CTIA and the National Consumer Law Center jointly asked the FCC to extend by two weeks the Nov. 25 deadline for reply comments on possible robotext rules. Initial comments were due last week (see 2211140030). “The current reply comment period leaves insufficient time for parties to review the extensive comments in this complex proceeding and develop a complete record for the Commission’s consideration,” said a filing posted Tuesday in docket 21-402. “The reply comment period is effectively cut in half by two federal holidays, Veterans Day and Thanksgiving Day, which fall within the reply comment period,” the groups said: “These events create significant challenges to parties’ ability to review the record, formulate positions with internal stakeholders and constituent members, and draft reply comments that substantively respond to the initial comments.”

A top DOD spectrum official defended the citizens broadband radio service band, writing in a new posting released as CTIA questioned whether CBRS is really the sharing model of the future (see 2211140062). “Dubbed by some as ‘the Innovation Band,’ CBRS offers the some of the features of traditional wireless and Wi-Fi, but with lower fixed costs, higher quality, greater efficiency, and increased security,” said Vernita Harris, DOD director-spectrum policy and programs, on LinkedIn Monday. “With CBRS, the U.S. military can continue to use critical radars systems while commercial users have leveraged CBRS in a variety of sectors, ranging from real estate to health care to utilities,” she said. Harris said CBRS shows “unprecedented coordination between federal users, regulators and industry” and benefited from “groundbreaking” automation. “More work lies ahead, but the results of CBRS so far are promising, and those involved in its success so far should be proud,” she said: “The DOD, other federal spectrum users, and industry continue to look for new use cases along with ways to improve the existing CBRS system. Trust across government and industry underpins the development of holistic spectrum solutions for EVERYONE’s benefit.”

Pockets of the U.S. served by T-Mobile remain LTE only, but “the vast majority” of the network is now 5G, said Neville Ray, T-Mobile president-technology, during a New Street and Boston Consulting conference Monday. Ray said in some areas T-Mobile is leaning on a roaming agreement with AT&T, which has opened up some rural markets through its FirstNet build. T-Mobile’s 5G build hit a peak this year and the company will shift “to what we call customer-driven coverage … making sure that we are investing where it really matters, where there is differentiated need for new coverage or additional coverage from T-Mobile,” Ray said. That includes more in-building coverage and some locations T-Mobile hasn’t yet reached, he said. Ray also noted T-Mobile’s work with SpaceX on satellite connections (see 2209150072). The service will be “text- and messaging-based in the early running” but will evolve to provide more “ubiquitous connectivity,” he said. T-Mobile should be positioned to support as many as 8 million fixed wireless customers in 2025, Ray said. “There is a lot of latent demand for the product that we are bringing to the marketplace,” he said: “From a capacity perspective, we have always been very careful and diligent to make sure that we grow this network for fixed wireless in the right places.” T-Mobile announced Monday that it's now lighting up its stand-alone (SA) core network with its 2.5 GHz spectrum. The SA network has been using 600 MHz spectrum since 2020, Ray said. “The move immediately advances T-Mobile’s network -- unleashing faster speeds for customers across the country while further reducing any lag in the network with lower latency, improving applications like gaming that require near real-time responsiveness,” T-Mobile said.

Qualcomm representatives met with FCC Office of Engineering and Technology staff about the company’s geolocation technologies for standard power devices used in the 6 GHz band and how they will “operate in conjunction with an Automated Frequency Coordination system,” said a filing posted Monday in docket 18-295. OET recently conditionally approved AFC systems in the band, subject to testing (see 2211040055).

The FCC Wireless Bureau approved nine more licenses Monday in the 900 MHz broadband segment awarded to PDV Spectrum. Two were in Missouri, seven in Kansas. The FCC approved an order in 2020 reallocating a 6 MHz swath in the band for broadband while keeping 4 MHz for narrowband (see 2005130057).

5G is becoming an increasingly important part of how businesses communicate, though what the 5G world will look like is still taking shape, speakers said Monday during a Fierce Wireless virtual enterprise 5G conference. “We’re still in the early days,” said Howard Wu, U.S. general manager for equipment maker Quanta Cloud Technology. “A lot of the enterprises, institutions, large organizations are trying to figure out how to use 5G as an enabled technology,” he said. “5G isn’t an aim in and of itself, it’s an enabler,” said Macquarie Capital’s Oliver Bradley. “The key is what is it you’re ... trying to achieve,” he said. Historically, the cost of capital was high for the kinds of companies now active in 5G, with investors expecting higher rewards because of higher risks, he said: “That attracts a certain cost of capital that’s fairly expensive,” he said. In recent years, traditional infrastructure investors, who are more averse to risk, are now viewing “the digital world” as “the next … utility,” Bradley said. Digital connectivity is now viewed as “an essential service” comparable to water or electricity, he said. “It’s not just a nice-to-have, it’s not just a tech, it’s not just a fashion or a fad,” he said. Enterprise customers are looking for a “seamless, cell-service experience,” more like traditional consumer wireless than the business-to-business communications of the past, “which traditionally had delays and many manual processes and steps,” said Mike Bimm, ServiceNow global head-telecom, media and technology architecture. “As the infrastructure complexity and the service offerings grow, you need to have efficient, automated processes, and that need only increases,” he said. Companies want continuity as they invest in 5G and smart buildings, said Steve Carroll, global account director at communications gear maker Belden. Belden cares about “scalability,” he said: “What are we building today that is going to make sure that we’re not going to have to rip and replace it three years from now?”

T-Mobile said Thursday it expanded the footprint of its 5G Home Internet service across parts of Illinois, Michigan and Wisconsin. More than 6 million homes throughout those states, and more than 40 million nationwide, are now eligible for the service, T-Mobile said.

China Tech Threat urged the FCC to be more aggressive in clamping down on companies that are a risk to U.S. security, and to expand the number of companies on the agency’s “covered list.” Apart from “the proposed complete ban on Huawei and ZTE, the FCC has devised major exemptions for Hytera Communications Corporation, Hangzhou Hikvision Digital Technology Company, and Dahua Technology Company,” the group said in a filing posted Thursday in docket 21-232: “These exemptions are so broad that they effectively negate the security benefits proposed by the Covered List.” China Tech Threat said the list “should include hundreds, if not, thousands, of entities capable of enabling [Chinese] government intrusion.” The FCC should consider adding “products and services which use radio spectrum” including computers, streaming TVs, drones, memory chips and applications, the group said. The group examines problems posed by technology produced by China with an eye on policy. Experts affiliated with the group include Wiley’s Nazak Nikakhtar and Strand Consult’s Roslyn Layton.

Apple and Qualcomm representatives met with FCC Office of Engineering and Technology staff to discuss “the parameters that underlie probability analyses assessing” radio local access network and fixed service “interactions” in the 6 GHz band. The discussion noted “the importance of including parameters accounting for far-field loss, different bandwidths, different power-levels, instantaneously transmitting devices, propagation loss, RLAN and FS height, transmit power control, antenna patterns, polarization mismatch, feeder loss, and FS noise,” said a filing posted Thursday in docket 18-295. The companies cited “differences in the probability analyses already on the record,” including analyses by RKF, the EU and CableLabs, the filing said.

Apple's Emergency SOS service via satellite for its iPhone 14 will be available for U.S. and Canada customers starting later this month, Apple said Thursday. Helping enable the service is a $450 million investment from its Advanced Manufacturing Fund, with most of that funding going to Globalstar, it said. The money will be used for enhancements to Globalstar's L- and S-band low earth orbit satellite network and ground stations, it said. Globalstar CEO Jay Monroe said the company used the Apple funding to grow, construct, expand and upgrade its ground stations. Apple said iPhone users can text with emergency services, launch their Find My app and share their location via satellite when no cellular or Wi-Fi connection is available.