Extended Reality (XR) applications, which include augmented-, virtual- and mixed-reality, will be important to the future of 5G, 5G Americas said in a paper released Thursday. XR “creates either fully virtual, immersive environments or blends those virtual landscapes and features with the ‘real’ world,” the paper said: “Its use cases are not limited to consumer applications like gaming, but also include enterprise, institutions, and manufacturing. XR will influence the way people play, work, learn, and interact with each another.” VR, “and particularly AR,” require “significant development in multiple areas including but not limited to multi-media, artificial intelligence, computing, display systems, and communication to provide experiences that incorporate XR into our daily lives,” the report said.

Bluetooth SIG announced a specification development project to define the operation of Bluetooth Low Energy in additional unlicensed mid-band spectrum, including the 6 GHz frequency band. “Expanding into the 6 GHz spectrum band will ensure the community can continue to make the enhancements necessary to pave the way for the next twenty years of Bluetooth innovation,” said Bluetooth SIG CEO Mark Powell Wednesday. The Wi-Fi Alliance “looks forward to collaborating with the Bluetooth SIG to ensure our successful co-existence in the band,” said Wi-Fi Alliance CEO Kevin Robinson.

The FCC should do “additional fact-finding and rulemaking to update the criteria for the 5G Fund and maximize its efficiency in bringing high-speed mobile broadband connectivity to rural Americans,” UScellular CEO Laurent Therivel said in a call with Commissioner Nathan Simington. “UScellular recommended that the FCC review the timing of the 5G Fund to take advantage of the fiber density that will be created by the [broadband, equity, access and deployment] program, and modernize the eligibility threshold to ensure that Americans are not stranded as technology continues to improve,” said a filing posted Thursday in docket 18-122. The carrier also discussed “its current C-band coordination efforts with the FAA and emphasized the importance of being able to deploy this spectrum in a timely manner to help cure the Digital Divide in rural areas,” UScellular said.

Apple representatives spoke with FCC Office of Engineering and Technology staff about technical problems, including radio local access network/fixed service interference in the 6 GHz band, said a filing posted Wednesday in docket 18-295. The meeting last week came three days after a similar meeting Apple and Qualcomm had with OET staff (see 2211100045). “We discussed methodologies for probability analyses used to assess RLAN/FS interactions, including an overview of the structure and interpretation of Monte Carlo analyses; the analytic advantages of Monte Carlo analyses for the study of interference probabilities over large geographic areas; and the differences between the methodology employed” in tests in the E.U., and in models by RKF and CableLabs in the U.S., Apple said.

Aviation groups and companies wrote top administration officials seeking to extend 5G C-band mitigation measures agreed to by AT&T and Verizon, as airlines work to retrofit aircraft. The letter said negotiations with carriers may not be enough to guarantee safety and warned that talks could be at an impasse. AT&T and Verizon voluntarily agreed in June to continue interference mitigations around airports through July 2023 (see 2206210059), but the aviation interests ask that protections be extended through the end of 2023. The new restrictions could apply to other carriers, including T-Mobile and UScellular, that take possession next year of the licenses they bought in the C-band auction. Their bids were dwarfed by Verizon’s and AT&T’s, but T-Mobile committed $9.3 billion to C-band spectrum and UScellular almost $1.3 billion. The letter was addressed to National Economic Council Director Brian Deese and top officials at the Commerce and Transportation departments, the FAA and the NTIA, but not the FCC. The FCC declined comment Wednesday. “After a year of discussions and despite accommodations made by all parties, we are now seven months away from the next deadline, with significant risks still unresolved,” said the letter, dated Tuesday: “We believe that by finding accommodations now, we can prevent another last-minute herculean intervention by the Administration and major disruption to our air transport system.” The aviation industry supports 5G deployment, but “we will not compromise aviation safety,” the letter said. The letter notes the FAA verified that certain aircraft radio altimeters (RAs) are susceptible to interference from 5G signals. “Since January 2022 the FAA has documented over 100 FAA incidents of potential 5G interference, the majority of which were found to have a direct RA impact resulting in safety alerts by systems such as the Terrain Avoidance Warning System,” the letter said. It said that “US government agencies do not appear to be on the same page with respect to these safety issues” and “aviation stakeholders are caught in the middle.” The coalition signing the letter included the Aerospace Industries Association, the Aerospace Vehicle Systems Institute, the Air Line Pilots Association, Airbus, the Aircraft Electronics Association, the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association, Airlines for America, Boeing, Collins Aerospace, Garmin, the General Aviation Manufacturers Association, the International Air Transport Association, the National Air Carrier Association and Thales. AT&T and Verizon didn't comment. “You should expect us to have C band pretty much everywhere we have the 4G network today,” Verizon Chief Financial Officer Matt Ellis said at a Morgan Stanley European conference Wednesday. He wasn't asked about the aviation industry letter. Verizon covered 160 million POPs with C band Q3 and expects to hit 200 million Q1, he said. “The team has done a phenomenal job building [C-band] out since we started a little over a year and a half ago,” he said. C-band capital expenditure will peak this year at as much as $6 billion and “will come down next year and ... the year after as well,” Ellis said.

Hewlett Packard Enterprise asked for a waiver of FCC indoor use labeling requirement to allow previously authorized U-NII-3 access points (APs) to operate in the U-NII-4 band. In its 5.9 GHz order, the FCC “observed that consumers would likely benefit from the U-NII-4 rules in part because many existing U-NII-3 APs could access the U-NII-4 band via software upgrades and would not require any hardware changes,” said a filing posted Tuesday. “The Commission also recognized that some of these APs might not be able to comply with the labeling requirement,” HPE said: “Therefore, the Commission ‘encourage[d] manufacturers to file for a waiver’ … as long as the AP satisfies the other indoor operation requirements, noting that the Office of Engineering and Technology would act expeditiously on these requests under its delegated authority to oversee equipment authorization.”

The FCC should reject a petition by AT&T asking the regulator not to grant T-Mobile additional mid-band licenses in the 2.5 GHz band because of the carrier’s already dominant position in the band (see 2211100066), T-Mobile said in a Monday opposition. T-Mobile noted AT&T didn’t even participate in the auction. “The Petition presents the remarkable spectacle of AT&T -- the beneficiary of structural competitive advantages for decades and the recent recipient of massive amounts of prime 3.45 GHz and C-band spectrum -- asserting that T-Mobile’s minor screen overages resulting from Auction 108 constitute a competitive harm,” T-Mobile said: “Strikingly, the Petition does not provide a single fact to support its claims that T-Mobile’s participation in the 2.5 GHz auction is part of an anticompetitive foreclosure strategy to raise AT&T’s costs.” What AT&T asks isn’t allowable under the law, T-Mobile said: “AT&T is effectively asking the Commission to rewrite the auction rules after the auction has concluded. However, the time for AT&T to seek reconsideration of the Auction 108 rules has long passed.” T-Mobile filed Monday in the FCC’s universal licensing system.

Representatives of ITS America urged the FCC to approve cellular vehicle-to-everything waiver requests to use the 5.9 GHz band, in meetings with staff for Chairman Jessica Rosenworcel and Commissioners Brendan Carr and Geoffrey Starks. The group “discussed the need for expeditious grant of waiver requests to deploy V2X systems pending adoption of a Second Report and Order in this proceeding; the necessity of continued coordination between the FCC, other government agencies, and the transportation industry; as well as a potential reimbursement mechanism for incumbent licensees required to transition their operations,” said a filing posted Monday in docket 19-138. Industry players hope for FCC action soon on the waiver requests, some of which have been pending since December (see 2209010047).

CTIA and the National Consumer Law Center jointly asked the FCC to extend by two weeks the Nov. 25 deadline for reply comments on possible robotext rules. Initial comments were due last week (see 2211140030). “The current reply comment period leaves insufficient time for parties to review the extensive comments in this complex proceeding and develop a complete record for the Commission’s consideration,” said a filing posted Tuesday in docket 21-402. “The reply comment period is effectively cut in half by two federal holidays, Veterans Day and Thanksgiving Day, which fall within the reply comment period,” the groups said: “These events create significant challenges to parties’ ability to review the record, formulate positions with internal stakeholders and constituent members, and draft reply comments that substantively respond to the initial comments.”

A top DOD spectrum official defended the citizens broadband radio service band, writing in a new posting released as CTIA questioned whether CBRS is really the sharing model of the future (see 2211140062). “Dubbed by some as ‘the Innovation Band,’ CBRS offers the some of the features of traditional wireless and Wi-Fi, but with lower fixed costs, higher quality, greater efficiency, and increased security,” said Vernita Harris, DOD director-spectrum policy and programs, on LinkedIn Monday. “With CBRS, the U.S. military can continue to use critical radars systems while commercial users have leveraged CBRS in a variety of sectors, ranging from real estate to health care to utilities,” she said. Harris said CBRS shows “unprecedented coordination between federal users, regulators and industry” and benefited from “groundbreaking” automation. “More work lies ahead, but the results of CBRS so far are promising, and those involved in its success so far should be proud,” she said: “The DOD, other federal spectrum users, and industry continue to look for new use cases along with ways to improve the existing CBRS system. Trust across government and industry underpins the development of holistic spectrum solutions for EVERYONE’s benefit.”