CTIA and Ericsson said Wednesday they’re collaborating on an IoT certification program targeting utilities. “The Smart Connected Infrastructure certification program addresses the increasing demand for advanced IoT deployments for utilities and creates a set of standards to ensure the safety and reliability of these devices,” said a news release. “CTIA already has a proven device certification program that can test the interoperability, safety and security of IoT devices,” said Tom Sawanobori, CTIA chief technology officer: A program focused on IoT devices being deployed by utilities is “a natural extension and shows the increasing number of use cases that can benefit from industry baseline standards.”

CTIA raised concerns about the FCC's draft NPRM on strengthening robocall and robotext rules that commissioners will consider during an agency meeting Thursday (see 2305180069). If adopted, the item would propose codifying past guidance on prior express consent for callers and consumers. The group said in separate meetings with aides to Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel and Commissioner Brendan Carr the draft's proposals "would not protect consumers" and "instead limit the ability of consumers to receive important, time-sensitive information about their wireless service," per an ex parte filing in docket 02-278. "The draft NPRM does not note any new record support, policy reason or benefits that the proposed limitations to the current framework would deliver, and does not acknowledge the harms that limiting these communications may impose," CTIA said. It sought additional questions that would "help clarify the unique relationship between wireless service providers and their consumers," plus the "substantial consumer benefits that have resulted under the current framework."

AT&T signed a letter of intent to work with HAAS Alert to bundle the cellular vehicle-to-everything service with AT&T’s connected vehicle offerings. HAAS Alert’s Safety Cloud is the “largest” C-V2X solution “in deployment, connecting emergency vehicles, roadway infrastructure, and other transportation assets together in a consolidated platform for real-time communication with motorists and consumer vehicles,” AT&T said Wednesday: “Safety Cloud delivers timely hazard alerts and notifications to connected vehicles that notify drivers of nearby emergency vehicles, upcoming incidents, and other hazards, so drivers have the ability to move over safely.”

Representatives of both companies met with FCC staff reviewing T-Mobile’s proposed buy of Mint Mobile (see 2303150032), a low-cost prepaid wireless brand, and other assets from Ka’ena, said a filing posted Tuesday in docket 23-171. The companies said they discussed “the structure of the proposed transaction and resulting consumer benefits.” T-Mobile would get Ultra Mobile, which offers international calling options and wholesaler Plum. The two MVNO brands “will continue to operate post-closing and they will remain in separate subsidiaries under T-Mobile US,” the filing said: “Key Ka’ena personnel will continue to be involved post-close” and actor “Ryan Reynolds will remain Mint brand champion.” Mint has about two million customers, Ultra 500,000, the companies said. “As it did with MetroPCS, T-Mobile plans to supercharge the Mint and Ultra brands -- enabling them to grow faster and reach more consumers across the U.S. with high-quality plans at accessible prices,” the filing said.

Non-substantive editorial revisions to the FCC’s table of frequency allocations are effective July 7, said a notice for Wednesday’s Federal Register. The changes conform commission rules to formatting requirements of the Code of Federal Regulation, the notice said.

AT&T’s stock price rose 1.82% to $15.67 Tuesday after MoffettNathanson’s Craig Moffett upgraded the stock from underperform to market perform. “We’re not optimists,” Moffett told investors: “We don’t see things in Wireless generally, or at AT&T specifically, getting materially better. We do, however, believe that AT&T’s stock price now appropriately reflects reality.” Moffett said AT&T will likely fall short on its full-year free cash flow guidance “but the market has already priced that in. And we continue to think that AT&T overstates its free cash flow anyway … but, again, so does the market.”

The Fixed Wireless Communications Coalition said issues raised by APCO last year on alleged interference to Miami-Dade County’s operations in the 6 GHz band (see 2211220044) demonstrate the need for additional protection for band incumbents. “The Miami-Dade interference illustrates the ineffectiveness of existing interference detection and remediation options for licensees,” the coalition said in a filing posted Tuesday in docket 18-295. Interference first impacted the licensee in November 2020 and continues, the coalition said: “It took the licensee and its vendor nearly a year at significant expense to pinpoint the interference. Once identified, it took a further nine months for the Commission to formally warn one of the offending operators.” FWCC said two other operators apparently still haven't received formal warning letters.

The FCC issued a $5.1 million fine Tuesday against John Burkman, Jacob Wohl and J.M. Burkman & Associates for allegedly making 1,141 unlawful robocalls. They were charged in federal court in New York with making threatening and intimidating robocalls to suppress Black citizens' mail-in votes in the 2020 election (see 2303290031). “After evaluating the evidence, including Respondents’ response, we find that Respondents made robocalls to wireless numbers without the recipients’ prior express consent, absent an emergency purpose, in violation of the Telephone Consumer Protection Act,” the FCC said. U.S. District Judge Victor Marrero for Southern New York previously granted summary judgment against Wohl and Burkman (see 2303090003), and a one-week jury trial is scheduled to begin Aug. 7 on the scope of relief sought (see 2306050029).

5G is starting to lead to important changes in networks, speakers said Tuesday during an Informa Tech virtual 5G orchestration and service assurance conference. Network orchestration, which involves the automated configuration, management and coordination of parts of the network, is becoming an increasingly important concept for telcos, speakers agreed. It’s clear that to support customer demands service providers “will really have to fine-tune their orchestration,” said Jim Hodges, Heavy Reading research director. “There’s so much different in 5G … that we’re just starting to understand the service implications,” he said. After years of “hype” around 5G “we’re starting to see in 2023 finally some deployments,” said Troy Saulnier, who leads a network strategy team at Bell Canada. Industry is still waiting for a “major leap” into AI and using the cloud “to create this promise of a new explosion of services,” he said. Among the expected changes are digital logistics applications for retailers, improved latency demand by other customers and very-long battery life and lower energy consumption for the IoT, Saulnier said. Carriers need to “differentiate the customer experience” and tune it to “the actual customer in question,” he said. “We are all in this rapidly evolving digital landscape and there are many, many challenges and complexities that we need to deal with,” said Mehrdad Ekbatani, product-marketing manager-5G at Amdocs. Carriers are increasingly able to offer “differentiated services, but with that comes a lot of complexity,” he said. Providers need to keep investing in their networks as data consumption grows though revenue is “mostly flat” in mature markets, he said: “There is an urgent need here for more agility, more resilience” while controlling the costs. 5G was designed to be “open and agile,” Ekbatani said. Some use cases are emerging “but we don’t really know what the future will bring,” he said. “The only thing that we are guaranteed” is “there is going to be a continuous growth in management complexity” and “at the same we also have to transform our existing, siloed networks,” Ekbatani said. About 40% of the providers Fujitsu works with are still evaluating what to do on network orchestration, said Rhonda Holloway, Fujitsu director-network automation solution marketing. “As an industry we’re refining our approaches, our use cases and differentiators,” she said. Providers still “have a lot of uncertainty” about the best approach to network orchestration, she said: “It’s dependent on their network size, complexity, goals and budget” but also about “choosing between centralized, distributed or some kind of hybrid orchestration.”

T-Mobile said Monday it completed “an industry-first,” unmanned 77-mile beyond visual line of sight (BVLOS) drone flight, using its 5G network, working with Valmont. “BVLOS flights are taking off … thanks to their ability to reach remote or inaccessible areas more efficiently and quickly collect and share data,” T-Mobile said: “Drones equipped with cameras and sensors can capture high-resolution video and imagery used for near real-time analysis, monitoring and critical decision-making.” The flight went from Childress to Aspermont in Texas, and inspected infrastructure including power lines, railroads and bridges, T-Mobile said. The flight lasted less than three hours and required less than two gallons of fuel. “Range has been a hurdle in the drone inspection space, until now,” said Jake Lahmann, Valmont Industries unmanned aerial systems manager: “To be able to get this kind of range in a single drone flight is really going to revolutionize the way the industry approaches infrastructure inspections.”