The Society of Broadcast Engineers objected to a June NPRM proposing to preserve one vacant TV channel in the UHF TV band in each area of the U.S. for shared use by white space devices and wireless mics, in a filing posted Tuesday in FCC docket 15-146. The proposal “signals the latest in a continuing, short-term series of unreasoned reversals and technically unsound retreats of the Commission with respect to reaccommodation of licensed, Part 74 [wireless mics] which were displaced from the 700 MHz band and those which now stand to be displaced from the 600 MHz band by the incentive auction,” SBE said. “Worse, this proceeding, sub silencio, abandons the Commission’s longstanding spectrum allocations policies relative to the priorities of unlicensed Part 15 devices versus licensed stations operating in allocated frequency bands.” Wireless mics “play an important role in enabling broadcasters and other video programming networks and entities to serve consumers, including delivery of breaking news, emergency information and broadcast live sports events,” SBE said. But in a series of orders modifying the UHF band plan, the FCC has “serially, in a very short period of time” reduced the amount of spectrum available for their use, the group said. The National Translator Association also objected. NTA said that those who rely on translator services to watch TV are “disproportionately lower income, elderly and frequently are minority individuals and families.” Translator TV service “has been available at low or no cost to these persons for a period approaching fifty years and, despite several previous takings of its channel space by the Federal Government, has largely survived to continue to provide service to its constituency,” NTA said. But the FCC’s proposal puts these services in jeopardy, the group said. “NTA opposes the FCC reservation of any TV channel for use by any unlicensed device which places priority of the unlicensed device's access to that channel over that of any existing licensee, including [low-power] LPTV and TV translator stations, to that channel.”

Sprint still has made no decision whether it will participate in next year’s TV incentive auction, CEO Marcelo Claure said on a call Tuesday as the carrier released its 1Q results. Numbers released by Sprint confirm that the carrier has fallen behind T-Mobile and is now the nation’s fourth-largest wireless carrier, behind Verizon, AT&T and T-Mobile.

Planet Labs is seeking FCC approval to launch as many as 600 satellites over the next decade for its nongeostationary Earth imagery satellite system. The satellites -- 200 of which would be operating at any given time, given the low altitudes at which they would operate and thus the short lifetime of each satellite -- would include the 11 Flock 1c satellites for which the company already has authorization and which launched in June 2014, plus another 56 the FCC authorized last year to be deployed from the International Space Station, Planet Labs said in an International Bureau filing submitted Sunday. The launches could begin in January, Planet Labs said, with the constellation orbiting at 350 kilometers to 720 km, with most at 475 km, it said. Each of the satellites is expected to have an operational lifespan of roughly two years, providing daily imaging of the entire planet, Planet Labs said. The company said signal interference with other systems is unlikely, even as Planet Labs' constellation grows, because earth exploration satellite service systems operating in the 8,025-8,400 MHz band -- like Planet Labs' -- "normally transmit only in short periods of time" and satellites from different systems do not typically travel through the narrow antenna beams of receiving Earth stations and transmit simultaneously.

The FCC will likely release an NPRM later this year as it continues its examination of how new developments in technology could increase the viability of operations in bands above 24 GHz, Chairman Tom Wheeler said in a blog post Monday. The FCC approved a notice of inquiry on the topic in October (see 1410170048). “The NPRM will focus on developing a flexible regulatory framework that will allow maximum use of higher-frequency bands by a wide variety of providers, whether the service they provide is mobile, fixed, or satellite,” Wheeler wrote. “I anticipate that we will explore a range of regulatory strategies depending on the specifics of each proposed higher-frequency band, including licensed, unlicensed, and hybrid shared models.” Wheeler also predicted that lower-frequency bands will play a role in 5G. “For example, the timing of the incentive auction makes the 600 MHz band a prime candidate for deployment of a wide-area 5G coverage layer,” he said. “In much the same way that 700 MHz paved the way for America's world-leading deployment of 4G, so could 600 MHz accelerate U.S. deployment of 5G.” Wheeler also said the FCC will look at bilateral sharing of spectrum. The Department of Defense in particular has advocated rules under which government agencies also could share underutilized commercial bands (see 1503190041). "In addition, we will encourage and support other agencies' efforts to fund research on 5G and will encourage building cybersecurity protections for new 5G networks from the start," he said.

FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler has given little ground on the “duplex gap” between uplink and downlink frequencies bought by carriers in the upcoming TV incentive auction, after pulling the item from the agenda for the FCC’s July 16 meeting, rescheduling a vote for Aug. 6 (see 1507150058). But industry and agency officials said it's not clear that Wheeler has the three votes he needs to win on the gap. All of the expected incentive auction items were on the sunshine agenda released by the FCC Thursday.

House Republicans intend to drill down on FCC process overhaul, the broadcast TV incentive auction and its designated entity (DE) rules and the implications of the net neutrality order on privacy, said the GOP memo for a Tuesday House Communications Subcommittee FCC oversight hearing. Chairman Tom Wheeler will push back against the criticisms and say the agency is well on track toward accomplishing all its goals, according to his written testimony, in contrast to concerns Commissioner Ajit Pai plans to raise.

Members of the SaveWirelessChoice Coalition urged the FCC via a call with reporters Monday to address the two-step “trigger” under which “reserve” spectrum would be set aside for carriers without significant low-band spectrum in a market in the TV incentive auction. Under FCC rules approved in May 2014 (see 1405160030), the first trigger occurs when auction proceeds in the top 40 partial economic areas exceed an average price of $1.25 per MHz/POP. The second occurs when the auction raises enough money to reimburse all broadcasters for the spectrum they surrender and cover other remaining auction expenses, including repacking.

Mexico and the U.S. had a meeting of the minds on spectrum repacking after the TV incentive auction, said Mindel De La Torre, chief of the FCC International Bureau, in a blog post Friday. A formal joint announcement with more information on the agreements is expected soon, an FCC official told us. Reports emerged earlier in the week that Mexico and the U.S. had effectively reached an agreement addressing a still-unsettled area heading into the auction (see 1507220071).

Protecting licensed users of 600 MHz spectrum from unlicensed devices and wireless mics is key to a successful TV incentive auction, CTIA said in a filing Thursday in FCC docket 14-165. Tests show that the FCC’s proposed technical rules “would result in harmful interference to licensed services in violation of the Spectrum Act,” CTIA said. “It is essential that the Commission provide a means for addressing harmful interference from unlicensed white space devices and wireless microphone operations in the event they cause harmful interference to licensed wireless services in the 600 MHz band,” the wireless association said. “In other proceedings where the Commission has used a predictive model to prevent interference, the Commission also has adopted rules requiring the termination of interfering operations.”

CTIA representatives explained its bottom-line desires on rules for the TV incentive auction, in a series of meetings with aides to FCC Commissioners Mike O’Rielly, Ajit Pai and Jessica Rosenworcel, said a filing by the association in docket 12-268. The FCC should “clarify the scope of the requirements affecting 600 MHz licensees that would trigger additional inter-service interference analyses and fully disclose any potential impairment associated with this process,” CTIA said. “For example, 600 MHz licensees should not be required to conduct extensive analyses of interference effects if proposed mobile network modifications would not increase the interference potential to a broadcast station.” CTIA also said the FCC should engage with carriers and others who may buy spectrum “in an iterative, collaborative process to make sure that these affected stakeholders will be able to analyze and understand the complicated data to be provided to them during the incentive auction.” CTIA also reported on a series of meetings President Meredith Baker had at the FCC with Commissioners Mignon Clyburn, Mike O’Rielly and Jessica Rosenworcel, plus other agency officials. Baker is a former FCC commissioner. "CTIA believes that with the right framework in place, a successful incentive auction will be a win-win-win for broadcasters, the wireless industry, and -- most importantly -- consumers," said a filing on the meetings. "However, in order [to] have a successful auction, wireless companies need certainty in the auction process in order to make billion-dollar investments in newly available 600 MHz band spectrum."