Southern Linc representatives met with Flynn Rico-Johnson, new wireless aide to Commissioner Geoffrey Starks, to update him on the most important issues to the Southern Co. subsidiary. “With the digitization of the electric grid that is now underway, utilities now need broadband networks capable of handling large amounts of data,” a filing Tuesday in 21-346 and other dockets said. “We discussed the importance of access to spectrum for the deployment of private LTE and 5G broadband networks to meet utilities’ ever-increasing capacity, reliability and security needs,” the company said. Southern Linc stressed its support for a proposed rulemaking authorizing 5/5 MHz broadband deployments in the 900 MHz band (see 2402290064).
Safe Connections Act
What is the Safe Connections Act?
The federal Safe Connections Act of 2022 requires mobile service providers to separate the telecommunications lines of domestic violence and human trafficking survivors and their dependents from shared mobile service contracts upon receiving a line separation request. The FCC has passed rules for telecommunications companies to follow once a request has been received, including blocking records of text and calls, and is currently reviewing public comments with regard to potential additional rules required for connected car accounts.
Safe Connections Act News
Open network architecture is a flourishing trend beyond 5G and open radio access networks, speakers said Wednesday during a Broadband Breakfast webinar. The wholesale model has worked for the middle mile and in wireless, Incompas President Angie Kronenberg said: “It’s exciting to see the discussion now happening about last-mile connectivity and fiber.”
Representatives of Alaska’s GCI Communication spoke with aides to FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel about a Brattle Group-developed model that estimates the cost of upgrading the state’s mobile wireless network to 5G. GCI urged the commission “consider this model and move forward to adopt the Alaska Connect Fund to provide a stable basis for planning Alaska’s fixed and mobile telecommunications networks,” a filing posted Wednesday in docket 23-328 said.
The 3rd Generation Partnership Project should launch standards for fixed wireless access, a T-Mobile executive said Wednesday during a Mobile World Live webinar on 5G-advanced, which is the next step in 5G evolution. Egil Gronstad, T-Mobile senior director-technology development and strategy, said he’s disappointed with 3GPP and industry. “We haven’t really done anything in the 3GPP specs to specifically address” fixed wireless.
Broadcast groups demanded that the FCC acknowledge their industry’s increasing competition with tech companies and loosen regulations. Meanwhile, the Free State Foundation and Public Knowledge seek more spectrum, according to reply comments filed by Monday’s deadline in docket 24-119. The comments will inform the 2024 State of Competition in the Communications Marketplace report to Congress (see 2406070001)
Regulators should establish an AI safety model with a supervised process for developing standards and a market that rewards companies exceeding those standards, former FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler said Monday in a Brookings Institution column. This supervised process should convene “affected companies and civil society to develop standards,” he wrote in a column with telecom and tech policy analyst Blair Levin. “Just as the standard for mobile phones has been agile enough to evolve from 1G through 5G as technology has evolved, so can a standard for AI behavior evolve as the technology evolves,” they wrote. Wheeler and Levin recommended ongoing oversight, which would require transparency and collaboration between public and private partners.
The Metropolitan Fire Chiefs Association told the FCC the FirstNet Authority can best utilize the 4.9 GHz band. The 4.9 GHz band is “mid-band spectrum that can be used to support FirstNet 5G services while protecting incumbent uses in the band,” the chiefs said in a filing posted Monday in docket 07-100: “For the fire and emergency service," the band "presents an opportunity to develop technology to track firefighters in buildings; support Unmanned Aerial Systems and robots; and improve the data available to an incident commander on the scene in a major incident.”
Samsung Electronics America representatives met with an aide to FCC Commissioner Geoffrey Starks about the company’s request for a waiver on a 5G base station radio that works across citizens broadband radio service and C-band spectrum (see 2309130041). “Samsung has no incentive to cause harmful interference to its own devices in any band,” a filing posted Monday in docket 23-93 said. The radio would enable carriers “to deploy mid-band spectrum more efficiently and effectively relative to two standalone radios,” Samsung said.
The FCC received unanimous support from commenters that have filed so far for an NTIA proposal that calls for using geofencing to allow higher equivalent isotropically radiated power limits for cellular vehicle-to-everything on-board units in the 5.9 GHz band (see 2406100032). Comments were posted on Friday and Monday (docket 19-138).
European Commission proposals for addressing the continent's digital infrastructure needs include some worrying aspects and have kept alive the long-running "fair share" dispute, some commenters said. While no plan forces content providers to pay telcos for use of their networks, most U.S. entities that responded to an EU white paper focused on that issue, telecom consultant Innocenzo Genna said in an email. The white paper, which prompted more than 350 responses (available at the link), also unnerved EU telecom and spectrum regulators.