The National Public Safety Telecommunications Council (NPSTC) no longer has concerns about possible disruptions to public safety operations in the 851-854 MHz band segment from a pending Gogo Business Aviation waiver on power limits for air-to-ground operations in the 849-851 MHz and 894-896 MHz bands, Gogo said in docket 21-282 Wednesday. In a meeting with an FCC Wireless Bureau staffer, Gogo said it's providing Motorola with technical information in hopes of assuaging its concerns about harmful interference to base stations receiving in the 896.0-897.5 MHz band. NPSTC didn't comment.

The FCC Wireless Bureau sought comment Tuesday on Midland Radio’s request for waiver of FCC rules for general mobile radio service devices in the 462 MHz band. Midland requested a waiver to allow digital data transmission from non-handheld radios, the automatic transmission of digital data more than once within a 30-second period, and antennas to be a non-integrated part of the GMRS unit, the bureau said. Midland said the waiver would “improve safety for GMRS users.” Midland proposed to “manufacture GMRS radios that can be used by the off-road/off-grid community to communicate with each other and share real-time GPS location information.” Comments are due Nov. 12, replies Nov. 26, in docket 21-388.

Small- and medium-sized wireless carriers urged a standard simultaneous multiple round auction in the 2.5 GHz band, in a letter posted Tuesday in FCC docket 18-120. “A single round bid does not allow for price discovery,” the providers said: “There is little public information on the value of this spectrum, especially the value assigned by small companies, so it will be hard to know what a winning bid will be until we see others’ bids.” Licenses here "are unique due to different levels of incumbency -- even within markets,” the companies said. Among signers were Cellcom, Inland Cellular, VTel Wireless, C Spire, GCI Communications, Union Telephone, Carolina West Wireless, NE Colorado Cellular and NTT Docomo Pacific.

The Wireless Innovation Forum urged the FCC to keep in mind the benefits of dynamic spectrum sharing, in comments on a Wireless Bureau record refresh on use of the 5030-5091 MHz band by drones (see 2108230034). WInnForum “strongly supports the use of networked and synchronized databases accessed with device location information,” said a filing posted Friday in docket RM-11798: “These databases have emerged as a critical technology for enabling and managing spectrum access.” Networked databases “provide access to information beyond what is immediately observable by a radio, thereby mitigating hidden node problems in spectrum sharing scenarios,” the group said. They also provide “a simpler mechanism for managing upgrades to spectrum management and dynamic access schemes by updating rules in a small set of databases rather than in millions of individual radios,” WInnForum said.

Motorola announced a 6.5-inch mid-tier Android smartphone with a 20:9 aspect ratio, fingerprint unlock, two-day battery life and 13-megapixel camera with phase-detection autofocus. The $159 motog pure, available unlocked and open, will be available for preorder Oct. 14 at Best Buy, Walmart, B&H Photo, Amazon, Motorola.com and Verizon, said the company. Shipping date wasn't given. It will be available to other carriers in coming months.

The FCC's 3.45 GHz auction crested above $1 billion Thursday, to close the day at $1.2 billion in gross proceeds. That’s up from $893 million on Wednesday. Three more rounds are scheduled for Friday, with four rounds a day starting Tuesday.

A single-round, sealed-bid format is critical for wireless ISPs to bid in an eventual 2.5 GHz auction, WISPA said in calls with aides to FCC Commissioners Brendan Carr and Geoffrey Starks. “The vast majority of WISPA’s 700-plus members are very small fixed wireless internet service providers” who “lack the resources to hire auction consultants and inhouse counsel,” said a filing posted Thursday in docket 20-429. Most have never participated in an FCC auction, the group said: “There is equal unfamiliarity with both auction designs. To these potential bidders, who lack experience with spectrum auctions and the resources to hire consultants, a single-round, sealed-bid auction is much easier to understand than a simultaneous, multiple-round auction.” WISPA noted a single round auction would also be quicker and makes sense in a band where “the lack of fungibility contrasts with other spectrum auctions where the licenses are typically offered for an unencumbered area … in equal-size spectrum blocks.”

The 5Gfor12GHz Coalition urged the FCC to open the 12 GHz band for 5G before action by Congress allocating money for broadband deployment. The record “confirms broad support for opening up the band for terrestrial 5G without the need for a re-auction,” said a Thursday filing in docket 20-443. “As this legislation moves through Congress, it is imperative that the Commission readies its spectrum resources and network positioning to quickly turn these allocated funds into real, accessible, and high-speed Internet connections for unserved and underserved Americans -- especially those in rural and urban areas,” the group said. The band offers 500 MHz of “contiguous spectrum ideal for accelerating the 5G mobile and wireless networks, improving opportunistic access to spectrum, and strengthening the capacity of Wi-Fi and other unlicensed services,” they said.

The Hispanic Chamber of Commerce urged FCC OK of Verizon's buy of Tracfone, in a letter posted Wednesday in docket 21-112: “With access to Verizon’s network and resources and increased 5G and international roaming capabilities, a stronger TracFone backed by Verizon will be positioned to compete more aggressively.”

The FCC Wireless Bureau released revised questions for the commercial operator license examination for Element 7 global maritime distress and safety system (GMDSS) operators, after seeking comment in June (see 2106080035). This “reflects state-of-the-art technologies and the current duties and responsibilities,” the bureau said Wednesday: Testers “may begin using the new question pool immediately or may continue to use the old questions for a period of six months.”