UScellular CEO Laurent Therivel recommended the FCC do "additional fact-finding and rulemaking to update the criteria for the 5G Fund and maximize its efficiency in bringing high-speed mobile broadband connectivity to rural Americans,” in separate meetings with FCC Commissioners Brendan Carr and Geoffrey Starks. The meetings were on the 5G Fund and the company’s work on deploying C-band spectrum, UScellular said in filings posted Tuesday in docket 20-32 (see here and here). The CEO earlier spoke with Commissioner Nathan Simington (see 2211170067).

Representatives from Miami-Dade County and APCO asked for help from the FCC, alleging interference in the 6 GHz band is keeping the county from using a new communications system. “Miami-Dade cannot fully utilize its new 6 GHz microwave system for the life-safety communications it was designed for until the interference is resolved,” said a filing posted Tuesday in docket 18-295. Officials met with staff from the Enforcement and Public Safety bureaus. An investigation tied the interference to part 15 devices used in an enterprise system managed by CitySpan, the filing said: “Interference … was causing a significant increase in noise floor and reduction in receiver threshold for the microwave links impacted. Identifying the source of interference was particularly difficult because the device’s frequency hopping made the interference inconsistent.” San Francisco-based CitySpan didn’t comment.

The FCC Wireless Bureau and Office of Engineering and Technology extended by 14 days the initial and reply comment deadlines on the 12.7 GHz notice of inquiry approved by commissioners in October (see 2210270046). The Open Technology Institute at New America and Public Knowledge asked for an extra 21 days, satellite operators 14 days, the FCC noted Tuesday. “We conclude that extension of the comment and reply comment deadlines to December 12 ... and January 10, ... respectively, will provide interested parties with additional time to prepare comments and reply comments that respond to the important issues raised in the NOI, and no party will be adversely affected by this extension." Said a filing by the public interest groups, posted Tuesday in docket 22-352: “The current schedule affords commenters only 30 days from adoption of the NOI to consider the Commission’s inquiry, gather information, and compose comments ... This is unusually challenging because of the very wide scope of the Commission’s inquiry. … Importantly, and unlike most Commission proceedings, the 12.7-13.25 GHz proceeding does not concern a frequency band that has been extensively considered and debated previously.”

The Association for Uncrewed Vehicle Systems International, the Commercial Drone Alliance and the Small UAV Coalition jointly supported Amazon’s calls for allowing unmanned aerial vehicle radars in the 60 GHz band (see 2210200058). “We all work closely with users across the whole drone delivery ecosystem and support the authorization of the use of unlicensed field disturbance sensor (FDS) devices onboard drones in the 60 GHz band,” said a filing posted Tuesday in docket 21-264. “As with most aviation safety systems, redundancy is a best practice, so FDS with both horizontal and vertical transmission would provide the most benefit and risk reduction,” the groups said: “This enhances drone safety, reducing the risk to both people and property in the air and on the ground, which is clearly in the public interest.”

CNH Industrial America updated the FCC on a proposal from last year that the FCC permit agricultural transportation safety messages to transmit in the 5.9 GHz band at a level of up to one watt in rural areas. “Approving our request for this increased power level in rural areas would allow agricultural transportation safety messages to transmit more easily and over greater distances,” said a filing posted Friday in docket 19-138. “We also discussed that action to grant our proposal is critically important to users of agricultural vehicles, which typically operate in open areas (rather than on a commercial roadway); and that agricultural vehicle operators would benefit from the ability to transmit with greater certainty over physically larger areas.”

Amazon told FCC Wireless Bureau staff it's important to allow low-flying drone radars in the 60 GHz band (see 2210200058), said a filing posted Monday in docket 21-264. “Amazon explained that the Commission should enable innovative radar applications for near ground drone operations in the 60-64 GHz band because they are similar to other non-airborne 60 GHz devices currently allowed under the Commission’s rules,” Amazon said: “Amazon also discussed how the unique characteristics of innovative 60 GHz radar technologies would enhance the safety of drone operations in the U.S. by improving a drone’s ability to sense and avoid persons and obstacles in and near its path without causing harmful interference to other spectrum users.”

On revised rules for the 4.9 GHz band, APCO said the FCC should “require frequency coordination, adopt minor changes to ULS [the universal licensing system] to properly capture all pertinent details of public safety operations, increase operational and technical flexibility, and depart from the current geographic licensing framework. These rule changes would provide new incentives to drive further use of the band while officially recording public safety operational and technical parameters in the ULS database. This would in turn set the stage for subsequent sharing of this band with non-public safety users, which APCO has also supported in order to increase innovation and competition in the 4.9 GHz equipment marketplace, and likely lower costs provided that public safety users retain priority and preemption rights over other users.” The APCO comments to officials from the Wireless and Public Safety bureaus addressed an order recently circulated by FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel (see 2211090036), said a filing posted Monday in docket 07-100.

UScellular representatives discussed its C-band deployment plans and discussions with the FAA, warning against delays, in calls with FCC Wireless Bureau and Office of Engineering and Technology staff. “UScellular emphasized the importance of being able to deploy this spectrum in a timely manner to help cure the digital divide in rural areas,” said a filing posted Monday in docket 18-122: “UScellular recommended that the FCC reject calls for modifications to its C-band rules, as changes at this stage will certainly cause deployment delays despite making progress with the FAA, harming Americans who need 5G service the most.” The carrier bid $1.3 billion in the auction, which ended last year (see 2102180041).

Callers must receive consumers' prior express consent before sending ringless voicemails, the FCC said in a declaratory ruling and order released Monday. The order, adopted Nov. 14, denied All About the Message's request that such voicemails were not subject to robocall restrictions (see 2202020040). All About the Message's ringless voicemails are "identical in function to the internet-to-phone texting the commission in 2015 found subject to the [Telephone Consumer Protection Act]," the order said. The FCC also denied All About the Message's request for a waiver of commission rules because the messages it would send are "calls that pose the same consumer protection concerns that Congress contemplated when enacting the TCPA."

AT&T fired back at T-Mobile on AT&T’s petition asking the FCC not to grant its rival additional mid-band licenses in the 2.5 GHz band. “T-Mobile does not dispute that its application triggers competitive scrutiny under the Commission’s existing spectrum screen,” AT&T said, responding to T-Mobile’s defense (see 2211150017): “Nor does T-Mobile try to explain away the numerous statements of its senior executives outlining the company’s plan to hobble competition for the next decade by building on its grossly disproportionate spectrum advantage.” T-Mobile “gives the Commission a false choice: unconditionally grant T-Mobile these 2.5 GHz licenses or else let the relevant spectrum ‘l[ie] fallow,’” AT&T said. The commission could allow T-Mobile to deploy the 2.5 GHz spectrum while requiring divestiture of other licenses “needed to restore competitive condition,” the filing said. “T-Mobile tries to avoid spectrum-aggregation review altogether by arguing that it would ‘undermine the integrity of the auction process,’” but “that, too, is meritless: the Commission routinely conducts such post-auction reviews, and they are a small price to pay for safeguarding competitive access to scarce spectrum assets.”