Technology provider Ettifos is seeking a waiver from the FCC to deploy cellular vehicle-to-everything technology in the 5.9 GHz band on highways and at intersections. “With the deployment of such applications, we expect to see reduced traffic accidents, increased traffic efficiency and increased safety for vulnerable road users,” said a filing posted Wednesday in docket 19-138. “The public would benefit from our deployments as we can provide real-time road information to drivers for decision-making and support other warnings from existing sensors they may already have in their vehicle,” Ettifos said.

The Department of Commerce will seek comment for 30 additional days on forms for the Public Wireless Supply Chain Innovation Fund Grant Program, according to a notice for Wednesday’s Federal Register. The program is a $1.5 billion federal fund aimed at spurring growth of open radio access networks and advanced spectrum sharing. "We invite the general public and other Federal agencies to comment on proposed, and continuing information collections, which helps us assess the impact of our information collection requirements and minimize the public's reporting burden," the notice said. Public comments were previously requested on Oct. 4 during a 60-day period: “This notice allows for an additional 30 days for public comments.”

The Committee for the Assessment of Foreign Participation in the U.S. Telecom Services Sector has reviewed T-Mobile’s proposed buy of Ka’ena, best known for Mint Mobile, a low-cost prepaid wireless brand, and has no objections, said a letter posted Tuesday in docket 23-171. T-Mobile announced the proposed buy in March (see 2303150032). The committee was previously known as Team Telecom.

AT&T urged the FCC to proceed cautiously in approving the launch of 6 GHz automated frequency coordination (AFC) operators following public trials. “AT&T was an active participant in these public trials and AT&T appreciates the efforts of these AFC System applicants to work with AT&T to identify the source of discrepancies between AFC System calculated results for standard power device scenarios and the values calculated by AT&T,” said a filing posted Tuesday in docket 21-352: “AT&T does not believe the results of the public trials warrant deferring action on these applications, although AT&T does suggest that any grant of final AFC System authority be conditioned to ensure continued compliance with inter-industry agreements and to require some unresolved matters to be addressed within those inter-industry organizations.” AT&T noted that some of the tests “brought to light different practices and illustrated that reasonable engineers can differ with respect to how the same basic propagation calculations are implemented.”

NTIA will host a public symposium on Feb. 1 focusing on implementation of the national spectrum strategy, a notice for Wednesday’s Federal Register said. Officials announced plans for the symposium at a meeting last week of the Commerce Spectrum Management Advisory Committee (see 2312190076). The symposium begins at 9 a.m. EST at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C. NTIA announced in a second notice it’s seeking applications for CSMAC membership for the group's new term. Applications are due Jan. 31, for a two-year tenure expected to start in June. Under terms of the committee’s charter, CSMAC must have at least five members, but not more than 30, who serve as special government employees. “The committee’s membership will be fairly balanced in terms of the points of view represented by members and the functions to be performed,” NTIA said: “Its membership will reflect a cross-section of interests in spectrum management and policy, including non-Federal spectrum users; State, regional, and local sectors; technology developers and manufacturers; academia; civil society; and service providers with customers in both domestic and international markets.”

Sony filed a report at the FCC on the public trial of its 6 GHz automated frequency coordination (AFC) system. Similar to other tests, the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) and AT&T Labs filed the largest number of objections, Sony reported Friday in docket 21-352. EPRI challenged 93 of 143 test cases submitted, but its challenges “may not be valid” because the institute relies on a different propagation model than allowed by the FCC, Sony said. AT&T challenged 24 test cases: the report said: “We analyzed the causes of the discrepancies …using detailed calculation results provided by AT&T Labs. As a result, the causes were identified and resolved.”

T-Mobile updated the FCC on the carrier's efforts to implement 911 location-based routing (LBR) at public safety answering points nationwide, at the request of the Public Safety Bureau, said a filing posted Thursday in docket 18-64. “T-Mobile has fully implemented LBR for 1,591 PSAPs, including one or more PSAPs in 32 states and the District of Columbia,” T-Mobile said: “In addition, 596 PSAPs are in the process of having 911 LBR deployed. We continue outreach to other PSAPs located within T-Mobile’s network footprint in an effort to enable the service further.” Two weeks ago, Verizon filed a similar update (see 2312070044).

The Government Wireless Technology & Communications Association (GWTCA) raised objections in response to an FCC Wireless Bureau notice seeking comment on an American Electric Power request for a waiver allowing it to operate 800 MHz low-power temporary repeaters and “talk-around on mobile units” in remote areas outside the range of its existing 800 MHz network (see 2311210028). Comments were due Thursday in docket 23-390. Only GWTCA filed. “GWTCA’s position is that the AEP waiver request should be granted only if the proposal is more narrowly tailored to the actual and specific needs of AEP, and should not be a substitute for reasonable construction of infrastructure facilities that are not co-channel and short-spaced to existing operations of other licensees,” the group said: “AEP has failed to provide advance notice to co-channel licensees which might be impacted by the proposal. Instead, AEP proposes to notify such licensees after any Commission grant of the Waiver Request. This deprives impacted licensees of the ability to effectively participate in this proceeding at a meaningful time and in a meaningful manner.”

CTIA representatives questioned proposals in a June NPRM that address FCC rules under the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (see 2306080043). “Instead of directing its limited resources toward attempts to amend the decades-old and demonstrably pro-consumer Exception, the Commission should continue to focus on bad actors who use robocalls and robotexts to spam and scam consumers,” CTIA said: “The market for wireless services is highly competitive, and service providers are highly incentivized to send the appropriate number and type of messages that consumers want and expect.” Representatives of CTIA and the major carriers met with staff from the FCC Consumer and Governmental Affairs Bureau, according to a filing posted Friday in docket 02-278.

Activity at the recent World Radiocommunication Conference in Dubai points to the need for U.S. policymakers to make more spectrum available for 5G and 6G, blogged Umair Javed, CTIA senior vice president-spectrum. “WRC-23 made clear that the rest of the world is putting significant emphasis on making mid-band spectrum available for full-power 5G use,” he wrote. “Perhaps the most significant outcome of the conference is that the 6 GHz band -- which has been allocated for unlicensed access in the United States across the full 1200 megahertz -- is now earmarked to be the harmonized home for licensed mobile in the top half of the band for a majority of the world,” Javed wrote last week: “While some tried at the conference to set up a dynamic that suggested that countries would have to ‘choose’ between the U.S. vision for Wi-Fi or China’s vision for mobile, the reality was that some European countries were a major force for identifying the 6 GHz band for 5G and many countries sided with that view.” The lower 3 GHz is “truly a global 5G band now” with more than 50 nations using it “as the home for full-power 5G,” he said. “Now the WRC has harmonized this use across the Americas, Europe, the Middle East, and Africa,” he added. “This includes adding a new primary mobile allocation for the United States in the 3.3-3.4 GHz band and removing regulatory limitations on using 5G near the border in the 3.6-3.8 GHz band,” he said. Javed said the 7/8 GHz band “is now the global harmonization target for expanding mobile capacity for 5G and beyond.” The 4 GHz band “will be studied for future 5G use in the other two major ITU regions, but, unfortunately, not here in the Americas,” he said: “Agency opposition to study this band either domestically or internationally deprives the Administration of a promising option available to our key rivals.” Javed is a former top aide to FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel.