CTIA weighed in on applications from five companies found to have a complete application to serve as contraband interdiction system (CIS) operators to help address contraband phones in correctional facilities, in response to a March Wireless Bureau notice (see 2303240043). The group urged the FCC to focus on whether applicants offer managed access systems (MAS) or MASEvolved systems, which “work with cellular networks to block calls from contraband devices while minimizing the risk of disabling legitimate (i.e., non-contraband) devices.” Systems that don’t coordinate with cellular networks “have a reduced ability to validate whether a device near a correctional facility is contraband or not, and they therefore entail a greater risk of false positive contraband identifications,” CTIA said. The group didn’t offer more specific comment on the applications by CellBlox Acquisitions, ShawnTech Communications, Tecore Networks, SOC and OmniProphis.

Comments are due at the Federal Railroad Administration May 11 on a Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA) request to amend its positive train control system. “On MBTA’s North Side, the PTC System in the area is being reconfigured and must be taken out of service during the recommissioning of Automatic Train Control and the subsequent recommissioning of MBTA’s Advanced Civil Speed Enforcement System II,” said a notice in Friday’s Federal Register. The docket is FRA–2010–0030.

The FirstNet Authority Board and its committees will meet May 3, 8:30 a.m., said a notice in Friday’s Federal Digest. The meeting takes place in Broomfield, Colorado. The board didn’t release an agenda.

The FCC’s policy statement on receivers, approved 4-0 Thursday (see 2304200040), saw relatively few changes from the draft statement, based on a side-by-side comparison. The FCC released the final statement Friday. One change is a clarifying line that RF energy is ubiquitous, “whether caused by RF device emissions or natural noise sources,” not in the draft. The draft says the agency “intends to consider the immunity of out-of-band receivers and their ability to reject unintended signals.” The focus shifts in the approved version to “the immunity of receivers and their ability to reject undesired and unwanted signals.” Because of the “variability in receiver resiliency, some receivers in use may be more robust than others to changes in the RF environment,” the draft says. That’s changed to now recognize “the variability in receiver vulnerability.” Similarly, the draft says the commenters “recommend Commission guidance to promote efficient spectrum use by clarifying the need for receivers to stay resilient from new sources of spectrally proximate emissions.” The final version cites instead “the need for receiver interference immunity.” Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel and Commissioner Nathan Simington filed statements attached to the item.

T-Mobile announced a new premium rate plan Thursday, Go5G Plus, which guarantees two-year device payment plans and that current customers get the same new phone promotions as new customers, for $90 a month for a single line. Go5G Plus offers everything Magenta Max offers, including unlimited premium data, Netflix and Apple TV. It adds an extra 10 GB of mobile hot spot data for a total of 50 GB per month and 15 GB of high-speed data in Canada and Mexico. T-Mobile also offered to pay off locked phones of customers that want to switch from another network. “Ten years ago, we started the Un-carrier movement by ridding the industry of two-year service contracts,” said CEO Mike Sievert: “A decade after that first Un-carrier move, the Carriers are still focused on trying to lock customers down. … At T-Mobile, we just think differently.”

Canopy Spectrum, which holds 84 C-band licenses, said it will abide by recently announced concessions by major carriers to protect radio altimeters near some airports (see 2304030070). “These Voluntary Commitments will support full-power deployments across the C-Band, and are crafted to minimize the operational impact on Canopy’s C-Band operations,” said a filing Thursday in docket 18-122.

Sierra Nevada Corp. (SNC) met with FCC Wireless Bureau staff on the company’s 2018 proposal to use 95 GHz spectrum for enhanced flight vision systems (EFVS) on aircraft. The Haystack Observatory at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology raised objections (see 2203250061). The company discussed “spectrum sharing issues and SNC noted that it was working collaboratively to resolve concerns from passive users,” said a filing posted Wednesday in docket 19-140: “SNC’s experimental testing supports a conclusion that the proposed radar use will emit below the ITU recommended protections to radio astronomy for excess data loss. SNC will submit supplemental technical information once a new report is finalized.”

Representatives of groups representing the deaf and hard of hearing said they support a limited waiver sought by the ATIS Hearing Aid Compatibility (HAC) Task Force for HAC rules (see 2303310060), in a meeting with staff from the FCC Wireless and Consumer and Governmental Affairs bureaus. “The rationale for supporting the short-term limited waiver was to ensure that the wireless industry could have the time they need to address problems found with the testing methodology for volume control” in the rules, said a filing posted Tuesday in docket 20-3. “We are encouraged that industry is actively engaged in the [Telecommunications Industry Association’s volume control task group] and look forward to contributions from industry so that any testing issues can be addressed and solutions found,” said the Hearing Loss Association of America and Gallaudet University's Deaf/Hard of Hearing Rehabilitation Engineering Research Center on Technology.

FCC commissioners approved a draft order amending part 2 of the agency’s rules to make “non-substantive, editorial revisions” to the commission’s frequency allocation table, “primarily” based on decisions from the 2019 World Radiocommunication Conference and an NPRM proposing modifications based on the 2015 WRC (see 2303300070). It was OK'd before commissioners' meeting Thursday and the item was deleted from the agenda. Also deleted, an order tackling low-power TV and TV translator rules, approved earlier this week (see 2304180055).

Arguments against opening the 6 GHz band to unlicensed operations rely on "flawed and unreliable" analysis, tech industry representatives told aides to the four FCC commissioners, per a docket 18-295 filing Monday. They said Evergy's claims of potential interference from 6 GHz low-power indoor operations from utility use of the band (see 2303020077) relied on a "carefully manufactured, unrealistic, worse-than-worst-case study." They said FirstEnergy's arguments about interference by low-power indoor devices in the 6 GHz band to its licensed operations (see 2301130037) made such errors as artificially maximizing line of sight to microwave receivers ignoring real-world power levels. They said supposed interference events in Miami highlighted by APCO (see 2211220044) involved devices not operating under the FCC's 6 GHz rules and apparently were operating improperly in the band. Meeting with the FCC were reps from Apple, Broadcom, Cisco Systems, Google, Hewlett-Packard, Intel, Meta, Microsoft and Qualcomm. APCO, FirstEnergy and Evergy reps didn't comment.