5G Americas released a paper looking at the ITU’s “IMT-2030 Vision” study and the “long and complex process” of developing international mobile telecommunications radio-interface standards. The Americas “must carefully decide the proper level of enhancement/performance of attributes originating in 5G,” said the paper, posted Thursday. 5G Americas noted that this is only “an initial framework, or vision for IMT-2030” and “one of the early steps in the IMT definition process.” The framework “has many details that remain to be determined: minimum levels of performance, mandatory and optional features, and which specific technologies are to be incorporated into next-generation systems,” the group said. 6G is expected to be cloud native “with computing and data services tightly integrated with the communications aspects in an inherently distributed and disaggregated fashion,” the group said. The ITU report is more than a technical document, blogged Viet Nguyen, vice president-PR and technology at 5G Americas. “It sets the stage for what will define 6G -- everything from enhanced mobile broadband to integrated sensing and communication (ISAC) technologies that combine wireless communication with radar-like detection capabilities,” he said.

Aura Network Systems CEO Bill Tolpegin met with an aide to FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel about the company’s 2021 pursuit of a rulemaking on expanding the use of air-ground radiotelephone service channels between 454.675-454.975 MHz and 459.675-459.975 MHz for voice and data communications, including by drones (see 2109230049). Tolpegin also met with aides to Commissioners Brendan Carr and Nathan Simington. Filings on the meetings had yet to be posted on Friday. The CEO earlier met with an aide to Commissioner Geoffrey Starks (see 2409180020).

FCC Commissioner Geoffrey Starks said including routers under the agency’s recently approved voluntary cyber trust mark program “is vitally important for the security of our home and small business networks.” Commissioners approved the cyber mark program 5-0 in March (see 2403140034). “Consumer routers are the quarterback … of the home network,” Starks said in a speech at American University included Friday's Daily Digest. The program will prove important for consumers, helping them make informed buying decisions “while at the same time incentivize[ing] manufacturers to invest in stronger security measures,” he said. “Much is at stake,” Starks said: “Cybercriminals and adversarial states can steal sensitive personal data, facilitate identity theft, disrupt critical infrastructure and compromise national security.”

While FCC commissioners will vote at their September meeting on allowing non-geostationary satellite use of the 17 GHz band (see 2409040053), nothing in the record supports NGSO operations at up to the ITU power flux density (PFD) limits in the 17.7-17.8 GHz slice, according to AT&T and Verizon. In a docket 22-273 filing posted Friday, the companies said more measures are needed to ensure protection of incumbent fixed service (FS) operators in the band. NGSO operators have "abdicated their burden" of showing that current and future NGSO, geostationary orbit (GSO) and FS systems can coexist in the slice, they said. AT&T and Verizon urged that the FCC require NGSO applicants seeking to operate in the slice have their PFD threshold capped at a certain level unless they submit an aggregate interference analysis showing they will protect FS when operating at a higher level. Cheering the proposed opening of the 17 GHz band to NGSO operations, SpaceX said there's no need to apply equivalent power flux density limits to the band to protect GSO operators. But the FCC should make clear that any EPFD protections adopted will be subject to the outcome of international efforts to modernize EPFD limits and to the outcome of FCC updates of GSO/NGSO spectrum sharing rules, it said. SpaceX said it met with the offices of all five commissioners. AT&T and Verizon said they met with Space, Wireless, and Consumer and Governmental Affairs bureaus and Office of Engineering and Technology staff.

The Wireless Innovation Forum, the OnGo Alliance and the Wireless ISP Association jointly petitioned the FCC to delay by 30 days comment deadlines on an August NPRM asking about further changes to rules for the citizens broadband radio service band (see 2408160031). Comments are now due Oct. 7, replies Nov. 5, in docket 17-258. “The NPRM raises significant and complex issues … that warrant detailed Comments to build a robust record from those directly impacted, including over 1,200 member companies of the Joint Petitioners,” said the petition posted Friday: “Each of the Joint Petitioners concurs that additional time to write Comments would help establish a more robust record.” They note numerous groups are “working to coordinate positions among their respective members on the proposals and questions raised.”

CTIA representatives spoke with aides to FCC Commissioners Geoffrey Starks and Nathan Simington about the group’s 2019 petition seeking clarity on pole attachment rules under Section 224 of the Communications Act. “The record on the Petition is thorough and many commenters supported CTIA’s request,” said a filing posted Thursday in docket 17-84: “As the Commission considers further actions in this docket, now is an appropriate time for it to make clear which infrastructure is in fact subject to Section 224’s requirements.” Representatives of the group previously met with aides to FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel and Commissioner Brendan Carr (see 2409180013).

The Coalition for Emergency Response and Critical Infrastructure (CERCI) asked the FCC to complete a collection of “granular data on public safety operations in the 4.9 GHz band” promised in a January 2023 (see 2408130035) order before addressing rules for the band. CERCI is a leading opponent of a proposal that would give FirstNet and AT&T control of the frequencies. “The FCC cannot convert the 4.9 GHz band into an AT&T FirstNet/commercial shared band premised on vague promises of interference protection for all current public-safety licensees,” said a filing this week in docket 07-100. “Rather, it must first conduct the data collection it announced over a year-and-a-half ago,” CERCI said: “CERCI respectfully submits that if the Commission were to conduct the data collection … it would conclude that it is not in the public interest to deploy the 4.9 GHz band on AT&T’s network.”

SpaceX representatives met with FCC staff to discuss recent studies that found high-power terrestrial operations in the lower or upper 12 GHz band “would cause debilitating interference to Americans who rely on next generation satellite broadband in the 10.7-12.7 GHz band.” Representatives from SpaceX met with staff of the Wireless Bureau and Office of Engineering and Technology, according to a filing posted Thursday in docket 20-443. “SpaceX has once again unveiled [Dish Network’s] efforts to steal high-power spectrum rights to a terrestrial service in the lower 12 GHz band at the expense of millions of Americans who rely on the band for their broadband and broadcast service,” the filing said. An EchoStar executive slammed SpaceX’s earlier filing on lower 12 GHz (see 2409040035), calling it an “unserious and last-ditch effort” to block use of the frequencies for fixed wireless (see 2409050040). EchoStar is Dish’s parent company.

CTIA completed a series of meetings with staff from all five FCC commissioner's offices on proposed rules requiring blocking texts. A vote on the issue is scheduled for the commissioners' Sept. 26 open meeting (see 2409050045). A filing, posted Thursday in docket 21-402, largely repeats points the group made based on an earlier meeting with an aide to Commissioner Nathan Simington (see 2409170044). “CTIA estimates that in 2023 wireless providers prevented over 47.5 billion spam messages from reaching consumers, and those numbers no doubt have continued to grow,” it said.

T-Mobile anticipates having 12 million home internet customers by 2028, CEO Mike Sievert said Wednesday during the company’s Capital Markets Day. The company added 406,000 fixed wireless subscribers in Q2 (see 2407310040) and plans to cover as many as 15 million homes with fiber, based on its current agreements with other companies. It will cover more homes if it makes additional investments, he said. Sievert noted this was the company’s first such event since March 2021, when it was virtual because of the COVID-19 pandemic. In 2018, when T-Mobile announced its buy of Sprint, it was “dead last in the 4G LTE era without a lot of runway for growth,” he said. But T-Mobile was the first of the major carriers to recognize the importance of mid-band spectrum for 5G. T-Mobile has the most and highest-quality spectrum of any U.S. carrier “and will have for years to come,” he said. Sievert noted that T-Mobile also has the densest network as a benefit of the Sprint buy and an after-effect of the days when the carrier didn’t have low-band spectrum and needed more towers. “The next three or four years will not only continue but actually extend and accelerate our success,” Sievert said: “This is an entrepreneurial team that acts very quickly.” T-Mobile expects it will generate $80 billion in cash between now and 2027. The first $10 billion will pay for already announced transactions and $50 billion will be returned to shareholders. That leaves $20 billion, some of which could go to further investments. “That’s incredible flexibility.” Among the announcements T-Mobile made Wednesday (see 2409180018), the carrier said it's using its 5G stand-alone network to offer first responders priority access through network slicing under a new T-Priority offering. “The network slice ensures first responders get lower latency and faster 5G speeds more consistently, and it also gives them the highest priority across every single 5G band, even in times of extreme congestion,” said a news release. T-Mobile said its first major customer is New York City.