Making more full-power mid-band licensed spectrum available would stimulate the launch of fixed wireless access, increase home broadband competition and mean savings for consumers, said a CTIA study by Econ One, released Thursday. “FWA is particularly data-intensive compared to typical mobile use, so additional spectrum is the key policy mechanism to enhance the competition FWA is already bringing to the broadband market,” the study said. FWA has been a wireless industry focused worldwide (see 2306140062). AT&T, T-Mobile and Verizon have unveiled FWA offerings. T-Mobile led the pack with 3.2 million home internet customers at the end of last quarter. If 5G FWA expanded into all cable-only markets, at current FWA price points, consumers would get a 37% drop in the cost of service and “at least $5.7 billion in annual consumer savings alone,” the study said. “Evidence shows FWA is already having a strong competitive impact,” but carriers need more mid-band spectrum, the report argues: “FWA is a particularly data-intensive offering, having to supply high-resolution video for large living room screens rather than just mobile phones.”

Electric utility representatives, led by the Edison Electric Institute, discussed a recent Pacific Gas & Electric study on the interference threat to band incumbents from unlicensed operations in the 6 GHz band (see 2304260037), meeting with an aide to FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel. The study said 47 of the PG&E links studied would have to be moved within five years, four links “showed such severe risk for interference that PG&E is already moving them to 11 GHz channels at significant cost to the company” and only five “will be able to operate effectively in five years," the utilities said in a filing posted Thursday in docket 18-295.

The FCC Public Safety Bureau asked for oppositions June 26, replies July 5, on a March petition by the Competitive Carriers Association seeking tweaks to revised outage reporting rules (see 2211170051), said a Wednesday notice in docket 15-80. Among changes sought, CCA said the FCC should “reconsider its refusal to apply its new ‘30-minute notification deadline flexibly.’”

Cable provider Astound Broadband will begin offering mobile wireless service this month, using the T-Mobile network, starting with markets in Massachusetts and Texas, Astound said Wednesday. The company plans to launch Astound Mobile in its remaining markets by the end of the year. The Texas markets are Corpus Christi, Midland-Odessa, Temple and Waco. “Astound’s entrance into the wireless market comes at a time when the need for fast, reliable, high-value broadband and mobile services is at an all-time high and more critical than ever,” said CEO Jim Holanda.

Starry Chief Operating Officer Alex Moulle-Berteaux is replacing Chet Kanojia as CEO of the fixed-wireless provider, effective immediately, the company announced Tuesday. Starry said the company expects to exit Chapter 11 bankruptcy “later this summer.” Starry filed for bankruptcy in February (see 2302220053) and previously slashed staff and refocused on dense urban markets with multi-tenant buildings (see 2301190047). The company “continues to serve customers in Boston, New York City, Los Angeles, Denver and Washington, DC metro areas and will continue to do so before and after completion of the Reorganization,” Starry said. “Over the last five years, as COO, I’ve had the opportunity to guide the business direction and growth of Starry, while also getting into the weeds on the technical and operational elements that drive our business,” Moulle-Berteaux said.

Use of the 6 GHz band will make Wi-Fi more efficient and means Wi-Fi devices won’t have to also work in legacy bands, said Rolf De Vegt, Qualcomm Technologies vice president-technical standards, on a Qualcomm webinar Tuesday. De Vegt said 6 GHz is the right band to meet today's needs. Wi-Fi started out with only about 90 MHz of spectrum in the 4.2 GHz band before the 5 GHz and then 6 GHz bands were added, he said. The addition of 6 GHz in 2020 (see 2004240011) more than doubled the amount of spectrum available for unlicensed, he said. “When devices operate in 6 GHz there is no need to support all the legacy modes,” which are “slower modes and less efficient,” De Vegt said. “What we can really focus on when we deploy networks in the 6 GHz band” is using “the most modern and the latest techniques for those particular Wi-Fi networks,” he said. The opening of 6 GHz is “extremely timely” as fiber is built out worldwide, he said. Without the 6 GHz band, Wi-Fi would become “the bottleneck” in the network, he said. The amount of the band opened for Wi-Fi varies around the world, but “leading tech nations” like the U.S., South Korea, Canada and Brazil are making the full band available, and not just the lower 500 MHz, recognizing “this is going to spur a lot of growth and innovation in all kinds of industries,” De Vegt said. “Wi-Fi connects the world” and now carries most wireless data network traffic, he said. Currently, an estimated 19 billion Wi-Fi devices are in use worldwide, he said. Wi-Fi networks are growing in every home, “it’s not just about your laptop or phone,” said Alap Modi, principal solutions architect at Wi-Fi equipment company Eero. The types of use cases that are growing require fast speed and low latency and that’s what 6 GHz offers, he said. ISPs are offering faster and faster connections to the home, but “inside your home you are still relying on Wi-Fi,” he said. Eero offers devices that use 160 MHz channels, and that offer multi-GB speeds in the home, he said.

Representatives of Samsung Electronics America spoke with FCC staff about the company’s request for a 5G base station radio that works across citizens broadband radio service and C-band spectrum (see 2303100019). The Samsung representatives met with Wireless Bureau and Office of Engineering and Technology staff. “Samsung discussed how the waiver will enable Samsung to market the multiband device by permitting the device to exceed the Section 96.41(e)(2) emission limits within 3720-4000 MHz (to -25 dBm/MHz) when the device is being tested in CBRS-only mode for FCC certification purposes (a mode that will not be in commercially deployed radios),” said a filing posted Monday in docket 23-93: “Samsung noted that this CBRS-only mode will comply with the Commission’s emissions limits in the CBRS band. In commercially deployed radios using standalone 3.7 GHz or composite 3.7 GHz/CBRS operations, Samsung reiterated that the radio will comply with the emissions permitted by the composite device rule.” Comments in March supported grant of the waiver (see 2303280054).

A representative of Meta Platforms urged the FCC to complete work on its April 2020 Further NPRM (see 2004230059) on the 6 GHz band, in a meeting with an aide to FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel. “We discussed how the 6 GHz band could be used to enable very low power (VLP) devices and how VLP can safely operate with incumbent operations in the band,” said a filing posted Monday in docket 18-295. Meta “noted the importance of VLP devices to wireless innovation and that the Commission now has an extensive record supporting the approval of VLP devices.”

Dahua Technology USA asked the FCC for an update on its security compliance plan, filed at the FCC April 7, aimed at “ensuring that Dahua equipment is not sold in the United States for purposes of public safety, security of government facilities, physical security surveillance of critical infrastructure, and other national security purposes.” Dahua noted it can’t get certification for any telecommunications or video surveillance equipment under FCC rules until it obtains approval of the plan. “In the two months since Dahua made this filing, the Commission has taken no action whatsoever with respect to the Plan,’ said a filing posted Monday in docket 21-232: “We have received no substantive feedback from the Commission staff, there has been no public notice, and we have received no indication of when the Commission may take any action with respect to the Plan.” The FCC’s silence is “concerning because … Dahua cannot introduce any new products to the U.S. market until approval of its Plan, even though the Commission recognized that Congress did not intend to prohibit most typical uses of Dahua’s equipment,” the company said.

DOJ announced changes to membership of the National Spectrum Consortium (NSC), in a notice in Monday’s Federal Register. Added as members were Beacon Industries, Cogito Innovations, Cognicom, EWA Warrior Services and NCTA. Withdrawing as parties in the consortium were Expedition Technology, Janus Communications, RAM Laboratories, SFL, Siemens Industry Software, the University of California, San Diego, the University of South Carolina and Vectrona. No other changes were made in either the membership or planned activity of the group research project, the notice said: “Membership in this group research project remains open, and NSC intends to file additional written notifications disclosing all changes in membership.”