Safe Connections Act

Policymakers have a better appreciation for the importance of standards as the telecom industry moves closer to the launch of 6G, experts said Tuesday during a 6G workshop streamed from the Technology & Innovation Centre at the University of Strathclyde in Glasgow, Scotland. Experts warned that standards development is complicated and always is a lengthy process.

Vodafone and other wireless carriers have a ways to go to deploy 5G and are in no hurry to get to 6G, David Lister, Vodafone 6G research lead, said Monday during a 6G workshop streamed at the Technology & Innovation Centre at the University of Strathclyde in Glasgow, Scotland.

The FirstNet Authority board approved on Monday a $684 million budget package for FY 2025. The budget includes $100.2 million for operations and $534 million to fund network enhancements. “We are committed to investing in the future of FirstNet and public safety communications through innovation and expanding coverage,” FirstNet Authority CEO Joe Wassel said: “This is a top priority.” The authority noted it has made several investments to expand the network, including enhancing in-building coverage through small-cell technologies and expanding the fleet of deployable assets. The authority has also invested in “initial generational upgrades to the network core for 5G capabilities and beyond.”

AT&T and other major carriers continue clashing over giving FirstNet access to the 4.9 GHz band. The Coalition for Emergency Response and Critical Infrastructure on Friday said AT&T is attempting "a massive and illegal spectrum grab" in trying to give FirstNet what is essentially exclusive control of the band. The move would take "valuable mid-band spectrum away from local public safety users," CERCI said. It said AT&T hasn't mentioned that FirstNet customers already have access to all the carrier's 5G spectrum. Assigning the spectrum to FirstNet is "a poorly crafted nesting doll of bad licensing and legal theories designed solely to benefit AT&T" and cut off public safety users, CERCI said. The organization was responding to a docket 07-100 filing Friday in which AT&T boasted Public Safety Spectrum Alliance (PSSA) support for assigning the 4.9 GHz band spectrum to FirstNet (see 2401190067). AT&T said there's broad public safety consensus that mid-band spectrum is needed to build out 5G and integrating the spectrum into the nationwide public safety broadband network will let FirstNet improve network speed and capacity for public safety. A freeze on new entrants into the band would protect incumbents and allow robust use of otherwise underutilized spectrum, it said. AT&T said claims that FirstNet access to the band would be a windfall to the carrier are a mischaracterization. Criticizing the PSSA proposal, the California Department of Transportation last week said that a nationwide license to FirstNet "will create extensive and irreparable problems for the public-safety community." CDOT said network providers that integrate commercial spectrum and commercial network components into public safety broadband networks could deny the band's use for public safety users under the PSSA proposal.

The House Appropriations Committee continued debating Thursday afternoon the Financial Services Subcommittee’s FY 2025 funding bill, which increases the FCC’s annual allocation to $416 million and decreases the FTC’s annual funding to $388.7 million (see 2406050067). Communications policy lobbyists said panel Democrats might attempt removing riders from the measure that bar the FCC from using funding for implementing its net neutrality and digital discrimination orders, but they hadn’t sought votes on such amendments at our deadline.

The U.S. needs to move toward a firm date for the end of mandatory simulcast of ATSC 1.0 and 3.0 signals and fully transition to ATSC 3.0, but it's too early to say when that date should be, NAB CEO Curtis LeGeyt said Thursday at the NextGen Broadcast Conference in Washington. Conference-goers applauded the call for a transition deadline, and FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr echoed it, saying he would support a proceeding about the issue. Carr also suggested gauging broadcast and wireless industry interest in an "incentive auction 2.0" for low-band spectrum.

Verizon representatives spoke with FCC staff and commissioner aides about the carrier’s opposition to the Public Safety Spectrum Alliance’s proposal that effectively gives the FirstNet Authority control of the 4.9 GHz band (see [Ref:2405240048). PSSA proposes that FirstNet use the band “in the same manner as Band 14 is today, which means it would be fully available to AT&T to serve its commercial customers, subject to priority and preemption for its public safety customers,” a filing posted Wednesday in docket 07-100 said: “PSSA would take the 4.9 GHz band out of the hands of local public safety entities and give it to FirstNet, and in turn AT&T.” The New York Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) also opposed giving FirstNet control of the spectrum. In meetings at the FCC, the MTA discussed how it uses the 4.9 GHz band for its Communications Based Train Control (CBTC) modernization project: “MTA described its significant investments in the 4.9 GHz band for the New York City subway system and how its CBTC project will promote intensive use of the band using next-generation 5G technology.”

The FCC and NTIA are working together as well as Ira Keltz has seen in his 30 years of government service, but the deputy chief of the FCC’s Office of Engineering and Technology said finding consensus on spectrum issues remains difficult. Keltz spoke Wednesday at the International Symposium on Advanced Radio Technologies (ISART) conference in Denver. Echoing Keltz was Derek Khlopin, NTIA deputy associate administrator in the Office of Spectrum Management.

The work that industry and government are doing addressing “clutter analysis” and dynamic sharing is critical to the future of wireless, Shiva Goel, NTIA senior spectrum adviser, said at an International Symposium on Advanced Radio Technologies (ISART) conference on Tuesday. Goel said the government, working with industry, is making progress. The Denver conference's main focus this week is on propagation models that account for the impact of clutter, including foliage and buildings, on wireless signals.

DOD Chief Information Officer John Sherman, who has led the department’s work on opening the lower 3 GHz band for 5G, is leaving government for academia. He will become dean of the Bush School of Government and Public Service at Texas A&M University. But industry experts agree that the personnel change likely won’t prove disruptive because Leslie Beavers, principal deputy CIO, will replace Sherman on an acting basis.