The FCC proposed a notice of apparent liability of $62 million against Q Link Wireless for alleged violations of rules for the emergency broadband benefit program. Q Link claimed “support for hundreds of thousands of computer tablets” and “apparently obtained at least $20,792,800 in improper disbursements from the EBB Program during the period under review,” said a notice in Wednesday’s Daily Digest. Q Link didn’t comment. “We find that, by claiming reimbursements for EBB connected devices at a rate apparently substantially exceeding their market value, Q Link apparently willfully and repeatedly violated the sections of the [2021 Consolidated Appropriations Act] and the Commission’s rules prescribing these requirements applicable to service providers in the EBB Program,” the notice said. Commissioners approved the notice last week.

Nebraska’s Metropolitan Community College, CTIA and iFixOmaha Tuesday announced the launch of what they say is the first postsecondary education mobile device repair certification program, set to launch in the spring quarter at the school's Fort Omaha campus. The program offers a one-week boot camp and eight-week internship. “About 50 million mobile device screens are damaged each year, and the noncredit program will provide an at-cost resource to the greater Omaha community,” said a news release.

T-Mobile was the fastest wireless carrier in the U.S. in Q4, with a median download speed of 151.37 Mbps on modern chipsets, up from 116.14 Mbps in Q3 2022, Ookla said Tuesday. Verizon Wireless (69.01 Mbps) and AT&T (65.57) were “distant runners up.” T-Mobile also had the fastest upload speed at 12.53 Mbps, topping Verizon (9.33) and AT&T (7.98). “T-Mobile had the highest Consistency in the U.S. during Q4 2022, with 86.8% of results showing at least 5 Mbps download and 1 Mbps upload speeds,” the report said: “Verizon Wireless and AT&T followed at 82.4% and 81.1%, respectively.” On the percentage of time 5G-capable devices spend on a 5G network, T-Mobile (69.2%) and AT&T (64.5%) bested Verizon (34.3%). The states with the fastest median download speeds were Minnesota, Illinois and New Jersey. Mississippi finished last. “In addition to topping national rankings, T-Mobile’s network proved fastest in 45 states and the District of Columbia as well as in 86 of the 100 most populous U.S. cities,” T-Mobile said Tuesday.

Smith Bagley asked the FCC for a three-month extension of the waivers of its Lifeline recertification and reverification for customers in tribal areas. The waivers otherwise expire Jan. 31, said a Tuesday filing in docket 11-42. "Historic inequalities caused Tribal communities to shudder more than the rest of the country during COVID-19 pandemic, and conditions in the communities have yet to recover as new public health challenges arise," the carrier said: "The day-to-day difficulties associated with contacting and obtaining responsive documents from remote Tribal customers have not improved."

Federated Wireless said Tuesday it’s working with low-cost carrier Mobi to provide spectrum access system and environmental sensing capability services so the carrier can “bring its Citizens Broadband Radio Service network online throughout the Hawaiian Islands.” Through the use of CBRS, “high-speed broadband services will be available in hard-to-reach regions of the islands and will enable Mobi to triple channel utilization and enhance network performance,” Federated said. Mobi “will be able to leverage their [priority access] licenses and the lower 100 MHz of the CBRS band to bring reliable, high-speed broadband services throughout the Hawaiian Islands,” said Chris Swan, Federated chief commercial officer: “The extension of our ESC network into Hawaii rounds out the expansion of our CBRS operations across the United States.”

Comments are due Feb. 16, replies March 20, on an FCC NPRM on proposed rules to more precisely route wireless 911 calls and texts to public safety answering points through location-based routing, said a Tuesday Federal Register notice. Commissioners approved the NPRM in December (see 2212210047).

Dish Network plans to offer, “subject to market and other conditions,” $500 million in senior secured notes to help fund its 5G build, it announced Tuesday. That follows a $2 billion debt offering in November.

Semtech completed its buy of Sierra Wireless in an all-cash transaction valued at $1.2 billion and expected to nearly double the company’s annual revenue. The buy “adds approximately US$100 million of high-margin IoT Cloud services recurring revenues,” said a Thursday news release: “Semtech expects the acquisition to be immediately accretive … and to generate US$40 million of run rate operational synergies within 12-18 months post close.” Top Sierra Wireless executives joined the company -- Tom Mueller as executive vice president of the IoT System Products Group, Ross Gray as vice president-IoT Connected Services Group and Pravin Desale as senior vice president-IoT engineering.

July tests of interference by low-power indoor devices in the 6 GHz band to FirstEnergy’s licensed operations there raised potential concerns, the company and Edison Electric Institute told the FCC. They reported on a virtual meeting last week with staff from the Office of Engineering and Technology to discuss the tests, in a filing Thursday in docket 18-295. The 6 GHz incumbents noted the “additive nature of interference from LPIs operating both within and outside of the microwave beamwidth.” Tests confirmed “a single LPI can cause harmful interference” and the “limited effectiveness of contention-based protocol to reduce signal transmission power.” FirstNet said it did its study in the summer during peak foliage “to observe the impact of unlicensed LPI 6E” devices “during the ‘best case’ time of the year for minimizing interference.”

The FCC gave preliminary approval to RED Technologies as a spectrum access system operator in the citizens broadband radio service band. The company “satisfied the Commission’s SAS laboratory testing requirements and is approved to begin its initial commercial deployment,” said a Thursday notice by the Wireless Bureau and Office of Engineering and Technology: The FCC “in coordination with NTIA and the DoD, will review RED’s ICD Report and will publicly announce if RED successfully completes ICD and receives final certification to operate a SAS.”