T-Mobile representatives laid out the company’s position on the proposed 5G Fund, proposing to FCC staff tweaks to the technical rules. “T-Mobile discussed the eligible areas for the 5G Fund Auction and how to reach areas that lack 100% coverage and contain roads and/or broadband serviceable locations,” according to a filing posted Friday in docket 20-32. T-Mobile noted that the FCC’s broadband data collection is based on 100-meter-by-100-meter square pixels, or hex-9 cells. “Using more granular hexagonal cells for the 5G Fund, such as hex-10 or hex-11 cells, may help mitigate the issue but would likely introduce more complexity into the mapping process,” T-Mobile said: “A smaller hexagonal cell would require higher resolution terrain and clutter maps that are not readily available. It would also dramatically increase the size of the data files and computer processing requirements for both the submitting carriers and the FCC in a way that is unachievable.” T-Mobile met with staff from the Wireless Bureau, Office of Economics and Analytics and Office of Engineering & Technology. Commissioners approved a Further NPRM on the fund in September (see 2309210035|).

Guam Cellular and Paging will continue opting out of participating in the wireless emergency alert system, parent DoCoMo Pacific said Friday in a filing posted in docket 15-91. “DoCoMo reserves its right to change its election at a later date, in accordance with the Commission’s regulations,” the filing said. Vermont’s VTel Wireless also is opting out, although it “intends to participate in the provision of WEA in the near future," as is Texas provider Tampnet.

The FCC’s draft order and Further NPRM protecting consumers from SIM swapping and port-out fraud saw several changes on its way to approval by commissioners last week (see 2311150042), according to our side-by-side analysis. The item was posted in Friday’s Daily Digest. Changes mostly rejected wireless groups' requests for adjustments. FCC officials clarified after the meeting the adopted item had the same implementation dates as proposed in the draft, despite concerns raised by the Competitive Carriers Association and those of CTIA that it will be difficult to meet a six-month implementation time frame (see 2311130040). “We conclude that providing six months after the effective date of the Report and Order to implement these revisions to our [customer proprietary network information] and number porting rules strikes the right balance between time for wireless providers to implement these changes and accounting for the urgency of safeguarding customers from these fraudulent schemes” and that the time frame is “consistent with other proceedings and regulatory frameworks adopted by the Commission where consumer protection and numbering requirements were at issue,” the order said. “We decline, at this time, to adopt a requirement that wireless providers immediately notify customers in the event of multiple failed authentication attempts in connection with SIM change requests,” the final item said, in added language: The final order also rejects a CTIA request that providers can use other data for verification “when customers are traveling and may not have access to or remember a PIN.” Commissioners found “such an exception would establish a significant loophole for fraudulent activity and note that in these circumstances, customers can use alternative methods of authentication, such as email.” Comment deadlines on the FNPRM will come in a Federal Register notice.

The FCC Office of Engineering and Technology approved BlueWind Medical’s request for a waiver to permit its implantable medical device system operating at 6.78 MHz to exceed FCC emission limits. OET sought comment in January (see 2301190018). “We find there to be a low risk of harmful interference stemming from the operations of the BlueWind device,” said a Friday order: “In addition to the technical conditions imposed in this waiver, BlueWind employs near-field inductive power transfer that decays rapidly and has a short range of only a few centimeters from the body. The emissions from the [external control unit] are directed into a user’s body, and the device does not radiate into space or the outside environment.”

5G so far has underwhelmed by many measures, Stefan Pongratz, Dell’Oro Group vice president, wrote Thursday. Global wireless carrier revenues increased at a 1% compound annual growth rate between 2010 and 2022, “implying that both 4G and 5G have fallen short when it comes to this key metric,” Pongratz wrote. Fixed wireless access, one of the big use cases for 5G, isn’t new, but “the ability to offer 0.5 TB per month packages and position FWA as a fiber alternative instead of a DSL competitor is,” he wrote. He called FWA “a positive development.” The potential for private networks “is massive -- potentially worth tens of billions in annual revenues,” but the forecast is that private 5G networks will reach closer to $1 billion in revenues by 2027, he said.

AT&T Thursday unveiled a new data rate plan for in-car Wi-Fi, offering a $10 monthly service, plus taxes and fees, for customers with qualifying postpaid plans. AT&T also offered a four-day “in-car Wi-Fi Test Drive,” available through Dec. 31. “With AT&T in-car Wi-Fi, it’s easy to stream video and music, play games and catch up on work from the from the open road,” AT&T said: “Passengers can stay connected on multiple Wi-Fi enabled devices in their vehicle all at once.”

Major carriers, except for AT&T, and other groups created a group, the Coalition for Emergency Response and Critical Infrastructure (CERCI), to advocate for the future of the 4.9 GHz band, the topic of a January order and Further NPRM from the FCC (see 2301180062). The group opposes giving control of the band to AT&T and FirstNet, it said in a Thursday filing in docket 07-100. CERCI favors a licensing approach where “public-safety licensees would engage in lease arrangements directly with non-public-safety entities and the Band Manager would coordinate and approve the leases.” That approach is the only one “that maintains true local control of this vital public-safety band while enabling [critical infrastructure industry] opportunities,” the filing said. Coalition members are the Major Cities Chiefs Association, the National Sheriffs’ Association, the Edison Electric Institute, T-Mobile, UScellular, Verizon and the Competitive Carriers Association.

A new analysis submitted to the FCC by Dish Network found that providers can offer fixed-wireless service in the lower 12 GHz band without causing interference to satellite operations. Dish asked engineering company RKF to find “how many customers a fixed service operator could serve in a market while causing zero risk of interference into satellite customers,” Dish said in a filing posted Thursday in docket 20-443. “The answer is millions, even without taking into account vegetation, even with assuming near-free-space propagation, even without considering the dominant-path method or other techniques for nulling non-line-of-sight paths, and even without taking any of the measures that could avert interference on a case-by-case basis,” Dish said. It noted that the national spectrum strategy, released Monday (see 2311130048), cites the FCC’s look at sharing in the 12.2-12.7 GHz band. “DISH readily accepts that Fixed 5G will not be capable of serving all Americans in light of the need to avoid interference,” the filing said: “Given its 6.72 million [direct broadcast satellite] customer base, DISH takes seriously its duty to avoid interference to existing satellite customers’ services. The RKF study shows that DISH and other Fixed 5G licensees can fulfill that duty while still offering service to large swaths of the country.”

NTCA told the FCC it agrees with concerns raised by the Rural Wireless Association (see 2311130058) and the Competitive Carriers Association on long delays small carriers face in receiving reimbursement through the FCC’s Secure and Trusted Communications Networks Reimbursement Program. “While NTCA appreciates that the Fund Administrator may be addressing staffing shortages, participants in the Reimbursement Program continue to experience excessive delays in getting invoices approved and additional delays for receiving reimbursements,” according to a filing posted Thursday in docket 18-89: “Unforeseen delays in the Reimbursement Program are making it difficult for participants to complete the required work within the one-year timeline. This not only lengthens the amount of time that insecure equipment remains in operation, but it also costs participants significant resources.” While lack of full funding for the program is a “significant hurdle outside of the Commission’s control,” CCA members “are also experiencing challenges related to the Reimbursement Program’s administration that we encourage the Commission to address expeditiously,” CCA said in a filing earlier this month.

The FCC’s August public notice on spectrum access in tribal and native Hawaiian areas is part of the agency’s broader focus on closing the digital divide, Wireless Bureau Deputy Chief Susan Mort said during an FCC webinar Thursday. Mort said she realized timing was tight on responding to the notice, with comments due Nov. 30 (see 2308040039). “To assess current and future policy efforts in furtherance of this goal, we kind of need to know what the current lay of the land is,” she said. The FCC collects some information through its licensing forms but wants to improve its understanding of how tribes may be accessing spectrum, including through leasing or by using unlicensed or lightly licensed bands, she said. “We do not currently have specific, granular answers that help us … to better identify and/or track tribal or native applications,” she said. Once the FCC decides what categories it might be able to add to licensing forms, “then there are both legal and technical steps that we must undertake,” Mort said. Clearance is faster if the FCC adds to existing questions rather than posing completely new questions, she said. “We do have to run those traps,” she said: “We’d like to move … forward as quickly as we can." No comments were filed so far in the docket on the inquiry, 23-265. “We want to be as comprehensive as we can be without being confusing,” Mort said.