Federal employees will have a day off Dec. 24 with exceptions “for reasons of national security, defense, or other public need,” said President Donald Trump in an executive order Tuesday.

The Wireless Innovation Forum's new 6 GHz Band Multi-Stakeholder Committee said controversies remain, as does work to be done. Getting protections right is important, Wednesday's report said. “A number of licensed users occupy this spectrum, prominent occupants being users of fixed point-to-point links,” it said. “A large fraction of these links serves critical functions that must maintain a high level of availability.” The group filed in FCC docket 18-295 and discussed the report with retiring Chief Julius Knapp and others from the Office of Engineering and Technology. "WinnForum's 6 GHz Committee has accomplished the most important task for any co-existence analysis: Identify suitable protection criteria and propagation models used to predict compatibility," said Andrew Clegg of Google, WinnForum chief technical officer: "It's important that these considerations get buy-in from all stakeholders." Senate Communications Subcommittee ranking member Brian Schatz, D-Hawaii (see 1912180064) raised concerns, while Zebra also lobbied the FCC (see 1912180063).

The FCC’s NPRM on the 5.9 GHz band, approved by commissioners 5-0 last week (see 1912120058), underwent changes from the draft circulated by Chairman Ajit Pai three weeks earlier, based on our side-by-side comparison Wednesday when it was released in the Daily Digest. The NPRM proposes to reallocate the 5.9 GHz band for Wi-Fi and cellular vehicle to everything (C-V2X), while potentially preserving a sliver for dedicated short-range communications (DSRC). Officials said last week the item had been tweeked. Draft language that tentatively concluded "no additional provisions are needed to protect non-federal incumbent operations in the 5.9 GHz band from new C-V2X operations” was changed to proposing only. The draft said, “Promoting traffic safety and other [intelligent transportation system] benefits remains a critical priority of the United States, and we support the development and widespread use of these technologies and services.” The final NPRM said, “We continue to recognize the importance of ITS, and are committed to a regime that enables the provision of ITS.” The final notice recognized more explicitly importance of bands beyond 5.9 GHz for ITS, saying the spectrum is “part of a larger transportation and vehicular safety-related ecosystem that also includes spectrum outside of the 5.9 GHz band.” The final document adds language on the importance of ITS. “We note that a primary purpose of the original DSRC band was to provide valuable vehicular safety of life applications to the public,” the final wording said: “We propose that ITS in this band continue to provide safety of life services. ... Additionally, we seek comment on whether there are actions that we should take, or requirements that we should adopt, to promote rapid and effective deployment of ITS.” The final NPRM includes questions not in the draft on 5G Automotive Association assertions C-V2X needs 60 MHz to evolve to include 5G. “Is it necessary to plan for such systems?” the final NPRM asked: “If so, can 20 or 30 megahertz support 5G automotive applications?” The NPRM casts a wider net. “We propose that U-NII-4 devices meet an [out-of-band-emission] limit of -27 dBm/MHz at or above 5.925 GHz, which is the same limit required for U-NII-3 devices at this frequency,” the draft said. The final notice added “or devices that operate across a single channel that spans the U-NII-3 and U-NII-4 bands.” And “autonomous vehicles are already being deployed and clearly cannot be relying on DSRC because it is not widely deployed and would not be for many years even under favorable predictions” changed to “autonomous vehicles are already being tested and deployed using applications and technologies other than DSRC for vehicle-to-vehicle communications or other transportation or vehicular-safety.”

Access to reliable broadband is a "very important" factor in considering a new residence, the Fiber Broadband Association reported, compiled by RVA Market Research and Consulting. It said 89 percent of single-family home purchasers and 86 percent buying a new multiple dwelling units rated broadband reliability as a very important factor. Some 46.5 million U.S. homes are passed with fiber broadband, a 16 percent increase over last year. A record 7.2 million were passed with fiber broadband in the year ending in September. The report projects new fiber deployment will decline in 2020 due to AT&T cutbacks. FBA plans to post the report.

The FCC will divvy up nearly $89.2 million in rural broadband funding over the next 10 years among Viasat, LTD Broadband, Horry Telephone, Bruce Telephone and JCWIFI.com, it said Monday. That will help cover service to more than 123,000 unserved rural residences and businesses in 21 states. It's the eighth release from the Connect America Fund Phase II auction. Viasat is receiving the bulk -- $87.1 million over 10 years to offer service to more than 121,700 residences at speeds of at least 25/3 Mbps.

The FCC, not NTIA or other agencies, is final word on commercial use of spectrum and the sole arbiter of what constitutes harmful interference under federal law, said Public Knowledge, Access Humboldt, Benton Institute for Broadband & Society and New America's Open Technology Institute in a docket 11-109 posting Monday. They responded to NTIA's lack of endorsement of Ligado's sought-after license modifications (see 1912090011). The signers urged FCC approval, saying lack of technical justification for the concerns "appears to be a classic case of spectrum NIMBY." The 1 dB standard interference measure DOD and NTIA proposed is contrary to FCC precedent and its approval would discourage federal agencies from "endless delays on the basis of vague concerns [and] an utter absence of substantive engineering analysis," they said. Ligado in a posting to be filed said Ericsson and Nokia L-band technical studies point to Ligado spectrum helping tackle coverage challenges of high-frequency 5G deployments. The Competitive Enterprise Institute, Citizens Against Government Waste, FreedomWorks, Taxpayers Protection Alliance, American Enterprise Institute Visiting Scholar Roslyn Layton and Center for Growth and Opportunity Senior Director Christopher Koopman urged Ligado license modifications approval. That will "send a clear signal to the world that the U.S. is a force in 5G," says their coming filing. They said numerous agencies in numerous spectrum proceedings have tried to block spectrum being made available in the market but the FCC "has the authority -- and the responsibility -- to take decisive action."

Oral argument on challenges of FCC wireless infrastructure orders will be split in two to separate out the one-touch, make-ready order. The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals granted the local governments' request (in Pacer) Friday (see 1909250017). The moratorium and small-cells orders will be argued together, with 40 minutes each for challengers and the defendants; on the OTMR order, each side will have 15 minutes, the court said. Argument is Feb. 10 in Pasadena (see 1912020018).

The FCC Consumer and Governmental Affairs Bureau wants to strengthen truth-in-billing rules to ensure "all consumers are provided with the basic information they need to make informed choices in a competitive communications marketplace," said a Friday public notice for docket 98-170. The bureau will seek comment to address proposals from previous NPRMs that extend truth-in-billing rules to providers of interconnected VoIP services and require all voice carriers separate government-mandated charges from other charges on consumers' bills. Goals are to "identify concrete and cost-effective rules that will ensure that all voice service consumers fully understand the charges on their bills, including whether line items recover a service provider's own costs or those related to government programs." Comments are due 30 days after publication, replies 30 days later.

FCC auction of licenses in the 37, 39 and 47 GHz bands hit $1.9 billion Friday, after four days, nearing the record for a high-band auction. The 24 GHz auction ended May 28, with $2 billion in net bids. The current auction continues Monday with three rounds.

Revisit the latest net neutrality ruling, industry and other stakeholders asked the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit in Friday petitions for rehearing and rehearing en banc in Mozilla v FCC, No. 18-1051. In October, the court upheld much of a 2018 FCC net neutrality partial rollback (see 1910010018). Mozilla filed (in Pacer) with Etsy, Incompas, Vimeo and the Ad Hoc Telecom Users Committee. "Mozilla's petition focuses on the FCC's reclassification of broadband as an information service and on the FCC's failure to properly address competition and market harm," the company blogged Friday. It said "the court should have done more than simply criticize the FCC's assertion that existing antitrust and consumer protection laws are sufficient to address concerns about market harm without engaging in further analysis." The National Hispanic Media Coalition asked (in Pacer) the D.C. Circuit uphold judicial precedent by properly reviewing procedural rulings and agencies' obligations under the Administrative Procedure Act. Exclusion of consumer complaints from the public record and the FCC denying the ability to review them "requires the commission's reclassification ruling to be vacated," NHMC said. The group requested tens of thousands of consumer complaints in 2017 under the Freedom of Information Act (see 1709150031). New America's Open Technology Institute, Free Press, Public Knowledge, the Center for Democracy & Society, Computer & Communications Industry Association and the National Association of State Utility Consumer Advocates said an NPRM failed to propose Communications Act Section 257 legal authority the agency used to justify deregulation. “We were pleased with the D.C. Circuit’s decision upholding our return to a light-touch approach to regulating broadband," an FCC spokesperson emailed. "We are confident that decision will stand and that we will continue to have a free and open Internet.”