The National Safety Council urged the FCC to quickly grant waivers allowing immediate use of the 5.9 GHz band for cellular-vehicle-to-everything technology. “Investment in and deployment of C-V2X safety services, within the existing Intelligent Transportation System allocation in the upper 5.9 GHz band, could prevent or mitigate crashes and save lives,” the council said, in a filing posted Wednesday in docket 19-138. The waivers have gotten broad support and some believe there could be action soon by the FCC (see 2209010047).

Representatives of the Wi-Fi Alliance met virtually this week with aides to all four FCC commissioners, asking for action on further changes to 6 GHz rules, proposed by the commission in 2020. Final comments have been in since July 2020 (see 2007280033). “We urged the Commission to act on the Further Notice … and rely on its expertise to make a public interest judgment based on the robust record supporting the adoption of final rules for the 6 GHz band,” said a filing posted Wednesday in docket 18-295. “Action on the Further Notice will allow the Commission to continue to demonstrate international leadership on the use of the 6 GHz band for unlicensed operations and promote use of the band to close the homework gap and bridge the digital divide,” the alliance said.

FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr said the FCC should launch a rulemaking on higher power levels for the citizens broadband radio service band, saying that could be helpful to wireless ISPs, in a prerecorded interview with new WISP Association President David Zumwalt. The interview was aired Wednesday at a WISPA meeting in Las Vegas. “It’s worth asking the question, teeing it up,” Carr said. “There are certainly some use cases, particularly in rural communities where upping the power … might allow you from your existing tower site to reach one more home, one more business,” he said of CBRS changes: “At the end of the day, WISPs are so connected to their communities. … WISPs are scrappy. WISPs are getting the job done.” The FCC didn't comment. Carr said the FCC needs to get moving on other spectrum initiative as well, including on client-to-client devices in 6 GHz and the UNII2c band. WISPs are “looking for ways to have some stability in the ability to plan on what kind of spectrum they need to be prepared for, whether it’s licensed or unlicensed, and over what period of time they can roll that out,” Zumwalt said. His members are paying close attention to all the spectrum decisions being made at the FCC, he said. The FCC wants to offer licenses covering smaller geographic areas where possible, Carr said. “Maybe every single auction we might not get right ... but hopefully, over a course of years, we are doing some small geographies, some large geographies, and people are seeing a healthy mix,” he said. WISPA members have continuing concerns about NTIA’s broadband, equity, access and deployment program notice of funding opportunity (NOFO) and appreciate the questions that have been raised by Carr (see 2207210064), Zumwalt said: “It should have been more technology neutral and inclusive.” Carr said it looked to him like NTIA made “a lot of the right cuts” in the NOFO but “there was some political turning of the dials at the last minute.” Carr agreed about the need to refocus the NOFO. “We love fiber, we want tons of fiber,” he said. “But we need to be open-minded … for last-mile technologies, including fixed wireless,” he said. “We love fiber too,” Zumwalt responded: “But we love fiber in the right place, in the right circumstance.” Carr said insisting on a fiber-only approach means telling people “you need to wait on the wrong side of the digital divide years longer than necessary.” The FCC faces challenges delivering on a broadband map, expected in November, Carr said. “I don’t know that we have to hit a bulls-eye” with the initial map “but we have to at least get it in the strike zone,” he said. Carr said he hopes the FCC doesn’t revisit reclassifying broadband as a Communications Act Title II service. “That’s just a backward looking debate,” he said. Title II and possible price controls, “really that’s a 2005 debate,” he said.

T-Mobile asked the FCC to ask additional questions and require more transparency before renewing FirstNet’s band 14 license, which is now before the commission (see 2209230045). T-Mobile competitor AT&T is building the network. “FirstNet appears to permit AT&T to use the sometimes disparate regulatory treatment of FirstNet to AT&T’s marketing advantage,” said a filing posted Tuesday in docket 12-94. T-Mobile said it doesn’t oppose license renewal, per se. “The Commission must first (i) seek additional information from FirstNet in order to determine whether FirstNet has met its performance obligations; (ii) require FirstNet’s relationships and practices to be fully transparent; (iii) impose conditions on FirstNet to ensure that it conforms to the expectations that Congress established when it directed FirstNet’s creation; and (iv) establish mechanisms to provide appropriate oversight over FirstNet going forward,” the provider said.

SpaceX's analysis showing harmful interference threats from 5G use of the 12 GHz band (see 2206220042) might have been too conservative, the company said Tuesday in docket 20-443, citing a review of the analysis by satellite consultancy Savid. DirecTV also commissioned a Savid study (see 2207180026). SpaceX said the Savid review showed the analysis significantly erred on the side of 5G in its power assumptions, underestimating the interference impact into Starlink terminals. SpaceX said the technical record in the proceeding "is indisputable that giving [5G advocates] new rights in the band will cause ongoing service degradation and outages to Americans everywhere."

Dish Network told the FCC it’s continuing to build out its 5G network since certifying in June that it’s now offering 5G broadband service to more than 20% of U.S. POPs (see 2206150044). “Since meeting its 2022 milestone, DISH has continued to build out its cloud-native, standalone 5G wireless network and looks forward to bringing additional competition to American consumers and enhancing U.S. technology leadership through its deployment,” said a filing posted Tuesday in docket 22-212. Parts of the update, including Dish 5G sites, were redacted. Dish said it’s utilizing its AWS-4, AWS H block and 700 MHz E block licenses and “radios deployed on all of the DISH 5G Sites were transmitting using all of these bands.” Dish is offering 5G voice over new radio (VoNR) on the Motorola Edge+ in the Las Vegas market, it said. “DISH was the first provider to launch VoNR in the U.S. in May 2022, and we plan to expand VoNR functionality and the sale of VoNR devices to additional markets in the coming months as we optimize the VoNR experience,” the filing said.

T-Mobile asked the FCC for special temporary authority to immediately start using under special temporary authority many of the licenses it won in the 2.5 GHz auction. The spectrum T-Mobile won in the auction is “interspersed with 2.5 GHz spectrum T-Mobile has already deployed for 5G mobile broadband,” the carrier said in a filing posted Monday. “The intermixture of newly won and operational spectrum provides the Commission with a unique opportunity to significantly increase 5G mobile broadband capacity for consumers by allowing T-Mobile to simply expand the channel bandwidths that its previously deployed 5G equipment already supports,” T-Mobile said: “In the unlikely event that the licenses … are not awarded to T-Mobile, operations on the spectrum can cease.” In all the markets identified in its filing, the carrier said it has “already deployed advanced 5G mobile broadband services in the 2.5 GHz band, and … can launch operations without delay and without deploying new infrastructure.” T-Mobile dominated the auction (see 2209010052), winning 7,156 licenses for $304.3 million. Final payments for licenses were due Friday.

Representatives of technology company Robert Bosch urged more flexibility as the FCC examines possible changes to 60 GHz rules. “Emerging public interest use cases abound, with Bosch among those developing innovative radar capabilities such as child presence detection,” the company said in a filing posted Friday in docket 21-264. Bosch met with FCC Office of Engineering and Technology staff. “Bosch explained that restrictions such as minimum off-time periods, however, could jeopardize the deployment of new radar capabilities unnecessarily,” the company said: “Bosch therefore supports calls by radar stakeholders to share the 60 GHz band through a soft segmentation approach that provides greater flexibility for radar operations in the lower portion of the 60 GHz band and greater flexibility for WiGig [gigabit Wi-Fi technology] operations in the upper portion.”

An order approved by FCC commissioners in July (see 2207060070) requiring wireless carriers to participate in the previously voluntary wireless network resiliency cooperative framework, is effective Oct. 31, said a Friday Federal Register notice. The order also requires providers to work out roaming arrangements before disasters. A second notice details the timetable for comments on a Further NPRM, which seeks comment on the form carriers will use to report compliance with the new mandatory disaster response initiative, which replaces the voluntary framework (see 2207070060). Comments are due Oct. 31, replies Nov. 29, in docket 21-346.

ITS America updated FCC staff, mostly from the Office of Engineering and Technology, on its stance on cellular vehicle-to-everything in the 5.9 GHz band, in meetings. “The participants discussed the need for expeditious grant of waiver requests to deploy V2X systems pending adoption of a Second Report and Order in this proceeding; the necessity of continued coordination between the FCC, other government agencies, and the transportation industry; as well as a potential reimbursement mechanism for incumbent licensees required to transition their operations,” said a filing Thursday in docket 19-138: The group “also urged the FCC to adopt service rules in its Second Report and Order that would protect V2X services from interference.” Industry observers expect the FCC to act soon on C-V2X waiver requests (see 2209010047).