UScellular CEO Laurent Therivel met with FCC Commissioner Geoffrey Starks in Chicago recently to urge that markets currently receiving unsubsidized 4G LTE service in rural America be “included as eligible areas” in an upcoming 5G Fund auction, said a filing posted Monday in docket 20-32. “If these areas are ineligible for 5G Fund support, it will represent a significant missed opportunity for the Commission to deliver to rural America 5G service that is timely and of a quality that is reasonably comparable to that which is currently available in urban and suburban areas,” the carrier said.

Intel, Meta and Qualcomm representatives met virtually with staff from the FCC Office of Engineering and Technology on the proposal for the 60 GHz band (see 2206010046). The plan “divides the 57-64 GHz band into three segments to allow for 2 GHz, 4.5 GHz and 7 GHz radars that generally map to the channels in the IEEE 802.11ad/ay standards,” said a filing posted Monday in docket 21-264: “It allows high-powered, unrestricted frequency-modulated continuous wave (FMCW) radar operations in the lowermost 2 GHz, equal access by radars and communications in the middle of the band, and continued radar operations across the entire 7 GHz band by the current Google Soli product.” The band was the topic of an FCC NPRM last summer (see 2107130066).

NTIA will host a spectrum sharing symposium Sept. 19, from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. EDT, at the National Press Club. The focus is “continued innovation in the use of radio-frequency spectrum, the evolution of new techniques and technologies to manage its use domestically and internationally, and principles for the development and execution of a national spectrum strategy,” said a notice for Tuesday’s Federal Register. The Biden administration reportedly is moving closer to releasing a national spectrum strategy (see 2208150035).

Dish Network critiques of DirecTV's technical study about 12 GHz sharing (see 2208080047) badly mischaracterize the methodology and results, DirecTV representatives told an aide to FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel, per a docket 20-443 post Monday. DirecTV responded to numerous Dish assertions.

The FCC’s Technological Advisory Council will meet Sept. 15, starting at 10 a.m. EDT, its first meeting since June (see 2206090059), said a Friday Federal Register notice. The meeting will be virtual. TAC's focus this cycle is preparing for 6G.

Members of the California General Assembly urged the FCC to drop plans to change the rules for the 12 GHz band to allow 5G. “The submissions to this docket make it clear that the 12.2-12.7 GHz Band is not suitable for terrestrial two-way wireless applications,” said a letter to FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel posted Friday in docket 20-443: “Multiple technical studies submitted to the docket have demonstrated the real and immediate impact to consumers and, by extension, the tens of thousands of families across California should this proposal go forward. A broad coalition of companies and stakeholders across multiple industries have filed in opposition, including nearly 100,000 everyday American families.”

The ATIS Network Reliability Steering Committee (NRSC) asked the FCC to modify its network outage reporting system rules to encourage public safety answering points and 911 authorities to give covered 911 providers data on population counts served by the call centers. The committee also asked the FCC to require covered 911 service providers “to use census or population data derived from other sources instead of telephone number counts to determine ‘user minutes’ threshold criteria.” The petition, posted Friday, asks the FCC to prevent over-reporting of outages by setting a de minimis exception for outages “that affect four (4) or fewer macro cell sites located in Rural Service Areas or 14 or fewer macro cell sites located in Metropolitan Service Areas,” among other proposed changes. “ATIS NRSC recommends changes to Sections 4.7 and 4.9 of the Commission’s rules to facilitate the transition from legacy to [next-generation] 911 systems and to support continued, timely notification of outages in NORS as well as to PSAPs by NG911 systems,” the filing said.

The FCC’s 2.5 GHz auction is gaining some momentum and closed out the week at$377 million, three weeks after the auction started and 47 rounds in. Based on increased activity in some large counties “it looks like we will be crossing the $400 million threshold sometime on Monday,” predicted Sasha Javid, BitPath chief operating officer. Javid had earlier warned the auction could struggle to hit $300 million (see 2208080061).

The FCC posted Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel’s responses Thursday to letters from House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., and 16 other House members urging the commission in its evaluation of future use of the 12 GHz band to more carefully consider the potential impact of terrestrial operations on the frequency’s incumbent users. McCarthy in June urged the FCC to “carefully balance the need to encourage American innovation and ensure all Americans have broadband no matter where they are when evaluating whether terrestrial services can coexist with these important space-based communications services.” Rosenworcel’s responses to McCarthy and others are the same as her letter to Rep. Neal Dunn, R-Fla., which said the agency is engaged in a complex analysis of potential 12 GHz interference risks (see 2208100063).

Nova Labs, which founded Helium Network and promotes decentralized wireless infrastructure, announced Thursday it’s buying FreedomFi, which develops software for crowdsourced 5G networks (see 2206130047). It cited FreedomFi's "deep expertise in the development of open source tools for deployment and management of next-generation distributed mobile networks." The terms weren’t disclosed. FreedomFi is funded by Blueyard Capital, Qualcomm Ventures and Samsung Next.