subcommittee in particular can rise above the debate” on FCC reclassification of broadband. “We were really pleased with how the hearing turned out.” Subcommittee Republicans and Democrats have been working together on the policy areas, he said, “on the wired side and the wireless side.” Tower siting is one issue that will continue to receive attention, and spectrum is “perennially on everybody’s mind but gets lost in the shuffle,” he said. Communications Subcommittee Chairman Greg Walden, R-Ore., has mentioned the likelihood of another hearing focused on the General Services Administration pace on tower siting.

Verizon successfully tested a technology offering businesses and consumers 10 Gbps speeds for uploads and downloads over its fiber-to-the-premises network, with the potential for 40-80 Gbps, the company said Tuesday in a news release. Network upgrades will begin when commercial equipment is available to support business/ethernet services, and could also target FiOS customers as the market demands and technology matures, Verizon said. The new technology, known as next-generation passive optical network, was first tested at a Verizon lab, then to a FiOS customer's home from a central office three miles away and also from that office to a business near the home. “The advantage of our FiOS network is that it can be upgraded easily by adding electronics onto the fiber network that is already in place," said Lee Hicks, Verizon vice president-network technology.

Google challenged arguments by the Wireless Medical Telemetry Service Coalition (WMTS) and GE Healthcare (GEHC) that data presented to the FCC by NAB show problems with the TV white spaces (TVWS) database of concern to the medical community as the agency examines unlicensed use of TV Channel 37. The coalition and GEHC asked for additional technical rules to protect wireless telemetry use of the spectrum (see 1508030059). “Like NAB, GE Healthcare and the WMTS Coalition fail to identify even one instance of harmful interference from a TVWS device," Google said. “Indeed, as Google has previously revealed, the flawed NAB filing that GE Healthcare and the WMTS Coalition invoke focused on entries into TVWS databases that almost certainly reflect professional testing by hardware manufacturers, not misuse of devices by the rogue operators that GE Healthcare and the WMTS Coalition attempt to conjure.” The filing was posted Tuesday in docket 12-268.

CTIA selected technology provider iconectiv as its new strategic partner for its Common Short Code (CSC) Registry Services, it said Thursday. The company will start providing service Jan. 1, CTIA said. CSCs are the five- or six-digit codes businesses use to engage customers via text message. "Iconectiv's expertise will facilitate the successful transition of registry services as well as help continue to grow the use of CSCs by streamlining registration services using innovative data analytics and business intelligence solutions," said Rocco Carlitti, CTIA chief financial officer.

AT&T isn't concerned about FCC conditions on its buy of DirecTV articulated by FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler Tuesday (see 1507220076), AT&T Chief Financial Officer John Stephens said Thursday during a call with analysts on Q2 earnings. “We feel very confident that we can make an adequate return on any investment we make as part of this deal,” he said. “Our threshold for investment and determining what’s best for our shareholders has not changed.” AT&T still expects to achieve $2.5 billion in cost synergies from the deal, he said. AT&T plans to webcast an analyst day shortly after the deal closes “to discuss our strategy in much more detail,” Stephens said. AT&T added 2.1 million net wireless subscribers in the quarter, including 410,000 postpaid and 331,000 prepaid subscribers and 1 million connected cars. Postpaid churn was 1.01 percent, a record low for the carrier. On the wireline side, U-verse consumer revenue of $4.1 billion was up 19 percent year over year. AT&T reported adjusted earnings per share of 69 cents in Q2, up from 62 cents a year ago. Consolidated revenue was $33.0 billion, up 1.4 percent versus the year-earlier period. “Our wireless strategy” of moving customers away from subsidized handsets “is working,” Stephens said. “This is a pivotal time for us,” CEO Randall Stephenson said in a news release. “We look forward to closing DIRECTV and building on this momentum by delivering a new TV everywhere experience integrated with mobile and high-speed Internet service.”

General Electric installed new fiber optic lines to support its industrial Internet initiative, the company said in a news release Thursday. The cables installed at GE's Global Research Center in Niskayuna, N.Y. deliver speeds of 100 Gbps, it said. GE said Cisco contributed to the infrastructure project, which will be featured during demonstrations Thursday at the Industrial Internet Consortium's Summer Conference at the research center.

Democratic presidential front-runner Hillary Clinton on Monday named broadband competitiveness a priority. “Let’s build those faster broadband networks and make sure there’s a greater diversity of providers so consumers have more choice,” Clinton declared during an economic policy speech at the New School in Manhattan. Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., who also is seeking the Democratic nomination, outlined concerns about broadband pricing last week (see 1507100045).

The FCC rejected all major changes sought by industry, in an order on various petitions for reconsideration on the service rules for the TV incentive auction. The order had been approved by the FCC through electronic voting (see 1506180041). “As we have stated before, our intention is to begin accepting applications to participate in the incentive auction in the fall of 2015, and to start the bidding process in early 2016,” the FCC said. “We issue this Order now in order to provide certainty for prospective bidders and other interested parties in advance of the incentive auction.” Commissioner Ajit Pai said in a statement that he approved in part and concurred in part on the order. “While I do not agree with the resolution of every single petition for reconsideration addressed in this Order, I do agree with how we dispose of the overwhelming majority of them,” he said. "And second, working together, we improved the item.” Pai cited a change the FCC made to consumer education requirements imposed on broadcasters. TV “stations repacked after the auction will have every incentive to inform their viewers of a channel change in the most effective manner,” he said. “It will be a matter of economic self-interest.”