Charter Communications should drop or modify advertising claims about its wireless Speed Boost offering, the Better Business Bureau's National Advertising Division said Wednesday. AT&T challenged the ad claims, NAD said, adding the ads give the impression Speed Boost is widely available on mobile devices when it requires a Spectrum home internet plan, Spectrum Mobile plan and device, and that the user be connected to Spectrum Wi-Fi. NAD said its decision doesn't preclude Charter "from making truthful and non-misleading claims about the availability of Speed Boost." Charter didn't comment.

Based on history, the FCC is within its legal rights to award T-Mobile the licenses it won in the 2.5 GHz auction (see 2304060062), the company says in a new filing in the FCC’s universal licensing system. “Four former General Counsels of the Commission recently wrote to explain why they believe that the Commission continues to have authority to grant spectrum licenses notwithstanding the expiration of its power to conduct auctions,” T-Mobile said: “Their conclusion is supported by the actions the Commission and the Office of General Counsel took when the Commission’s authority to conduct lotteries to select from among mutually exclusive applicants expired as the result of an act of Congress.” T-Mobile cites the example of the Balanced Budget Act of 1997, which required the FCC to use competitive bidding and ended its ability to use a lottery system for awarding most spectrum licenses. “Then, the Commission confronted materially the same situation it faces today: did it have the authority to award licenses to applicants that had been selected via a lottery prior to the expiration of the lottery statute,” the carrier said. At the time, “the Commission held that it had the authority to continue to process the pending applications of successful lottery winners and conduct the necessary public interest review under section 309(a) of the Communications Act,” T-Mobile said Tuesday. Similarly now, the commission has “authority under section 309(a) to process the applications of T-Mobile, a successful bidder in the 2.5 GHz auction, even though that auction authority has now expired,” it said. The Wireless Bureau said “despite the sunset of lottery authority, the applications for already-conducted lotteries could still be processed.” T-Mobile also cited language in the 2003 Ranger Cellular case before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, which challenged awarding of licenses from the lottery system (see 0307030034). The D.C. circuit “noted the Commission’s conclusion ‘that, although the Balanced Budget Act barred it from conducting new lotteries after July 1, 1997, the Act did not bar the FCC from processing [a company’s] application by using the results of a lottery that had taken place prior to that date,” T-Mobile said.

T-Mobile should drop its “Don’t you worry ‘bout speed” claim in commercials on its home internet service, the Better Business Bureau's National Advertising Division said in response to complaints filed by Comcast and Charter Communications (see here and here). The claim “conveys a message that consumers can get the speed they need to do whatever they want on the internet without limitation,” NAD said: The claim “conveys the message that internet speeds are sufficient to provide worry-free internet service that will allow users to perform nearly all typical activities on the internet, including intensive uses like gaming or streaming on multiple devices at any time of day.” T-Mobile responded it “will comply with NAD’s recommendations, but strongly disagrees with NAD’s determination that the challenged commercial communicates an unsubstantiated message.”

Broadcom representatives pressed for FCC action certifying automated frequency coordination providers in the 6 GHz band and approving use of very-low power (VLP) devices without coordination, meeting with an aide to Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel and top officials at the Office of Engineering and Technology. “In addressing those issues, we pointed to the submission of two large-scale probability analyses and a detailed technical response to filings by FirstEnergy and Evergy, and we explained that the Commission now has a full and robust record and can move ahead on items in the pending” Further NPRM, said a filing posted Tuesday in docket 18-295.

NTIA plans a public information session May 4 on the Public Wireless Supply Chain Innovation Fund’s first notice of funding opportunity, says a notice for Wednesday’s Federal Register. “The event will provide an opportunity for the program team to discuss the technical aspects of the NOFO, as well as best practices for applicants navigating the federal awards process,” NTIA said. The meeting will be in-person from 9 a.m. to noon EDT at the Department of Interior's Yates Auditorium. The $1.5 billion federal fund, part of the Chips and Science Act, is intended to spur the growth of open radio access networks (see 2303240054). Applications are due June 2.

T-Mobile told the FCC it reviewed applications from five companies found to have a complete application to become contraband interdiction system (CIS) operators to help address contraband phones in correctional facilities. The applications were in response to a March Wireless Bureau notice (see 2303240043). Only CTIA also weighed in (see 2304240061) in docket 13-111. “T-Mobile supports the Commission’s certification of a range of CIS operations designed to meet different needs, including both fixed and mobile CIS” and “encourages CIS operators to design their systems to support operations using the latest technologies -- in particular, 4G LTE and standalone 5G,” said a filing posted Monday in docket 13-111. “As providers like T-Mobile continue to ensure that networks feature the latest generations of wireless technologies, it is vital that CIS operates with the same capabilities as these networks evolve,” T-Mobile said.

Two former top FirstNet officials Monday urged the FCC to preserve use of the 4.9 GHz band for public safety to the extent possible, and reverse course to award a single overlay license, during a webinar by the Public Safety Broadband Technology Association. Both support the Public Safety Spectrum Alliance’s recent comments (see 2304130047) on the FCC’s January Further NPRM, which called for issuing a single nationwide overlay license in the band “to an appropriately identified entity that has the expertise necessary to deliver robust services to first responders.” PSSA has long supported a national license (see 2009160067). Public safety “has had this spectrum since 2002,” said Sue Swenson, former FirstNet chair. “Thousands of agencies today have been using it since that time, in a variety of ways.” Public safety recognizes that the band is “underutilized,” but agencies that do use it should be protected, she said. Swanson said. Swanson said she appreciates the FCC’s work to revise how the band is assigned, with a nationwide band manager (see 2301180062). “Several of the details as proposed, if implemented in the manner suggested, won’t necessarily accomplish the commission’s goals,” she said. A nationwide overlay license is “really critical,” she said. PSSA also called for a nationwide band manager to work in conjunction with the nationwide licensee, which is “a little different approach than what the commission has put out there,” she said. Swanson also advocates a mechanism to give public safety traffic automatic preemption over other traffic. “I don’t think public safety can wait for people to do manual intervention and do it reactively,” she said. The rules must also protect existing point-to-point and geographic licenses, she said. The FCC needs a “nationwide approach” on 4.9 GHz, “not going back to this broken-up model” from before FirstNet was launched, said Jeff Johnson, CEO of the Western Fire Chiefs Association and former FirstNet vice chair. A nationwide license “leverages a proven successful model” in FirstNet, which has almost 5 million connections in only six years, Johnson said. FirstNet isn't “perfect: but “five million public safety responders can’t be that wrong,” he said. Replies to the FNPRM are due May 1.

The National Academies of Sciences report issued in September (see 2209090032) adds to the weight of evidence necessitating that the FCC's 2020 Ligado approval be stayed and ultimately set aside, weather and aviation interests said Monday in letters to Congressional leaders and the White House. The NAS report confirms that Ligado’s proposed terrestrial operations would interfere with a variety of incumbent L-band services and is "the exact type of previously unavailable information that the FCC’s rules dictate must be addressed on reconsideration," they said "We therefore urge you to work with the FCC to address the harm from Ligado’s proposed terrestrial network ... by staying the Order, addressing the previously unavailable information contained in the NAS Report, and resolving the pending petitions for reconsideration," they said. The FCC didn't comment. Signatories include AccuWeather, the Aerospace Industries Association, the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association, Airlines for America, the American Meteorological Society, the American Weather and Climate Industry Association, Iridium, Lockheed Martin and the National Weather Association. Many of the same signatories had urged similarly one year ago (see 2204250057).

CTIA weighed in on applications from five companies found to have a complete application to serve as contraband interdiction system (CIS) operators to help address contraband phones in correctional facilities, in response to a March Wireless Bureau notice (see 2303240043). The group urged the FCC to focus on whether applicants offer managed access systems (MAS) or MASEvolved systems, which “work with cellular networks to block calls from contraband devices while minimizing the risk of disabling legitimate (i.e., non-contraband) devices.” Systems that don’t coordinate with cellular networks “have a reduced ability to validate whether a device near a correctional facility is contraband or not, and they therefore entail a greater risk of false positive contraband identifications,” CTIA said. The group didn’t offer more specific comment on the applications by CellBlox Acquisitions, ShawnTech Communications, Tecore Networks, SOC and OmniProphis.

Comments are due at the Federal Railroad Administration May 11 on a Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA) request to amend its positive train control system. “On MBTA’s North Side, the PTC System in the area is being reconfigured and must be taken out of service during the recommissioning of Automatic Train Control and the subsequent recommissioning of MBTA’s Advanced Civil Speed Enforcement System II,” said a notice in Friday’s Federal Register. The docket is FRA–2010–0030.