The FCC gave Choice Wireless the waiver it sought of a requirement to file data on its now closed CDMA network as part of broadband data collection submissions due Wednesday. Choice said it shuttered the network Jan. 3 (see 2302230047). “We find that the recent shutdown of Choice’s CDMA network constitutes ‘special circumstances’ that warrant a deviation from the rule,” said a Tuesday order by the Wireless Bureau and Office of Economics and Analytics: “We also find that granting Choice’s Petition is in the public interest and consistent with the objectives of the Broadband DATA Act and the Commission’s effort to develop more granular and accurate broadband data.”

The National Consumer Law Center asked the FCC to tweak language in a draft robotexting order and Further NPRM (see 2302230059) to make clear that the FCC determined in 2003 “that texts are calls for purposes of the Telephone Consumer Protection Act,1 that it specifically applied the Do Not Call regulations to wireless telephone numbers in 47 C.F.R 64.1200(e), and that numerous courts have applied the Do Not Call rules to texts.” The center urged the FCC to change the words “extending,” “extend” and “extension” for application of the do not call registry to “clarifying,” “clarify” and “clarification,” in a filing posted Wednesday in docket 21-402.

FirstNet Authority Chairman Stephen Benjamin is leaving the authority after being named a senior adviser to President Joe Biden and director of the Office of Public Engagement. Benjamin “will oversee the White House Office of Public Engagement, which works at the local, state, and national levels to ensure community leaders, diverse perspectives, and new voices have the opportunity to inform the work of the President in an inclusive, transparent and responsible way,” the White House said. Benjamin is the former mayor of Columbia, South Carolina, and president of both the U.S. Conference of Mayors and the African American Mayors Association. He became chair of the authority in 2021. He replaces former Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms in the public engagement position.

Southern Linc representatives warned of difficulties meeting new mandatory disaster response initiative (MDRI) requirements approved by FCC commissioners in July (see 2207060070). In meetings with aides to FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel, Commissioner Geoffrey Starks and Public Safety Bureau staff, Southern Linc said “achieving initial compliance” with the roaming under disaster (RuD) requirements “is much more complex and will require much more time than the Commission anticipated.” The FCC estimated a carrier would require only 50 hours of legal time and 50 hours of software development time to negotiate and put in place bilateral roaming agreements, the company said: “The amount of legal time that Southern Linc has already expended in developing and negotiating bilateral RuD agreements … is still ongoing” and “significantly exceeds the Commission’s 50-hour estimate,” said a filing posted Tuesday in docket 21-346.

Providers signaled a note of caution in response to letters from FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel asking the nation’s nine largest providers of wireless emergency alerts about sending alerts in languages beyond English and Spanish (see 2302140059). “If alert originators and FEMA originate and hand off multilingual alert information in a format consistent with Commission rules and relevant technical standards, Verizon could support them,” the carrier said, posted Tuesday in docket 15-91. Revisions in the alerting process “will require collaboration and consensus among stakeholders responsible for originating, delivering and presenting alerts to consumers, and a feasible period of time to incorporate the new capability into networks and handsets,” Verizon said. “Any modifications to the current, broadcast-based model of WEA must be made under structured conditions and rigorously hashed out through technical standards bodies, otherwise the FCC risks fragmenting a well-functioning international alerting system,” AT&T said: “Further, the more significant the modification, the less likely that current and legacy handsets will be able to support it.” T-Mobile urged the FCC to work with its Communications Security, Reliability and Interoperability Council (CSRIC) and the ATIS Wireless Technologies and Systems Committee (WTSC) on any changes. “With regard to potential modifications to the WEA system and WEA-capable wireless devices referenced in your letter, T-Mobile supports CSRIC and WTSC evaluating whether these solutions are compatible with the cell-broadcast technology that underpins the successful WEA system,” the company said. “While technical evaluations about the issues raised in your letter are on-going” the FCC and FEMA “should encourage alert originators to use the embedded link capabilities of WEA to ensure that emergency information is accessible to as many language communities as possible,” T-Mobile said. The FCC must “engage device manufacturers to effectively enhance WEA messaging,” C Spire said. The company “is not aware of existing machine translation technologies that are sufficiently reliable for use in emergency situations,” it said: “To make such functionality a reality, C Spire believes that the FCC must initiate a proceeding prompting a designated standards body, … vendors, and device manufacturers to develop standards for such technologies.” Google Fi said as an mobile virtual network operator it “relies upon underlying network partners to provide WEA capabilities. The network partners push WEA notifications directly to Fi users without any modification by Google Fi.”

Tech companies met with an aide to FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel on a Monte Carlo analysis of the risk of very-low-power (VLP) operations in the 6 GHz band to fixed service incumbents. The analysis was done in San Francisco. “The FCC’s interference analysis for VLP must be based on its inherent variability, lower power, and different use cases,” said a filing posted Tuesday in docket 18-295: “The Commission found that a static, worst-case analysis was inappropriate for [low-power indoor use]. It is even more inappropriate for VLP. Even in situations where a VLP device is in a position to theoretically exceed a given [interference-to-noise] level, it will only remain in that position for a short time -- even this worst-case situation will be temporary.” The filing was signed by Apple, Broadcom, Google, Meta Platforms, Microsoft, Qualcomm and Salt Point Strategies.

The Wireless Infrastructure Association announced a partnership with four Ohio schools Monday, designating them as pre-apprenticeship providers “to increase awareness of quality broadband career opportunities and connect more Ohioans with these opportunities.” The schools will participate in WIA’s Telecommunications Industry Registered Apprenticeship Program, offering “credit hours that count toward TIRAP’s Telecom Tower Technician and Fiber Optic Technician apprenticeship programs,” WIA said. They're Tri-County Career Center, Hocking College, North Central State College and Vanguard-Sentinel Career & Technology Centers.

Wi-Fi Alliance representatives spoke with the staff from the FCC Office of Engineering and Technology and an aide to Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel on a request for a waiver by the alliance that would allow an automated frequency coordination, once authorized by the commission, “to take building entry loss into account for a specific type of standard-power device that, by design, will be restricted to operate only indoors.” The alliance said it’s focused on composite devices “authorized to operate both in standard power and low-power indoor” modes in the 6 GHz band: “We noted that the waiver request is precisely the type of relief contemplated by OET in the Public Notice conditionally approving AFC system requests,” said a filing, posted Monday in docket 18-295.

A January order revising the rules for the 4.9 GHz band (see 2301180062) will take effect March 30, said a notice for Tuesday’s Federal Register. The order “creates a comprehensive and coordinated nationwide approach to the 4.9 GHz band, centralizing management in a single Band Manager, while retaining local control over operations conducted by individual public safety licensees,” the notice said: “This framework will retain the band’s existing status as a locally controlled public safety band, but with more rationalized and coordinated public safety operations on a nationwide level.”

The National Wireless Communications Council (NWCC) urged the FCC to act on a June 2020 petition by CTIA and USTelecom seeking regulatory relief on pro forma filings (see 2006050039). NWCC considers this a “common-sense proposal that will reduce regulatory burdens on FCC staff and licensees while complying fully with the directives of the Communications Act,” said a Thursday filing in docket 20-186. Recent analysis by AT&T showed “only a very small fraction” of pro forma assignments or transfers appear to involve major carriers, NWCC said: “The great majority were filed by licensees of private systems, many of them NWCC constituents, that do not provide a commercial communications service to the public, are not subject to foreign ownership limitations, and are not reviewed for purposes of avoiding undue concentration in the telecommunications arena.”