Although Ligado says it's not moving forward for now with a full deployment of its proposed terrestrial network, a stay of the FCC's authorization is still warranted given that Ligado retains the authority to move forward, Iridium said Tuesday in docket 12-340. It dismissed Ligado criticism of the National Academies of Sciences report findings (see 2211170056), and said the NAS committee focused its technical work on the one issue regarding harmful interference that was in dispute. Ligado didn't comment.

Strand Consult warned that 2023 will be a “wild, uncomfortable year,” with the upheaval ahead having big implications for the mobile wireless industry. “There is war in Europe, a global energy crisis, and inflation which has made almost everything more expensive and disrupted many financial markets. China’s menace in Taiwan puts the world’s leaders on edge and imperils the supply of 90 percent of the world’s semiconductor manufacturing,” CEO John Strand blogged Thursday: “Board leaders and directors should ask themselves what is their plan [in the] case of China shutting down supply lines tomorrow.” He warned of implications for wireless. “Rising interest rates depress returns on capital, and investors' willingness to invest in infrastructure,” Strand said. “Relationships with authoritarian governments pose reputational risks,” it said: “An operator can’t stick its head into the ground and pretend nothing is happening. Indeed operators which have opted out of Huawei and ZTE will gain an advantage over those which claim that there are no risks to using Chinese network equipment. … This message will resonate with policymakers, customers, and shareholders.” Strand also noted many questions about spectrum, with Congress failing to reauthorize FCC auction authority beyond a three-month extension. “It’s hard to contemplate a modern nation being so irresponsible,” he said. “It is remarkable that the US has achieved such incredible wireless success to date given the limited access to frequencies. But to compete with China in the future, the US will need a more aggressive approach to making mid-band spectrum available for exclusive licensed use,” he said.

Reliance on a content delivery network for weather and earth science data if the 1675-1680 MHz band gets shared raises concerns because a CDN won't provide the latency and availability that users of the geostationary operational environmental satellite data collection system and rebroadcast system require, weather and earth science interests and allies told an aide to FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel, per a docket 21-186 filing Friday. They said the level of availability needed for GOES rebroadcast service isn't commercially available from cloud and internet providers. Among those meeting with the FCC were National Weather Association CEO Janice Bunting and American Meteorological Society President Richard Clark. Ligado proposed an internet-based CDN as a route to freeing up the 1675-1680 MHz band for flexible use (see 1607280022).

Charter Communications voluntarily dropped some speed and reliability claims for its Spectrum Mobile service after challenges by AT&T, the Better Business Bureau's National Advertising Division said Thursday. NAD said AT&T challenged TV commercial claims that Spectrum Mobile is the "most reliable" mobile service, more reliable than AT&T Wireless and has faster mobile speeds than AT&T Wireless, and that ATT&T Wireless lacks "speed you need."

Federated Wireless defended advanced sharing technologies in a meeting with FCC International Bureau staff. Federated offered “an overview of the successes of the Citizens Broadband Radio Service spectrum sharing model, including its effective protection of different types of incumbent systems as well as the innovation and competition it has stimulated and the new entrants it has brought to the market,” said a filing Thursday in docket 19-348. New entrants “are using the band to develop their own private networks for uses such as industrial automation, smart inventory management, and predictive maintenance, in environments ranging from warehouses, factories, farms, school campuses, and office buildings, in rural as well as densely populated areas,” Federated said. CTIA raised questions about CBRS as the optimal model for spectrum allocation, saying it’s inferior to exclusive use licensing and questioning how successful the CBRS experiment has been (see 2212120050). In less than three years, “nearly 300,000 CBRS devices have been deployed nationwide, a record number of users have adopted CBRS spectrum (228 Priority Access Licensees and 900 General Authorized Access users), and a large ecosystem of U.S. equipment suppliers and vendors has emerged,” Federated said.

The Wireless ISP Association raised a red flag Thursday on the response by NTIA Administrator Alan Davidson to a letter led by Sen. Steve Daines, R-Mont., urging NTIA to allow states to use their broadband, equity, access and deployment (BEAD) program grants to pay for unlicensed wireless service, which the agency’s notice of funding opportunity guidance doesn’t allow (see 2211220076). Davidson responded this week, saying the BEAD notice of funding opportunity “contains provisions specifically designed to address the concerns about overbuilding you raised in your letter.” The program also includes “a specific provision to prevent overbuilding due to potentially duplicative federal funding commitment,” Davidson said. “Discouraged @NTIAgov head Davidson misses fundamental issue -- BEAD NOFO’s lack of tech-neutrality -- in response to Senator Daines’ concerns over harmful overbuilding,” WISPA tweeted Thursday. NTIA didn't comment.

The FCC’s NPRM on more precisely routing wireless 911 calls and texts to public safety answering points through location-based routing (LBR), approved 4-0 Wednesday (see 2212210047), was largely the same as the draft. The NPRM was posted Thursday. One change of note is that several questions were tweaked to seek information on covered text providers, in addition to commercial mobile radio service (CMRS) providers. “Should we require CMRS and covered text providers to report information on misrouted 911 calls and texts?” the NPRM asks: “We also seek information on planned or expended costs by CMRS providers and covered text providers that have voluntarily implemented or plan to implement location-based routing to any extent on their networks.” Among other tweaks, the NPRM now notes that conclusions on cost estimates, based on data from T-Mobile, are only tentative. “T-Mobile states that it deployed location-based routing to some PSAPs and not others, so we rely on this statement in tentatively concluding that CMRS providers implement location-based routing at the PSAP level and CMRS providers incur material costs on a per-PSAP basis,” the NPRM says. “We seek comment on this tentative conclusion.” Only Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel and Commissioner Geoffrey Starks had written statements. Comments are due 30 days after Federal Register publication, replies 30 days after that.

Executives with Encina Communications supported the company’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 meeting with an aide to FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel. “In contrast to the lack of consensus and the timing uncertainty surrounding the development of an AFC system, there is unanimous agreement by fixed services operators that Rule 101.103(d) can successfully frequency coordinate outdoor standard power … networks, as the interference level requirement is the same as Rule 15.407(L)(2)(i). Rule 101.103(d), which was first adopted by the FCC in 1971, is generally viewed as the gold standard for coordination and is grounded in decades of practical experience,” said a filing posted Thursday in docket 10-153.

The FCC Wireless Bureau reminded part 90, subpart Z wireless broadband licensees in the 3650-3700 MHz band they must leave the band by Jan. 8. In a 2015 order, “the Commission included the 3650-3700 MHz band in the Citizens Broadband Radio Service,” the bureau said Wednesday: “The Commission recognized the investment of the over 2,000 part 90 incumbent licensees using the band on a non-exclusive basis and thus also provided for a transition period for these licensees.” Grandfathered wireless broadband licensees had at least five years to “transition operations from part 90 to part 96, or to discontinue operations,” the notice said.

The FCC Office of Engineering and Technology sought comment Wednesday on a waiver request by Geophysical Survey Systems of FCC rules for ultrawide-band ground penetrating radar (GPR) devices to allow the certification and marketing of a new device it's developing. The company says "its new device is a stepped-frequency, continuous-wave-modulated GPR transmitter that closely resembles its previously approved GPR handheld analyzer device,” OET said: The company also claims the “technical characteristics are identical” to a Proceq device that received a similar waiver (see 2211040068). Comments are due Jan. 20, replies Feb. 6, in docket 22-458.