Cell towers have obviously always been a danger to aircraft and the occasional light changer or BASE jumper, but the FCC's been facing scrutiny from environmental groups for years over the risks towers pose to another group of fliers: birds. A February court battle brought against the feds by the American Bird Conservancy -- dealing specifically with the threat of so-called "tower kill" on migratory birds in the Gulf region -- saw a ruling demanding that the FCC finally get down to business and come up with a game plan for dealing with the threat that cell sites pose to birds, particularly at night. Naturally, there's still some hemming and hawing, legal wrangling, and wringing of hands going on amongst tower owners and their allies, largely over concerns that the ruling's going to lead to denied and delayed applications for new tower construction. Apparently no one's bothered to teach those little guys what the red lights mean?

[Via textually.org]

If there's one thing you can count on in this crazy world of ours, it's that LG handsets that start with "VX" are destined to get stamped with a big-ass Verizon logo somewhere along the line. Latest in that trend should be the VX9600, having just passed through the FCC's danger-fraught passages on its way to a presumed release on Big Red down the line. It should be a pretty interesting device, too -- as most in the VX9000 series tend to be -- thanks to a 3.0-inch 480 x 240 display, a "game pad" of some sort, and a detachable QWERTY keyboard. Not a lot to go on there, granted, but this is FCC documentation we're talking about here. More on this one as we get it.

We here at Engadget Mobile tend to spend a lot of way too much time poring over the latest FCC filings, be it on the net or directly on the ol' Federal Communications Commission's site. Since we couldn't possibly (want to) cover all the stuff that goes down there, we've gathered up all the raw info you may want (but probably don't need). Enjoy!

Phones
Read - Huawei U1305
Read - Hitachi W63H
Read - Alcatel OT-V570A
Read - Pantech C630
Read - Pantech C740
Read - NEC KMP7N2R1-1A
Read - Samsung SGH-T919

Peripherals
Read - Motorola H270
Read - Vodafone Mobile Connect USB Stick
Read - LG HBM530

LG's generally one of the most consistently tightlipped companies when it comes to revealing details about upcoming handsets via FCC documentation; yes, granted, they've got to file certain documents, but they do so in the most obscure, boring way possible (take, for instance, the ID label samples, which show the same meaningless diagram for every single device they test). Imagine our surprise, then, to see that the LG CP250 flip has been revealed here in full AT&T battle regalia -- complete with a VGA cam, EDGE data, a pair of color displays, and that's just about it. We would've liked their one-in-a-million FCC reveal to be just a little more interesting, but hey, it's a start, LG. Keep it coming.

[Via Phone Scoop]

And now, a dispatch from our "we'd be gaga over it with a 3G radio" department: Fly Mobile's E310 Attitude slider has slid on through the FCC's testing process, blessing it with a sort of cheap, neo-Chocolate look and feel that'd make LG proud. Truth be told, we can't tell if that's a good thing without getting our hands on the phone, but we'll admit, there's something intriguing to us about it from the cold, clinical shots the FCC is giving us -- and the hidden d-pad below the display is still pretty trick for the low-cost segment that Fly is trying to target. It's got a 3.2-megapixel camera, integrated FM radio, TV-out, Bluetooth, and microSDHC support; on the downside, the GPRS data leaves a musty taste in our mouths, but hey, at least it's of the quadband variety.

We here at Engadget Mobile tend to spend a lot of way too much time poring over the latest FCC filings, be it on the net or directly on the ol' Federal Communications Commission's site. Since we couldn't possibly (want to) cover all the stuff that goes down there, we've gathered up all the raw info you may want (but probably don't need). Enjoy!

Phones
Read - Samsung SPH-M540
Read - Samsung SGH-M200
Read - Samsung SCH-i910
Read - Samsung SCH-R800
Read - Samsung 930SC
Read - LG KP270
Read - LG RD6200
Read - LG KP570Q
Read - Alcatel OT-I650A
Read - Huawei T520A
Read - Huawei C2906
Read - Huawei U1107
Read - Huawei U1307
Read - ZTE C362
Read - Pantech CDM8975
Read - Pantech C630
Read - Sharp WX-T825
Read - Sharp 830SH
Read - Kyocera K38-01

Peripherals
Read - Option GlobeSurfer 311
Read - Option ICON 322
Read - LG HBM-520
Read - Iqua Vizor SUN PHF-603

With the dull roar of frenzied anticipation (okay, that might be over the top, but you know what we mean) surrounding the launch of the Touch Diamond in all its variants around the globe, why would HTC take a step back in time to get one of its older models approved in a new flavor? Don't get us wrong -- for its day, the Touch Cruise was one of the hottest Windows Mobile devices going -- but the Touch Diamond has seriously muted an overwhelming majority of the WinMo kit out there, including much of HTC's older lineup. Put head to head, the VGA display and TouchFLO 3D alone are enough to make sure the newer handset spanks the Polaris, but for whatever reason, Mr. Chou and his gang saw fit to repurpose it with HSDPA 850 / 1900 and send it through an FCC lab. We're not sure whether this will end up on a carrier anywhere, but with the front-facing cam, we'd probably rule out AT&T off the bat.

Update: Touche, there's a Touch Cruise already in circulation with 850 / 1900 3G -- but the question remains, why was this just approved? Thanks, everybody!

Here's how the smartphones compare:

• HTC Dream: 115 x 55-mm
• iPhone 3G: 115.2-mm x 62.1-mm
• Xperia X1: 110.5 x 52.6-mm
• HTC Touch Pro: 102 x 51-mm

Image of HTC's label exchange request after the break.

[Thanks, OC]

We here at Engadget Mobile tend to spend a lot of way too much time poring over the latest FCC filings, be it on the net or directly on the ol' Federal Communications Commission's site. Since we couldn't possibly (want to) cover all the stuff that goes down there, we've gathered up all the raw info you may want (but probably don't need). Enjoy!

Phones
Read - Samsung SPH-M630
Read - Huawei V830s
Read - Huawei U1309
Read - Huawei C7100
Read - LG KS500
Read - Alcatel OT-S321a

Peripherals
Read - Huawei E160E
Read - ZTE AC570

Who knew that AT&T's customer base constituted an "emerging market"? Certainly not us, but Nokia's 2680 slide -- a phone Nokia itself said was targeted at so-called "replacement buyers" in emerging markets -- has just been spotted all up in the FCC's business bearing an AT&T logo front and center (well, actually, it's toward the bottom, but you get our drift). It includes an FM radio, MP3 ringtone support, a low-end cam, and an unsubsidized price of €75 (about $114), so we suspect this'll likely find a home on GoPhone. If it does end up on the postpaid roster, though, expect it be about as close to free as they come.

Just over a year ago, we were all making bitter beer faces at FCC chairman Kevin Martin for not going along with a delightful sounding "free internet" plan. Now, it seems the main man's tune has changed. During a recent interview, Martin stated that there was a "social obligation in making sure everybody could participate in the next generation of broadband services because, increasingly, that's what people want." He's reportedly looking to attach a free mobile broadband requirement to the AWS-3 spectrum that's set to be auctioned next year, which would require the winner to allocate 25% for gratis access. 'Course, we wouldn't get our hopes us for this to actually go down like it surely is playing out in your mind just now, but we won't fault you for dreamin'.

[Via phonescoop]

Hmm, Hov, you may want to check the fine print on whatever deal you've got with Moto, because these Jay-Z-branded MOTOROKR S7-HD Bluetooth headset aren't exactly big pimpin' -- and compared to Dre's big ol' cans, they look downright sad. Of course, the FCC's legendarily nasty product photography isnt helping here, but even A2DP stereo support and the integrated mic can't salvage this mess -- was this really worth unretiring for?

[Via Crave]

We here at Engadget Mobile tend to spend a lot of way too much time poring over the latest FCC filings, be it on the net or directly on the ol' Federal Communications Commission's site. Since we couldn't possibly (want to) cover all the stuff that goes down there, we've gathered up all the raw info you may want (but probably don't need). Enjoy!

Phones
Read - Alcatel OT-S319a
Read - Alcatel OT-S121a
Read - Samsung SPH-W6300
Read - Samsung SGH-L708E
Read - Samsung SGH-U800E
Read - Samsung SCH-R600
Read - Pantech C740

Peripherals
Read - Samsung WEP460
Read - Alcatel OT-BM82
Read - Huawei EC821

Citing concerns over competition (or lack thereof), Leap Wireless has formally asked the FCC to ixnay on the urchasepay of Alltel by Verizon. The argument's a pretty well-worn one at this point, focusing on roaming agreements that the regional carrier relies on to let its customers go about their business when outside the reach of Leap towers and the concern that the merger will lead to the collapse of some of those agreements. In Leap's case, dead roaming agreements quickly lead to coverage gaps and a significantly impaired ability to do competitive business. Though the FCC is forcing a number of concessions to preserve competition in the wake of a merger, Leap clearly doesn't think it's going far enough; indeed, Verizon's promise to honor existing roaming agreements after the merger goes through is nothing more than a promise at this point, and not an explicit part of the conditions that the FCC is demanding. The proposed acquisition has built up a ton of steam and is widely expected to breeze through the regulatory process anyway, so Leap's move might be largely symbolic -- but at least they've got their customers' best interests in mind here.

[Via MobileBurn]