Safe Connections Act

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.

Representatives of EchoStar, Public Knowledge and the Open Technology Institute at New America met with an aide to FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel in support of a 60-day mandatory unlocking requirement on handsets. They also urged the FCC to clear use of the lower 12 GHz band for fixed wireless and address a revised spectrum screen, a filing Tuesday in docket 24-186 and other dockets said. “Nothing stands in the Commission’s way to unleashing 500 MHz of spectrum in the 12.2-12.7 GHz band for fixed 5G broadband services,” they said: “The Commission’s current spectrum policies have not imposed or enforced effective limits on spectrum aggregation.” Representatives of the three groups have been making the rounds at the FCC (see 2408090037).

Facing $2 billion in debt coming due in November and likely short of the cash on hand it will need to operate in Q4, EchoStar plans to use spectrum assets to raise the funding it needs, CEO Hamid Akhavan said Friday as the company announced Q2 earnings. EchoStar has more spectrum than it needs for its wireless plans, Akhavan said. But the company doesn't intend to dispose or relinquish ownership of spectrum holdings, he said. Instead, it's considering financing options that don't require selling.

Representatives of Public Knowledge and New America’s Open Technology Institute met with FCC Wireless and Public Safety bureau staff on the groups' concerns about giving FirstNet, and AT&T, control of the 4.9 GHz band (see 2407230045). The groups pointed to AT&T’s February wireless outage, the topic of a recent FCC report (see 2407220034). “The network configuration error that shut down the AT&T Network simultaneously shut down access by first responders to FirstNet because FirstNet operates on the same AT&T network and relies on the same device certifications as all other devices connecting to the AT&T mobility network,” a filing posted Thursday in docket 07-100 said. There should be “no doubt that giving FirstNet an overlay license to the 4.9 GHz spectrum means that the 4.9 GHz band will be fully integrated into AT&T’s network, primarily for use by AT&T,” the groups said. The Lincoln, Nebraska, Fire & Rescue Department, meanwhile, said the band should be given to FirstNet. Giving FirstNet control “will enable the deployment of next-generation technologies such as 5G, AI, and IoT, which are crucial for effective emergency response,” the department said.

The 5G Automotive Association called for expeditious FCC approval of a long-awaited order finalizing rules for cellular vehicle-to-everything use of the 5.9 GHz band. Representatives of the group met with aides to Commissioners Anna Gomez, Geoffrey Starks and Brendan Carr, said a filing posted Thursday in docket 19-138. 5GAA said that based on Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel's statements (see 2407170042), the order “appears to be generally consistent with 5GAA’s most recent advocacy” on C-V2X use of the band. Fremont, California, meanwhile, became the latest city to seek a waiver of the current rules for deploying C-V2X for roadside and on-board units for “a wide range of applications to enhance public safety, efficiency, and overall traffic management.”

The neutral host market is likely to hit $8.7 billion in 2028, offering an opportunity “for those who can make both the technology and economics work,” 5G Americas said in a report released Wednesday. 5G Americas defines neutral hosts as “shared wireless infrastructures that allow multiple network providers to offer connectivity and coverage to different sectors and customers.” Potential “headwinds” include the decline of distributed antenna system equipment sales, security risks, energy costs and consumption, and potential regulatory barriers, the report said. “Tailwinds include the growth of private networks, the availability of shared spectrum, the demand for Bring Your Own Device and innovative partnership models.”

SpaceX filed a report at the FCC that found high-power mobile use of the 13 GHz band would cause harmful out-of-band interference to its customers in three metropolitan areas studied up to 83.2% of the time. It would cause harmful blocking interference up to 76.8% of the time, the study said. “Either type of interference would crush SpaceX’s service for these consumers and businesses, and they both occur simultaneously,” a filing posted Tuesday in docket 22-352 said. SpaceX has directed most of its wrath at the lower 12 GHz band, which is being studied for fixed-wireless use (see 2407030061). Carriers see the band's upper part as a candidate for 5G, and eventually 6G, based on comments in response to an FCC NPRM (see 2308140046). The record “shows that the upper 12 GHz band is not a priority for the mobile industry, which has asked the Commission to focus instead on frequency bands in the mobile spectrum pipeline,” SpaceX said: No carrier “has made an actual technical proposal” to use the band. “Any high-power mobile service in the upper 12 GHz band threatens to do as much damage to American satellite customers as [Dish Network’s] deeply flawed plea for terrestrial service in the lower 12 GHz band.”

NTIA will hold a multistakeholder forum on Aug. 23 for nonfederal stakeholders to meet with federal agencies conducting studies of the lower 3 and 7/8 GHz bands as part of the national spectrum strategy. In that and future meetings, “NTIA will solicit targeted information from the public, including industry and academia, on spectrum use cases, coexistence scenarios, existing technology solutions, and technical inputs,” a notice for Tuesday’s Federal Register said. The meeting, at 10 a.m., is at the Herbert C. Hoover Federal Building Auditorium. The 3.1-3.45 GHz and 7.125-8.4 GHz bands are a top target for wireless carriers looking for more spectrum for 5G and 6G (see 2403120056).

Using “inaccurate broadband maps that are still being pressure tested” isn't a reasonable approach to a proposed 5G Fund, the Competitive Carriers Association said in a filing at the FCC posted Monday in docket 20-32. “Despite the Commission’s efforts in this area, the evidence available to the Commission refutes any notion that the current broadband maps are reliable or accurate,” CCA said. Any rules based on the maps would be “contrary to the Commission’s statutory obligations under the Communications Act and the Administrative Procedure Act, unmoored from the record, and in conflict with the Commission’s own policy goals,” the group warned.

While time division duplexing (TDD) dominated early 5G deployments, frequency division duplexing (FDD) is starting to outpace the other technology, Stefan Pongratz, Dell’Oro Group vice president-radio access network market research, said in a blog this week. FDD relies on different frequencies for uplink and downlink, while TDD uses different time slots. “Operators initially tend to focus on the upper mid-band before complementing it with narrow-band FDD deployments,” Pongratz blogged. But results from 5G FDD-only deployments suggest “significant potential,” he said. In the Netherlands, a delay in making C-band spectrum available prompted providers “to optimize the use of existing assets, coordinating 4G and 5G technologies across high and low FDD bands to create a high-performance network.” Testing shows “impressive average data rates and latency results in the Netherlands even with the C-Band delays.”