Security issues for 5G need to be addressed “upfront,” while networks are being built, FCC Chairman Ajit Pai said at the Prague 5G Security Conference Thursday. “Making the right choices when deployment is beginning is much easier than trying to correct mistakes once network construction and operation is well underway,” Pai said. “Decisions that impact 5G security need to be made with the long term in mind. Focusing too heavily on short-term considerations could result in choices that are pennywise but pound foolish.” When it launches, 5G will affect the military, critical infrastructure and industry, he said: “The procurement and deployment decisions made now will have a generational impact on our security, economy, and society. … We cannot afford to make risky choices and just hope for the best.” Pai noted Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babis convened the conference: “When presidents and prime ministers get personally involved in a communications issue, the message is clear: 5G is a critical subject with major implications for economic growth, national security, and our quality of life.”

The FCC Public Safety Bureau approved a waiver allowing the Denver Office of Emergency Management (OEM) to do an end-to-end wireless emergency alert test. The proposed test will be May 8, starting at 11 a.m. MDT, with a backup date of May 16, said a bureau order Wednesday. “In light of the threat of tornados and the coordination with the annual test of the outdoor warning siren system, we are persuaded by the Denver OEM … that the proposed WEA test will help educate the public about WEA and improve the proficiency of Denver OEM in sending a WEA message in coordination with alerts distributed via the outdoor public warning system,” the bureau said: “We are also persuaded that the proposed end-to-end test of WEA has value now.” The bureau imposed conditions, including a “comprehensive multimedia campaign” to alert the public about the test before it occurs. The District of Columbia Homeland Security and Emergency Management Agency sought a waiver for commercial mobile service carriers to do a live WEA test at the National Mall at 11 a.m. June 22, with a backup date of June 23. The District’s third WEA test is to prepare for the July 4 celebration that’s expected to include President Donald Trump, said D.C. “If the President participates, the District of Columbia anticipates increased attendance and, potentially, counter protests or demonstrations.” The test message is to read, “This is a test of the District of Columbia Wireless Emergency Alert. No action is required.”

NTIA highlighted work to make open the 3.5 GHz citizens broadband radio service band, and wrapped up lab tests of spectrum access system vendors this week. It said the Institute for Telecommunication Sciences turns "to crafting test reports with a target of providing them to the vendors in June for their submission to the FCC.” This week, working with NTIA, the FCC cleared environmental sensing capability providers (see 1904300208). “These milestones give momentum to development of the 3.5 GHz band, which affords an excellent mix of capacity and coverage capabilities, defining characteristics of mid-band spectrum,” NTIA said Wednesday. Its Office of Spectrum Management and ITS worked together, the agency said: “From shrinking exclusion zones into smaller protection zones to designing the concept of dynamic protection areas to assisting the FCC in certifying the components of the spectrum sharing mechanism, it has been a long, complex process, but the light at the end of the tunnel is getting brighter.” Each radar detector had "to see thousands of low-power radar pulses successfully," blogged ITS Director Keith Gremban. "Detectors also had to keep functioning in the presence of high-power radar pulses that were equivalent to what you would see if you were just 6 miles from a radar transmitting a billion watts.”

FCC Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel sent letters to CEOs of the four major national wireless carriers Wednesday asking what they're doing to make sure real-time location information they collect isn’t being sold to data aggregators. News of the sale of the data to bounty hunters and related businesses broke last May, she noted. “This is a personal and national security issue that affects every American with a cell phone,” Rosenworcel said. The FCC said it’s investigating but hasn’t “provided the public with any details,” she said. “Nor has it taken any public action to ensure this activity has stopped.” Rosenworcel released letters to AT&T, Verizon, Sprint and T-Mobile. “The FCC needs to do more to protect the privacy and security of American consumers,” she said. “It needs to do more to provide the public with basic information about what is happening with their real-time location information.” Verizon was “the first to take action” when questions arose last summer, a spokesperson said: “We followed through with our pledge and have fully terminated our location aggregator arrangements.” AT&T is "committed to end the aggregator services in March, which we did,” said a spokesperson there. The other carriers and CTIA didn't comment. Commissioner Geoffrey Starks also wants quick action on the data-selling complaints (see 1902080056).

The FCC Public Safety Bureau plans a workshop on “multilingual emergency alerting to meet community needs,” June 28, said a public notice Tuesday. It will include presentations on multilingual capabilities of the emergency alert system and wireless emergency alerts, “alternative methods for delivering emergency information to the non-English speaking public,” and examples of these systems in use, the PN said. It's 9 a.m.-2:30 p.m. in the Commission Meeting Room. Multilingual alerting remains in an early stage (see 1904240021).

As Charter Communications' wireless business grows, it's tough to peg when its losses peak and it begins swinging toward profitability, said Chief Financial Officer Chris Winfrey in an analyst call Tuesday as the company announced Q1 results. CEO Tom Rutledge said Charter is testing its Spectrum Mobile wireless product to see if mobile capabilities can be increased by using Dual SIM technology along with unlicensed and potentially licensed spectrum. It said it added 176,000 mobile lines in the most recent quarter, ending with 310,000. "Mobile is ramping nicely," Winfrey said. He said the bulk of capital spending, such as setting up retail locations, should be in 2019. The company said revenue in the quarter was $11.2 billion, up 5.1 percent year over year. It said during the quarter it had residential and small and mid-sized business internet net adds of 428,000, video net losses of 145,000 and wireline voice net losses of 99,000. It ended the quarter with 15.95 residential video customers, 24 million residential broadband customers and 10 million residential voice.

FCC Commissioner Mike O’Rielly said at a Citizens Broadband Radio Service Alliance meeting Tuesday the 3.5 GHz band will likely be the first mid-band spectrum to come online for 5G, next year. “Left on the Commission’s plate to get CBRS fully operational is concluding the review and approval of the Spectrum Access Systems, or SAS, and Environmental Sensing Capability systems, commonly referred to as the ESC,” O’Rielly said. “I have been working with the leadership of the CBRS Alliance to help make sure this process stays on track. While some steps experienced unfortunate delays and this process has taken far longer than anyone would have liked, it appears to be nearing the end.” The FCC this week approved the first ESCs, he said. “I must admit that I never expected it to leapfrog ahead of the SAS testing and development process,” he said: “Unfortunately, the SAS testing is still in progress.” Monday, staff OK'd environmental sensing capabilities of CommScope, Federated Wireless and Google in the 3550-3650 MHz portion of the 3550-3700 MHz band. "These ESCs may operate in areas covered by registered and approved ESC sensors subject to ... compliance obligations," said the public notice.

FCC Chairman Ajit Pai thanked DOD for cooperation in developing rules for sharing in the upper 37 GHz band, approved by commissioners this month despite concerns by Commissioners Mike O’Rielly, Jessica Rosenworcel and Geoffrey Starks (see 1904120058). The rules clear the way for the 37, 39 and 47 GHz auction, to start Dec. 10. Pai spoke Tuesday at a National Spectrum Consortium event in Arlington, Virginia. “The issues here are quite complex, and I appreciate [DOD’s] working in good faith to reach a mutually agreeable resolution,” Pai said. “Reaching a compromise that worked for both sides wasn’t easy, but it was well worth it. And I hope that those efforts will serve as a model for future collaboration between the FCC and federal agencies. ... We recognized that at the end of the day, we are all on the same team working towards the same goal: advancing the national interest of the United States.” Pai said the FCC is focused on making more mid-band spectrum available for 5G. “We have ongoing rulemakings to free up spectrum in the 2.5 GHz, 3.7 GHz, 4.9 GHz, and 6 GHz bands, an upcoming auction in the 3.5 GHz band, and ongoing work with our federal partners to share the 3.1 GHz, 3.45 GHz, and 5.9 GHz bands,” he said.

A year after Toyota announced it would introduce dedicated short-range communications systems on vehicles sold in the U.S. starting in 2021 (see 1805110014), the automaker decided to “pause its deployment,” it told the FCC, posted Monday in docket 13-49. Though there continues to be “general excitement about DSRC and the benefits of widespread deployment among key stakeholders,” Toyota hasn’t seen “significant production commitments from other automakers.” The “cooperative safety benefits” won't “be fully realized without greater automotive industry commitment to deploy the technology,” it said. Toyota expressed confidence a year ago that the FCC “would implement a sharing mechanism for unlicensed operations in the 5.9 GHz band only if testing fully validated that such operations could safely occur in the band and not disrupt the current or future deployment of DSRC technology by existing licensees,” it said. But the “regulatory environment” for the 5.9 GHz band since has become “even more uncertain and unstable,” it said. In addition to the “long-standing pending proceeding” involving unlicensed operation in the band, the agency recently launched a second proceeding to explore “reallocating channels away from DSRC” to cellular vehicle to everything technology, it said. “The chance that DSRC operations could be subject to harmful interference from unlicensed operations or other technologies should they be permitted in the band, that channels used for DSRC could be reallocated after services using those channels have entered the market, or that spectrally-inefficient band fragmentation could impair the ability to expand DSRC services and applications over time creates a substantial and arguably insurmountable risk.”

An equal employment opportunity enforcement item listed as circulated to FCC commissioners’ offices is the draft Further NPRM on EEO enforcement announced by Chairman Ajit Pai during the FCC’s February approval of an item eliminating midterm EEO reports (see 1902140053), FCC officials told us Monday. Pai promised the FNRPM as a compromise in response to a request from Commissioners Jessica Rosenworcel and Geoffrey Starks; it was the latter’s first full-length meeting as a commissioner. Though Starks and Rosenworcel sought a 30-day turnaround, Pai promised it within 90 days of EEO order adoption. Pai said then the FNPRM would seek broad comment on the agency’s EEO enforcement, while Starks and Rosenworcel hoped for comments on the agency’s collection of EEO data. Starks and Rosenworcel said in February the agency should take the final steps to begin collecting data on workforce diversity and resolve a 15-year-old open proceeding. In the midterm report EEO order, the FNPRM was described as seeking comment on the FCC’s “track record” on EEO enforcement and “how the agency can make improvements to EEO compliance and enforcement.”