Safe Connections Act

AT&T suffered a wireless outage Tuesday night that apparently started in the Southeast and spread throughout the U.S., based on social media and other reports. A software issue caused the outage, which was resolved, AT&T said Wednesday. The FCC is investigating, a spokesperson emailed.

The FCC approved an order establishing a multi-round reverse auction to pay out up to $9 billion to bring voice and 5G mobile broadband service to rural areas of the U.S. otherwise unlikely to see 5G. The vote was 4-1, with a dissent by Commissioner Brendan Carr. The commission plans a public notice to announce the start date of the auction. It also released a Further NPRM on related tribal issues.

During a meeting with an aide to FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel, representatives of the 5G Automotive Association urged “expeditious adoption” of a long-anticipated order finalizing rules for cellular vehicle-to-everything use of the 5.9 GHz band. Rosenworcel circulated the order for a vote in July (see 2407170042). Based on Rosenworcel’s statement at the time, “the order appears to be generally consistent with 5GAA’s most recent advocacy concerning the rules” for C-V2X, said a filing posted Wednesday in docket 19-138.

The Rural Wireless Association supported the Competitive Carriers Association's arguments questioning the FCC’s proposed methodology for a 5G Fund (see 2408050037) in a filing posted Tuesday in docket 20-32. RWA members “are similarly concerned with the 5G Rural Fund framework and see the need for significant rule changes before final adoption,” the group said. “RWA also agrees with CCA that the FCC should: (1) increase the 5G Rural Fund budget to meet its statutory obligations; and (2) define 5G service at a 35/3 Mbps speed threshold for purposes of determining where 5G coverage exists,” the filing said.

CHARLESTON, S.C. -- While some states hope to have enough broadband equity, access and deployment money to also tackle adoption and affordability issues, not just infrastructure, BEAD project costs may dash those hopes, according to Nokia's Lori Adams. Separately Tuesday at NATOA’s annual local government conference, Joanne Hovis, CTC Technology & Energy president, predicted growing concerns when it becomes clear Western states lack enough BEAD money to reach 100% of locations with adequate infrastructure. Speakers also discussed issues local governments face with small cell deployment permitting.

Companies are still figuring out how they’ll use generative AI and how it will benefit them as they move to greater automation, Rode Kirk, Microsoft global sales director-media & communications, Americas, said during a Fierce Network webinar Monday. Other speakers said as networks become more complex, companies will have no choice but to embrace automation.

Noting its launch operations are continuing, Dish Wireless asked the FCC to keep confidential information submitted to it as part of the broadband data collection process. In particular, Dish sought confidential treatment for the mobile propagation modeling and mobile link budget information it submitted, and mobile voice and data subscription numbers. Dish “recognizes that the current rules do not allow for confidential treatment of ‘provider-specific mobile deployment data,’” a filing posted Thursday in docket 19-195 said. But “disclosing the entirety of the data that DISH is required to submit in these two proceedings would have the perverse effect of harming a nascent 5G competitor, which would undermine the Commission’s ultimate goal of increasing broadband availability and competition,” Dish said.

Wi-Fi advocates and wireless carriers offered the NTIA different versions of the 6G world in some of the first comments made public in response to a May request for comment on the state of 6G development (see 2405230010). Comments were due Wednesday. NTIA is expected to eventually post them.

The average consumer finds 5G underwhelming so far, said Jaydee Griffith, Next G Alliance managing director, during a Wednesday RCR Wireless webinar. The technology has met expectations in some areas but not others, several experts said.

The wireless industry urged the FCC to approve positions that promote 5G and 6G, and international mobile telecommunications (IMT) at the next World Radiocommunication Conference in 2027. Comments were due Tuesday in docket 24-30 on the FCC’s WRC Advisory Committee's (WAC) early policy positions (see 2408060019). Numerous satellite interests focused attention on: agenda item 1.7, additional mid-band spectrum and the X band being made available for IMT.