Howard Buskirk

The FCC’s reconstituted Disability Advisory Committee held its initial meeting Wednesday, receiving updates from agency staffers on recent developments at the commission. DAC took no actions at what was a virtual introductory meeting. Commissioner Nathan Simington said the start of the new DAC raises questions about the role the FCC will play in the future as more services are no longer clearly regulated by the agency.

FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel is proposing a bifurcated approach on the 12 GHz band for the commissioners' May 18 open meeting, dedicating the band's lower section, for now, to satellite broadband and the upper part to mobile broadband. The order involves some of the most hotly contested spectrum before the agency. The decision is in line with advocacy from SpaceX and others that said the upper 12 GHz band, which some refer to as 13 GHz, makes more sense as a target for wireless broadband than the lower 12 GHz (see 2210130063). Industry officials said the FCC may ask questions about fixed-wireless in the lower band. The FCC will also take on 60 GHz and robocalls.

Based on history, the FCC is within its legal rights to award T-Mobile the licenses it won in the 2.5 GHz auction (see 2304060062), the company says in a new filing in the FCC’s universal licensing system. “Four former General Counsels of the Commission recently wrote to explain why they believe that the Commission continues to have authority to grant spectrum licenses notwithstanding the expiration of its power to conduct auctions,” T-Mobile said: “Their conclusion is supported by the actions the Commission and the Office of General Counsel took when the Commission’s authority to conduct lotteries to select from among mutually exclusive applicants expired as the result of an act of Congress.” T-Mobile cites the example of the Balanced Budget Act of 1997, which required the FCC to use competitive bidding and ended its ability to use a lottery system for awarding most spectrum licenses. “Then, the Commission confronted materially the same situation it faces today: did it have the authority to award licenses to applicants that had been selected via a lottery prior to the expiration of the lottery statute,” the carrier said. At the time, “the Commission held that it had the authority to continue to process the pending applications of successful lottery winners and conduct the necessary public interest review under section 309(a) of the Communications Act,” T-Mobile said Tuesday. Similarly now, the commission has “authority under section 309(a) to process the applications of T-Mobile, a successful bidder in the 2.5 GHz auction, even though that auction authority has now expired,” it said. The Wireless Bureau said “despite the sunset of lottery authority, the applications for already-conducted lotteries could still be processed.” T-Mobile also cited language in the 2003 Ranger Cellular case before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, which challenged awarding of licenses from the lottery system (see 0307030034). The D.C. circuit “noted the Commission’s conclusion ‘that, although the Balanced Budget Act barred it from conducting new lotteries after July 1, 1997, the Act did not bar the FCC from processing [a company’s] application by using the results of a lottery that had taken place prior to that date,” T-Mobile said.

The FCC Wireless Bureau is extending for six months, from June 5 to Dec. 5, the transition to a requirement handset manufacturers exclusively use the 2019 ANSI standard for certifying new handset models as hearing aid-compatible and no longer use the 2011 standard. Meanwhile, comments on a report last year by the FCC HAC Task Force on a path to 100% compatibility for wireless handsets largely support the report. Comments were posted Tuesday in docket 15-285.

Verizon lost wireless customers in Q1, dropping 127,000 net postpaid phone customers, after gaining 271,000 in Q4. The company also dropped 263,000 retail postpaid phone customers. But Verizon executives reported progress Tuesday on the C-band build and on Fios broadband. Postpaid churn climbed to 1.15% in the quarter, from 0.95% in Q1 last year. This was the last quarterly report with Chief Financial Officer Matt Ellis who's leaving the company May 1.

Two former top FirstNet officials Monday urged the FCC to preserve use of the 4.9 GHz band for public safety to the extent possible, and reverse course to award a single overlay license, during a webinar by the Public Safety Broadband Technology Association. Both support the Public Safety Spectrum Alliance’s recent comments (see 2304130047) on the FCC’s January Further NPRM, which called for issuing a single nationwide overlay license in the band “to an appropriately identified entity that has the expertise necessary to deliver robust services to first responders.” PSSA has long supported a national license (see 2009160067). Public safety “has had this spectrum since 2002,” said Sue Swenson, former FirstNet chair. “Thousands of agencies today have been using it since that time, in a variety of ways.” Public safety recognizes that the band is “underutilized,” but agencies that do use it should be protected, she said. Swanson said. Swanson said she appreciates the FCC’s work to revise how the band is assigned, with a nationwide band manager (see 2301180062). “Several of the details as proposed, if implemented in the manner suggested, won’t necessarily accomplish the commission’s goals,” she said. A nationwide overlay license is “really critical,” she said. PSSA also called for a nationwide band manager to work in conjunction with the nationwide licensee, which is “a little different approach than what the commission has put out there,” she said. Swanson also advocates a mechanism to give public safety traffic automatic preemption over other traffic. “I don’t think public safety can wait for people to do manual intervention and do it reactively,” she said. The rules must also protect existing point-to-point and geographic licenses, she said. The FCC needs a “nationwide approach” on 4.9 GHz, “not going back to this broken-up model” from before FirstNet was launched, said Jeff Johnson, CEO of the Western Fire Chiefs Association and former FirstNet vice chair. A nationwide license “leverages a proven successful model” in FirstNet, which has almost 5 million connections in only six years, Johnson said. FirstNet isn't “perfect: but “five million public safety responders can’t be that wrong,” he said. Replies to the FNPRM are due May 1.

FCC commissioners made numerous tweaks to a wireless emergency alerts Further NPRM on the way to approval last week (see 2304200040), based on a side-by-side comparison with the draft. The FNPRM was published in Monday’s “Daily Digest.” Comment deadlines will be set in a Federal Register notice. Commissioner Brendan Carr warned last week that revised rules shouldn’t prompt providers to opt out of the WEA program.

The FCC Monday approved long-awaited waivers allowing proponents of cellular-vehicle-to-everything use of the 5.9 GHz band to start to deploy, acting on a request filed in late 2021 (see 2112140070). The joint waiver request had reportedly been largely cleared by the FCC earlier this year but was awaiting NTIA review (see 2302020031). The joint request was filed by Audi of America, Ford, Jaguar Land Rover, the departments of transportation in Utah and Virginia, Aaeon Technology, Harman International Industries, Panasonic North America and other companies. In 2020, the FCC approved use of the top 30 MHz of the band for C-V2X (see 2011180043). The band had formally been set aside for dedicated short-range communications (DSRC) systems. “The underlying purpose of the Commission’s rules governing ITS [intelligent transportation system] operations would not be served by denying the Joint Waiver Request and thereby delaying or precluding C-V2X operations in the upper 30 megahertz of the 5.9 GHz band,” the Wireless Bureau said: “To deny the Joint Waiver Request and insist on application of the current DSRC-based rules would be contrary to the public interest as it would further entrench the DSRC technology the Commission determined needs to be replaced and preclude rapid deployment of the technology the Commission has identified as best suited to promote the most efficient and effective use of the spectrum.” NTIA had sought conditions for approval, and the waiver applicants agreed to adhere to the restrictions, the bureau said. Among them, devices are limited to equivalent isotropic radiated power (EIRP) of 33 dBm and on-board units are restricted to an EIRP of 27 dBm at ± 5 degrees in elevation from the horizontal plane. “This is a big deal,” emailed Hilary Cain, vice president-technology, innovation, & mobility policy at the Alliance for Automotive Innovation. “These waivers were a missing piece of the regulatory puzzle needed for automakers to deploy V2X -- a game-changing wireless safety technology enabling vehicles to see around corners, talk to other vehicles and communicate -- in real-time -- with pedestrians, bicyclists, traffic lights and infrastructure,” she said.

The FCC’s policy statement on receivers, approved 4-0 Thursday (see 2304200040), saw relatively few changes from the draft statement, based on a side-by-side comparison. The FCC released the final statement Friday. One change is a clarifying line that RF energy is ubiquitous, “whether caused by RF device emissions or natural noise sources,” not in the draft. The draft says the agency “intends to consider the immunity of out-of-band receivers and their ability to reject unintended signals.” The focus shifts in the approved version to “the immunity of receivers and their ability to reject undesired and unwanted signals.” Because of the “variability in receiver resiliency, some receivers in use may be more robust than others to changes in the RF environment,” the draft says. That’s changed to now recognize “the variability in receiver vulnerability.” Similarly, the draft says the commenters “recommend Commission guidance to promote efficient spectrum use by clarifying the need for receivers to stay resilient from new sources of spectrally proximate emissions.” The final version cites instead “the need for receiver interference immunity.” Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel and Commissioner Nathan Simington filed statements attached to the item.

An order and NPRM addressing changes to the commission’s frequency allocation table in light of recent World Radiocommunication Conferences saw a number of changes over the draft, including apparent wins for Qualcomm. Commissioners approved the WRC order ahead of their Thursday open meeting (see 2304190042). It was released Friday. Among the tweaks, instead of saying the order takes “only administrative actions that do not affect the Commission’s rules with respect to any party’s underlying rights and responsibilities” the final version says the FCC is making “several non-substantive, editorial changes” to the allocation table. The NPRM adds language to a section seeking comment on satellite uplinks in the 7190-7250 MHz band. It now says, “Qualcomm urges the Commission to seek comment on whether such allocations would ‘remain in line with the Commission’s present spectrum priorities,’ noting that the Chairwoman has identified the 7-15 GHz spectrum range, and some stakeholders, other administrations, and regional organizations are considering the 7190-7250 MHz band, for the next generation wireless technology.” The NPRM notes the same concern raised by Qualcomm on the 9.2-9.3 and 9.9-10.4 GHz bands.