The Alaska Remote Carrier Coalition told the FCC that offering flexibility and allowing companies to take individualized approaches are critical to wireless service in the state, the subject of a Further NPRM on the Alaska Connect Fund that FCC commissioners approved in November (see 2411050002). Key factors that distinguish Alaska from the Lower 48 states and affect wireless deployment "include the middle mile economic challenges, logistical challenges not faced anywhere else in the country, and the vast geographies that must be traversed to touch where people live, work and play,” the coalition said in a filing posted Thursday in docket 23-328.

The wireless industry must move quickly to address post-quantum computing security, 5G Americas stressed in a paper posted Thursday. “A cryptographically relevant quantum computer (CRQC) has the potential to break traditional public key cryptography, a cornerstone of internet and mobile network security,” it said. Industry should start planning now for migration to a post-quantum world, the paper said: “As a first step, start by educating key executives and stakeholders on the urgency and risks. Develop a migration plan, conducting a cryptographic inventory, including security protocols and versions, and a quantum risk assessment to migrate by priority.”

The FCC said Thursday that Andrew, Federated Wireless, Google and Sony have been approved for additional five-year terms as spectrum access system administrators in the citizens broadband radio service band. Andrew, the newest name, is an entity owned by Amphenol, which recently purchased assets from CommScope, including its CBRS operations (see 2502040037). Federated, Google and Sony were the first to be approved as administrators, and their initial five-year terms expired in January (see 2501100025).

General radio operators have asked the FCC to change its rules to allow internet linking of general mobile radio service repeaters. The FCC imposed a prohibition in 2017 but rarely enforced the rule until last year, said a petition posted Wednesday in docket 15-178. “This enforcement has significantly impacted the GMRS community, disrupting emergency communication networks, community nets, and disaster response efforts that had been successfully operating for nearly a decade,” it said.

The FCC provided guidance for intelligent transportation system licensees seeking to move from dedicated short-range communications (DSRC) operations to cellular-vehicle-to-everything-based technology in the upper 30 MHz of the 5.9 GHz band. New C-V2X-based rules went into effect Tuesday, said a notice that day in docket 19-138. The FCC fundamentally changed the rules for the band in October 2020, reallocating the 5.9 GHz band to sharing between Wi-Fi and C-V2X, with no set-aside for DSRC, the historical allocation for the spectrum. The Wireless and Public Safety bureaus said they have reinstated roadside unit (RSU) licenses that were terminated in 2022 due to a failure to notify the commission they had ceased intelligent transportation system (ITS) operations in the lower 45 MHz of the band. Licensees now have an additional 90 days to provide the required certification, the notice said. All Part 90 ITS licensees currently authorized to operate DSRC-based technology in the upper 30-MHz portion are eligible to modify their RSUs for C-V2X deployment in compliance with the new rules, the notice said: “Similarly, any entities that aspire to operate ITS systems may apply for ITS licenses … but only for the purpose of registering and operating C-V2X-based RSUs in their proposed geographic area of operation.”

The Resilient Navigation and Timing Foundation filed a paper Wednesday at the FCC on positioning, navigation and timing (PNT) options other than NextNav’s proposal to use 900 MHz spectrum as an alternative to GPS (see 2404160043). The U.S. “must develop alternatives to GPS and strengthen its PNT capabilities,” the paper says. But “granting the NextNav petition is costly in terms of spectrum, not necessary to achieve this goal and likely would not even deliver a real-world improvement in the country’s PNT capabilities.” The paper, filed in docket 24-240, notes China and Russia have terrestrial PNT systems “that make them much more resilient to interference with their satellite navigation systems.” Other vendors and technologies -- including Locata, PhasorLab, the Broadcast Positioning System and enhanced long-range navigation (eLoran) -- also offer alternatives to GPS, the foundation said. “These companies have not asked the FCC for additional spectrum to implement their solutions.”

AT&T’s network handled almost 29 TB of data during Sunday's Super Bowl, “setting a new record at the Superdome and beating out the 2023 showdown between the same teams,” the company said. That amount of data is “equivalent to streaming nearly 7.2 million hours of music or posting 5.8 million social posts with photos,” it said.

EchoStar Chief Technology Officer Eben Albertyn and others from the company met with FCC staff to urge the agency to increase citizens broadband radio service power levels and align other rules with global 3 GHz standards. EchoStar engineers discussed technical studies that the company has already submitted and that justify each of the changes proposed, said a Tuesday filing in docket 17-258. The EchoStar representatives said they met with staff from the Wireless Bureau and Office of Engineering and Technology. A broad group of companies and associations last week urged new FCC Chairman Brendan Carr not to make sweeping changes to the rules for the band (see 2502060050).

FCC Chairman Brendan Carr's criticism of how the 5G Fund was structured under former Chairwoman Rosenworcel is “legitimate,” New Street’s Blair Levin said in an email (see 2502100056). “Congress asked Rosenworcel to lay out an analysis of the future of USF post-BEAD in order to have the data Congress and the public would need to evaluate what needs to be done now and what should await the implementation of BEAD,” Levin said. “Rosenworcel's efforts did not accomplish that (or anything else) which is unfortunate.” While some parts of the fund could be done now, “others, no doubt, would benefit from knowing how the states' plans affect future deployment efforts,” he said.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit on Tuesday upheld a lower court’s dismissal of additional False Claims Act actions brought by lawyers Mark O’Connor and Sara Leibman, who allege that UScellular and other defendants fraudulently claimed that Frequency Advantage was a “very small business” qualifying for “designated entity” status and a bidding discount in FCC auctions (see 2303280061). Other defendants include King Street Wireless, Carroll Wireless and Barat Wireless. The case “must be dismissed because the frauds Leibman and O’Connor allege were publicly disclosed in an earlier lawsuit, and they are not original sources of the information,” Judge Neomi Rao wrote in a decision in docket 23-7044. “We therefore affirm the judgment of the district court.”