New Era Broadband, a wireless ISP in Ohio, opposed any move to relocate the citizens broadband radio service band or raise power levels (see 2511260031). Moving the band would “basically put us out of business,” said a filing posted Monday in docket 17-258. “Drastically changing the CBRS rules could cost our business, which would directly impact 7 jobs, nearly 800 internet users, multiple first responders, firehouses, township operations.”
A new study by researchers at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia found a link between cellphone ownership and higher rates of obesity and insufficient sleep among children. Owning a phone at age 12 “was associated with increased risks of depression, obesity, and insufficient sleep, with younger age of acquisition linked to additional risks of obesity and insufficient sleep.” The study was done in collaboration with the University of California, Berkeley and Columbia University in New York.
REC Networks asked the FCC not to eliminate rules covering the use of unlicensed consumer-grade cordless phones in the 43.71-44.49, 46.60-46.98, 48.75-49.51 and 49.66-50.00 MHz bands as part of the agency’s “Delete” proceeding. The commission “provides absolutely no data that there are positively zero of these old phones, including the ‘46/49’ cordless phones marketed primarily in the 1980s and early 1990s in circulation,” said a filing posted Monday in docket 25-133. Some handsets for those phones “may use batteries that are still available to this day, including standard batteries that are not exclusively used by cordless telephone handsets.”
The U.S. will meet its spectrum goals only if DOD is forced to come to the table to give up spectrum, former FCC Commissioner Mike O’Rielly said Monday in an opinion piece. “For historical reasons, [DOD] is sitting on some of the most desirable spectrum bands in the entire nation … based on decisions made half a century or more ago.” As policymakers push for the reallocation of federal spectrum, the DOD holds an estimated 80% of the government spectrum portfolio, O’Rielly wrote. “It’s as if the Interior Department was previously awarded almost all of Manhattan two centuries ago, then said no commercial development.”
Petitions to deny SpaceX's proposed acquisition of EchoStar's AWS-3, AWS-4 and AWS-H Block spectrum licenses are due Dec. 15, with oppositions due Dec. 29 and replies Jan. 8, an FCC Wireless Bureau public notice said. The docket is 25-302. EchoStar struck a spectrum deal with SpaceX and a similar spectrum rights sale deal with AT&T to end a pair of FCC investigations into its use of the 2 GHz band and the deadline extensions it received for its 5G network buildout (see 2505130003).
Opensignal is deepening its focus on the consumer experience on wireless networks through the recently launched Global Network Excellence Index, said Sylwia Kechiche, the company’s senior director of industry analysis. “We want to explain that network excellence is not all about speed,” Kechiche said Friday during a Mobile World Live podcast. Opensignal uses a metric called “constant quality,” which measures subscriber experience doing “everyday tasks,” she said. “What we want to bring to the table” is an examination of whether “everyone can participate in the digital economy.” Opensignal wants to simulate “what will happen when you do certain things” online.
Dish Wireless objected at the FCC to a Universal Service Administrative Co. finding that some households it served under the affordable connectivity program and emergency broadband benefit program were ineligible and didn’t comply with USAC’s one-per-household rule.
Mobile carriers worldwide are spending up to $19 billion annually on “core cybersecurity activities,” and that is expected to increase to $42 billion by 2030, GSMA said in a report released Wednesday. Despite this investment, carriers face “poorly designed, misaligned or overly prescriptive regulation, which results in unnecessary costs, diverting resources from genuine risk mitigation, and in some cases increasing exposure to cyber threats,” GSMA added.
Major providers are using their fixed-wireless access offerings to expand the reach of their networks faster than they can build a wired connection, even in markets where they already have fiber, Mike Dano, lead industry analyst at Ookla, said during a Senza Fili podcast Wednesday. Dano cited as an example AT&T targeting neighborhoods where it doesn’t already have fiber, such as in Houston, one of the country’s fastest growing markets. Dano spoke with analyst Monica Paolini.
Brownsville, Texas, is seeking a waiver from the FCC to operate a city network that uses the citizens broadband radio service band at +60 dBm effective isotropic radiated power, which is higher than the +47 dBm allowed by agency rules. In a filing posted Monday, the city emphasized that it’s located on the Mexican border and uses the network for border security. The higher power levels would mean the city needs about a third as many nodes to operate the network, it said. “The City’s planned outdoor applications -- spanning public safety, border security, and critical infrastructure operations -- require broader signal reach and fewer network nodes than the existing limits allow.”