A broad group of stakeholders urged the FCC to act as quickly as possible on cellular vehicle-to-everything waiver requests to use the 5.9 GHz band, in a meeting with staff from the FCC Office of Engineering and Technology, and Wireless and Public Safety bureaus. “The parties explained that the Joint C-V2X Waiver Request -- and similar requests from a growing number of public transportation authorities, automakers, and equipment manufacturers -- provide an opportunity to unleash investments in C-V2X and make good on the promise of intelligent transportation system safety services in the upper 5.9 GHz band,” said a filing posted Friday in docket 19-138. “In the last months of the calendar year, automakers finalize design cycles and place equipment orders for future vehicle model launches,” the filing said: “Granting C-V2X waivers in the very near future will enable automakers to plan for the deployment of C-V2X in production line vehicles.” Among those represented at the meeting were the 5G Automotive Association, automakers, the Utah and Virginia department of transportation, Panasonic of North America, Advantech and Qualcomm. Some expect the FCC to act soon on the waivers (see 2209010047).

Qualcomm executives warned of weakening 5G and other handset demand, in a call to announce Q4 results Wednesday. “As we look to fiscal '23, further deterioration of the macroeconomic environment and extended China COVID restrictions have resulted in demand weakness and temporary elevated channel inventory across the industry,” CEO Cristiano Amon said on a call with analysts. The company already implemented a hiring freeze, “and we have planned spending reductions across our mature product areas and [selling, general and administrative expense] to fund our diversification,” he said: “We are continuing to evaluate additional actions, and we are prepared and committed to making further reductions to operating expenses as needed.” Qualcomm started to have “a deceleration in demand for mass-tier handsets in consumer IoT” last quarter, said Chief Financial Officer Akash Palkhiwala. Qualcomm now projects 3G, 4G and 5G handset volume to decline in 2022 “by low double digits on a year-over-year basis, including 600 million to 650 million 5G handsets,” he said. Revenue Q4 was $11.4 billion, up 22% over last year, net income was $2.9 billion, up 3%. Qualcomm closed down 7.66% at $103.88 Thursday.

Challenges remain as the wireless industry moves more deeply into the cloud, said a 5G Americas white paper released Thursday. “One of the key difficulties for at-large deployments of such distributed compute communications constructs, namely the distributed compute and communications fabric (DCC-Fabric), is that today’s cloud and communications systems were designed to deliver services with less stringent requirements for which centralized hyperscale data centers were sufficient,” the paper said: “These systems, however, are challenged with the requirements of emerging applications and the workloads expected with more AI and data-driven solutions.” The paper outlines many of the challenges, including regulatory compliance, security and forecasting the costs. “One of the most pressing and obvious challenges is the coordination across industry players to create a common set of specifications and [application programming interfaces] to ensure proper interoperability,” the report said. “Security by default must be the standard, and the customer must take active measures if they need to disable the default protections,” it said. The report said costs are hard to forecast. “The Flexera 2022 State of the Cloud Report states that public cloud expenditure during 2021 was over budget by 13% on average. This is partly the result of the difficulty of forecasting usage. Providing users with better visibility into spending, and better prediction tools, will help them avoid surprises at the end of the month.”

The comment dates in the FCC notice of inquiry on the 12.7 band are Nov. 28 for initial comments, Dec. 27 for replies (see 2210310025).

The FCC Enforcement Bureau signed a consent decree with Hill & Smith (H&S), ending an investigation into whether the company violated the commission’s equipment marketing rules by marketing LED signs without the required equipment authorization, labeling and user manual disclosures, and by failing to retain the required test records. H&S “admits that it violated the Commission’s rules, will implement a compliance plan, and will pay a $47,600 civil penalty,” the bureau said Wednesday. The FCC launched an investigation of the Ohio-based company in late 2020.

Amazon made its case for allowing low-flying drone radars in the 60 GHz band (see 2210200058), in a call with FCC Office of Engineering and Technology staff, said a filing posted Wednesday in docket 21-264. “The purpose of the Near Surround Detection radar for the Prime Air delivery drone is to provide additional awareness to our existing autonomous system when operating within close proximity (approximately 2-5 meters) to obstacles such as trees, flagpoles, and power lines during delivery,” Amazon said: “The Near Surround Detect radar will be used primarily to provide proximity detection in a horizontal plane where there are no existing sensors during ascent/descent, and to provide a second, independent sensing modality above and below the drone to detect corner case obstacles that the primary optical sensing mode may have missed.”

The Wireless ISP Association asked the FCC to give small providers at least an additional year to implement broadband label requirements. "Providers should not be required to include the broadband label with customer invoices,” WISPA said in a filing Wednesday in docket 22-2: “Rather, the Commission should heed the Consumer Advocacy Committee’s April 2022 recommendations, and require that broadband labels be displayed only as ‘a conspicuous link or icon in close proximity to the advertised service plan that connects the consumer to the relevant label.’” The FCC shouldn’t require broadband labels to be machine readable and should mandate only that they be available in the English language, the group said.

The Wireless Innovation Forum and Wi-Fi Alliance submitted documents to the FCC, after a meeting at the agency last month on a “joint roadmap of deliverables” for automated frequency coordination certification in the 6 GHz band. The groups filed a new revision of the “’Function Requirements for the US 6 GHz Band Under Control of an AFC System’ Specification” and “Version 1.0 of the AFC System Test Harness,” said a filing posted Monday in docket 21-352.

T-Mobile said Tuesday it’s working with Sinch on next-generation 911 real-time text technology, which is being tested at an emergency communications center in Hood County, Texas. The technology allows T-Mobile customers “to communicate with 911 through simultaneous conversational text and voice -- text messages can be sent and read at the same time -- without the need for teletype technology,” said a news release: “This is particularly critical for up to 48 million Americans who are Deaf or hard of hearing, as well as those who have speech-related disabilities or are non-native English speakers. RTT also gives public safety centers the ability to make better-informed dispatch decisions during a crisis and shave crucial time off a response.”

The number of calls handled by contact centers as a service (CCaaS) will near 48 billion by 2027, from 20 billion this year, driven by advanced capabilities made possible by 5G networks, said a Tuesday Juniper Research study. Integration of 5G technologies into voice channels will drive the launch of new voice services, such as interactive calling, said analyst Elisha Sudlow-Poole. Businesses using CCaaS will be able to provide interactive content and screensharing natively on a smartphone app without the need for a third-party application, she said. 5G will also improve existing CCaaS services such as interactive voice response, using AI to reduce customer wait times and business costs.