Mitre said Tuesday it opened a test facility for small drones in Orange, Virginia. The site serves as a proving ground for Mitre's “technologists and U.S. government sponsors to develop, test, and evaluate the newest technological advances for commercial robotics, autonomous systems, drones, and counter-drone systems,” the company said.

The FCC published a small entity compliance guide Tuesday on revised rules for the 60 GHz band, approved by commissioners 4-0 in May (see 2305180036). “These rule changes establish clear technical and operational provisions for multiple band segments,” the guide says: “For example, under the adopted rules, new fixed and mobile [field disturbance sensor] devices are permitted to implement modulation techniques such as pulse or frequency-modulated continuous-wave as a means of facilitating new use cases such as installation on low-flying unmanned aircraft.”

The FCC Wireless Bureau and Office of Economics and Analytics ordered the eight mobile providers participating in the Alaska Plan to file through March 1, 2028, mobile wireless coverage data consistent with the FCC Form 477 reporting requirements annually. The FCC earlier asked for comment on the proposed requirement (see 2304110067). Only the Alaska Remote Carrier Coalition and Alaska Telecom Association filed comments but didn’t oppose the proposal, the Tuesday order said. “The coverage milestones to which these participants committed in their approved performance plans would not be accurately captured” by broadband data collection data, the FCC said: “Accordingly, we find it appropriate to require annual filings of deployment data consistent with the FCC Form 477 for the duration of the plan in order to allow apples-to-apples comparisons of mobile coverage data that show whether these providers have met their commitments.”

Assurant said Tuesday the average trade-in value of smartphones reached $135 during Q2, with iPhones hitting “their highest recorded value” of $215. The average price in Q1 for all smartphones was $126. “With the economic challenges affecting the mobile device market, new smartphone shipments have declined resulting in a decrease of pre-owned smartphone inventory,” the report said: “Simultaneously, many consumers are now taking more interest in purchasing refurbished smartphones -- whether that’s to make devices more affordable, or as a greener alternative to buying new.” The top five traded devices in Q2 were the iPhone 11, iPhone 12, iPhone XR, iPhone 12 Pro Max and iPhone 11 Pro Max, Assurant said, noting 5G-capable devices were 34% of the trade-ins, compared with 29% in Q1.

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, representatives told Ethan Lucarelli, chief of the FCC Office of International Affairs. “We noted how 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,” said a filing posted Tuesday in docket 17-183. Apple also urged a “no change” position on “the 6 GHz bands in Agenda Item 1.2, as well as provided a status update on recent filings concerning potential rules for very low power device operations in the 6 GHz band being considered as part of a pending” Further NPRM, the filing said.

Verizon said Monday it now has access to all the C-band spectrum it bought in a 2021 auction, four months earlier than expected. “Early access to the remainder of the C-band spectrum puts us another four months ahead of schedule from our original projections,” said Joe Russo, president-global networks and technology: “This additional spectrum will make 5G Ultra Wideband available to even more Americans, and will open up more availability of our home and business broadband solutions.” Verizon said the spectrum already covers 222 million people in 359 markets. Verizon can now deploy a minimum 140 MHz in the contiguous U.S. with an average of 161 MHz. The latest development gives the carrier access to up to 200 MHz in 158 “mostly rural markets covering nearly 40 million people,” Verizon said. Verizon will likely push fixed wireless broadband “more aggressively with the increase in capacity,” New Street’s Jonathan Chaplin told investors: “This will boost Verizon’s FWB adds and potentially weigh on Cable broadband adds in 2H23. Verizon’s early access to C-Band will also help their competitive position in mobile in 2H23.” Intelsat, meanwhile, said Monday, it expects to receive nearly $3.7 billion Q4 after completing its C-band frequency clearing. “We reached this milestone well ahead of expectations, and I’m exceptionally proud of the Intelsat team and the hard work that led to this remarkable achievement,” said CEO Dave Wajsgras.

Quokka, a mobile security and privacy solutions firm, said in a Monday report it identified security flaws that come with 21 prepaid Android smartphones sold in the U.S. Quokka “examined the local attack surface of the smartphones and uncovered flaws in the preloaded software, that if leveraged can escalate privileges to indirectly perform actions and obtain data without having the necessary permissions to do so,” said a news release: “This means that even when an app requests minimal permission levels from its users, it could be exploiting vulnerabilities on the phone itself to illicitly escalate its privileges.” Quokka said it made available an app that enables end users to scan their devices to see if they're affected by the vulnerabilities discovered.

Motorola Solutions opposed requests by Hikvision (see 2308070047) and Dahua Technology (see 2306260041) for confidential treatment of their compliance plans with FCC supply chain security rules. “Even assuming Hikvision and Dahua were able to make the showing required for confidential treatment of their compliance plans under” FCC rules “which is not the case, the Commission nonetheless should make these plans available for public inspection because doing so would be in the public interest,” said a Friday filing in docket 21-232. “It is no surprise then that the Commission has found that it is in the public interest to disclose information submitted to demonstrate compliance with the Commission’s rules, even though the submitting party claims that such information is commercially or competitively sensitive,” Motorola said.

The FCC Public Safety Bureau noted for the record comments by New York Attorney General Letitia James (D) on wireless emergency alerts that were made at the commissioners’ April open meeting (see 2304200040). James expressed support for proposals in a Further NPRM “to improve WEA’s support for multilingual alerting and explains the importance of delivering emergency alerts in people’s native languages in New York communities,” said a filing posted Thursday in docket 15-91.

The FirstNet Authority board will meet Aug. 23, starting at 8 a.m. PDT, said a notice in Friday’s Federal Register. The meeting will be at the Pierce County Readiness Center in Tacoma, Washington. “Members of the public are not able to attend in-person but may listen to the meeting and view the presentation,” the notice said.