Safe Connections Act

EchoStar Chairman Charlie Ergen and other officials from the company reported on a series of meetings with FCC Wireless Bureau Chief Joel Taubenblatt and staff about 5G and spectrum items. “EchoStar reiterated its support for modernizing and improving the Commission’s spectrum aggregation policies,” a filing posted Monday in docket 23-319 said. The company urged that the FCC address proposed rule changes for the citizens broadband radio service band “including increasing authorized power levels and synchronizing downlink and uplink operations.”

The FCC should exercise care in approving a Samsung Electronics America request for a waiver of a 5G base station radio that works across citizens broadband radio service and C-band spectrum (see 2309130041), Public Knowledge said in a filing posted Monday in docket 23-93. “This proceeding has revealed an unfortunate mismatch between the Commission’s certification rules for composite devices ... and the evolution of new, multiband radio technology,” PK Senior Vice President Harold Feld said in meetings with staff from the FCC Wireless Bureau and Office of Engineering and Technology, and with an aide to Commissioner Brendan Carr. Feld suggested the FCC could issue an NPRM on broader issues, use a waiver “to state with clarity the meaning of the composite system rule” or grant the waiver “under such conditions that will not create a precedent for similar multiband radio operation, and with sufficient safeguards to mitigate” interference risks. The FCC adopted the composite system rule in 1989, PK said: “At the time, a single multiband radio operating on multiple frequencies under different service rules for each band not only did not exist, but was inconceivable as anything other than a theoretical construct.”

CTIA asked the FCC to address an issue it raised on pole attachments in 2019, providing clarity that wireless providers have access to utility light poles (see 1911200033). “Given the remarkable and growing consumer demand for wireless services and 5G home broadband -- the fastest growing segment of the home broadband marketplace -- the Commission should act on this pending request,” a filing posted Monday in docket 17-84 said. These poles “are well-suited for small cell facilities, which comprise the largest number of deployments: industry analysts report upwards of 80 percent of future deployments will be small cells, which are ideally suited to leverage street furniture such as light poles in the rights-of-way,” CTIA said.

ISPs and industry groups told the FCC that while competition and access remain strong in the broadband marketplace, additional regulation could harm future investment and deployment. Those views were included in feedback the FCC sought about its biannual State of Competition in the Communications Marketplace report to Congress (see 2404220050). In comments, some wireless groups urged making additional spectrum available. MVPDs and broadcasters said the FCC should recognize the increasing competition they face from streaming video and accordingly relax regulations. Comments were posted Thursday and Friday in docket 24-119.

The FCC should deny Sateliot's petition for providing mobile satellite service in the 2 GHz band as it rejected a similar request from SpaceX, EchoStar told the agency's Space Bureau this week. EchoStar said Sateliot's proposed uplinks and downlinks in the band would interfere with its 5G broadband network. In addition, it said Sateliot's application makes "no practical sense," as Sateliot supposedly wants to use the 2 GHz band for narrowband IoT service for mobile network operators, but EchoStar, the only mobile network operator in the band, "does not want this service." In its April petition, Sateliot said its planned 10 smallsats and blanket-licensed terminals would minimally affect the band's other users. Sateliot said that while EchoStar's Dish Network is the sole licensee of the terrestrial AWS-4 service in the band, creation of that service and Dish's license were "never intended to transform the 2 GHz MSS band into primarily terrestrial spectrum."

Momentum is growing behind the launch of stand-alone 5G networks, Heavy Reading analyst Ruth Brown said during a Light Reading webinar on service assurance Thursday. The wireless industry remains in a transitional stage, she said. Carriers are “very eager to start monetizing 5G” and offer “long-awaited advanced 5G services,” she said. “Operators are still working through this long investment cycle,” she said. Carriers feel increasing pressure to ensure they can monitor network operations and “respond dynamically, in real time, to service needs,” Brown said. Moving to the cloud will require service assurance changes and orchestration and life-cycle management, she said. Support “really needs to move to this dynamic, real-time model” and “we need to think about how we’re going to get there.” Brown said automation will be critical, but most carriers report they are already automating their networks. Providers' top priorities are tools for developing and testing software network functions and network diagnostics and the resolution of problems, she said. Cloud native and virtual networks are becoming “more normal” for carriers, said Mark Watts, a member of the Verizon technical staff. “We essentially look at each individual application and whether it fits into the cloud-native” environment, he said. Software-based applications are more nimble than legacy, hardware-based applications, he said, stressing the importance of testing. Verizon prides itself on its reliable network “and that starts with service assurance,” Watts said. “Software testing is … more and more important as we’re embarking on this cloud-native journey,” he said. “Ongoing monitoring” of the cloud-based system “continues to be a very high priority" for Verizon and operators across the globe, Watts said. As carriers introduce different hardware and software into their networks, interoperability is also critical to ensure “the longevity and ongoing reliability of the network,” he said. 5G slicing remains “a hot topic,” as is ensuring that the service offered through slices is automated and “supported more quickly and in a more nimble manner.” Slicing could offer increased security, better gaming, high-throughput or ultra-reliable services beyond what is typically available on Verizon’s network, he said.

The future is bright for the tower sector, despite a slowdown in major carriers' 5G deployments (see 402290050), American Tower CEO Steve Vondran said Wednesday at a Raymond James financial conference. The U.S. is seeing 20%-30% annual growth in mobile data “and while that's a little bit lower than the 30% to 40% we saw in 4G, the base is exponentially larger,” Vondran said. “I'm excited for the next decade and the demand for the goods and services we sell has never been more certain than it is today,” he added. Vondran said when he started in the business 24 years ago, consumers viewed cellphones as a luxury and even a few years ago there was speculation about when demand would stop. Carriers will continue to deploy 5G and eventually 6G, he said: “This is a good business, not just historically, but today and going forward.” Crown Castle Chief Financial Officer Daniel Schlanger said at the conference that new CEO Steven Moskowitz is “getting his arms around things” following the company's recent proxy fight (see 2405220071). Unlike other recent CEOs, Moskowitz has an operational background, which the board wanted, Schlanger said. One of the biggest challenges for the tower sector is that no one wants macro towers in their backyard, he said: “They're ugly. … Most people look at them and say, 'I don't want that anywhere near me.'” Small cells can help meet growing data demand, he said, and he discussed the effects of consolidation, most recently T-Mobile’s buy of Sprint. “There has been rationalization of the networks because when two customers come together, they don't need all of the equipment to do everything that they did separately,” he said.

T-Mobile unveiled a Home Internet Backup service, offering backup for customers of traditional ISPs when their internet service goes out. It costs $30 a month with AutoPay, and $20 for customers with a T-Mobile voice line. The plan offers 130 GB of 5G data per month, “enough to keep a typical household connected with Wi-Fi for up to seven days a month when their primary internet service goes down,” T-Mobile said Wednesday. Subscribers also receive a 5G gateway at no charge.

T-Mobile told the FCC it has made “significant progress” on meeting its nationwide 5G network deployment milestones. It's a regulatory requirement of T-Mobile's acquisition of Sprint that the milestones are within six years of the deal's closing date. T-Mobile completed the buy four years ago (see 2004010069). “Since the third anniversary of the merger closing, T-Mobile has continued to deploy 5G service over its low-band and mid-band spectrum to the benefit of consumers across the country, resulting in extensive and nearly nationwide 5G coverage of the vast majority of Americans,” a filing Friday said (docket 22-211). T-Mobile reported an increase in its low-band 5G coverage area by approximately 0.6% since the last report and said it’s within 0.8% of meeting the 6-year milestone requirement of 99% of POPs nationwide. In addition, the carrier said its mid-band 5G coverage is at 94.1% of U.S. POPs, already besting the milestone requirement of 88%. T-Mobile reported it has met requirements for 5G sites nationwide and low-band/mid-band 5G spectrum averaged over all sites. But the data on both of these milestones was redacted from the report. The provider said it has also met all its rural 5G network deployment milestones and is well on the way to satisfying requirements for in-home broadband service. In a second filing, T-Mobile also requested keeping the redacted data from public disclosure. "The identified information is extremely sensitive, proprietary information about how T-Mobile is deploying its 5G network -- its most important competitive asset -- including how it is prioritizing deployment of its network infrastructure and bands of spectrum, the extent of its network coverage, the performance of its network, as well as how T-Mobile is deploying and marketing its In-Home Broadband Service," T-Mobile said.

CTIA representatives met with aides to FCC Commissioner Geoffrey Starks and advocated against any proposal to use the 5G Fund to promote cybersecurity risk management planning. Instead, CTIA advised following the cybersecurity framework (CSF) that the National Institute of Standards and Technology is developing, CTIA said in a filing posted Monday (docket 20-32). Accordingly, 5G Fund recipients should "align their cybersecurity risk management plans with Tier 2 of the CSF, [which] accomplishes the Commission’s goal of incorporating appropriate best practices, while avoiding introducing inconsistency that could undermine the Administration’s efforts to ‘harmonize baseline cybersecurity requirements for critical infrastructure,’” CTIA said. Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel circulated an order on the fund in March (see 2403260052).