The FCC approved for filing the long-form applications for additional 600 MHz licenses bought in the TV incentive auction, a key first step toward deployment. A total of 26 licenses were involved -- 24 by New Level and two by the Iowa RSA 2 Limited Partnership. “The Commission may return or dismiss any application if it is found, upon further examination, to be defective or not in conformance with the Commission’s rules,” said a public notice by the Incentive Auction Task Force and Wireless Bureau. The agency approved the first grants of licenses purchased in the auction in June (see 1706140048).

FCC Chairman Ajit Pai told the agency’s Technology Advisory Council Wednesday he appreciates its work on such issues as risk-informed interference analysis. It was the first TAC meeting Pai addressed as chairman. He noted he had been on the road other times when TAC met this year. It approved reports looking at ATSC 3.0 and the proliferation of satellites.

Dish CEO Charlie Ergen, in meetings with Chairman Ajit Pai and the four FCC members, said the company is on track for 2018 deployment of its narrowband (NB) IoT network. In a docket 17-183 ex parte filing posted Thursday, the company said it finalized development contracts with radio access equipment vendors and expects to sign a chipset vendor within weeks. It said it's negotiating with vendors to provide the core for its NB IoT network and last month issued a request for proposals to tower companies to start negotiating lease agreements. It said ultimately all its terrestrial spectrum, including its 600 MHz licenses, will be part of a 5G network. The company urged the commission to act on a MVDDS 5G Coalition petition (see 1604260068) to initiate a rulemaking designed to permit multichannel video distribution and data service licensees to use their 12.2-12.7 GHz spectrum to provide a two-way 5G mobile broadband service.

Wireless mic companies and performing art groups appear headed to victory in their fight to get the FCC to change rules so smaller users can operate wireless mics in TV white spaces spectrum. The main opponent has been Microsoft, which argues other spectrum already is available for wireless mics and the TV white spaces should be protected. Reply comments were posted this week.

The FCC OK’d more long-form applications for 600 MHz licenses bought in the incentive auction, said a public notice Thursday. Approved licensees include Farmers Telephone Cooperative, Omega Wireless and Mach FM. Petitions to deny the applications must be filed by Oct. 23, oppositions Oct. 30, replies Nov. 6.

A public notice announcing how much of the $1.75 billion repacking reimbursement fund will be allocated upfront to broadcasters will be issued “soon,” FCC Incentive Auction Task Force staff said Tuesday. Many broadcasters have been holding off on ordering repacking-related equipment until the amount of reimbursement money is announced, said broadcast attorneys and NAB filings in docket 14-252. IATF said the initial allocation would be “an amount sufficient to allow stations and MVPDs to get started with their channel transitions." NAB, Ion and other broadcasters pressed the IATF in recent weeks to offer more of the funds upfront (see 1709280068). IATF Chair Jeanne Kiddoo said the commission wants to hold some of the fund in reserve to deal with any differences between estimated and actual costs and to avoid having to get back funds from broadcasters with lower-than-expected expenses (see 1707270051).

A letter that House Republican Conference Chairman Cathy McMorris Rodgers, R-Wash., and Rep. Anna Eshoo, D-Calif., are circulating (see 1709290060) would in part urge FCC Chairman Ajit Pai to not allow any delays in the existing 39-month repacking timeline, according to text of the letter we obtained Friday. The letter would urge Pai to ensure incentive auction spectrum is “cleared no later than July 13, 2020, as currently scheduled.” Lawmakers have been considering whether to include language in final repack legislation to grant the FCC more authority to not penalize broadcasters that can't meet the existing timeline (see 1709070058). “Clearing the 600 MHz band as quickly as possible is a critical component of the ongoing effort to deploy high-speed internet to rural America and close the digital divide,” the letter says. “We are concerned that delays to the 39-month repacking timeline established by the FCC will impede the billions of dollars of private sector investments in infrastructure necessary for achieving this goal.” Delays in the 39-month timeline “would not only harm constituents in our districts, especially those in rural areas who do not have access to broadband or have only limited, unreliable wireless service, but also threaten to slash the financial contributions that spectrum auctions make” to the U.S. budget,” Eshoo's office said in an email seeking additional lawmakers' signatures on the letter. At least 39 other House members already had signed the letter, including House Majority Whip Steve Scalise, R-La.

The “engineering trade-offs” of building ATSC 3.0 reception into smartphones would make a tuner mandate “inappropriate" for those devices, and the FCC should “refrain from considering such a requirement sought by the broadcasters,” said Skyworks Solutions, a supplier of front-end modules and other components for smartphones, in a filing posted Friday in commission docket 16-142.

T-Mobile “has no issue with voluntary adoption of ATSC 3.0 technology," but is “concerned” about calls for an FCC mandate to “force inclusion of the technology” in smartphones, it told Media Bureau and Office of Engineering and Technology staff in Tuesday meetings, said a filing Wednesday in commission docket 16-142. “Counter to the assertions of NAB” that it and its fellow 3.0 petitioners never called for tuner mandates (see 1709250053), “several parties, including NAB members, have argued for Commission action to mandate ATSC 3.0 reception in mobile devices,” said T-Mobile. Its PowerPoint presentation to FCC staff listed the Advanced Television Broadcasting Alliance of low-power TV interests as calling for a tuner mandate in smartphones when 3.0 broadcasts are available to 25 percent of the U.S. population and noted that NAB TV board members Sinclair and Gray have seats on the alliance board. Other 3.0 “mandate proponents” include Free Access & Broadcast Telemedia and Sinclair’s One Media subsidiary and Mark Aitken, Sinclair’s vice president-advanced technology, T-Mobile said. The carrier referenced One Media's May 9 comments in the FCC's 3.0 rulemaking in which it appeared to dip a toe in the water of backing future tuner mandates, though it actually stopped well short of asking the commission to impose them now (see 1705110053).The PowerPoint also referenced an Aitken quote from our Sept. 13 report (see 1709120020) in which he said that “our concern, be it demonstrated by T-Mobile and others, is that, in fact, the free market is not functioning the way that regulators believe it can or should.” That report also quoted Aitken as saying: “To be clear, we’ve not asked for a mandate. We believe in the free market. We hope that the free market can prevail.” The PowerPoint said T-Mobile was the "largest winner of 600 MHz band spectrum" in the incentive auction, and is "working to rapidly deploy competitive wireless services" in that band.

​Add Qualcomm and Ethertronics, a supplier of embedded antennas and RF components for mobile devices, to companies opposing an ATSC 3.0 reception in smartphones requirement and saying an FCC mandate would be a bad idea. The issue has been a hotbed for discussion in docket 16-142 for the past 10 days as the commission works toward meeting its self-imposed deadline of releasing by year-end an order authorizing voluntary deployment of 3.0 (see 1709180039). Qualcomm “broadly agrees” with T-Mobile’s Sept. 11 white paper (see 1709120020) detailing “significant challenges associated with supporting ATSC 3.0 reception in new mobile devices.” The chipmaker said “any proposal to mandate that mobile devices incorporate support for ATSC 3.0 should be out of the question.” Requiring 3.0 support in mobile devices “would unduly impact device performance, the efficient use of spectrum, and mobile device competition,” said the company. “ATSC 3.0 receiver operation can cause interference to 4G LTE and 5G radios operating in the same device." Ethertronics said challenges of “incorporating both 600 MHz LTE and ATSC 3.0 technologies” in a single smartphone are “substantial.” There are “practical limits to the acceptable size” of a mobile device that consumers will be “willing to purchase,” it said.