Quick news from around the Web.
Auction Watch: After 295 rounds, the last of which included 7 new bids, the FCC's AWS-3 auction has raised a total of $44.878 billion in provisionally winning bids. Page. AWS-3 auction primer.
India turns to corner shops, mobile phones for banking revolution http://t.co/9RpfhF6Wna via @reuters
— FierceWireless (@FierceWireless) January 26, 2015
> CTIA has hired a former White House employee as its new general counsel. Release
> T-Mobile US CEO John Legere met with FCC officials and discussed the importance of the upcoming incentive auction of 600 MHz TV broadcast spectrum. FCC filing
> The introduction of Apple Pay could increase interest in the mobile wallet sector. Article
> Samsung could be the main chip supplier in Apple's next iPhone, according to a new report. Article
> Apple has hired Chester Chipperfield, the former VP of Digital and Interactive Design at Burberry, and he could help oversee the launch of Apple Watch. Article
> Indonesia leads the world in mobile traffic to Facebook. Article
> Firefox will support the Oculus Rift headset, an effort by the company to get into the virtual reality game. Article
> Carrier spending slowdowns in the United States could be offset by increasing spending by carriers in India, the Middle East and elsewhere, according to a preview of Ericsson's earnings from the Wall Street Journal. Article
Wireless Tech News
> While researchers in the U.S. are making strides in millimeter wave (mmW) technologies, the European standards organization ETSI announced that its Industry Specifications Group on millimeter wave transmission (ISG mWT) held its first meeting and immediately started working on a set of five specifications. Article
> The First Responder Network Authority (FirstNet) formally launched the federal consultation process with a kick-off meeting in Washington, D.C., last week, with more than a dozen federal departments and agencies in attendance. Article
> Swedish-backed operator Tele2 AB (Tele2) and the Dutch company Aerea entered into a machine-to-machine/Internet of Things (M2M/IoT) partnership in the Netherlands, making Aerea the exclusive Sigfox network operator for the Netherlands. Article
Telecom News
> Incumbent service providers and industry trade groups back a proposal by a group of Republicans to thwart a potential move by the FCC to reclassify broadband Internet service providers as common carriers under Title II in the 1996 Telecom Act. Article
Cable News
> It's just a regional snapshot, but the latest news out of the Better Business Bureau in Charlotte, N.C., isn't going to burnish the fractured customer service reputation of Time Warner Cable. Article
> AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson says AT&T is currently reviewing a major branding change for DirecTV, as federal regulators finish off their own review of the telco's purchase of the pay-TV operator. Article
European Wireless News
> The European Commission (EC) will not refer the planned acquisition of Spain-based broadband provider Jazztel by Orange to the Spanish competition authority for assessment under Spanish competition law, saying it believes it is better placed to deal with the case. Article
> South Africa-based Vodacom selected Alcatel-Lucent as a key supplier for a new converged network that will ultimately support the provision of fixed and mobile services across South Africa. Article
And finally… Samsung is researching a brainwave-reading wearable smoke detector. Article