Public Knowledge urged the FCC to include a tribal priority window (TPW) in the AWS-3 and upper C-band proposals before commissioners vote Feb. 27 (see 2502060062). The 2.5 GHz TPW “increased the number of Tribes holding licenses from 18 to 319. Tribes have used these licenses, and additional funding provided by a number of grants, to construct point-to-point networks that are helping Tribes to close the digital divide,” said a filing posted Wednesday in docket 25-59. Tribes need more spectrum “just as every wireless provider needs additional spectrum, to meet the ever-increasing demand for broadband capacity as more and more of our daily activities move to the real world from the virtual world,” said the group, whose representative met with aides to all four FCC commissioners.

The strong public reaction to T-Mobile’s announcement that it has launched a beta test of its SpaceX-enabled direct-to-device (D2D) text-messaging service during a Super Bowl ad (see 2502100002) bears watching, New Street’s Jonathan Chaplin said in a note to investors. The commercial generated 13 times more engagement than the median Super Bowl ad, “by far the most of any ad aired during the game,” Chaplin said. Investors are asking whether consumers will be interested in taking a D2D service and what they will pay for it, he said. “The strong engagement the T-Mobile ad generated may offer a clue as to the first question. We may not get an indication on the second question until July, when the trial period announced by T-Mobile's Super Bowl ad ends.”

Representatives of CTIA, T-Mobile and Verizon met with aides to FCC Commissioners Geoffrey Starks and Nathan Simington on the importance of the upper C band to the future of 5G. In a filing posted Wednesday in docket 25-59, the wireless interests noted that carriers face a licensed spectrum deficit of 400 MHZ by 2027 and nearly 1,500 MHz by 2032. FCC Chairman Brendan Carr is seeking a vote on a notice of inquiry on the upper C band at the FCC’s Feb. 27 meeting (see 2502060062). The initial C-band auction “was a record-breaking success, with the spectrum put to use ahead of schedule and immediately generating faster download speeds for consumers,” the filing said. “The Upper C-Band creates a new opportunity for near-term, contiguous access in a portion of the most widely deployed frequency range for 5G worldwide.”

T-Mobile made its final written arguments this week at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit against a $80 million fine imposed by the FCC for allegedly not safeguarding data on customers' real-time locations. T-Mobile was also fined $12.2 million for violations by Sprint, which it later acquired. The FCC and the government defended the fines in January during the last weeks of President Joe Biden's administration (see 2501130061). Oral argument is scheduled for March 24.

T-Mobile, AT&T and Verizon make up the largest reach in the wireless market across the country, a report from Ookla found Tuesday. "Of course, much of their strategies have been dictated by their spectrum holdings -- particularly how much mid-band spectrum they were able to acquire," the report said. T-Mobile has the largest percentage of 5G users in urban and rural markets, it said, noting that the company has been the "most vocal" about its rural market expansion efforts. Ookla said more efforts are underway to expand 5G coverage in rural markets through the FCC's 5G Fund for Rural America.

UScellular filed a response to a December data request from the Wireless Bureau (see 2412270031) probing T-Mobile’s proposed purchase of much of UScellular’s wireless business, including some spectrum. Parts of the response were redacted. “UScellular’s spectrum and network cost challenges have limited UScellular’s relative competitive presence in its footprint,” said a filing posted Tuesday in docket 24-286. “These limitations have resulted in UScellular lagging behind its competitors and being increasingly unable to catch up to the network quality they offer.” The carrier noted that it has “substantially less spectrum depth than its competitors within its footprint,” with about 70 MHz “of aggregable spectrum below 4 GHz -- half or less than” than its biggest rivals. The company’s 600, 700 and 850 MHz licenses “cannot be aggregated and used as efficiently as possible due to mobile device limitations,” the filing said. While its devices “have the hardware to support the 600 MHz, 700 MHz, and 850 MHz bands individually, they generally lack the hardware (such as more antennas) to support spectrum aggregation.” The company said it also holds “substantial non-contiguous blocks of spectrum, particularly in the 700 MHz, AWS, and PCS bands.”

Viaero Wireless asked the FCC to extend the deadline for removing and replacing Huawei equipment in its network from April 6 to Oct. 6. It noted that the FCC still isn’t making available additional funding for its Secure and Trusted Communications Networks Reimbursement Program approved by Congress in December (see 2412240036). “Viaero has exhausted substantial company resources to fund as much of the project as possible on its own, when only 39.5% of the funds were made available by Congress,” said a filing posted Friday in docket 18-89. Viaero’s vendor “was forced to reduce the number of tower crews available to work on this project, hampering progress,” it said. A lack of funding “also forced Viaero to cancel purchase orders for a substantial amount of equipment. Now that full funding is available, Viaero is working to place equipment orders, which may not be delivered until mid to late 2025.”

Policymakers and the FCC, once focused on universal coverage, now must make spectrum decisions around consumers' and industry's capacity and performance needs, CableLabs Vice President-Technology Policy Mark Walker wrote last week. The nation's "overwhelming reliance" on Wi-Fi for carrying consumer data traffic is expected to continue for the foreseeable future, he said. The wider-bandwidth Wi-Fi channels that are coming to support new applications need more contiguous unlicensed spectrum bands, he said. "Without more unlicensed spectrum, Wi-Fi performance will degrade as more devices, applications and users come online." He added that diminished performance will start in dense commercial and residential areas where there are high concentrations of devices and users.

The FCC demanded a response from Luminys within 10 days to its determination that the company was selling equipment from Dahua, which is on the FCC’s “covered list” of providers of unsecure gear. Luminys faces revocation of equipment authorizations the FCC previously approved. Luminys Systems describes itself as the U.S.-based subsidiary of Foxlink, a Taiwan-based company, the agency said Thursday. Foxlink announced its acquisition of Dahua Technology USA last month from a Chinese company, Zhejiang Dahua Technology, the notice said. “By Luminys’s own public statements, Luminys is marketing products that were produced by Dahua, does not expect that these products will be manufactured through Foxlink’s own supply chains until March 2025, and does not expect to stop selling Dahua-manufactured products entirely until December 2025,” the FCC said: “That Luminys had not sought equipment authorization from the Commission prior to Foxlink’s acquisition of Dahua Technology USA also supports the tentative conclusion that the ultimate source of the equipment is Dahua Technology Company, an entity identified on the Covered List.” The “show cause” order, by the acting chiefs of the Public Safety Bureau and Office of Engineering and Technology, was posted in Friday’s Daily Digest.

General radio operators asked the FCC to change its rules to allow internet linking of general mobile radio service repeaters (see 2502120027).