NCTA told the FCC that giving wireless providers six months to unlock handsets after they’re activated, not the FCC’s proposed 60 days, would allow providers time to “ascertain whether a handset has been subject to fraud.” Comments were filed this week in docket 24-186, on an NPRM commissioners approved 5-0 in July (see 2409100048). A six-month mandate would mean “increased competition among providers, and, in turn, lower service prices and more competitive offerings than under existing unlocking policies,” NCTA said. Comcast also urged a six-month unlocking requirement. The longer period “would give wireless providers a sufficient opportunity to detect and combat handset fraud as well as a greater opportunity to identify other payment issues, while promoting increased competition and consumer choice in the wireless marketplace,” Comcast said. The Cloud Communications Alliance supported an order requiring unlocking by default when a phone is activated. That would “further enhance competition, avoid any consumer confusion, and prevent wireless providers from interposing delays or objections,” the alliance said: Unlocking by default "is the rule in several other countries and has long been supported by consumer advocates.” The Coalition of Rural Wireless Carriers said the mandate should apply only to handsets customers buy outright. “The proposed rule will interfere with contractual arrangements in ways that will disproportionately harm financially vulnerable consumers,” the coalition said. For smaller providers, “the incentive to offer device installment contracts to credit-challenged consumers will likely decrease if consumers can more easily break these agreements and take devices -- without paying for them -- to other carriers,” the group said. But EchoStar backed a requirement that applies to all devices “whether prepaid or postpaid and regardless of financing status.” It also called on the FCC to issue a Further NPRM on porting practices. “Carriers today impose varied and often onerous requirements on consumers seeking to port their phone numbers to new carriers that -- like unlocking rules -- may hinder their ability to switch providers,” the company said. The Advanced Communications Law and Policy Institute at New York Law School advised the FCC not to “micromanage” handset policy. “Unfortunately, the Commission, notwithstanding its confidence in the need for prophylactic regulation, fails to offer persuasive data, analysis, or legal justification for its proposed handset unlocking rules,” the institute said: “In reality, the U.S. wireless sector is robustly competitive, vibrantly innovative, and incredibly responsive to consumer demands, including those related to handset unlocking.”
Carriers clashed over whether the FCC should move forward on an order that generally imposes industry-wide handset unlocking rules, requiring all mobile wireless providers to unlock handsets 60 days after they’re activated. Groups representing low-income consumers warned the rules could mean ending subsidies for purchasing phones. Comments were due Monday in docket 24-186, on an NPRM commissioners approved 5-0 in July (see 2407180037).
Comments are due Oct. 10, replies Oct. 25, on an FCC NPRM and notice of inquiry aimed at reducing unwanted AI robocalls. Commissioners approved the measures 5-0 in August (see 240807003). “Complaints regarding unwanted and illegal robocalls and robotexts are consistently the top category of consumer complaints that the Commission receives,” said a notice for Tuesday’s Federal Register: “As a result, it is critical that the Commission stay abreast of new technologies that may impact the privacy protections afforded to consumers under” the Telephone Consumer Protection Act. The notice also seeks comments Nov. 12 as part of the initial Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 analysis.
California should shut down AT&T’s deregulation bid, consumer groups argued in briefs to the California Public Utilities Commission Friday. After denying AT&T relief from carrier of last resort (COLR) obligations in June (2406200065), the state commission is weighing AT&T’s separate application to relinquish its eligible telecommunications carrier (ETC) designation (docket A.23-03-002). AT&T claimed that the CPUC has no choice but to grant the application for statewide relief.
Very low power (VLP) devices pose little risk to mobile electronic newsgathering (ENG) receivers, tech companies said in a meeting with FCC Office of Engineering and Technology staff. A Broadcom analysis “demonstrated that ENG systems can operate error-free with SINRs [signal to interference and noise ratio] at and above 1 dB and that interference from VLP transmitters is very unlikely to cause SINR levels to fall below that 1 dB threshold in any plausible operating scenario,” said a filing posted Friday in docket 18-295. New, supplemental analysis further “confirms that VLP devices in U-NII-6 and U-NII-8 do not present a significant risk of harmful interference and that mobile ENG systems will operate with a[n] SINR above 8 dB in every realistic scenario,” the filing said. Also in the meeting were Apple, Google, Meta Platforms and Qualcomm.
The FCC on Friday released the latest version of its broadband competition notice of inquiry. Comments are due Oct. 7, replies Nov. 6, in docket 24-214. “We initiate our latest statutorily mandated annual review, soliciting comment and data to inform our [Telecom Act] section 706 analysis,” the NOI says: “In the next section 706 report, we propose to maintain the standards and goals adopted by the 2024 Report and seek comment here on potential additional metrics as well as potential data sources by which to measure them.” The FCC seeks “objective data and other evidence, as well as methodologies and analytical frameworks, to assist us in evaluating the universal service goals for broadband.” Commissioner Brendan Carr approved in part and concurred in part on the NOI. In a statement, Carr said he was able to partially support the inquiry after several lines of questions were added at his request. “The NOI now seeks comment on whether the FCC should report how many unserved locations are subject to enforceable federal commitments to deploy broadband infrastructure,” he said, noting that much of this data “is available” only “on a piecemeal basis today.” The NOI also now “tees up the concept of measuring progress by comparing results from the FCC’s Broadband Data Collection,” Carr said. Additional added questions should provoke “a more sophisticated discussion of high-speed satellite broadband services, such as those broadband services offered by constellations in low-Earth orbit.” Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel attached a brief comment to the NOI. “We need to know not just where and how broadband is being deployed across the country but also how accessible, affordable, and available it is nationwide,” she said.
SpaceX told the FCC it’s time to close a proceeding examining use of the lower 12 GHz band for fixed wireless. The agency should “finally” end Dish Network’s “undeserved and relentless quest to steal spectrum rights in the 12.2-12.7 GHz band at the expense of millions of Americans who depend on this band to deliver their satellite broadband and broadcast content,” said a filing posted Wednesday in docket 20-443. SpaceX submitted an analysis which it said shows that approving the change would mean “harmful interference and service outages” for Americans dependent on satellite broadband. Dish’s interference analysis relies on “fictional technology” that’s “trumpeted by RKF Engineering -- whom the Commission unanimously found submits studies based on ‘unsupported’ and ‘speculative’ assumptions,” SpaceX said.
China is ahead of the U.S. on many fronts in its plans to emerge as the world leader in 5G, and eventually 6G, experts warned Wednesday during a webcast by the Atlantic Council’s Global China Hub. The group released a paper urging that the U.S. reassert leadership in wireless technology.
New, AI-driven technologies could offer an alternative to how spectrum sharing is done, experts said Wednesday during an RCR Wireless webinar. Panelists said AI could provide options to the citizens broadband radio service and increase dynamic sharing of government spectrum.
NCTA criticized the FCC’s Paperwork Reduction Act analysis in its November order protecting consumers from SIM swapping and port-out fraud (see 2311150042). In addition, it asked the agency to reissue the notice “with more detailed burden and cost analysis.” NCTA said it “appreciates the important goals” and commission efforts “to protect mobile wireless customers from fraudulent schemes,” in a filing Monday in docket 21-341. NCTA said the agency should “reexamine information and evidence submitted by NCTA and other industry groups demonstrating the much greater burden these new rules place on providers.”