The National Sheriffs’ Association and the California State Sheriffs’ Association lack grounds for a stay of the FCC’s 4.9 GHz order, the Public Safety Spectrum Alliance said in a filing posted Thursday in docket 07-100. The groups sought a stay pending judicial review of the order (see 2501230034). The sheriffs groups “feigned surprise” but “had ample notice that the Commission was considering the band-manager framework adopted in the Order,” PSSA said. Even if the arguments “had merit, they are not entitled to a stay because they do not come close to demonstrating that they will suffer irreparable harm absent a stay,” PSSA said: Their purported injury “is based on speculation that their members might wish to expand operations in the future and would not be able to do so, and that it will be costly for them to collect and present the data concerning their existing operations.” But the groups don’t “show that any member has concrete plans to expand operations -- a necessary prerequisite for a claim of irreparable injury.”

The San Francisco Bay Area Rapid Transit District petitioned the FCC to stay a requirement that 4.9 GHz licensees provide the agency with granular licensing data by June 9 or face cancelation of their licenses. BART said it's using the band to build a communications-based train control system that will “enhance the safety of its transit operations.” Absent a stay, BART would have to devote “crucial and limited resources to a cumbersome, expensive and time-consuming data collection process, which must begin immediately to meet” the June 9 deadline, said a petition posted Wednesday in docket 07-100. The Government Wireless Technology & Communications Association and state groups previously asked the FCC to delay the requirement (see 2412230048). The National Sheriffs’ Association and California State Sheriffs’ Association also asked that the FCC stay the October order giving the FirstNet Authority -- and, indirectly, AT&T -- use of the 4.9 GHz band pending judicial review (see 2501230034).

Responsible Enterprises Against Consumer Harassment (REACH) asked the FCC to revise its robocall/robotext safe harbor rules in a filing posted Wednesday in docket 21-402. The rules should confirm “that no member of the U.S. telecom ecosystem” may “block or label calls or text messages on the basis of content of the communication” or “block or label calls or text messages that are made consistent with the Commission’s rules related to express consent.” The revisions are needed “in light of the rampant scourge of unconstitutional and illegal call and text blocking that are censoring speech and limiting legitimate American businesses from accessing" cellphone provider networks, REACH said.

Hilliary Acquisition told the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit that it wants to continue its case for a writ of mandamus seeking the return of $841,128.25 the company made in down payments for 42 licenses when it was the high bidder during the 2020 citizens broadband radio service auction (see 2412110065). The FCC denied the request in a Jan. 16 order, the company said. “The FCC now argues that with the grant of such Refund Order, mandamus relief is unavailable to Hilliary because an adequate alternative remedy now exists,” Hilliary said in a brief filed Tuesday.

The Fixed Wireless Communications Coalition said the FCC has no choice but to overturn the waiver allowing automated frequency coordination systems in the 6 GHz band to take building entry loss (BEL) into account for “composite” standard- and low-power devices that are restricted to operating indoors. The coalition countered arguments in support of the waiver from the FCC Office of Engineering and Technology (see 2501220030). “The crux of the FWCC’s Application for Review turns on OET’s abject failure to articulate special circumstances justifying the BEL Waiver Order,” said a filing posted Tuesday in docket 23-107. “In light of the failure of the Oppositions, the waiver applicants, or the BEL Waiver Order to articulate a special circumstance, the Commission must reverse” the order, FWCC said.

AT&T and FirstNet “have been on the ground since day 1” of the California wildfires to support first responders, “bringing reliable connectivity to the area,” said Scott Agnew, president-FirstNet Program at AT&T, in a blog this week. “Dozens of agencies are working together, from local departments and federal teams to international first responders providing mutual aid,” Agnew said. So far, public safety agencies have made more than 20 requests for emergency support, “and the FirstNet Response Operations Group has deployable cell sites on the ground, such as Satellite Cell on Light Trucks, dedicated solely for first responder communications,” he said. “The team has also tapped into deployable assets from the AT&T fleet, such as AT&T Super Cell on Wheels, which provide 10x the capacity of a normal antenna. These assets are supporting public safety’s beachfront incident command posts.”

Annual spending on private LTE and 5G networks in the U.S. will surge at a compound annual growth rate of 18% between 2024 and 2027, accounting for more than $3.7 billion in spending by the end of 2027, a ResearchAndMarkets.com report said Monday. “With the availability of new spectrum options and 5G technology, the market is gaining mainstream adoption with deployments of all shapes and sizes," it said. Although initially dominated by LTE, “commercial deployments of private 5G networks are starting to gain significant traction in industrial and enterprise settings.” Major examples cited in the report include deployments at Walmart distribution centers; Tesla's Gigafactory Texas; at various facilities of other automakers such as BMW Group, GM and Toyota; LG Electronics' Clarksville, Tennessee, home appliance manufacturing plant; Delta Air Lines' Atlanta operating hub; Dallas Fort Worth International Airport; and the Port of Virginia's container terminal.

The effective date of the one-to-one robotext consent order was pushed off a year, to Jan. 26, 2026, FCC Consumer and Governmental Affairs Bureau Acting Chief Eduard Bartholme said in an order in Monday's Daily Digest. Issued Friday, the order cited a pending judicial review of the policy. Also on Friday, the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals found for the appellant, Insurance Marketing Coalition, in its suit challenging the order (see 2501240068). The 11th Circuit vacated part of the order and remanded it to the FCC for further proceedings. Decisions from the 11th Circuit "will hurt consumers, small businesses and the American phone system,” Electronic Privacy Information Center lawyer Chris Frascella said in a joint statement Monday with Public Knowledge and the National Consumer Law Center. “This is particularly disheartening because the rule was a very simple but impactful protection: companies could only sell your consent to receive robocalls if you provided an individual record of consent (e.g. a checkbox) for each company you consented to receiving robocalls from," Frascella said.

The Georgia Department of Corrections told the FCC that, during the last quarter of 2024, zero devices were “erroneously disabled” by the contraband interdiction system at the state's correctional facilities, in a filing posted Friday in docket 13-111. The Georgia department has been filing quarterly reports at the FCC on its interdiction efforts.

Todd Schlekeway, president of NATE: The Communications Infrastructure Contractors Association, called for changes in how the wireless industry does business with tower companies. Schlekeway's open letter came as earnings season begins for carriers and NATE members.