The National Coalition on Black Civic Participation supported a uniform handset unlocking mandate for wireless carriers, proposed in an FCC NPRM, which has proven controversial (see 2409240038). “Adopting a uniform, industry-wide unlocking requirement for all service providers would advance digital equity, lessen consumer confusion, and provide consumers with the unencumbered ability to choose a service provider that best suits their needs,” said a filing posted Thursday in docket 24-186. “This is particularly important in Black communities that are more dependent on smartphones to access the internet and often experience greater financial constraints that limit their ability to purchase a new device if they want to change service providers,” the group said.

Groups representing the deaf and hard of hearing urged the FCC to add a paragraph to the draft hearing-aid compatibility order teed up for a vote at the commissioners' open meeting Oct. 17 (see 2409260047). Representatives also spoke with an aide to FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel about the draft order, according to a filing posted Thursday in docket 23-388. The order should say the agency “will continue to monitor consumer and technology trends for Bluetooth and telecoil coupling to reevaluate their benchmarks, taking into consideration consumer preferences and trends, changes in the marketplace, and developments in research and technical standards pertaining to hearing aid compatibility.” The order should also commit to update benchmarks “as needed to reflect changes,” beginning “four years from the effective date of this order, and continuing on a regular basis thereafter,” the groups said. “The addition of the proposed language to the Report and Order would underscore the Commission's commitment to a forward-looking, flexible policy that impacts people with hearing loss.” Those signing the filing were the Rehabilitation Engineering Research Center on Technology for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing, the Hearing Loss Association of America, Deaf Equality, TDIforAccess and Communication Service for the Deaf.

Industry officials continued questioning AT&T’s Wednesday proposal that calls for major changes in how 3 GHz, including the citizens broadband radio service band, is configured (see 2410090037). Monisha Ghosh, University of Notre Dame engineering professor and former FCC chief technologist, said AT&T's proposal leaves some questions unanswered. While in principle it’s “desirable to have high-power and low-power users separated by one boundary, the AT&T proposal doesn’t address how the existing Navy radars in the CBRS band will be protected” or “relocated and how spectrum sharing in 3.1-3.45 GHz will be implemented,” Ghosh told us, noting there are now 120 different kinds of radar in the band. Ghosh warned against drawing conclusions before the administration completes its study of the lower 3 GHz band called for in the national spectrum strategy. Moreover, Ghosh disagreed with AT&T that CBRS is "underutilized.” Relocating CBRS devices into another band that’s not an existing 3rd Generation Partnership Project band wouldn’t be a “trivial” problem, she said. Meanwhile, Public Knowledge Senior Vice President Harold Feld wrote in an email, “When you have a hammer, everything looks like a nail,” and when you’re a carrier “everything looks like it should be optimized for mobile broadband.” Feld added, “CBRS was designed to permit new kinds of innovation by different actors, such as stadiums, large warehouses, ports, or enterprise customers looking to run their own private networks.”

Aspen Digital released Wednesday recommendations for implementing the Biden administration’s national spectrum strategy. The recommendations grew out of a workshop the group held in July, it said. The U.S. should “prioritize principled and forward-looking national spectrum policies,” the paper recommends. “Balance values and perspectives” and “continue to seek new Federal and non-Federal spectrum access opportunities by evaluating additional bands for reallocation and repurposing.” Aspen also called for coordination and harmonization of spectrum in the U.S. and abroad and greater transparency around federal and nonfederal spectrum use and needs, among other recommendations. “Retaining U.S. leadership in next-generation technology and services will require the U.S. Government to reinforce principled, forward-looking national spectrum priorities,” the paper said. The national spectrum strategy was released in November (see 2311130048).

Hikvision USA asked the FCC to process all applications by the company and its subsidiaries or affiliates seeking equipment authorizations for all equipment not categorized as “telecommunication” or “video surveillance” gear. The China-based company is on the FCC’s covered list of organizations that pose a threat to U.S. security. Hikvision offered as an example the EZVIZ RH1 Smart Cordless Wet and Dry Vacuum Cleaner, manufactured by an affiliate: “While this vacuum cleaner is not currently authorized by the FCC or sold in the United States, it cannot be classified as either telecommunications equipment or video surveillance equipment.” The filing was posted Wednesday in docket 21-232.

Sirius XM Radio opposed FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel's proposal to allow the operation of very-low power (VLP) devices, without coordination, in the U-NII-6 and U-NII-8 portions of the 6 GHz band (see 2410040055). The company’s radio service in the satellite digital audio radio service band “cannot operate without reliable access to the 7.025-7.075 GHz band to uplink programming for delivery to tens of millions of listeners and to control its spacecraft,” said a filing posted Wednesday in docket 18-295. “SDARS is highly vulnerable to aggregate interference from the open-ended deployment of unlicensed devices operating outdoors,” Sirius XM said: “The Commission’s decision just four years ago to limit operations in the U-NII-8 band to indoor use correctly reflected that concern.”

The FCC and the U.S. government on Wednesday asked the 5th U.S. Circuit Appeals Court to hold in abeyance a challenge of the agency's Oct. 25 declaratory ruling authorizing E-rate funding for Wi-Fi on school buses (see 2312200040), pending a U.S. Supreme Court decision in another case. That SCOTUS case, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission v. Texas, examines whether the Hobbs Act permits a “party aggrieved” by an agency’s “final order” to seek review in a federal court of appeals and “allows nonparties to obtain review of claims asserting that an agency order exceeds the agency’s statutory authority.” The appeal is of another case by the 5th Circuit. Maurine and Matthew Molak, concerned about unsupervised access of students to social media, brought the school bus case. Their son died by suicide at 16 after he was cyberbullied. The FCC disputed whether the Molaks had legal standing to appeal the order because they didn't participate in the FCC proceeding (see 2406040024). “The Supreme Court’s decision” in the NRC case “may invalidate petitioners’ sole basis for asserting that this Court can review their petition, and require this Court to grant respondents’ pending motion to dismiss,” the FCC said in the Wednesday filing: “To avoid a potentially needless expenditure of judicial and litigation resources, this Court should grant the requested abeyance.” The FCC noted the Molaks' argument that they had standing was predicated on the 5th Circuit’s holding in the case before SCOTUS: Should the high court conclude "that the Hobbs Act does not allow nonparties to obtain review of claims asserting that an agency order exceeds the agency’s statutory authority, petitioners will have no basis for seeking judicial review under the Hobbs Act, and this Court must grant the Commission’s pending motion to dismiss.” Oral argument in the school bus case is scheduled for Nov. 4 (see 2409260046). The Molaks, meanwhile, asked the FCC not to include Wi-Fi gear for off-premise or school bus use in its FY 2025 list of eligible services under the E-rate program. “Subsidizing off-premises use of Wi-Fi hotspots means facilitating unsupervised social media access by children and teenagers, which means enabling the very sort of destructive behavior that we all should strive to prevent,” said a filing posted Wednesday in docket 13-184.

CTIA mostly agrees with the FCC’s approach in the draft hearing-aid compatibility order teed up for a vote Oct. 17 (see 2409260047), but in a filing posted Wednesday in docket 23-388, it urged a few tweaks. “The Draft Order should set up a clearer path for the use of a revised volume control standard,” CTIA said: “As the Commission is aware, the HAC Task Force identified material problems in the codified testing standard for volume control, developed an interim solution, and recommended deferring long-term deployment benchmarks on volume control until a more permanent solution could be developed and approved by the FCC.” CTIA also urged "refinements and clarifications" to the proposed labeling rules. “Specifically, the new labeling rules should be implemented on the same timeline as the manufacturer deployment benchmark transition, rather than potentially before them,” the group said.

The American Radio Relay League requested a waiver of the commission’s Part 97 rules to communicate with military stations as part of Pearl Harbor Day commemorations Dec. 7 and 8. ARRL said it made the request on behalf of the Battleship Iowa Amateur Radio Association. “The frequencies and time periods selected will not impact any public or private communications, government or non-government,” said an undocketed filing posted Tuesday. The FCC Wireless Bureau approved a similar waiver last year (see 2311270044).

A representative of Apple, Broadcom and Meta Platforms spoke with aides to all the FCC commissioners except Anna Gomez on a proposal that the FCC extend rules for very-low power operations in the 6 GHz band across the U-NII-6 and U-NII-8 bands, said a filing posted Tuesday in docket 18-295. The calls occurred before Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel proposed that step last week (see 2410040055).