Continental Automotive Systems representatives met with aides to FCC Commissioners Brendan Carr and Geffrey Starks on concerns over patents for cellular vehicle-to-everything technology in the 5.9 GHz band, said a filing posted Friday in docket 19-138. That follows a meeting with an aide to Commissioner Nathan Simington (see 2304030043). Potentials problems can be “rectified by Commission action to provide corrective measures to promote fairness in the C-V2X marketplace,” the company said: “As the Commission is requiring the use of C-V2X technologies in the U.S., it should require that C-V2X-related patent licenses be available to all who seek them for the purpose of complying with the Commission’s regulation. By mandating licensing, the Commission will in turn allow diverse companies of all sizes and national origins, and from across industries, to participate in the C-V2X market.”

The Spectrum Act limits the FCC’s authority over state and local infrastructure approvals to modifications of existing facilities that don’t substantially change their physical dimensions, said both the city and county of San Francisco in a reply brief (docket 20-71765) filed Friday with the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in the League of California Cities challenge of the 2020 FCC wireless infrastructure declaratory ruling (see 2304030059. The law doesn’t allow the FCC to “interfere with State and local authority beyond this specific limitation” and doesn’t give the FCC authority “to impose a federal preference for certain siting conditions or impose retroactive procedural requirements on local governments,” said the filing. The declaratory ruling’s limitations on what can be treated as “concealment elements” under the rules are too narrow, and its relaxation of limits on equipment cabinets conflicts with the statute, the brief said. The ruling’s conclusion that a change in antenna height doesn’t constitute a substantial change to an existing facility is contrary to the law, the brief said: The FCC “fails to explain how ignoring the height of a new antenna can be squared with the statute.” In a separate filing, Marin County California and the National Association of Telecommunication Officers and Advisors endorsed the briefs from San Francisco and the League of California Cities.

Representatives of the Open Technology Institute at New America and Public Knowledge urged FCC action on pending 6 GHz issues, in a video call with an aide to Commissioner Brendan Carr. “We reiterated our strong support for rapidly making the full benefits of expanded unlicensed spectrum capacity for next generation Wi-Fi 6E/7 available to consumers,” said a filing posted Thursday in docket 18-295: The groups also asked about the status of the 12 GHz proceeding “and, in particular, whether the Commission will continue to consider alternatives to mobile 5G sharing in the band if coexistence is not possible.”

The FCC’s World Radiocommunication Conference Advisory Committee posted Thursday the agenda and other documents for its meeting Tuesday in-person at the FCC. The agenda includes remarks by Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel and is forecast to last four hours, with numerous recommendations pending. The meeting starts at 11 a.m. EDT. The WRC starts Nov. 20 at the Dubai World Trade Centre in the United Arab Emirates.

The ATIS Hearing Aid Compatibility Task Force urged approval of its request for a waiver “so that wireless phones introduced this year with new features for people with hearing loss can continue to be HAC-rated,” in a filing posted Thursday in docket 20-3. Granting interim relief “will serve the public interest and benefit consumers by helping enable consumers with hearing loss to identify the wireless handsets that best work for them while the record develops in response to the Petition for Limited, Interim Waiver filed on behalf of the covered entities of the HAC Task Force,” ATIS said: “While interim relief is in effect, the covered entities of the HAC Task Force will continue to offer innovative coupling and volume control capabilities.” While the FCC is taking comment (see 2303310060) ATIS urged action before a June 5 compliance date “to enable new wireless phones to continue to receive a HAC rating.”

Praesidium asked permission to operate fixed-field disturbance sensors in short-range devices in the 60 GHz band, at higher power levels than allowed by FCC rules. The company sought the waiver for its RemWave Sleep sensor, which “can be used to enable contactless detection of heartrate, respiratory rate, and occupancy and presence detection.” The FCC “allows operation of ‘fixed field disturbance sensors in short-range devices for vital sign detection’ within the 60 GHz band, but at power levels too restrictive for optimum use of the sensors,” Praesidium said in a filing posted Wednesday in docket 18-70.

DOD’s Blue UAS program has been a success in speeding the roll-out of interoperable unmanned aircraft systems, speakers said Wednesday during an Association for Uncrewed Vehicle Systems International webinar. “Small UAS is still a very nascent, small industry,” said Matthew Borowski, technical program manager at DOD’s Defense Innovation Unit (DIU). “We can make sure that we have a place to build off of,” he said. “You have to start from somewhere where you can get from zero to flight quickly,” he said. The program has focused on standards for drones, he said. “Interoperability has to be at the front of everyone’s minds and if we don’t have standards we can’t achieve that,” he said. Blue UAS also publishes a list of cleared drone systems, he said. DIU doesn’t invent anything, but works with industry to fill “gaps” in technology, he said. Ashish Parikh, vice president-business development, Doodle Labs, which manufactures drone radios, said he’s not sure the company would have gone after the market without the “ecosystem” created by DIU. The program helped the company navigate the requirements of DOD and the Army, which uses its radios, Parikh said. “It also gave us confidence that there are probably going to be multiple users” of the radio, he said. The radios are being used to communicate with drones in Ukraine, deep behind enemy lines, and Doodle now has a commercial radio available using the same technologies, he said. DOD recently raised the profile of DIU. The head of DIU used to report to the undersecretary of defense for research and engineering, but under a memo this week from Secretary Lloyd Austin the unit will report directly to the secretary. Austin appointed Doug Beck, vice president-worldwide education, health, and government at Apple, as DIU director Tuesday .

Samsung Electronics America asked the FCC to move quickly on its request to market and operate a 5G base station radio that works across citizens broadband radio service and C-band spectrum (see [Ref:2303100019). Charter Communications was the lone commenter to urge caution. As with initial comments, there were two replies, posted Wednesday in docket 23-93. “Both commenters in the record -- one operator and one manufacturer -- support grant of a waiver,” Samsung said. “Defer acting on Samsung’s petition until interested stakeholders have had a reasonable opportunity to review and comment on the results of Samsung’s tests on whether and how its novel dual-band transmitter satisfies the CBRS out-of-band emissions and in-band emissions levels in each mode in which the Samsung base station can operate,” Charter said: If the FCC decides to approve the radio now it should “condition any grant on Samsung immediately ceasing operations if the base station causes harmful interference to CBRS operations.”

APCO opposed a waiver sought by the Wi-Fi Alliance of rules for the predictive propagation models that an automated frequency coordination system must employ in the 6 GHz band (see 2303210039). The waiver of a rule is appropriate “if special circumstances warrant a deviation from the general rule and such deviation will serve the public interest and will not undermine the policy underlying the rule,” APCO said, posted Wednesday in docket 23-107: “Wi-Fi Alliance has not demonstrated that special circumstances warrant deviation from the rule. Nor has it shown that such deviation will serve the public interest.”

Germany’s Deutsche Telekom now has majority ownership of T-Mobile U.S., DT CEO Tim Hottges said Wednesday, during the company’s annual meeting live-streamed from Bonn. "We have the majority and are the largest shareholder of the world's most valuable telecommunications company, T-Mobile U.S.," he said. Hottges said DT hit majority status Tuesday, and holds 50.2% of stock, compared to three years ago, after the Sprint buy, when the stake was 43%. “Achieving a majority has been a stated goal of Deutsche Telekom since the 2021 Capital Markets Day,” the company said.