Market share of Wi-Fi 6 and 6E will reach 58% this year, passing Wi-Fi 5, said TrendForce Wednesday. Wi-Fi 6E, which supports 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz bands and can also operate in the 6 GHz band, is designed to reduce network congestion and interference through more numerous, wider and non-overlapping channels, said the research firm. More automotive, IoT and AR/VR tech is expected to enter the consumer market this year, creating additional demand for high-quality Wi-Fi, while smart home and smart lighting are among the fastest growing consumer segments, it said. Shipments of Wi-Fi-based smart home gear are forecast to grow at a compound annual growth rate of 18% from 2021 to 2026, driving applications including AR/VR, cloud gaming, 4K videoconferencing and 8K streaming media, it said. By 2025, the share of smartphones supporting Wi-Fi 6 and 6E is estimated to exceed 80%.

The Aerospace Vehicle Systems Institute (AVSI) filed at the FCC the third and final volume of test results on potential interference caused by use of the C-band to radio altimeters, in a filing posted Wednesday in docket 18-122. The earlier volumes were filed in December. The report offers “additional manufacturer-provided test results,” AVSI said: The data is “considered Background Proprietary Information of the individual contributors. The manufacturers have preserved the anonymized labeling used in Volume I and II of this report to allow comparison between AVSI and manufacturer test results.” Verizon is already deploying 5G in the band, though with voluntary limits around some airports (see 2201180065).

NCTA representatives urged the FCC to wrap up a 2020 Further NPRM on proposed changes to rules for the 6 GHz band (see 2204080042), increasing the power limit for low-power indoor (LPI) access points (APs), in a virtual meeting with staff from the FCC Office of Engineering and Technology and Office of the General Counsel. “The Commission can quickly deliver expanded benefits to consumers because many 6 GHz LPI APs that are already being deployed will be tunable to that higher power level,” said a filing posted Wednesday in docket 18-295: “A power limit of 8 dBm/MHz [power spectral density] for LPI APs will significantly increase the value and benefits of 6 GHz Wi-Fi for U.S. consumers and businesses without increasing the risk of harmful interference to incumbent users in the band.”

Mid-band fixed wireless access from T-Mobile and Verizon “has emerged as perhaps the key controversy in broadband,” MoffettNathanson’s Craig Moffett told investors Tuesday. “Both companies have targeted broad rollouts and have set ambitious targets, and they have largely dismissed concerns about capacity constraints,” but neither offers much detail, he said. For T-Mobile, Comlinkdata’s data shows deployment skews “towards rural areas” with the “preponderance of subscribers … coming from areas where there is at least one robust competitive wired alternative,” he said. T-Mobile is “clearly being quite deliberate in where they accept new subscribers,” he said. “It is much harder to draw real insight from the Verizon FWA numbers, inasmuch as they apply only to Verizon’s relatively limited deployment of their [millimeter-wave] offering,” Moffett said: “Their subscribers necessarily skew towards dense areas, as the propagation of mmWave demands.”

Wireless-mic maker Sennheiser met with FCC officials following a report (see 2204060068) that the FCC is expected to deny a petition for reconsideration by the company of a December 2020 order (see 2012080064) closing the agency’s 2015 vacant channel NPRM. A vacant channel in every market is “critically important for wireless microphone operations and the content creation industry,” said a filing posted Tuesday in docket 12-268: “There is a robust appetite for all forms of content creation, which has grown exponentially in recent years. As Sennheiser has noted, with this increased demand for content, there is also an increased demand for higher quality, which cannot be met without the necessary spectrum resources to support professional grade wireless microphones.” Company representatives spoke with aides to Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel and Commissioners Brendan Carr and Nathan Simington.

DroneDeploy, which offers software for drones, said the unmanned aviation system (UAS) market is constrained, and taking actions against any drone companies could have a negative effect on the broader industry. FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr called attention in October to China-based DJI (see 2110190051), which has more than half the U.S. drone market, saying it raises national security issues as a “Huawei on wings.” The FCC “should coordinate with other government efforts to promote the development of alternatives to products of concern, including small UAS,” DroneDeploy said in a filing posted Thursday in docket 21-232: “FCC action on restricting new drone equipment authorizations should consider hardware market realities and ensure there are other available alternatives.” DroneDeploy representatives spoke with aides to Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel and Commissioner Geoffrey Starks, Office of Engineering and Technology acting Chief Ronald Repasi and other FCC staff.

The FCC Consumer and Governmental Affairs Bureau Thursday released a Small Entity Compliance Guide for the 2.5 GHz auction slated to start in July. The guide is “designed to help individuals and small businesses understand the requirements and other procedures for the Commission’s auction of approximately 8,000 new flexible-use geographic overlay licenses in the 2.5 GHz band,” it says: “The Commission established this auction to further the availability of mid-band spectrum that will allow for more efficient and effective use of 2.5 GHz spectrum. More mid-band spectrum will be available for the mobile services on which consumers increasingly rely and the licenses made available in this auction will help extend the availability of 5G services beyond the most populated areas.”

GCI representatives urged the FCC to release instructions on mobile testing requirements under the Alaska Plan, in a call with an aide to Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel. The Sept. 30 deadline for submitting Alaska Plan drive test data is approaching and “providers need to have final instructions and their sample lists soon to be able to plan, conduct, and process their tests by the deadline,” said a filing posted Wednesday in docket 16-271.

The FCC Wireless Bureau granted eight additional licenses purchased in the C-band auction, the last the bureau needed to address. Pioneer Telephone Co-op was awarded four licenses in Oklahoma. Smith Bagley got three in New Mexico and one in Arizona. The Wednesday grants come more than a year after successful bidders in the auction filed long-form applications. The record-setting auction raised more than $81 billion, with 21 bidders winning a total of 5,684 licenses.

The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals extended until July 14 a stay on proceedings for a lawsuit by the League of California Cities challenging the FCC’s June 2020 wireless infrastructure declaratory ruling. “If no motion for further relief is filed before this date, the remaining briefing schedule will be reset in a future order,” said the court in case 20-71765. The FCC said last month the court should extend abeyance because the agency lacked a full complement of commissioners (see 2203160042).