• T-Mobile USA is defending its merger with AT&T after Sprint and other opponents to the deal blasted the transaction in documents filed with the FCC Monday. T-Mobile reiterated previous statements that the merger was needed to address both companies' capacity shortage. "As part of their application, AT&T and T-Mobile provided a compelling showing of their need for more spectrum to continue to provide quality service to customers and roll out new technologies in the future," T-Mobile spokesman Tom Sugrue said in a statement. "The FCC has long acknowledged the harmful consequences of ignoring the spectrum crunch, and we are confident it will approve our proposed market-based solution."
• Mobile commerce startup Isis says Austin, Texas, will be one of its first launch markets when the company's technology goes live next year. The city's residents will be able to use Isis-equipped phones to buy goods and redeem coupons at participating businesses beginning in the first half of 2012. Isis says it is working with local businesses and the Austin Chamber of Commerce on the project.
• Two House subcommittees overseeing aviation, the coast guard and marine transportation will hold a hearing Thursday exploring whether LightSquared's planned LTE network will affect the reliability of GPS. The hearing, scheduled for 9 a.m. Eastern, will include testimony from high-level government officials, stakeholders in the GPS industry and LightSquared spokesman Jeff Carlisle.
• ZAGG has acquired mobile device accessories company iFrogz for $105 million in cash and shares. ZAGG plans to use the deal to expand into protective cases, headphones, earbuds and other accessories for smartphones, tablets and mobile devices.
• The Wireless History Foundation (WHF) has announced four inductees for the Wireless Hall of Fame: Nick Kauser, Robert Marino, Clayton Niles and Arnold Pohs, who has been given the award posthumously. The honorees will be inducted into the Wireless Hall of Fame during the foundation's Oct. 10 dinner in San Diego.
• The mGive Foundation has released the results of its $25 price point trial after the completion of the study was delayed due to the earthquake in Japan and American tornado relief efforts. The foundation reports that 89 percent of mGive's nonprofit partners and 48 percent of mobile donors would like a $25 option. During the trial, $46,900 was raised for the two participant organizations, from 1,845 donors, and no U.S. wireless carriers reported refunds as a result of the higher donation amount.
• Location-sharing app provider Glympse announced it has passed the 1 million user mark, in addition to closing a $7.5 million Series B round led by Menlo Ventures and Ignition Partners. The funding will be used to fuel growth plans for new products and features. Joining the Glympse board will be Pravin Vazirani from Menlo Ventures and Michelle Goldberg from Ignition. Existing board members include Tom Huseby and Greg Tarr.
• China Mobile's research division has demonstrated a tunable, MIMO antenna design covering 12 global TD-LTE, FDD-LTE, GSM, EDGE WCDMA and TD-SCDMA handsets operating in bands from 700 MHz to 2.7 GHz. The antenna design was developed in conjunction with Skycross. The China Mobile Research Institute and SkyCross signed a joint memorandum of understanding last September to develop compact MIMO antenna design and implementation for multimode, multiband LTE handsets.