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.

CTA representatives met with FCC Public Safety Bureau staffers to update them on steps the group is taking to assist the agency in implementing a cyber trust mark program for smart devices (see 2311130034). CTA said it initiated three working groups within its Privacy Management Committee. “The Program should include a process for self-attestation, streamlined review and renewal processes, liability protection and leverage modern industry practices like e-labeling and other technology solutions,” said a filing posted Thursday in docket 23-239.

The Tower Climbers Union/Communications Workers of America reached agreement with QualTek Wireless in Henderson, Nevada, where QualTek will provide a severance package and make it easier to organize as the company emerges from bankruptcy. “In May 2022, the workers became the first group of tower technicians in the United States to win formal union representation,” CWA said Thursday: “When QualTek filed for bankruptcy a year later and laid off the workers, the company was required under U.S. labor law to bargain with the union over the impact of the layoffs. The settlement is a result of that bargaining.” Had the union not existed, “QualTek could have just handed us our pink slips and waved goodbye,” said Derek Combs, a former QualTek tower technician.

The Public Safety Spectrum Alliance (PSSA) fired back at the Coalition for Emergency Response and Critical Infrastructure (CERCI) after it questioned PSSA's advocacy of the 4.9 band (see 2312200065). “Utilities are coming after the public safety 4.9 spectrum,” PSSA said in a statement: CERCI “has engaged in a campaign which misleads public safety leaders regarding the importance of preserving the 4.9 radio spectrum for public safety use.” The PSSA said the band should be assigned to a single nationwide licensee, which would “prevent an unwieldly patchwork of deployments across the nation and create the economies of scale necessary to speed deployment by maintaining a consistent set of build out regulations and creating the necessary incentives for the proliferation of new equipment and technologies.”

Samsung Electronics told the FCC a cyber trust mark program for IoT devices should be voluntary, “industry-led, transparent and evolving.” The program “should leverage IoT security standards that are risk-based as well as regularly and easily updatable to keep pace with evolving threats, technologies, and techniques,” Samsung told Public Safety Bureau staff, according to a filing posted Wednesday in docket 23-239. The program should also “start with IoT devices, rather than products,” Samsung said: “Samsung agrees with the weight of the record that focusing the Program initially on devices will enable the FCC to implement the Program with speed and efficiency, while allowing stakeholders time to develop an approach to more complex IoT products.” LG Electronics reported a call with an aide to Commissioner Brendan Carr. “The success of the program will rely as much on branding, marketing, and consumer education as on regulation, compliance, and enforcement,” LG said: “The Commission should seek to maximize device manufacturer participation in the program, and should minimize administrative burdens or program infrastructure obligations that will deter participation while offering little corresponding consumer value.”

The State E-rate Coordinators’ Alliance and the Schools, Health and Libraries Broadband Coalition asked the FCC to extend comment deadlines on a November NPRM that proposes schools and libraries be allowed to seek funding from the E-rate program for Wi-Fi hot spots and wireless internet access services that can be used off-premises (see 2311090028). The groups asked for an extension of the comment deadline from Jan. 8 to Jan. 26 and replies from Jan. 22 to Feb. 9. Additional time would “ensure a comprehensive record is developed to inform the Commission’s development of a report and order,” they said in a filing posted Wednesday in docket 21-31.

FirstNet has “confirmed and validated” completion of the initial five-year build of the public safety network, AT&T and FirstNet said in a joint release Wednesday. “The initial build of the FirstNet network was done on time, on budget and on task,” FirstNet Authority Chair Richard Carrizzo said. “Through our public-private partnership -- and close collaboration with the public safety community across the country -- we have achieved many milestones, with completion of the initial phase of buildout of FirstNet representing a defining accomplishment,” the release said. The network includes more than 1,000 “purpose-built” cellsites where state and public safety stakeholders identified a coverage need, they said. The network covers more than 2.91 million square miles, which is 250,000 square miles more than any commercial network, the release said.

Petitioners Maurine and Matthew Molak are seeking 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals review of the FCC’s Oct. 25 declaratory ruling authorizing funding for Wi-Fi service and equipment on school buses under the commission’s E-rate program, according to their petition Wednesday (docket 23-60641). The Molaks are “aggrieved” by the ruling because it will increase E-rate program “outlays” and “thereby directly increase" the amount of the federal universal service charge they pay each month as a line-item on their phone bill to fund the program's costs, their petition said. In addition, the Molaks have “a special interest in this matter” as co-founders of David’s Legacy Foundation, a nonprofit dedicated to the memory of their son “and committed to ending cyberbullying through education, legislation, and legal action,” it said. The ruling “undermines that crucial mission by enabling unsupervised social-media access by children and teenagers” on school buses, it said. The ruling exceeds the FCC’s statutory authority and “is contrary to law,” it added. The Molaks are asking the 5th Circuit to vacate the ruling “and grant such other relief as it may deem appropriate,” said the petition.

Members of the recently formed Coalition for Emergency Response and Critical Infrastructure (CERCI) slammed a recent filing by the Public Safety Spectrum Alliance (PSSA) on the future of the 4.9 GHz band. “By claiming that CERCI is ‘a thinly veiled attempt by commercial interests to hijack the 4.9 GHz band,’ PSSA devalues the role of our law enforcement organizations as members actively engaged with CERCI and seeks to undercut our support of continued local-public safety use and control of the 4.9 GHz band, including control over the decision of whether to lease access to non-interfering, compatible, critical-infrastructure industry users,” said a filing posted Wednesday in docket 07-100. The Major Cities Chiefs Association, the National Sheriffs’ Association and the National Association of Women Law Enforcement Executives signed the filing. “In contrast to CERCI’s substantial public-safety support, PSSA has not identified any current public-safety officials or associations as members or any members at all,” the groups said. CERCI launched in November (see 2311160052).