Representatives of Robert Bosch spoke about radar operations in the 60 GHz band, in a call with an aide to FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel. “Emerging public interest use cases abound, with Bosch among those developing innovative radar capabilities such as child presence detection,” said a filing posted Tuesday in docket 21-264: “Bosch explained that restrictions such as minimum off-time periods … could jeopardize the deployment of new radar capabilities unnecessarily unless adequate spectrum in the lower portion of the 60 GHz band were provided that would not be subject to such restrictions.”

The FCC has issued a $3,239 payment demand to Cable One for defaulting on four priority access licenses in Kansas it received in the agency's 3.6 GHz band Auction 105 last year. Per an order Monday from the Office of Engineering and Technology, Cable One defaulted on the four PALs after buying an ownership stake in AMG Technology Group, which also had PALs in the license area; commission rules cap at four the number of PALs an entity may have an attributable interest in at any given time in a license area. Cable One didn't comment.

The FCC Office of Engineering is seeking comment on a request by Continental Automotive for a waiver of agency rules to allow authorization of a tire pressure monitoring system (TPMS) operating in the 315 MHz and 433 MHz bands. Comments are due Nov. 28, replies Dec. 18, in docket 22-382. The system “is designed to measure the pressure inside a tire directly, transmit the reading, and display it,” said a notice in Monday’s Daily Digest: “The system alerts the driver of any critical situation via a corresponding signal. Continental ... further states that the TPMS takes the reading directly on the wheel, battery-fed sensors mounted on the rim and integrated into the valve measure the tire’s inflation pressure, and send a high-frequency signal with coded information to a receiver.” The company seeks a waiver of the periodic timing requirement in the rules “that establishes provisions for the timing of and the duration of each transmission,” OET said.

Broadcom and Intel executives gave the first demonstration of the next generation of Wi-Fi, Wi-Fi 7, to all four FCC commissioners and staff, said a filing posted Monday in docket 18-295. “Wi-Fi 7 is the next generation of wireless technology, and will deliver higher capacity, lower latency, and higher reliability to consumers around the world,” the companies said. “Intel and Broadcom demonstrated links between Broadcom access points and Intel laptops, over an 80-megahertz Wi-Fi 6 channel in the 5 GHz band, a 160-megahertz Wi-Fi 6E channel in the 6 GHz band, and a 320-megahertz Wi-Fi 7 channel in the 6 GHz band,” they said: “The Wi-Fi 7 channel achieved 5 Gbps throughput, an enormous increase over already-fast Wi-Fi 6 technologies. The demonstration also showed that this performance is now a reality between different devices developed by two of the world’s leading technology companies -- confirming that the FCC’s forward-looking 6 GHz decision has already produced a thriving ecosystem.” The officials urged the FCC to do what's needed to allow automated frequency coordination in the 6 GHz band (see 2210170075).

The FCC’s notice of inquiry on the 12.7 GHz band, approved 4-0 Thursday (see 2210270046), had few changes from a draft NOI, based on a side-by-side comparison. Comment dates are Nov. 28 for initial comments, Dec. 27 for replies. One change was the addition of text to a section on incumbent operations in the band. “To the extent we are to consider relocation of incumbents, or even future sharing between incumbents and new entrants, it will be important to have clear information about the nature and density of incumbent use; accordingly, we seek comment on whether we should require incumbents in the 12.7 GHz band to submit information detailing their current use of the band,” the final version says: “If so, what such information should we require to be submitted?” There were also few changes from the draft in the final NPRM on making emergency alerts more secure (see 2210270058).

T-Mobile won't face capacity issues as it expands its home internet service, executives said on a call with analysts Thursday (see 2210270077). CEO Mike Sievert said T-Mobile probably added more new high-speed internet during Q3 than AT&T, Verizon, Comcast and Charter combined, and now serves more than 2 million. T-Mobile is “adding more spectrum across the footprint, both the existing and the new footprint,” said Neville Ray, president-technology: “That's not just in 2.5 GHz now; we're also adding PCS in the 1900 MHz band to those sites. So we have more sites and more spectrum coming online as we move through the future months and years for the company.” Sievert said T-Mobile has “barely tapped” its millimeter-wave assets. “We have fantastic mid-band,” he said. The recent 2.5 GHz auction “has given us potential access, as soon as those licenses are assigned, to significant additional mid-band in areas where we actually already have the towers deployed,” he said. Sievert said new customers sign up predominantly because they’re not satisfied with their contracts with another carrier, “or they switch because they want a different or more powerful network signal,” he said: “More and more they are learning that T-Mobile is the company that offers that.” MoffettNathanson’s Craig Moffett said he remains positive on the outlook for T-Mobile despite broader industry questions. “If there’s a single cause for anxiousness among T-Mobile shareholders -- beyond simply how well T-Mobile’s stock has performed -- it is this: industry subscriber growth is destined to slow,” he said: “With Cable taking a larger and larger share of a dwindling pool of new growth, T-Mobile will struggle to meet expectations for net adds.” Moffett said questions remain about how wireless phone growth continues. “It looks as though industry growth may have reaccelerated in Q3 -- we won’t know until all the numbers are in, but there’s an interesting, if depressing, theory that growth might have benefited from ‘the Uvalde effect,’ with parents feeling an urgent need for their children to have their own cellphones at an earlier age in the event of a school shooting,” he said, referring to the May school shooting in Texas. T-Mobile closed up 7.4% Friday at $151.

T-Mobile beat AT&T and Verizon in net postpaid phone adds, adding 854,000 in Q3, the best since the carrier completed its buy of Sprint in 2020. T-Mobile reported total postpaid net account adds of 394,000 and net customer adds of 1.6 million, “more than AT&T and Verizon combined.” T-Mobile reported after the close of the U.S. markets. AT&T added a net 708,000 postpaid phone customers in the quarter (see 2210200062), while Verizon lost 189,000 wireless consumer postpaid phone customers (see 2210210060). Postpaid T-Mobile churn was 0.88%. Revenues came in at $19.5 billion, down 0.7% year-over-year, while net income of $504 million was down 26.5% “primarily due to the impacts” in the quarter “associated with merger-related costs of $972 million … and loss related to the anticipated sale of the wireline business of $803 million,” the carrier said. T-Mobile said it has now decommissioned substantially all targeted Sprint macro sites. “Our brand strength for value leadership has never been better,” said CEO Mike Sievert on a call with analysts. “It has long been established that T-Mobile is the 5G leader,” he said: “We’re now seeing that 5G lead translate into overall network leadership. … This is precisely the network evolution that we planned.”

Wireless operator plans for satellite-delivered mobile service will surely move from basic options to increasingly advanced data services, CoBank economist Jeff Johnson said in a report Thursday. Wireless carriers shouldn't worry about their core business being cannibalized by satellite operators due to such limits as the need for clear lines of sight and the "incredibly high" costs of enough network capacity to match terrestrial networks, he said. Mobile carriers instead should line up their own agreements with satellite operators akin to T-Mobile/SpaceX (see 2208260038) or partner with Apple and Samsung as those handset makers strike deals with satellite operators, he said.

The FCC Wireless Bureau accepted for filing Wednesday 52 long-form applications from winning bidders in the 2.5 GHz auction. “The Commission may return or dismiss the applications, however, if upon further examination, they are found to be defective or not in compliance with the Commission’s rules,” the bureau said. Petitions to deny are due Nov. 7, oppositions Nov. 14 and replies Nov. 21.

Alliance for Automotive Innovation representatives wrapped up meetings with the FCC commissioners, seeking action on cellular vehicle-to-everything waiver requests, said a filing posted Wednesday in docket 19-138. The alliance met with aides to Commissioners Brendan Carr, Geoffrey Starks and Nathan Simington, raising highway safety matters similar to those discussed with an aide to Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel last week (see 2210210047).