Apple supports the more narrowly tailored View C on identifying additional frequency bands for international mobile telecommunications (IMT) over View A, supported by much of the wireless industry (see 2304240049), at the upcoming World Radiocommunication Conference, per a filing posted Friday in docket 16-185. Apple representatives met with FCC staff working on U.S. positions at the WRC. “View C offers appropriate refinements to the frequency bands for study for a future IMT agenda item by accounting for increasing deployments of ultrawideband technologies in 7.7-9.3 GHz,” Apple said. ”We also discussed Apple’s preference to focus on identifying bands primarily below 15 GHz for study for potential IMT identification at WRC-27.”

NTIA said Friday 127 applications requested $1.39 billion to support testing and research and development activities on open and interoperable networks under the Public Wireless Supply Chain Innovation Fund (see 2305040073). NTIA plans to make up to $140.5 million available in the first funding round from the $1.5 billion program. “NTIA’s Innovation Fund will address the urgent need to increase the resilience, diversity and security of the wireless equipment market,” said NTIA Administrator Alan Davidson. “The overwhelming interest in this first round of funding shows the private sector is stepping up to meet that need.” The fund was part of the $54.2 billion Chips and Science Act signed into law in August (see 2208090062).

T-Mobile asked the FCC for grants of emergency special temporary authority “to provide vital communications services to the Guam National Guard and other relevant public safety officials it may designate” for 60 days. The STAs are needed because of the “compromised communications services resulting from the crippling effects of Super Typhon Mawar,” T-Mobile said Thursday.

The Major Cities Chiefs Association (MCCA) remains concerned about harmful interference in the 6 GHz band and asked the FCC to take steps asked for by APCO and others (see 2304030032) to protect band incumbents, said a letter to FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel, posted Wednesday in docket 18-295. “In MCCA member cities,” the band “supports radio towers, emergency communications centers, and cross-jurisdictional communications,” MCCA said: “Given the importance of these functions, the FCC must ensure that the operations of public safety entities and other incumbent users of the 6 GHz band are adequately protected from potential interference stemming from unlicensed use of the spectrum.”

Japan’s Mitsubishi Electric said Thursday it developed a gallium nitride power amplifier with a frequency range of 3,400 MHz using a single power amplifier. The unit can be used for 4G, 5G and later generations of wireless, the company said. “The amplifier is expected to enable the radio unit … to be shared for different communication systems and lead to more power-efficient base stations,” Mitsubishi said.

The National Emergency Number Association said it’s receiving reports of recent increases in accidental calls to 911, apparently tied to interface updates to some Android phones. Calls to 911 are up by as much as 30% in some locations, with similar reports from agencies in Europe, NENA said Wednesday. “We have been informed that by mid-June major Android handset vendors will have completed rolling out updates to address this issue,” the group said. NENA said the public can help by not abandoning accidental calls and not hanging up when a phone accidentally dials 911, letting call takers know there's no emergency.

The Alliance for Automotive Innovation asked the FCC to make clear in an eventual second report and order that the entire 30 MHz of the 5.895-5.925 GHz band will be reserved for C-V2X operations, in response to NTIA’s input to the cellular vehicle-to-everything joint waiver approval (see 2304240066). “Several automotive stakeholders have explained that more than 30 megahertz of spectrum will be required, particularly for ‘advanced’ C-V2X safety use cases,” said a filing posted Thursday in docket 19-138. The FCC should also clarify that C-V2X operations and federal incumbents exist on a co-primary basis, the group said. “Although the NTIA letter and the C-V2X Waiver Order state that operations under the C-V2X Joint Waiver Request are authorized ‘on a secondary basis’ to federal radiolocation operations in the band, this designation departs from the 5.9 GHz band rules, which provide that federal incumbents share primary status in the band with Intelligent Transportation Services,” the alliance said. Recipients of the joint waiver, meanwhile, asked the FCC Thursday to lift one restriction. The waiver restricts on-board units (OBUs) to 20 dBm transmitter output power, said a filing. The limit is “unnecessary from an interference protection perspective and restricts design flexibility when deploying OBUs under the Joint Waiver Order, for it forces the use of specific antenna designs to achieve the maximum permitted EIRP [equivalent isotropic radiated power] levels and restricts our ability to use higher conducted power limits while still complying with the EIRP levels in the Joint Waiver Order,” the parties said.

Three smaller wireless carriers filed letters at the FCC, posted this week in docket 18-122, saying they will comply to the extent possible with voluntary commitments made by larger carriers in March to extend protection for flight operations from some C-band deployments until Jan. 1, 2028. AT&T, Verizon, T-Mobile and UScellular made the initial voluntary commitments (see 2304030070). Cellular South, Northwest Missouri Cellular and Smith Bagley filed the latest letters (see here, here and here).

Encina Communications updated the FCC on the company’s proposal to use Part 101 frequency coordination procedures as an alternative to automated frequency coordination (AFC) in the 6 GHz band (see 2208150040), in a filing posted Wednesday in docket 18-295. Last July the FCC issued an experimental license to Encina to operate an outdoor unlicensed standard power access point network in the 6 GHz band, requiring coordination with band incumbents, the filing said. “In contrast to the lack of consensus and the timing uncertainty surrounding the development of an AFC system, there is unanimous agreement by fixed services operators that Rule 101.103(d), which was first adopted by the FCC in and is grounded it decades of practical experience, can successfully be used to accomplish prior coordination,” Encina said: Because the rule “requires that each and every network operating in a licensed band must be coordinated prior to operation, the experimental licensed network has shown that Rule 101.103(d) can be used to coordinate unlicensed networks in any and all locations nationwide.”

Wipro, a technology services and consulting company, and Cisco said they’re working together on a private 5G offering. “Managed private 5G from Cisco and Wipro supports organizations looking to enjoy the advantages of a private 5G network without having to acquire, run, and maintain one,” the companies said Wednesday.