New Street’s Blair Levin fired back at former FCC Commissioner Mike O’Rielly for his criticism of the 2010 national broadband plan (see 2209260048). Levin managed creation of the plan. “I’m not surprised that the former Commissioner did not read the Plan, but fortunately others did,” Levin said: “These include Congress (which used the analysis and ideas regarding the incentive auction and FirstNet as the basis for the only communications legislation it has passed since the 1996 Act), the Administration (which used it as the basis for its 2010 and 2013 Spectrum Executive Orders), PCAST [the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology] (which brilliantly built on ideas in the Plan for detailing a new sharing regime), the FCC itself (which not only executed on the Congressional and Administration directives but also built on the Plan’s recommendations for various needed reforms for universal service), as well as industry (with Comcast’s Internet Essentials and Google Fiber being two initiatives that emerged from the planning process),” Levin emailed Tuesday: “I would be the first to acknowledge that 12 years after its publication, some of the analysis of the Plan, like the analysis of some former Commissioners, has become irrelevant.” O'Rielly declined comment.

Incumbent users of the 6 GHz band asked the FCC to work with a new 15,500 Wi-Fi 6E access point network at the University of Michigan to do real world tests of the Wi-Fi standard, which incorporates the 6 GHz band. “The current unlicensed 6 GHz rules relied almost exclusively upon simulations and data provided by CableLabs -- measurements based on devices using the Wi-Fi 5 standard or older standards, as the Wi-Fi 6 standard for high speed and wider bandwidths was not certified until September 2019,” said a filing posted Tuesday in docket 19-295: “Unlicensed proponents’ own data demonstrate that since 2018, when those measurements were taken, wireless data rates have increased three-fold and the density of Wi-Fi access points has increased four-fold.” The filing was signed by the Utilities Technology Council, the Edison Electric Institute, the American Public Power Association, the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association and the Enterprise Wireless Alliance.

NextWave, a private network service provider, said Monday it’s launching wide-area 2.5 GHz network services in the New York metro area, which it will offer to companies building private networks. NextWave said it’s the biggest holder of 2.5 GHz licenses other than T-Mobile. The phase I network deployment covers much of Manhattan and the immediately surrounding boroughs, while “Phase II deployments will cover the entire New York metro area of approximately 15 million people by early 2023,” the company said. “While the private networking era is clearly here, industrial and enterprise users still must cope with both limited ecosystems and limited network coverage,” said CEO Frank Cassou: “Unlike other private networking options, the NextWave solution provides both wide-area coverage and the ability to utilize popular smartphones and other widely available mobile broadband devices.” NextWave said it plans launches in San Francisco, Los Angeles and Philadelphia by early next year. The spectrum would have been well-suited for T-Mobile, LightShed’s Walter Piecyk told investors. “We estimated T-Mobile should pay upwards of $2.5 billion for this asset, but T-Mobile has likely dug in its heels on price negotiations,” he said: “The new wrinkle is that NextWave is now putting this critical wireless asset to use, perhaps putting it out of T-Mobile’s reach for good. … T-Mobile will now have to hope that NextWave’s new network does not gain traction or that another buyer does not emerge.”

CommScope met with acting Chief Ron Repasi and other staff of the FCC Office of Engineering about the company's plan for geolocation of standard power access points in the 6 GHz band, said a filing posted Monday in docket 18-295. CommScope said it also discussed automated frequency control testing and certification.

CTIA singled out agenda item 1.2 that seeks to identify mid-band spectrum for international mobile telecommunications (IMT) as critical in response to various positions adopted Sept. 12 by the World Radiocommunication Conference Advisory Committee (see 2209160033). Comments were due Monday in docket 16-185. “It is critical that the Commission support the View A proposal to identify the 3300-3800 MHz tuning range for IMT in Region 2, eliminate international barriers for domestic action in the 3300-3400 MHz band, and regionally harmonize the 3600-3800 MHz band consistent with Commission rules,” said a filing posted Monday. CTIA urged support for the consensus WAC proposal on agenda item 1.4, which proposes “no change.” The item explores the use of high altitude platform stations as IMT base stations in the mobile service in some bands below 2.7 GHz. CTIA said studies show that use is incompatible with mobile use by carriers: “Specifically, the 694-960 MHz, 1710-1885 MHz, and 2500-2690 MHz bands under consideration are essential to the development and deployment of 5G services, including in rural and underserved areas.”

Eligible T-Mobile customers will have access to free in-flight Wi-Fi and streaming on select United domestic and short-haul international flights, joining Alaska, American and Delta, the wireless carrier said Friday. The perk is part of T-Mobile’s Coverage Beyond benefit available to customers on Magenta Max, Business Unlimited Ultimate and equivalent Sprint wireless plans, it said. With Coverage Beyond, customers can “text, email, search and stream all flight long,” it said. Coverage Beyond launches on United’s 737s, Max8s, Max9s, select 757-300s and select A319s with Wi-Fi supported by Viasat and Thales InFlyt Experience; more flights and Wi-Fi partners will be added soon, T-Mobile said.

The FCC Wireless Bureau conditionally approved a Federated Wireless request for an emergency waiver of citizens broadband radio service rules to relieve the company of the requirement for environmental sensing capabilities to detect and protect federal incumbent users in the band from harmful interference in dynamic protection areas in Puerto Rico, hit by Hurricane Fiona. The waiver applies only to periods when the ESC sensors are unable to communicate with Federated’s spectrum access system “due to a power outage or backhaul outage,” said an order in Friday’s Daily Digest. It's limited to “the earlier” of Oct. 6 “or when commercial power and backhaul service is restored to the subject ESC sensors.

NAB fired back at Microsoft in an FCC proceeding on how often narrowband devices should have to check a TV white spaces (TVWS) database. “Microsoft has provided no new evidence to support a daily, rather than hourly, recheck interval,” said a filing posted Thursday in docket 04-186: “To the extent that Microsoft’s argument is based on the fact that there have been no complaints of interference from TVWS devices to date, we noted that not only is it very difficult to ascertain the likely source of interference in the best of circumstances, but that there are still only 213 TVWS devices operating in the entire United States, which makes it exceedingly unlikely that any of the devices would have caused harmful interference.”

Florida Power & Light reported on meetings with aides to FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel, Commissioners Geoffrey Starks and Nathan Simington and Wireless and Public Safety Bureau staff on the 4.9 GHz band. Filings were posted Thursday in docket 07-100. “FPL discussed how, given the critical infrastructure industry’s (CII) complementary mission and need for spectrum, CII could use” the band “on a secondary basis in ways that promote spectrum efficiency and the public interest without causing harmful interference to existing public safety users.” FPL urged the FCC to lift the restriction on airborne mobile operations “noting that its elimination could increase the band’s use by introducing new use cases (e.g., aeronautical operations by crewed aircraft and uncrewed aircraft systems).” The utility argued against use by wireless providers and said if a band manager is needed the FCC should use “a competitively neutral process based on objective criteria” to select one.

The FirstNet Authority posted on USAJOBS Thursday the listing for a new CEO. The CEO will “oversee all of the day-to-day operations of the FirstNet Authority,” coordinate policy teams and projects and “provide periodic, accurate, and timely reporting to the FirstNet Authority Board, and implement the policies and strategies approved by the Board,” the listing said. The proposed salary is $135,468-$203,700 per year. The new CEO will replace Ed Parkinson, who left earlier this year (see 2205040047). The position has always been part of the federal senior executive service, a spokesperson said. The deadline to apply is Oct. 24.