More than 2 billion people in developing and emerging countries are priced out of accessing the Internet, said a report from the Alliance for Affordable Internet (A4AI) that was released at this week’s Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. The report spans 51 developing and emerging nations and found that a fixed broadband connection costs the average citizen in these countries about 40 percent of their monthly income. Mobile broadband is cheaper but still double the UN threshold, averaging 10 percent of monthly income or about as much as developing country households spend on housing, the report said. It maps the links between policy and lower prices, and finds that five key areas are needed to create a roadmap to affordable Internet, including the existence of an effective National Broadband Plan, an environment that promotes enhanced competition, strategies that permit efficient spectrum allocation, models designed to encourage or mandate infrastructure sharing, and widespread public access through libraries, schools, and other community venues. Some of the organizations and countries that are members of the A4AI are Ghana, Google, GSMA, Intel, Microsoft, Mozambique, Nigeria, USAID and the U.S. State Department.

FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler reassured Wall Street Tuesday that Title II Communications Act reclassification of broadband won’t mean “utility” regulation for ISPs. Wheeler appeared on CNBC's Squawk Box, live from the show floor at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. The order (see 1502260043) assures that those building networks still “have the capital, have the revenue base, on which to build,” Wheeler said. The FCC doesn't regulate rates or impose tariffs or unbundling requirements, he said. “The reality is that the day after our order goes into effect, the revenues from consumer services for Internet service providers will be exactly the same as they were the day before,” he said. “We want those revenues to be there. We want those revenues to generate a good return.” Wheeler denied he changed direction on net neutrality only because of pressure from President Barack Obama. “I’ve always been for a strong and open Internet,” he said. “Over the summer,” it became clear that only Title II would protect consumers and the Internet, he said. Title II was always “one of the myriad of things we were looking at,” he said.

The LTE-U Forum released its first report evaluating LTE unlicensed, showing how it can coexist with Wi-Fi and other technologies that share unlicensed spectrum, said a Verizon news release Monday. LTE-U extends LTE and LTE Advanced, so mobile operators can offload data traffic onto unlicensed frequencies more efficiently and effectively. “Unlicensed spectrum is designed to promote innovation and choices for consumers,” said Ed Chan, Verizon senior vice president-network technology and planning.

Test results by consultant V-Comm point to major interference issues if white space devices and wireless mics are allowed to use the 600 MHz guard band or duplex gap following the TV incentive auction, said CTIA representatives. They met with FCC officials Feb. 25 to answer their questions and explain the V-Comm test results, said a filing posted Monday in docket 14-166. CTIA explained V-Comm’s “parameters and the technical assumptions used in conducting the interference testing,” CTIA said. “V-COMM explained that unlike the other parties that provided technical data in this proceeding, its testing relied upon actual measured values rather than 3GPP [3rd Generation Partnership Project] standard defined values for receiver sensitivity and blocking.” Unlicensed operations in the TV spectrum are being examined more closely by the FCC as rules are written for the incentive auction, expected to get underway next year (see 1502260008).

Verizon met with staff in the FCC Wireless Bureau Wednesday to discuss Dish Network’s use of designated entities (DEs) in the AWS-3 auction, the telco said in an ex parte notice filed Friday in docket 14-170. Dish and its DEs submitted “two or three bids for the same amount on the same licenses in the same round,” Verizon said. This bidding pattern goes beyond typical bidding agreements or consortia, it said. It allowed Dish to leave the auction once bidding reached a certain level and be replaced by its DEs, Verizon said. This raises questions as to whether the DE owners had control or if “the bidding was centrally coordinated and controlled” by Dish, it said. This type of bidding may have reduced competition, it said. The DE program increases auction revenue and mobile broadband competition, Dish said in a recent ex parte notice posted Monday. Dish didn’t comment. The DEs in question couldn't be reached for comment.

The FCC must not draw the wrong lessons from the AWS-3 auction, but instead should see the recently concluded sale as pointing to the need for competitive safeguards in the TV incentive auction (see 1501300051), members of the Public Interest Spectrum Coalition told the agency Tuesday. “The two dominant wireless carriers with the deepest pockets -- AT&T and Verizon -- walked away with 20 megahertz of the paired AWS-3 spectrum in most major markets and left the rest of the industry with only a smattering of paired blocks and 15 megahertz of low-value, unpaired, uplink spectrum,” the coalition said in a letter to FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler. It asked the FCC to set aside at least 40 MHz in every market for competitors to AT&T and Verizon in the incentive auction. Otherwise, the two big players could buy enough spectrum to keep others from getting much of anything in the auction, the group said. AT&T and Verizon own 75 percent of the “uniquely valuable” low-band spectrum, they said. The incentive auction “provides what may be the FCC’s final opportunity to prevent the two dominant carriers from monopolizing the low-band spectrum needed to compete in a broadband data world,” the coalition said. “It is difficult to see how the non-dominant carriers can effectively compete in a 4G marketplace without sufficient access to low-band spectrum that enables in-building penetration and economic wide-area coverage.” The coalition also said the AWS-3 auction points to the need for the FCC to make more spectrum available for licensed and unlicensed use and to base auction rules on consumer benefits, not revenue for the government. The $41.3 billion that carriers and others will have to pay to get the AWS-3 spectrum on which they bid will harm consumers twice over, the coalition said. “Revenues from the AWS-3 auction ultimately get passed along as higher prices to wireless broadband consumers,” the group said. “It also sucks investment capital out of the highly productive telecom sector.” The Benton Foundation, the Center for Media Justice, Common Cause, Engine, the Institute for Local Self Reliance, the National Hispanic Media Coalition, Open Technology Institute at New America, Public Knowledge and Writers Guild of America, West signed the letter. A wireless industry official noted in response that T-Mobile was outbid in markets it was pursuing far more often by Dish Network than by AT&T and Verizon. Dish beat T-Mobile 132 times, AT&T 26 times and Verizon 16 times, the official said. "As we have seen in countless spectrum auctions in the U.S. and around the world, it is virtually impossible to predict auction outcomes or to try to engineer them," Mobile Future said in a written statement. "The commission must resist any efforts to expand restrictions on auction participation that would negatively impact continuing mobile innovation and the hundreds of millions of U.S. wireless consumers using exponentially more mobile bandwidth each year."

FCC Commissioners Mike O’Rielly and Jessica Rosenworcel urged the FCC to move forward on rules opening 75 MHz of spectrum at 5850-5925 MHz for unlicensed use. Two years ago, then-Chairman Julius Genachowski unveiled a proposal at CES to make the spectrum available for Wi-Fi, but the proposal met with heavy opposition from the auto industry. Automakers objected because the FCC allocated the same band for Dedicated Short Range Communications Service (DSRC) systems intended to improve roadway safety in 1999 (see 1305310095). “We support the safety initiatives associated with DSRC, but are mindful that mobile opportunities are multiplying in ways never contemplated when this spectrum was set aside in 1999,” the two said in a blog post Monday. They said driverless cars were the stuff of science fiction when DSRC was approved. “New technologies are coming to market that support features like automatic braking and lane change warnings that use radar and other technologies not dependent on DSRC,” they said. “We should not strand our spectrum strategies in turn-of-the-millennium safety technologies when there are may be other more efficient ways to reach these same goals.”

Free Wi-Fi access will be provided to all guests staying at Hyatt-branded hotels and resorts worldwide as of Saturday, a Hyatt news release said. Guests will be able to obtain Wi-Fi for free on an unlimited number of mobile devices or laptops in guest rooms and social spaces at Hyatt hotels, it said. The sign-on process to access free Wi-Fi will vary by property. “It didn’t feel natural to put barriers around something travelers view as an essential part of their hotel stay,” said Vice President-Brands Kristine Rose. “Staying connected through technology is a critical part of productivity and keeping in touch with loved ones, especially while away traveling." Platinum and Diamond Hyatt Gold Passport members will be able to upgrade to premium Wi-Fi service for free whenever the upgrade is available. Guests not enrolled in loyalty programs can buy premium service, said the hotel chain. Marriott International was fined $600,000 by the FCC in October after that hotel chain was found to be blocking personal Wi-Fi networks at its Gaylord Opryland Hotel in Nashville (see 1410060066). The hotel chain announced in January it would no longer block guests from using their personal Wi-Fi devices at any of its hotels (see 1501150064) in order to “protect personal data,” said Marriott International’s Global Chief Information Officer Bruce Hoffmeister.

An FCC proposal to establish an air-to-ground mobile broadband service over the contiguous U.S. troubles the Association of Flight Attendants, representatives told agency officials, said a filing posted Friday in docket 13-114. “These concerns are similar in nature to those expressed in reply comments to another Commission proposal, one that would lift a long-standing ban on using cellphones for voice and data on flights,” the group said. “Either proposal would greatly enhance communications capabilities for terrorists and increase cyberwarfare vulnerabilities, leading to unacceptable risks of successful attacks on the United States aviation system.”

Sen. Kelly Ayotte, R-N.H., and FCC Commissioner Ajit Pai jointly questioned how FCC rules could let Dish Network buy $13.3 billion worth of AWS-3 licenses for $10 billion using bidding credits (see 1502020039). “While most bidders put their own money on the line, some of the largest companies in the auction were using billions of taxpayer dollars. How is that possible?” they asked in an op-ed piece in Thursday's Wall Street Journal. They warned that despite Dish’s alleged manipulation of the designated entity program, the FCC may further loosen DE rules. “What is astonishing about the manipulation of the bidding process is how cavalier the parties are,” they wrote. "The two Dish-related companies -- Northstar Wireless and SNR Wireless -- didn’t exist until a few months before the auction, and each reported to the FCC that it was a ‘very small business’ as neither had any gross revenues. Yet together the two companies magically managed to place bids more than seven times those of spectrum-hungry T-Mobile.” The FCC had no comment.