The Wireless Infrastructure Association urged the National Park Service last week to adopt a siting framework to encourage adoption of “responsible and sustainable wireless communications on the National Mall and surrounding area” while addressing “persistent service issues.” The NPS sought comments before the federal shutdown about its plan for the National Mall; they were due Thursday.
Attorneys general from 18 states and the city of New York called on the FCC in a letter Friday to send already-approved rules for multilingual wireless emergency alerts to the Federal Register. The rules were issued in January by the Public Safety Bureau under the previous administration but haven’t been implemented in the intervening 10 months because they haven’t yet been published.
T-Mobile Text to 911 via satellite is free for anyone with a compatible phone, including Verizon and AT&T customers (see 2511050024).
A panel of the Better Business Bureau’s National Advertising Review Board recommended Thursday that AT&T change its advertising “to avoid conveying a false message regarding eligibility for an iPhone device offer.” The bureau’s National Advertising Division previously said AT&T should modify a claim that “everyone” can get an “iPhone 16 Pro on us” because the offer applies to specific plans only. Verizon brought the challenge.
T-Mobile is now making 911 access available “to as many people as possible” through T-Satellite and the capacity to send emergency texts, the company said Wednesday. That means service in the 500,000 square miles of the U.S. not covered by traditional cell towers, it noted. T-Mobile Text to 911 is available free as a stand-alone option for anyone with a compatible device, including Verizon and AT&T customers.
The Telecom Infra Project (TIP) announced Wednesday the launch of a project group focused on enhancing the quality of experience (QoE) for streamed and live video applications over wireless broadband networks. The group will look at how to identify an “industry-adoptable common set of QoE metrics for video delivery as well as recommendations and best practices to make these metrics accessible” between communication service providers and content application providers, TIP said. It will examine mechanisms for exchanging information between the two sectors “to enable application-level self-regulated video delivery based on network conditions or subscription policies.” Among the companies engaged in the effort are AT&T, Meta, Orange, Telefonica, Vodafone and YouTube, TIP added.
Fixed-wireless access is driving 5G use cases, with 15 million subscribers today and “aspirations of over 20 million by 2028,” SBA Communications CEO Brendan Cavanagh told investors Monday as the company released Q3 results (see 2511030038).
SpaceX's proposed purchase of EchoStar's S-band spectrum and AST SpaceMobile's proposed deal for Ligado's L-band spectrum could prompt more mobile satellite service (MSS) spectrum transactions, William Blair's Louie DiPalma wrote investors Monday. There are other satellite operators potentially interested in acquiring spectrum, and SpaceX and AST might want more international spectrum, he said, noting that Iridium, Viasat, Globalstar and Omnispace all hold global MSS spectrum rights.
Jeff Johnson, the former vice chair of the FirstNet Authority board, on Sunday criticized Verizon’s approach to offering service to public safety agencies. In a LinkedIn post, he told new Verizon CEO Dan Schulman to “stop trying to harm public safety’s network, FirstNet through your DC lobbyists and consultants.” His comments come as Congress hears calls to end AT&T’s ties to FirstNet (see 2509250060).
The U.S. is entering international spectrum coordination discussions focused on pushing for flexible use policies, supporting spectrum harmonization where it “benefits consumers and global scale,” and “defending the principle that technological progress should not stop at regulatory borders,” FCC Commissioner Olivia Trusty said Thursday in remarks at the 14th Americas Spectrum Management Conference. The Americas “must speak with a strong, coordinated voice” in preparation for the 2027 World Radiocommunication Conference, “one that emphasizes openness, reciprocity, and innovation over protectionism or fragmentation.”