The Fixed Wireless Communications Coalition said issues raised by APCO last year on alleged interference to Miami-Dade County’s operations in the 6 GHz band (see 2211220044) demonstrate the need for additional protection for band incumbents. “The Miami-Dade interference illustrates the ineffectiveness of existing interference detection and remediation options for licensees,” the coalition said in a filing posted Tuesday in docket 18-295. Interference first impacted the licensee in November 2020 and continues, the coalition said: “It took the licensee and its vendor nearly a year at significant expense to pinpoint the interference. Once identified, it took a further nine months for the Commission to formally warn one of the offending operators.” FWCC said two other operators apparently still haven't received formal warning letters.

The FCC issued a $5.1 million fine Tuesday against John Burkman, Jacob Wohl and J.M. Burkman & Associates for allegedly making 1,141 unlawful robocalls. They were charged in federal court in New York with making threatening and intimidating robocalls to suppress Black citizens' mail-in votes in the 2020 election (see 2303290031). “After evaluating the evidence, including Respondents’ response, we find that Respondents made robocalls to wireless numbers without the recipients’ prior express consent, absent an emergency purpose, in violation of the Telephone Consumer Protection Act,” the FCC said. U.S. District Judge Victor Marrero for Southern New York previously granted summary judgment against Wohl and Burkman (see 2303090003), and a one-week jury trial is scheduled to begin Aug. 7 on the scope of relief sought (see 2306050029).

5G is starting to lead to important changes in networks, speakers said Tuesday during an Informa Tech virtual 5G orchestration and service assurance conference. Network orchestration, which involves the automated configuration, management and coordination of parts of the network, is becoming an increasingly important concept for telcos, speakers agreed. It’s clear that to support customer demands service providers “will really have to fine-tune their orchestration,” said Jim Hodges, Heavy Reading research director. “There’s so much different in 5G … that we’re just starting to understand the service implications,” he said. After years of “hype” around 5G “we’re starting to see in 2023 finally some deployments,” said Troy Saulnier, who leads a network strategy team at Bell Canada. Industry is still waiting for a “major leap” into AI and using the cloud “to create this promise of a new explosion of services,” he said. Among the expected changes are digital logistics applications for retailers, improved latency demand by other customers and very-long battery life and lower energy consumption for the IoT, Saulnier said. Carriers need to “differentiate the customer experience” and tune it to “the actual customer in question,” he said. “We are all in this rapidly evolving digital landscape and there are many, many challenges and complexities that we need to deal with,” said Mehrdad Ekbatani, product-marketing manager-5G at Amdocs. Carriers are increasingly able to offer “differentiated services, but with that comes a lot of complexity,” he said. Providers need to keep investing in their networks as data consumption grows though revenue is “mostly flat” in mature markets, he said: “There is an urgent need here for more agility, more resilience” while controlling the costs. 5G was designed to be “open and agile,” Ekbatani said. Some use cases are emerging “but we don’t really know what the future will bring,” he said. “The only thing that we are guaranteed” is “there is going to be a continuous growth in management complexity” and “at the same we also have to transform our existing, siloed networks,” Ekbatani said. About 40% of the providers Fujitsu works with are still evaluating what to do on network orchestration, said Rhonda Holloway, Fujitsu director-network automation solution marketing. “As an industry we’re refining our approaches, our use cases and differentiators,” she said. Providers still “have a lot of uncertainty” about the best approach to network orchestration, she said: “It’s dependent on their network size, complexity, goals and budget” but also about “choosing between centralized, distributed or some kind of hybrid orchestration.”

T-Mobile said Monday it completed “an industry-first,” unmanned 77-mile beyond visual line of sight (BVLOS) drone flight, using its 5G network, working with Valmont. “BVLOS flights are taking off … thanks to their ability to reach remote or inaccessible areas more efficiently and quickly collect and share data,” T-Mobile said: “Drones equipped with cameras and sensors can capture high-resolution video and imagery used for near real-time analysis, monitoring and critical decision-making.” The flight went from Childress to Aspermont in Texas, and inspected infrastructure including power lines, railroads and bridges, T-Mobile said. The flight lasted less than three hours and required less than two gallons of fuel. “Range has been a hurdle in the drone inspection space, until now,” said Jake Lahmann, Valmont Industries unmanned aerial systems manager: “To be able to get this kind of range in a single drone flight is really going to revolutionize the way the industry approaches infrastructure inspections.”

Representatives of the ATIS Hearing Aid Compatibility Task Force, which recently spoke with an aide to FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel seeking action on HAC rule revisions (see 2306010029), held other meetings at the FCC. Officials spoke with staff from the Wireless and Consumer and Governmental Affairs bureaus and the Office of Engineering and Technology on “the record overwhelmingly in support of the HAC Task Force’s Report and Recommendations and related waiver request,” said a filing Friday in docket 15-285.

Ericsson agreed to collaborate with advanced metering infrastructure provider Easymetering on a technological ecosystem for smart meters. “As utilities look toward grid modernization, smart meters, and smart grids are critical in addressing the evolving needs of utility companies -- all while keeping sustainability and efficiency in mind,” Ericsson said: The metering company will use an Ericsson lab to test the interoperability of devices.

Alternative asset manager Apollo Global Management said Monday it plans to invest $2 billion in preferred equity securities to be issued by a subsidiary of AT&T. The investment is expected to be completed in June, Apollo said.

All nine contestant subsystems passed the stage two wrap-around emulation testing that's part of NTIA’s $7 million 2023 5G Challenge, the agency said Monday. Tests were run at NTIA’s Institute for Telecommunication Sciences lab in Boulder, Colorado. The “fundamental idea” of open radio networks is “to disaggregate the 5G network components, test individual interfaces, and enable true plug-and-play operation,” NTIA said, noting the challenge separates contestants’ radio units (RU) and central unit and distributed unit pair (CU+DU) subsystems. “RU development is complex and hardware-centric,” NTIA said: “By contrast, the CU+DU is primarily implemented with software.” The RU contestants passing the tests were Fujitsu Network Communications/AT&T, GXC, Lions Technology, NewEdge and QCT/Benetel, NTIA said. Passing the CU+DU tests were Capgemini Engineering, GXC, Mavenir and Radisys.

The FCC got only limited comment on its draft 42 GHz NPRM, teed up for a vote at the FCC’s meeting Thursday. Similar to a draft NPRM on next-generation 911 (see 2306020040), it's expected to pass 4-0 with limited tweaks. NCTA met with staff for all four commissioners, expressing general “appreciation for the FCC’s willingness to consider innovative uses of spectrum,” said a filing posted Friday in docket 23-158. “We noted that millimeter wave spectrum is not a substitute for mid-band spectrum, particularly 3.1 GHz and 7 GHz, but can be used to support different operations and services including for extremely high capacity and high-speed services, like real-time Augmented Reality-powered data sharing for innovations in smart cities, schools, offices, homes, libraries, hospitals, factories, and automobiles,” NCTA said. The group asked the FCC to seek comment on whether the proposal could also work in the lower 37 GHz band. Equipment is available that can be used in that band, but none is available for 42 GHz, NCTA noted: “Because of the existing equipment ecosystem, the Lower 37 GHz band will be available for commercial operations much more quickly than the 42 GHz band.” Amazon’s Kuiper Systems urged the FCC to “explore all options for maximizing use of millimeter wave spectrum” as part of the notice. Amazon suggested adding the language: “We also seek comment on whether to authorize secondary operations in the 42 GHz band. Can the Commission enable greater use of the band through one or more secondary allocations while protecting primary licensees from harmful interference?” Representatives met with aides to Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel and Commissioner Nathan Simington. The two offered the only industry filings so far in the docket.

AT&T certified at the FCC it has met various vertical location accuracy requirements (see (Ref:2206030025]). The certification was posted Friday in docket 17-78. Verizon and T-Mobile also filed their certifications with the FCC (see here and here).