The Michigan Department of Technology, Management and Budget asked the FCC for a waiver to allow Semco Energy Gas, which isn't eligible to use public safety frequencies, to use 800 MHz public safety frequencies licensed to the Michigan's Public Safety Communications System (MPSCS) “on a general basis.” A waiver would give Semco “access to and use the MPSCS system for exchange of critical information with government agencies,” said a filing last week: “They would have access to selected emergency, special event and proprietary talkgroups on the trunking system. They would also have access to the 800 MHz analog mutual aid channels. The interoperability gained through this waiver would provide dedicated communication paths between local and regional emergency management offices and public utilities.” The department said current methods of communication “have proven to be challenged during times of local emergency conditions and during regular first responder efforts for structure fires and other mandatory joint response emergencies.”

The FCC Public Safety Bureau sought comment Wednesday on applications and waiver requests by Westchester County, New York, to operate a public safety paging system on part 22 paging control channels in the T band. Westchester says use of the channels “is necessary due to the lack of available public safety channels,” the bureau said. The county already operates on several T-band channel pairs as authorized by prior waiver orders and now seeks “to use non-public safety frequencies 470.2000 and 470.2125 MHz for public safety paging operations,” the bureau said: “Westchester contends that ‘[t]he frequency congestion situation has not improved since the … Orders were granted.’ Westchester’s frequency coordinator submitted a letter certifying ‘there are no UHF or T-band public safety frequencies that can be assigned.’” Comments are due March 3, replies March 20. Comments are due the same days on a similar request by the Bedford, Massachusetts, police department. Bedford already operates a T-band public safety radio system and seeks to add nonpublic safety frequencies 482.1125 and 485.1125 MHz, the bureau said. “Bedford states that ‘due to extreme demand for radio frequencies in the Boston area, all frequencies have been exhausted,’” the bureau said.

CommScope representatives explained the company’s approach to indoor geolocation of standard power access points for automated frequency control in the 6 GHz band, in a call with FCC Office of Engineering and Technology staff. The company also discussed AFC testing and certification, said a filing posted Wednesday in docket 18-295. “Today’s Smartphone-based GPS solutions are highly accurate for location including leveraging other location reference points to define location for a Home Wi-Fi Access Point,” CommScope said.

The University of Tennessee, Knoxville (UTK), and AT&T dedicated a new 5G Lab Tuesday at the school’s Research Park at Cherokee Farm. Since 2021, the university has been working with AT&T research using a 5G+ millimeter-wave spectrum network in a lab environment, UTK said. “Our communities gain major benefits when our faculty and students tackle real-world issues brought by companies who also live and work in those same communities,” said UTK Chancellor Donde Plowman.

The Association of American Railroads cited the group’s opposition to use of 160.8875-160.9125 MHz by fishing equipment markers or non-safety autonomous maritime radio devices using automatic identification system technology (see 2111180052), in a call with FCC Wireless Bureau staff. “Approximately 20,000 locomotives use the 160.9 MHz band for critical safety operations on portable and fixed radios, which translates to hundreds of thousands of radios currently operating everywhere within the United States,” said a filing posted Monday in docket 21-230: “Co-frequency use by fishing equipment markers, even on a secondary basis, threatens to create harmful interference to railroads’ ubiquitous deployment.”

The Information Technology and Innovation Foundation recommended market mechanisms to promote more efficient use of federal spectrum. “There are good reasons for the federal government to have access to spectrum,” ITIF said in a report released Monday: “Everything from weather satellites to military radar relies on reliable access to radio frequencies, and we all have an interest in these systems working well. But there are also good reasons to approach federal spectrum holdings with a degree of skepticism.” Federal users don’t face “market discipline because their spectrum is unpriced,” ITIF said. “While NTIA evaluates potential trade-offs and charges a nominal fee to spectrum users, there is nothing close to a market-based usage fee to incentivize agencies’ economization of their spectrum use, either by using a smaller range of frequencies to accomplish the same goals or by reducing the number of goals for which they rely on spectrum,” the report said. ITIF urges Congress and the Office of Management and Budget to make the spectrum relocation fund (SRF) more flexible so it can be used to upgrade equipment and for longer-term planning and research on spectrum efficiency gains. The government should auction more overlay giving the licensee “a right to use a federal agency’s spectrum if that agency agrees,” the report said. It also asks the federal government to reduce its “spectrum footprint” by using higher quality receivers and migrating services to commercial 5G networks when possible. As the FCC is “reviewing ways to improve the interference immunity of receivers operating in spectrum under its jurisdiction, the federal government should do the same,” the report said. “While it is more difficult to objectively characterize the performance of a receiver than that of a transmitter, working toward technological developments that can improve the status quo is essential. The alternative is receivers that are vulnerable to interference from nearby bands, which either threatens the integrity of the federal service or precludes commercial operations well outside the federal agency’s band.” The administration should also take a more active role in managing agencies’ spectrum use, “both through better accounting for the costs of federal uses and by making increasing commercial spectrum capacity a high-level priority,” ITIF said.

Encina Communications Chairman Michael Mulcay and others from the company discussed Encina’s proposal to use Part 101 frequency coordination procedures as an alternative to automated frequency coordination (AFC) in the 6 GHz band (see 2208150040), in a call with an aide to FCC Commissioner Geoffrey Starks, said a filing posted Monday in docket 10-153. “Updating Part 101 Rules to Harmonize with Part 15 Rules requires no changes to Part 15 Rules, nor would it disrupt or undermine in any way the ongoing work to develop” an AFC system, Encina said.

CTIA and Competitive Carriers Association representatives discussed the general support for their joint petition (see 2211010056) seeking tweaks to rules for the FCC’s new mandatory disaster response initiative, in a call with an aide to Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel, said a filing posted Monday in docket 21-346. “The Petition seeks limited modifications to help facilities-based wireless providers achieve compliance and strengthen resiliency coordination,” the groups said.

Industry and public safety groups and companies asked the FCC for more clarity on an Office of Engineering and Technology notice last year conditionally authorizing 13 automated frequency coordination providers to operate in the 6 GHz band (see 2211030066). “In particular, the Joint Filers seek clarification that the Public Notice does not override industry consensus standards, including propagation model parameters specified by the Wireless Innovation Forum in its standards document known as WINNF-TS-1014,” said a filing Friday in docket 18-295: “That document contains dozens of specifications regarding the operation of AFC systems, all of which were achieved via broad inter-industry consensus through lengthy, painstaking, holistic, expert, and detailed deliberations.” Seeking clarification were APCO, AT&T, Comsearch, the Edison Electric Institute, the Enterprise Wireless Alliance, the Fixed Wireless Communications Council, the Utilities Technology Council and Verizon.

Open radio access networks are expected to be 15%-20% of the RAN market by 2027, Dell’Oro Group said Friday. The Asia-Pacific and North America regions are expected to drive growth, and European ORAN revenue should top $1 billion in four years, Dell’Oro said. The ORAN “movement has come a long way in just a few years, propelling Open RAN revenues to accelerate at a faster pace than initially expected,” the group said: “These trends continued in 2022 and with this latest report, Open RAN expectations have been revised upward to reflect the higher baseline, supported by stronger-than-expected O-RAN progress in North America.” But Dell’Oro noted despite growth, “preliminary data suggest Open RAN is having a minimal impact on the overall RAN supplier dynamics.”