FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel sent letters to the nation’s nine largest providers of wireless emergency alerts seeking information on how alerts can start to support languages beyond English and Spanish, said an agency news release. “Today, Wireless Emergency Alerts supports messages only in English and Spanish,” said Rosenworcel, posted in Tuesday’s Daily Digest: That means “many non-English speakers in the United States continue to lack crucial information about imminent dangers and other emergencies. I believe that language should not be a barrier to getting critical information that could save lives.” Rosenworcel also sent a letter to New York State Attorney General Letitia James (D), who raised the issue. The letters to providers ask what their practices are to ensure WEAs are accessible to as many subscribers as possible. “Can machine translation technologies that are available today be used in emergency communications for translating alert messages into the most commonly spoken languages in the U.S.?” the letters ask: “If not, what steps remain to make this a reality? Are there other ways to enhance WEA’s accessibility for those who are not proficient in either English or Spanish?” The letters went to AT&T, Cellcom, C-Spire, Dish Network, Google Fi, Lively, T-Mobile, UScellular and Verizon.

Gaming was the “starting point” for the metaverse, “but we think this is not the end game,” said Mischa Dohler, Ericsson vice president-emerging technologies, during a hybrid IEEE seminar Monday: “It is really that next-generation internet … that immersive, persistent and active internet. That’s what we’re really trying to build.” Despite disagreements about what the metaverse is, “it is very clear that it cannot exist on its own and requires a lot of tech constituents” including 5G and 5G-advanced, virtual and artificial reality, he said. Consumer surveys show people want the kinds of experiences that are part of the metaverse, he said. “Demand is there,” he said. Dohler said he hates shopping at Costco, but if he had AR glasses that would guide him to the products his family needs, “I would subscribe to this for a lot of money.” 5G is robust enough to allow fully immersive experiences by multiple users using the same access point, he said. “Wi-Fi collapses fairly quickly” and can handle one or two VR connections, but “5G can handle that easily,” he said. The challenge is now less on the device and more on the network to provide extremely low latency, with very low jitter, he said. “We understand now why we need to work towards 6G,” he said.

The FCC Wireless Bureau “accepted for filing” Tuesday long-form applications from seven bidders, none of them T-Mobile, in last summer’s 2.5 GHz auction. Petitions to deny are due at the FCC Feb. 24, oppositions March 3 and replies to oppositions March 10, the bureau said. The bidders are the city of Ketchikan, Alaska, Evolve Cellular, Inland Cellular, Inland Montana, Pathfinder Wireless, Skyrider Communications and Xtreme Enterprises. T-Mobile was the dominant bidder in the $427.8 million auction (see 2209010060).

T-Mobile President-Technology Neville Ray plans to retire in the fall, to be replaced by Chief Network Officer Ulf Ewaldsson, T-Mobile said Monday. “Through his 23 years at T-Mobile, Ray has played a critical role in architecting the Un-carrier’s network strategy -- from 2G to 5G -- and building and leading a best-in-class team that has brought it to life,” the company said.

Representatives of NCTA, CableLabs and cable companies urged the FCC to adopt rules proposed in a 2020 Further NPRM (see 2004230059) allowing low-power indoor use of the 6 GHz band at levels higher than now allowed. They met with staff from the Office of Engineering and Technology. “The 6 GHz FNPRM’s proposed LPI power levels will not increase the risk of harmful interference to Fixed Service (FS) incumbent operators in the 6 GHz band,” the cable interests said in a filing posted Monday in docket 18-295: “CableLabs has repeatedly confirmed this with detailed technical analyses that use signal-to-interference-plus-noise ratio (SINR), rather than interference-to-noise power ratio (I/N), to determine the actual risk of impairment to an FS link’s signal. SINR is a more accurate indicator of interference risk than I/N because it is based on how interference (I) and noise (N) could affect a known signal (S).”

The Mobile World Congress in Barcelona will show industry’s focus is expanding beyond 5G, analyst Jeff Kagan blogged Monday. One big focus will be private wireless, Kagan predicted. “Wireless carriers like Verizon, T-Mobile and AT&T see the growth opportunity and are entering this space, delivering hybrid private wireless services on their public wireless network, to companies, colleges and governments,” he said. Another big focus will be chatbot technology, which lets users have a conversation with AI, he said: “We have all heard stories about how college students use AI and Chatbot technology to write term papers and how teachers cannot tell the difference. This is just the beginning.”

The International Air Transport Association (IATA) warned that retrofitting radio altimeters (RAs) on commercial aircraft to ensure they're safe from 5G wireless interference may cost airlines at least $637 million. The FAA earlier estimated the cost upgrades at just $26 million nationwide (see 2301100060). Comments were posted this week and last in docket FAA-2022-1647-0001. The FAA proposed in January that passenger and cargo aircraft in the U.S. have 5G C-band-tolerant radio altimeters or install approved filters by early 2024. “It is unfortunate” the FCC and carriers “refused to accept that any limitations on the 5G spectrum signal around airports were necessary to ensure the continued safe operation of commercial aviation,” IATA said: “This is despite the fact that IATA and other industry representatives raised these safety and interference concerns long before the auction of this spectrum. Now, the aviation industry, rather than the FCC or the telecommunications companies, is being told to pay to upgrade its certified radio altimeters. The unfairness of this cannot be overstated.” Carriers didn't file comments in the proceeding. “The wireless industry continues to work collaboratively with all stakeholders and supports the FAA’s schedule for altimeter upgrades," a CTIA spokesperson emailed. Others questioned timing. The American Association of Airport Executives (AAAW) said the FAA must work with other federal agencies, along with the aviation and telecom industries, “to develop a permanent solution that does not rely upon voluntary mitigation measures from telecommunications providers.” AAAW questioned whether the proposed timeline is workable: “While airports are not in the best position to determine the appropriate timeline for retrofitting existing airplanes, comments from air carriers and manufacturers in response to the proposal and over the past several months are clear: the proposed deadlines are unachievable, and FAA needs to extend them to prevent disruptions to the air transportation system.” The Cargo Airline Association said modifying altimeters “is not a quick process,” the group said: “The time it takes to go from the RA/filter modification development all the way to the end-state of equipage on aircraft is multi-layered and an incredibly complex process. The multitude of paperwork approvals and the complexity of the logistics channels have been further hampered by significant supply chain challenges and lack of available parts.”

Shure General Counsel Paul Applebaum and others from the company discussed “spectrum policy and planning” for wireless mics and other professional use audio equipment in a meeting with aides to all four FCC commissioners, said filings posted Friday in docket 21-115. “Shure emphasized that Commission spectrum policy should address the important needs of [programme making and special events (PMSE)] operations [supporting] content creation sectors representing more than an estimated trillion dollars in economic value,” said a filing on the meeting with aides to Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel. “Notwithstanding the continuing expansion in demand for PMSE operations to support U.S. broadcasting, U.S. streaming services, theater, music, sports, Houses of Worship, business gatherings, and education, among other uses, U.S. ... operations have been constrained by a material reduction in available spectrum as a result of changes in Commission rules,” Shure said.

The Michigan State 911 Committee urged the FCC to require wireless providers to act on location-based routing of emergency calls. “Having some provide LBR while others do not, creates an expectation for callers that all wireless calls provide this information to 911 centers, and that 911 centers will be able to locate them when they are experiencing an emergency,” the committee posted Friday in docket 18-64: “Sadly, this is not the reality today.”

After meeting with an aide to FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel (see 2302070040), Apple representatives met with aides to the other commissioners to urge the FCC to act on rules allowing very-low power (VLP) mobile applications in the 6 GHz band, said a filing posted Friday in docket 18-295. Apple discussed a recent Monte Carlo analysis of interference risks to incumbent links in the band in Houston. “Only probabilistic interference analysis -- not static, worst-case analysis -- is appropriate for VLP,” Apple said.