CommScope notified the FCC it’s suspending operations as a spectrum access system manager in the citizens broadband radio service band, effective April 1. “We will no longer be providing SAS services nor accepting CBSD [CBRS device] registrations,” said a notice posted Monday in docket 15-319: “In addition, CommScope will securely transfer all currently registered CBSDs to other Commission-approved SAS administrators by April 1.” The company will retain records not pertaining to federal incumbents for five years, the notice said. CommScope was one of the original SAS providers, along with Google and Federated Wireless. CTIA noted in a report last year that CommScope had effectively abandoned the market earlier in the year. “While Commscope remained silent about its reasons one can reasonably surmise it was due to a lack of expected demand,” the report said: “Companies do not often abandon profitable lines of business.”

Wireless carriers urged the FCC to act on service rules allowing use of the 5030-5091 MHz band by drones but also reminded the commission other spectrum can be used and encouraged flexible-use licensing. Comments were filed last week in docket 22-323 (see 2303100028). AT&T urged the FCC to recognize the potential of flexible use bands to address the spectrums of unmanned aircraft systems. “AT&T and other providers are already meeting some of these needs by harnessing flexible use bands without an airborne use prohibition to implement the varied business cases for customers seeking airborne connectivity and to restore and enhance communications for public safety and consumer users during and after natural disasters,” the carrier said: “We have done this under existing Commission service rules while mitigating potential interference risks to cochannel and adjacent channel services.” AT&T questioned whether “airborne-specific service rules” are necessary. T-Mobile supported a band plan and service rules for the 5030-5091 MHz band. The commission should “also clarify that, unless the rules provide otherwise, all flexible-use mobile wireless licenses permit communications between UAS and terrestrial-based devices,” T-Mobile said: “The existing rules are generally sufficient to ensure that adjacent-channel and adjacent-area licensees are protected from harmful interference from UAS operations, using mitigation techniques and conforming to industry-led technical standards identified by the Commission.”

A lawyer representing tech companies on proposed changes to 6 GHz rules said analyses offered by the companies on interference to incumbent operations in Houston and San Francisco (see 2302070040 and 2302280076) offer a more appropriate analysis than a recent study by electric utility Evergy (see 2303020077). HWG’s Paul Margie spoke with Ron Repasi, acting chief of the FCC Office of Engineering and Technology, said a filing posted Friday in docket 18-295. Margie represents Apple, Broadcom, Cisco, Google, Hewlett Packard Enterprise, Meta Platforms and Microsoft in the proceeding.

The FCC Wireless Bureau and Office of Engineering and Technology sought comment Friday on Samsung Electronics America's request in August for a waiver allowing it to offer a radio that works across citizens broadband radio service and C-band spectrum. Comments are due March 27, replies April 4, in docket 23-93. “At the time the C-Band Order was adopted, the CBRS auction had not even commenced,” Samsung said in a petition seeking the waiver: “No one knew who would win licenses in CBRS, let alone in the 3.7 GHz auction which would not end for another year. Carriers were still determining what their mid-band strategies would be and how they could use one or both bands. The world has evolved significantly since then. Grant of Samsung’s waiver request is appropriate now to ensure that carriers have the equipment they need to rapidly deliver on the promise of their 5G networks.” The FCC recently approved a similar waiver for a multiband waiver for Ericsson, which had broad support (see 2208240045).

The FirstNet Authority announced Friday that Joseph Wassel, a 34-year veteran of DOD, was named executive director. Wassel chaired DOD’s Global Public Safety Communications Working Group “responsible for ensuring that DOD’s more than 150,000 first responders -- including police, fire, and [emergency medical service] personnel -- had access to reliable, next-generation communications, including the FirstNet network,” FirstNet said. Wassel also worked for the Defense Information Systems Agency, as assistant to the secretary of defense for communications and as a deputy chief information officer. He replaces Ed Parkinson, who left the authority last year for a job at vendor RapidSOS (see 2204280049). “Joe has a long history championing first responders and is the right person to lead FirstNet,” said NTIA Administrator Alan Davidson: “His decades of leadership at the Department of Defense, including overseeing DoD's implementation of FirstNet across its 150,000 first responders, make him perfectly suited for the role.”

NTIA picked seven contestants, from among 23 applicants, to participate in a $7 million 5G research competition, in cooperation with DOD. The competition “aims to accelerate the adoption of open interfaces, interoperable subsystems, secure networks, and modular multi-vendor solutions toward the development of an open 5G ecosystem,” said a Thursday news release. Team 1 is made up of Mavenir Systems and NewEdge, paired with Radisys and Lions Technology. Team 2 includes Capgemini Engineering, Fujitsu Network Communications and AT&T, paired with GXC. NTIA’s Institute for Telecommunication Sciences in Boulder, Colorado, hosts the competition.

The Competitive Carriers Association raised concerns with an aide to FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel on draft robotexting rules teed up for a commissioner vote Thursday (see 2302230059). CCA members need more time than proposed implement a requirement to block text messages from numbers on a do not originate list, said a filing posted Friday in docket 21-402. “The current 30-day timeframe in the draft would not sufficiently permit carriers to work with vendors to implement solutions,” CCA said: “Additional time would also permit carriers adequate time to audit any voluntary solutions they may have in place and make any necessary modifications to better meet the Commission’s new requirements.”

The U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia dismissed a False Claims Act action brought by lawyers Mark O’Connor and Sara Leibman, who allege defendants fraudulently said Frequency Advantage was a “very small business” qualifying for “designated entity” status and a bidding discount in a 2015 spectrum auction. The case was brought against UScellular and Frequency Advantage, along with other defendants, including Advantage Spectrum, King Street Wireless and Telephone and Data Systems. The court earlier dismissed the case but granted plaintiffs “leave to amend their allegations to allow them to attempt to proffer different allegations or transactions from those already in the public domain,” the court said: “The Amended Complaint fails to do so. The ‘core allegation’ Plaintiffs-Relators identify in their Amended Complaint is the same as in their original Complaint, which the court already held did not overcome the public disclosure bar. They proffer the same FCC filings and other public information from their original Complaint.”

FCC Commissioner Nathan Simington said he agrees with Wireless ISP Association members' concerns that the broadband, equity, access and deployment program is biased in favor of fiber. WISPA members have been asking the administration to rethink parts of the program (see 2302090063). “The definitions adopted by NTIA have, unfortunately, stacked the deck in favor of fiber deployments -- in places where fiber will likely take years to build out, if it’s even possible, whether because of the difficulties presented by the terrain in specific areas, the lack of infrastructure for supporting fiber, or competition for limited fiber supplies from more densely populated markets,” Simington told a WISPA conference Wednesday: “We must reconsider this approach if we wish for rural America to keep pace with the rest of the U.S and the U.S with the rest of the world.” Administration policies ignore what WISPs have been able to do in hard-to-serve areas “in favor of pie-in-the-sky ideals about fiber’s technological superiority or the necessity of 100 Mbps symmetry for all broadband networks,” Simington said.

A previously announced March 21 meeting of the FCC's Communications Security, Reliability, and Interoperability Council (see [Ref:2303020015) will include votes on two reports -- on 911 service over Wi-Fi and on the wireless emergency alert application programming interface, said a Thursday notice from the FCC. The hybrid meeting starts at 1 p.m. EDT, the FCC said.