EchoStar, the Rural Wireless Association (RWA), Communications Workers of America and other parties countered arguments that T-Mobile and UScellular made as the two battled opponents of their proposed deal (see 2501100036). The companies announced in May an agreement where T-Mobile will buy “substantially all” of the smaller carrier’s wireless operations, including some of its spectrum, in a deal valued at about $4.4 billion, including $2 billion in assumed debt (see 2405280047).

Supplemental coverage from space (SCS) service is in dire need of additional spectrum, AT&T Assistant Vice President-Public Policy Navid Motamed said Monday during an FCBA CLE. Regulatory and company speakers also noted that SCS issues of cross-border interference and coordination need to be settled. While some nations are crafting SCS rules frameworks, others are in a wait-and-see stance.

EchoStar certified on Friday that, as of the end of 2024, it offers 5G broadband service to more than 268 million people in the U.S., or 80.08% of U.S. POPs. In addition, it has “begun offering a low-cost 5G plan and device to consumers nationwide,” said a filing in docket 22-212: “This plan offers mobile data and voice with 30 GB of data per month for $25.00 to both prepaid and postpaid customers. EchoStar also offers an EchoStar-certified 5G device for $109.99.” The company offered updates in an appendix on the build out of its network using 600 MHz, Lower 700 E-block and AWS licenses. EchoStar also filed granular data on its coverage areas, which was redacted from the public filing.

NextNav countered a recent International Bridge, Tunnel and Turnpike Association (IBTTA) study on the interference risk of the company’s proposal to reconfigure the 902-928 MHz band “to enable a high-quality, terrestrial complement” to GPS for positioning, navigation and timing (PNT) services (see 2404160043). IBTTA’s assertion “that the 5G base stations NextNav’s proposal contemplates will operate at more than 600 times the power level of current operations is accurate only if one disregards the limits of base station equipment, commercial incentives, and urban power limits, and then assumes operations at the extreme outer limits of the Commission’s rules for rural areas,” said a filing posted Friday in docket 24-240. “While NextNav requested a three-watt power limit for user equipment, the vast majority of devices, including all devices that can operate inside vehicles, will have 200-milliwatt maximum conducted output power with even lower [equivalent isotropic radiated power] due to negative antenna gain,” NextNav said. The IBTTA study was filed last month at the FCC by a coalition led by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.

Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Mark Warner, D-Va., said during a Thursday Punchbowl News event he would prefer the chamber pursue a middle-ground between the Spectrum and National Security Act (S-4207) and 2024 Spectrum Pipeline Act (S-3909) as a legislative package for renewing the FCC’s lapsed airwaves auction authority. He also voiced concerns about the Biden administration’s implementation of $65 billion in broadband money from the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, echoing criticisms congressional Republicans raised about how long it has taken for funded projects to come online.

The FCC Wireless Bureau and Office of Economics and Analysis have approved T-Mobile’s buy of 600MHz spectrum licenses from LB License, said an order in Wednesday’s Daily Digest. “After carefully evaluating the potential competitive effects of the proposed assignment, we find that the likelihood of competitive harm is low,” the order said. T-Mobile has leased the spectrum from LB since 2020, the order said. EchoStar filed a petition to deny the deal, arguing that it would harm competition, but the agency disagreed. “We find that, post-transaction, the likelihood of competitive harm remains low in the markets that are the subject of this transaction,” the order said.

CTIA President Meredith Baker warned Tuesday that the U.S. will fall behind other countries unless Congress restores FCC auction authority, in remarks to the Mobile World Congress in Las Vegas. Baker quoted Paul Milgram, the economist whose work led to the first spectrum auction. The loss of auction authority is “nuts,” she said. The agency’s auction authority lapsed in March 2023 (see 2303100084).

The FCC approved a spectrum swap between T-Mobile and Horry Telephone Co-op (HTC), said an order by the Wireless Bureau and Office of Economics and Analytics in Wednesday’s Daily Digest. T-Mobile and HTC agreed to exchange 20 MHz of HTC’s 600 MHz spectrum for up to 25 MHz of T-Mobile’s cellular spectrum in four counties in South Carolina. T-Mobile also acquired 10 MHz of HTC’s 600 MHz spectrum in two counties in North Carolina. Post-transaction, T-Mobile will hold 293-338 MHz, including 74 MHz of below-one-GHz spectrum, and HTC 92-137 MHZ, including 12-37 MHz below 1 GHz spectrum, in the South Carolina markets, the order said. T-Mobile would hold 390 MHz, including 76 MHz below 1 GHz, in the North Carolina counties. The FCC noted that only EchoStar objected, citing spectrum aggregation concerns. “Based on our review of the record and our market-by-market analysis, we find that the likelihood of competitive harm is low in the markets that are the subject of these transactions, despite T-Mobile’s increase in total spectrum holdings and low-band spectrum holdings,” the FCC said: “We disagree with EchoStar that the proposed assignments would disserve the public interest.”

The 7/8 GHz band will be a key band for 6G in the U.S., Veena Rawat, senior spectrum adviser to GSMA, predicted at the 6G Symposium on Tuesday (see 2409240032). An examination of additional bands for international mobile telecommunications was approved as an agenda item for the World Radiocommunication Conference in 2027, and 7/8 GHz is on the list, noted Rawat, who chaired the WRC in 2003. The reason for that agenda item is "the need for additional spectrum for 6G has been established,” she said. The 7/8 GHz band is “complex,” with government users, fixed satellites, meteorological satellites and other users. “Fixed you can work with,” she said, adding U.S. government users include DOD, NOAA and the FAA. Studies of 7/8 GHz are underway ahead of the WRC, Rawat said. “You need to know what your newcomer is, what are the characteristics of [the user], what are the parameters.” She added, “That’s the discussion we are having right now.” The studies will focus on protection of incumbents, not 6G, and the conditions under which the band can be shared, she said. Another band ITU is considering, with less promise, is 14.8-15.35 GHz, she said. “It’s good to discuss 14 GHz … but it’s kind of upper mid-band.” Rawat noted that the 600 MHz is being used for 5G worldwide, though not in the Americas, except in Mexico and Brazil. 7/8 GHz is among the bands the national spectrum strategy is studying and has been a top focus of carriers (see 2403120056). However you look at it, 7-24 GHz is “busy” in the U.S., said Tommaso Melodia, professor of electrical and computer engineering at Northeastern University. There is fixed wireless and fixed satellite, radiolocation services, radio astronomy and earth-exploration satellites use “and some of these services have pretty strict interference requirements,” he said. Open radio access networks and the ability to “observe” the network and use algorithmic controls will "potentially be an enabler for spectrum sharing.” ORAN can also enable sharing of information “between different systems, between even different technologies” and use increased data “to make decisions.”

The FCC gave the green light to extended milestone deadlines for EchoStar's 5G network buildout Friday, three days after the company filed its request (see 2409190050). EchoStar called the approval "a significant step to promote competition in the wireless market."