ClearSky Technologies is working with the Competitive Carriers Association to offer application-to-person (A2P) messaging services to association members, CCA said Tuesday. A2P messaging includes short and long codes, and multimedia messaging “has become a part of everyday life for consumers,” CCA said: “A2P messaging includes two-factor authentication, one-time passwords, shipment updates, banking information, social media engagement, political advertising and more.” ClearSky “has been a long-standing member of CCA” and will “bring this necessary messaging component to all carriers,” said CCA President Steve Berry.

Reports T-Mobile is seeking partners for a fiber joint venture aren’t new or surprising, but doing so likely makes long-term strategic sense for the carrier, New Street’s Jonathan Chaplin told investors Tuesday. Reports suggest T-Mobile could invest up to $4 billion in the venture, he said. Last year, T-Mobile quietly launched a “very limited” fiber internet pilot in New York City to supplement fixed wireless coverage (see 2108110056), covering buildings in Manhattan. “We have argued for some time that in the long-run T-Mobile (and others) will need a terrestrial network,” Chaplin said. “First, the product market for fixed and mobile is converging. T-Mobile is accelerating the convergence with the tremendous success they have had with FWB [fixed wireless broadband]. FWB is capacity limited, and so they will need terrestrial broadband offering at some point,” he said. “Second, the industry will burn through spectrum below 6 GHz over the next 5-10 years and will need to start using millimeter wave spectrum. Deploying this spectrum without a terrestrial network will be extremely costly, leaving T-Mobile at a disadvantage to carriers with a terrestrial network.”

Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts granted Dish Network designated entities Northstar Wireless and SNR Wireless until Dec. 16 to file a cert petition, per a notation Monday in SCOTUS docket 22A401. Northstar counsel Paul Clement of Clement & Murphy requested the extension to better familiarize himself with the case. Northstar and SNR are challenging the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit's upholding the FCC's denial of AWS-3 auction bidding credits for the DEs (see 2206210065). "It is difficult to imagine a regime less consistent with due process or basic principles of administrative law," said Clement in the filing. "Yet the D.C. Circuit saw nothing wrong with the FCC’s behavior, or with the fact that Northstar is now on the hook for nine-figure penalties for failing to comply with amorphous standards that have survived scrutiny thus far only because the agency has always worked with applicants to cure any shortcomings between the applicants’ front-end guess of what the agency wants and the agency’s back-end, totality-of-the-circumstance determination."

Former FCC Chairman Ajit Pai said getting the U.S. on track on 5G required a willingness to rock the boat and overcome inertia. In an interview posted Monday with American Enterprise Institute's Shane Tews, Pai also defended his regime’s work opening the C band despite airline industry opposition. “It’s always easier for the chairman or chairwoman not to rock the boat, not to push a certain spectrum band because another agency or company will get upset,” Pai said. “I told my team from day one, I was determined to spend every last ounce of my political capital. I was going to make sure that the U.S. had a leading position in spectrum policy and wireless infrastructure,” he said. “We broke a lot of eggs -- no doubt about it.” Because of the FCC’s “boat-rocking, you have 5G deployed widely across the United States,” Pai said: “Phones are coming out that are 5G enabled. New services are coming out. New business models are emerging on the basis of 5G.” Pai joked that in the face of all the problems air travelers faced, the FAA decided to zero in on 5G, noting radar altimeters, the source of safety concerns, operate 200 MHz away from the C band. As the FCC explored opening the band, it invited input from NTIA. “We invited the FAA and the airline industry to also tell us if they think there’s going to be interference with these altimeters. We asked them to let us know, but they never did.” The FCC “addressed the issues, pressed onward, and held the auction,” he said: “If you want to beat China and all these other countries on 5G, then you’ve got to put the building blocks -- including spectrum -- in place.” Pai expressed some skepticism of the current federal spending programs on infrastructure. “The good side is that the amount of money that’s being allocated through these various programs you mentioned is substantial,” he said. “In my current role as an investor, it’s fundamentally changed the unit economics for serving some of these rural areas where otherwise you would never have a business case for building broadband.” Among the problems is trying to coordinate multiple federal programs among different federal programs, he said: “Let’s say the U.S. Department of Agriculture awarded a grant to some company to deploy in a particular area. Well, what if they haven’t deployed? What if they’ll never deploy? Should the Department of Commerce then come in and fund somebody else to do it? Making all these kids play in the sandbox, so to speak, is exceptionally complex.”

Ericsson said Monday it hit a data rate of 1 Gbps in a 5G stand-alone network field trial, setting a data speed record with citizens broadband radio service spectrum in an indoor environment. “Conducted at Ericsson’s North American headquarters in Plano, Texas, and coordinated by the OnGo Alliance, this trial was supported by Ericsson’s 5G Distributed Innovation Network and harnessed Radio 4408 for outdoor CBRS connectivity and the Radio Dot 4459 for indoor CBRS connectivity,” Ericsson said: “In addition to record-setting speed, the trial also resulted in seamless outdoor-to-indoor connectivity transitions, paving the way for benefits to consumers and enterprises alike.”

The FirstNet Authority said Friday Renee Gordon, Alexandria, Virginia, director-emergency communications, was appointed by the Commerce Department as a member of the authority’s board. “Renee is a leader in the field of 911 communications and brings a deep background in public safety operations to the Board with her dual experience as a 911 professional and police officer,” said FirstNet Chairman Stephen Benjamin. She replaces Karima Holmes. Her term expires in September 2025.

UScellular representatives urged “additional fact-finding” and a rulemaking to update the criteria of the 5G fund and “maximize its efficiency in bringing connectivity to Americans that would otherwise be unconnected,” in a meeting with an aide to FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel. “In particular, UScellular recommended that the FCC review timing of the 5G Fund; maximize the reach of the 5G Fund by taking advantage of the significant increase in fiber density and other wired connectivity that will be created by the [broadband, equity, access and deployment] program; modernize the eligibility threshold to ensure that Americans are not stranded as technology continues to improve; and, revisit the amount of funding required to bridge the 5G mobile gap for the unconnected as the current allocation appears to be insufficient based on publicly-available data,” said a filing posted Friday in docket 20-32.

Shure, NAB and Paramount jointly proposed a “path forward” on the introduction of wireless multichannel audio system technologies for wireless mics. FCC commissioners approved an NPRM on WMAS last year, but the docket has been mostly quiet in recent months (see 2104220056). “Rules for WMAS systems should incorporate a sliding scale of power and bandwidth based on mode of application,” said a filing posted Friday in docket 21-115. “In addition to licensed WMAS operation with 6 MHz maximum bandwidth and 250 mW maximum power, unlicensed WMAS operation can also be permitted under this framework at narrower bandwidth and lower power in the UHF-TV band. By limiting unlicensed operations to narrow bandwidths, the impact on spectrum is expected to be similar to that of narrowband operations under practical operating conditions due to limitations caused by intermodulation distortion and channel spacing.” Under the proposed parameters, licensed-only use would be allowed at 250 mW with 6 MHz bandwidth. Licensed/unlicensed would be allowed at 100 mW power, 2 MHz bandwidth, in some cases, or at 50 mW on 1 MHz channels. “While this approach differs from both Shure’s initial proposal and NAB/Paramount’s responsive proposal, Shure and NAB/Paramount believe that this approach fairly balances the desire of wireless microphone users to employ WMAS and broadcasters’ need for assurance that they will be able to continue operating narrowband systems,” they said.

The FCC Office of Engineering and Technology approved a 2020 request by Proceq USA (see 2005070053) to expand the range for an ultra-wideband ground-penetrating radar device used to test “the safety, durability and sustainability of materials such as concrete, metal, rock, and composites used in industrial settings.” Proceq originally proposed to operate in the 30-8000 MHz range, but dialed that down to 30-6000. “We find that opening a path for the sale and operation of this next generation equipment will allow Proceq to deploy its system to enhance the GPR capabilities for soil contact construction material assessment, in furtherance of the public interest; and that operation of this device under the specified waiver conditions poses no greater risk of causing harmful interference to communication services than those devices already permitted under the existing rules,” OET said Friday. The company was already operating on a previous waiver (see 1803140062).

The FCC Public Safety Bureau gave Bergen County, New Jersey, until Jan. 25 to build out seven of the 13 licensed frequency pairs it's using for a 700 MHz P25 communications system. The deadline was the end of last year. The county said it needed additional time due to “delays related to project funding under New Jersey Purchasing laws,” the “diversion of funding and resources to support communications for Covid-19 testing and vaccinations” and “delays in leasing negotiations and site acquisition activities due to lack of funding and resources," the bureau said Friday.