The Competitive Carriers Association, CTIA and Telecommunications Industry Association generally support a draft order, set for a vote at the Nov. 15 FCC commissioners’ meeting, changing how industry reports availability of hearing-aid compatible handsets, including lifting Form 655 requirements. CCA and CTIA officials said they spoke with Wireless Bureau staff. “The common sense approach to replace service providers’ existing FCC Form 655 obligations with a new disclosure and certification regime will better ensure that the Commission and consumers have timely and relevant information to choose among the hundreds of HAC-rated wireless handsets available in the market today, while reducing unnecessary regulatory burdens,” filed the three groups, posted Monday in docket 17-228.

Samsung filed last week to register four U.S. trademarks for the “Infinity” display, the bezel-less screen it first introduced on Galaxy S8 smartphones, Patent and Trademark Office records show. Samsung filed similar applications a few days earlier in India, say the records. The applications are to trademark “Infinity-O,” “Infinity-Flex,” “Infinity-U” and “Infinity-V,” they say. Samsung didn’t comment.

That Q3 global smartphone shipments declined for the fourth straight quarter “raises questions about the market's future,” said IDC. Shipments fell 6 percent to 355.2 million units: “IDC maintains its view that the market will return to growth in 2019, but at this stage it is too early to tell what that growth will look like.” Market-share leader Samsung “had a challenging quarter” with shipments down 13.4 percent to 72.2 million units, said IDC Thursday. Samsung “continues to feel pressure from all directions,” especially from Huawei, “inching closer to the top” after a second straight quarter as No. 2, it said. Huawei had 14.6 percent share in Q3 to Samsung’s 20.3 percent. In Q3 a year earlier, Samsung was 22.1 percent vs. Huawei’s 10.4 percent. Strategy Analytics pegged the global smartphone decline at 8 percent in Q3 to 360 million handsets, saying the market is "effectively in a recession." Smartphone makers are "struggling to come to terms with heavily diminished carrier subsidies, longer replacement rates, inventory buildup in several regions, and a lack of exciting hardware design innovation,” it said. Meanwhile, Strategy Analytics pegged the global smartphone decline at 8 percent in Q3 to 360 million handsets, saying the market is "effectively in a recession." Smartphone makers are "struggling to come to terms with heavily diminished carrier subsidies, longer replacement rates, inventory buildup in several regions, and a lack of exciting hardware design innovation,” it said. SA estimates Samsung's Q3 share declined to 20.1 percent from 21.2 percent, while Huawei's increased to 14.4 percent from 9.9 percent: "Huawei has little presence in the valuable North America market, but its Android models are wildly popular in most of the rest of the world, particularly Asia and Europe.”

T-Mobile CEO John Legere said on an earnings call Tuesday he remains optimistic the company will get regulatory approval to buy Sprint. “We have a lot of respect for the regulatory process, which is not yet finished,” Legere said. “We have completed a number of major milestones and remain optimistic and confident that once the facts are reviewed by regulators they will recognize the significant pro-competitive and pro-consumer benefits.” Legere noted the formal comment period at the FCC closes Wednesday and that more than half the state public commissions reviewing the deal have signed off. “We’re making progress,” he said. “We continue to expect this merger to close in the first half of 2019.” T-Mobile continues to grow more quickly than its competitors, adding a net 774,000 branded postpaid phone customers in Q3 with 1.6 million total net additions. The carrier also had record adjusted earnings of $3.2 billion, 15 percent above the year-ago quarter, and revenue of $8.1 billion, an increase of 8.2 percent. T-Mobile had 2.6 times as many net adds as Verizon. Legere said T-Mobile is offering 21 devices that use 600 MHz spectrum it bought in the TV incentive auction and the equipment being installed on its towers is upgradable to 5G with a software update. The company said 600 MHz is available in more than 1,500 cities and towns in 37 states and Puerto Rico. Wells Fargo’s Jennifer Fritzsche sees a 70 percent chance the deal will be approved, up from 60 percent, she wrote investors. “Our recent DC checks make us more confident that the … merger will be approved,” she said. “While the DoJ is admittedly a walled garden, most contacts we spoke [to] have not heard chatter coming out of the agency which would suggest there exist insurmountable barriers in completing this marriage.” She expects regulators to demand spectrum divestitures. Sprint reports quarterly earnings Wednesday.

The Apple iPhone X, which began shipping in November, had the highest trade-in value (TIV) of mobile devices in Q3 ($484.87) when Apple released its latest generation of smartphones, Hyla Mobile reported Monday. The iPhone 6s was the top-traded phone, with 29 percent of swapped devices, it said. Following the 6s were the iPhone 6 (28 percent of traded phones), iPhone 7 and 7 Plus (18 and 14 percent) and Samsung Galaxy S7 (11 percent), said Hyla. In trade-in value, the Samsung Galaxy Note9 came in second ($442.60) behind the iPhone X, followed by the iPhone 8 Plus ($382.06), the Galaxy S9+ ($345.41) and the iPhone 8 ($316.65), it said. Average TIV for an iPhone was $146.22 and $61.58 for an Android phone, said the report. Devices among the top four vendors that lost the most trade-in value were the LG V30, Google Pixel 2 XL and 2, all at 14 percent, and the Galaxy S7 Edge and S8 at 13 percent, it said. The average age of used smartphones returned was 2.92 years for iPhones and 2.66 years for all other smartphones, said Hyla. In the quarter, $628 million was returned to customers in trade or buyback programs, it said.

Retailers and carriers jumped on the iPhone XR release Friday, led by Sprint's "$0 per month" promotion for customers with an eligible trade-in phone and a Sprint Flex lease. The trade-in list includes seventh-generation and above iPhones, Samsung Galaxy 8 and above mobile devices, LG’s G7 ThinQ, and three Google Pixel models. At Best Buy, AT&T Wireless promoted a buy-one-save-$700-on-another deal for the XR with postpaid voice and data on both devices and at least one new line of activation. Best Buy's Verizon Wireless offer pushed the full X generation of iPhones, offering $750 in savings on an iPhone XR or X to customers who buy any of the X smartphones. Required are a new line of service that remains active for 24 months and an active first line account for six months. T-Mobile’s limited-time offer for any of the new trio of iPhone X models requires customers to agree to a payment plan and an eligible device trade-in to receive $10.83 per month back on their bill for up to 36 months. The XR, available in six colors, starts at $749, $250 less than the XS; has a 12-megapixel camera vs. the dual 12-megapixel cameras found on the XS and XS Max; and has a 6.1-inch LCD display vs. the 5.8-inch and 6.1-inch screens on the XS and XS Max.

The FCC released a draft order, set for a vote at the Nov. 15 commissioners’ meeting, to change how industry reports availability of hearing-aid compatible handsets. The order would adopt “in large part” a consensus proposal “broadly supported by the hearing loss community, nationwide, rural, and regional wireless service providers, and wireless handset manufacturer,” as expected (see 1810240030). It would require carriers to beef up their websites on the compatibility of handsets “to provide more up-to-date and accessible information to consumers and Commission staff." Providers would report on discontinued handsets. They would need to certify yearly “compliance with the Commission’s hearing aid-compatibility rules, including the web site requirements, and indicate the percentage of hearing aid-compatible handsets offered." The agency is killing a “burdensome” annual Form 655 reporting requirement. The current reporting requirements “were intended to provide the Commission with a way to verify compliance with rules requiring service providers and device manufacturers to offer specified numbers of hearing aid-compatible handset models, to monitor the status of hearing aid-compatible handset deployment in the marketplace, and to ensure that consumers have access to information about the handset models that serve their needs,” the draft said. “The enhanced web site requirements that we adopt here are an improved means of promoting those goals.” The National Association of the Deaf “advocates for consumers to be able to make informed choices about wireless devices based on compatibility with their hearing aids, and appreciates the collaboration between industry and consumer groups" on the order, said Zainab Alkebsi, policy counsel.

Verizon is the exclusive carrier for the Palm smartphone companion device, described as a credit-card size device designed to eliminate “mindless scrolling and excessive screen time." The Palm's form factor is said to allow users to connect to “only what matters.” The Palm is voice-enabled with Google Assistant, has 12-megapixel rear-facing and 8-megapixel front-facing cameras and has a 3.3-inch 720p display. Its “life mode” includes shortcuts to get users to apps with “a couple of taps,” said Verizon. Apps for the Android-based Palm are available at Google Play. The $299 device syncs with a user’s Gmail account using Verizon NumberShare and can be purchased over 24 months at $14.58 a month with a two-year agreement.

Maine Supreme Court justices asked if people have an expectation of privacy of real-time cellphone location information, in oral argument Tuesday on how the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Carpenter v. U.S. applies to Maine v. O’Donnell. It’s one of several state court cases that may determine the reach of the Supreme Court’s 5-4 summer decision that government collection of at least seven days of cellsite location information (CSLI) is a Fourth Amendment-protected search, requiring warrants (see 1810170043). “The real question is whether each of us -- most of us who I assume have a cellphone -- have a right to privacy in where we are that can be violated if there is no warrant to ping that phone,” said Chief Justice Leigh Saufley. The state conceded the officer should have obtained a warrant, but a lower court said the evidence was admissible, noted Justice Ellen Gorman. “So what remedy does Mr. O’Donnell or someone in his circumstances have when the state treads on his rights?” The Supreme Court found historical CSLI data to be sensitive and revealing information, and the automatic nature of such data’s exposure made it not subject to the third-party doctrine, which says people who voluntarily give information to phone companies and other third parties lack reasonable expectation of privacy, argued appellant attorney Adam Sherman: O’Donnell didn’t volunteer his cellphone information. A 2016 Maine Supreme Court ruling held real-time tracking of a cellphone is more troublesome to someone’s privacy interest than historical information, he said. Unless there are exigent circumstances, a warrant is required, he said. Maine counsel Paul Rucha disagreed: “Carpenter does not explicitly control this case and it does not address a limited request for records for CSLI of less than seven days. Since Carpenter does not apply, this court must determine whether to expand the Maine Constitution beyond federal protection or determine this case under Maine statutory law.” Rucha argued the U.S. Supreme Court’s concern with historical data had to do with its breadth, whereas real-time information is a request for a person’s information at one point. Rucha warned not to make it harder to find missing children or people who call 911 on a cellphone. Saufley said exigent circumstances would take hold and allow a warrantless search to find a missing kid.

T-Mobile had the best quarter in mobile phone activations in Q3, Consumer Intelligence Research Partners reported Monday, saying the carrier had the highest retention rate of existing customers and highest percentage gain of new customers, including switchers and first-time mobile buyers. Some 85 percent of T-Mobile customers who activated a mobile phone in the quarter stayed, and 30 percent of its customer base switched from competitors, said CIRP. Sprint had a 72 percent retention rate, and AT&T and Verizon had 78 percent and 82 percent retentions, it said. CIRP surveyed 500 U.S. subjects Oct. 1-9 who activated a new or used phone.