Howard Buskirk

The new Coalition for Coordinated Sharing filed a petition for rulemaking at the FCC Tuesday, asking the agency to develop rules to open the 10-10.5 GHz band for point-to-point use on a shared basis. “It is becoming increasingly difficult to find greenfield spectrum below the 12 GHz spectrum band to connect tower sites, enterprises and devices,” the group said in a news release: “Sharing spectrum in the 10 GHz band represents the most viable means to solve congestion and meet consumer demand for more robust broadband and IoT services with incumbents.” The coalition's members are the Wireless ISP Association, Cambium Networks, the Open Technology Institute at New America and Public Knowledge. An official with the coalition told us it builds on a 2013 proposal by Mimosa asking that the band be set aside for outdoor and long-distance backhaul links at the power levels allowed under Part 90, subpart Z, of commission rules. The commission took comment in 2014 (see 1404150034). CTIA previously supported use of the 10 GHz band for licensed use (see 2011030051). Bipartisan lawmakers in the House and Senate urged an exam of the band in 2015 (see 1503030029). The coalition said sharing would be easier than the sharing in the citizens broadband radio service band, similar to the frequency coordination being developed for the 6 GHz band. “Over the last several years, the Commission has made thousands of megahertz of spectrum available for last-mile service,” the group said. “While those allocations have created significant public benefits, the COVID-19 pandemic has exposed the need for more point-to-point spectrum to relieve congestion in other bands and help meet the increased demand for fixed broadband service,” it said: “This is particularly true in rural areas and for other applications where devices are not proximate to available or affordable fiber.” The spectrum is currently occupied by DOD and possibly other federal incumbents in many areas, said Michael Calabrese, director of the Wireless Future Program at New America. “Using a geographic coordination system, this underutilized band could also accommodate shared use with broadband providers in many rural, tribal and other underserved areas,” he said.

Major wireless carriers reported a few glitches during localized, end-to-end wireless emergency alert testing Sept. 12-13, designed to assess the geographic accuracy of alerts (see 2208300046). Reports from AT&T, T-Mobile and Verizon were posted Monday in docket 22-160. Carriers reported some problems during a national WEA test last year (see 2108260046). In the first national test in 2018, many alerts didn’t go through (see 1812210056).

The FCC extended its disaster information reporting system Friday to cover counties in Georgia and South Carolina hit by Hurricane Ian, which headed north after pummeling Florida. The FCC said it acted in coordination with the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency and FEMA. The FCC also set up a dedicated website on Ian.

FCC Commissioner Nathan Simington laid down a marker in favor of exclusive-use licensing, in remarks to the Competitive Carriers Association. The speech came the week after a daylong NTIA forum on a national spectrum strategy, where the emphasis was on the importance of sharing (see 2209190061). Carriers hope the strategy, when it’s eventually released, will also lay out bands for licensed use (see 2209260048).

Doreen Bogdan-Martin easily won election as secretary-general of the ITU Thursday, winning 139 votes to 25 for Russian Rashid Ismailov at the ITU Plenipotentiary Conference in Bucharest, Romania. The win was expected (see 2209280046), but industry officials said they were surprised by the size of the victory. Bogdan-Martin becomes the first woman to head the ITU and first American since 1965. She had led the ITU Telecom Development Bureau, after being elected to that post in 2018.

ITU votes are difficult to handicap, but Doreen Bogdan-Martin remains the front-runner to be the organization's next secretary-general, industry experts said Wednesday. The vote is scheduled for Thursday in Bucharest, Romania. The other major candidate is Russian nominee Rashid Ismailov, who mounted his campaign despite concerns across the world over Russia’s invasion of Ukraine (see 2205110075).

Small and regional carriers are taking different approaches to 5G and fixed wireless, said Eric Boudriau, Ericsson North America head-customer unit regional carriers, at the Competitive Carriers Association conference Wednesday. “Everybody starts from a different position,” he said. Fixed wireless is “really, really accelerating” in the U.S. and internationally, he said. Other executives stressed the importance of addressing federal infrastructure rules to better fund wireless. The discussion was streamed live from Portland, Oregon.

Agenda items approved Sept. 12 by the FCC’s World Radiocommunication Conference Advisory Committee (see 2209160033) remain controversial, based on comments posted Tuesday in docket 16-185. The WAC earlier sought comment on several proposals, including by Lockheed Martin, which wants the WRC to approve a future item on lunar and cislunar communications, the area between the moon and earth (see 2209120047).

FCC commissioners approved 4-0 an NPRM, released Tuesday, which proposes to require mobile wireless providers to block illegal text messages, similar to the agency’s approach on illegal and unwanted robocalls. Commissioners approved the NPRM Friday. Comment deadlines will come in the Federal Register.

Some industry officials say the national spectrum strategy the Biden administration is expected to release will have the most value if the administration lays out with more granularity mid-band spectrum that is targeted for 5G, and eventually 6G. The plan was the focus of a day-long NTIA forum Sept. 19 (see 2209190061). Experts agreed it will likely take six months or longer to put a strategy together.