New Competitive Carriers Association President Tim Donovan met with FCC Commissioner Geoffrey Starks to discuss the group’s advocacy goals, including fully funding a program to replace unsecure Chinese gear in U.S. networks. CCA discussed “the challenges faced due to lack of full funding for” and congressional “activity and timing for a potential solution to the funding issue, and emphasized the need for full funding as soon as possible,” said a filing posted Friday in docket 18-89. CCA also stressed the importance of federal broadband infrastructure programs to members and “the dual benefits of Fixed Wireless Access and mobile services,” the filing said: “Participants discussed the need to update the 5G Fund to ensure sufficient funding and to modernize the program rules to better promote competition.” CCA emphasized “the cumulative burden on smaller and rural carriers related to recently adopted and proposed wireless carrier regulations and reporting requirements” and urged the agency “to be mindful” of the challenges smaller carriers face, the filing said

Summit Ridge Group urged the FCC to act on reviewing applications for the rip-and-replace program to remove unsecure Chinese gear from U.S. networks. “Continue reviewing and approving cost estimate line items that are not subject to amendment,” the firm said in a filing Friday in docket 18-89: “The FCC’s current policy is to freeze the entire reimbursement application while an amendment is under review. This unnecessarily delays the reimbursement of non-amended line items.” The FCC should also fully staff the program. “We notice significant delays even though invoice submission is still at low levels industry-wide,” Summit Ridge said. It warned that at the current pace “it could take decades to process the expected invoices.” The firm also wants streamlining of the program and the elimination of some documentation requirements. “The Fund Administrator’s exacting standards for invoice detail is costing operators tens of thousands of dollars in administrative costs, without any corresponding contribution to the public interest.” The FCC should also push Congress to fully fund the costs of the program, the filing said. Congress would need to approve another $3.08 billion to pay the costs of replacing all unsecure equipment (see 2207150067). “Networks typically use proprietary technology and cannot be replaced piecemeal and continue to operate,” Summit Ridge said: “Without assurances that the program will be funded beyond its current 40% … participants, both large and small, have not been able to fund their replacement operations, including placing orders for equipment.”

CTIA and Competitive Carriers Association representatives urged approval of their joint petition (see 2211010056) for tweaks to rules for the FCC’s new mandatory disaster response initiative. “Small, regional facilities-based wireless providers support the Petition, and no party has filed in opposition,” they said in a call with an aide to Commissioner Brendan Carr, per a filing posted Friday in docket 21-346

The 3rd Generation Partnership Project's Release 18 is the start of the second phase of 5G, 5G-advanced, though work is about to start on Release 19, industry experts said Thursday during an ATIS webinar. As industry starts a new phase it should look at current commercial deployment needs, plus “the long-term 5G vision,” said Wanshi Chen, chair of the 3GPP radio access network plenary and Qualcomm senior director-technology. 3GPP in-person meetings restarted last year, which was “quite an achievement” following the COVID-19 pandemic, though the pandemic slowed the group’s work by several months, he said. It’s important to “evolve 5G” so industry can address current use cases better or even create new use cases, he said. Work on Release 19 is expected to start in Q1 of 2024, though preparation will start with the first workshop in June in Taiwan, Chen said: “We’ll have the first collection of information that people have in mind for Release 19. It will be interesting to see how things will be proposed.” Puneet Jain, chair of the 3GPP System Architecture Group (SA-2), said at the start of Release 18 SA-2 approved a record 27 study items, all of which are now complete. Release 18 “expands the market reach of 5G technology by adding new features, such as artificial intelligence and extended reality to enable highly intelligent network solutions that can support a wider variety of use cases than ever before,” said Jain, also a senior principal engineer at Intel. The latest release includes features for public safety and satellite communications and the IoT, he said. These requirements couldn’t be addressed in Release 17 because of limited time, he said. Jain expects the timeline for Release 19 to start to take shape in March and be finalized at the meeting in Taiwan. “We have to have a timeline decided first and then, basically, move on to the content discussion,” he said.

CTIA released a report Tuesday citing examples of how 5G is being used in various sectors, including agriculture, education, entertainment and gaming, healthcare and manufacturing. The agriculture section says EarthSense’s TerraSentia autonomous robot can scan up to 10 plants per second, to measure height, leaf-area “and other indicators” of health: “5G, with fast speeds and low latency, enables data to be sent in real time -- allowing farmers to manage crops more efficiently.” Washington’s Chiawana Orchards is using 5G-powered sensors “to process instant information on their trees’ density, as well as the moisture in the soil and weather conditions, to improve tree health and increase yields,” the report said. In 2021, U.S. wireless carriers invested a record $35 billion “to operate, improve and grow their networks,” CTIA said. “More licensed spectrum is needed to secure network performance in the face of ever-increasing data demand, support the development of these new 5G-powered devices, and enable the speeds and capacity necessary to fuel future 5G innovation,” the report said.

A new report by NTIA found problems in the current app ecosystem and urged action to increase competition. The report was prepared in response to President Joe Biden’s 2021 executive order on competition. “The policies that Apple and Google have in place in their own mobile app stores have created unnecessary barriers and costs for app developers, ranging from fees for access to functional restrictions that favor some apps over others,” the report said: “These obstacles impose costs on firms and organizations offering new technology: apps lack features, development and roll-out costs are higher, customer relations are damaged, and many apps fail to reach a large number of users.” The report urged Congress to enact laws and government agencies to do rulemakings “to limit or prohibit discrimination and anticompetitive conduct as a complement to, and clarification of, existing antitrust authority.” Users should be able to set third party apps or mobile app stores as their defaults, and delete or hide pre-installed apps, the report said. Prevent platforms from using confidential business data from any third-party app “to then support the offering of its own competing app on that platform,” it advised: “Prevent a platform from ‘self-preferencing’ its own apps in an anticompetitive manner.” Apple didn’t comment Thursday. “We disagree with how this report characterizes Android, which enables more choice and competition than any other mobile operating system,” a Google spokesperson emailed: “NTIA recognizes the importance of interoperability, multiple app stores and sideloading, which Android’s open system already supports -- all while ensuring privacy and security.” Ari Cohn, TechFreedom’s free speech counsel, urged caution: “Vague, ill-defined causes of action, untethered from established antitrust law, will inevitably be weaponized. App developers and users who monetize their content will file endless litigation whenever they disagree with routine content moderation decisions that have nothing to do with anticompetitive behavior.”

The FirstNet Authority Board will meet Feb. 15, starting at 8:30 a.m. CST, at the University of Texas at Austin, said a Thursday notice in the Federal Register. The agency said an agenda will be released before the meeting.

Dish Wireless is seeking eligible telecom carrier status in the federal default states so it can get the support available to affordable connectivity program customers it already has, it said in an amended petition posted Thursday in docket 09-107. Dish said it has already been designated a wireless ETC in Colorado and New York and is authorized by the California Public Utilities Commission to provide California LifeLine service. Dish plans to offer service through its Gen Mobile prepaid service. “Gen Mobile customers can choose from several affordable prepaid calling plans and handsets and have access to high-quality, responsive customer service affordable connectivity program,” the company said. Dish also stressed the progress on its 5G open radio access network, saying it “entered into multi-year agreements with over 30 partners,” including Mavenir, Amazon, Dell, Cisco, IBM, Nokia, Intel, Samsung and Qualcomm.

The Open Technology Institute at New America urged FCC action on the Further NPRM on revised rules for short-range field disturbance sensor (FDS) radars in the 60 GHz band, during a call with an aide to Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel. The FCC took comment in 2021 (see 2110190067). “OTI reiterated its view that the Commission should permit near-ground-level airborne use of unlicensed field disturbance sensor devices in the unlicensed 60-64 GHz band,” said a filing posted Wednesday in docket 21-264: “It is in the public interest to maximize the potential for different services to use the band. While we appreciate the importance of protecting the Earth Exploration Satellite Service at 59.3 GHz, we believe the propagation characteristics of millimeter wave spectrum and a natural guard band of 700 megahertz seems likely to protect passive sensors from very low-power radar subject to near-ground restrictions.”

NTIA announced the launch of its $7 million 2023 5G Challenge Wednesday, in collaboration with DOD. The challenge “aims to accelerate the adoption and development of an open, interoperable, secure, multi-vendor 5G ecosystem,” NTIA said: “Such an ecosystem will spur a more competitive and diverse telecommunications supply chain, drive down costs for consumers and network operators, and bolster U.S. leadership in the wireless sector.” Applications are due by 7 p.m. EST March 1, with a $3 million top prize.