Shure representatives warned the FCC that wireless mics soon won’t have enough spectrum to meet the needs of users. The assertion came in a call with an aide to Commissioner Geoffrey Starks. More efficient use of spectrum by mics “will not be able to compensate for the reductions in accessible UHF spectrum,” Shure warned in a filing posted Tuesday in docket 15-146. “Act on the FCC’s long-standing proposal to expand Part 74 eligibility to accommodate all qualified operators with a demonstrable need for professional-grade audio and work with Shure and other interested stakeholders to reexamine technical restrictions specific to each band,” the company urged: Reopen the TV vacant channels proceeding “to update the record, and designate one vacant UHF channel for wireless microphones in every designated market area.” Shure has been making the rounds and reported similar calls last week with Commissioner Nathan Simington and an aide to Commissioner Brendan Carr (see here and here).

The California Office of Emergency Services (OES) told the FCC the stay of the 4.9 GHz order has halted expansion of public safety use of the band in the state. OES said it was designated as the state lessor for the band and is “ready to assume management … and continue its application for public safety.” The office opposes management of the spectrum “by any other federal entity outside of the FCC or outside of state government,” said a filing posted Tuesday in docket 07-100. Commissioners agreed to a stay 3-1 in May with a dissent by Commissioner Brendan Carr (see 2105270071).

The FCC opposed the Amateur Radio Emergency Data Network’s request for a stay (in Pacer), sought last week, of the FCC’s order reallocating the 5.9 GHz band (see 2106030075), in a pleading posted Tuesday at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. AREDN told the court Wi-Fi in the band would effectively preclude use for high-speed broadband networks by amateur operators. AREDN said 5.9 is the “workhorse” band for its operations. “The Order fulfills a pressing public need for increased Wi-Fi internet capacity by making an additional 45 megahertz of electromagnetic spectrum in the 5.9 GHz band available for Wi-Fi and other unlicensed uses in indoor environments,” the FCC said (in Pacer) in docket 21-1141. “AREDN contends that unlicensed use in this band will cause harmful interference to amateur-radio users, but it failed to present any supporting evidence in the proceedings leading up to the Order,” the FCC said. ITS America and the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials supported the stay. “AREDN is correct that the FCC exceeded its authority in issuing the Order,” they said (in Pacer), arguing the FCC action is barred by the Transportation Equity Act for the 21st Century, which requires spectrum for intelligent transportation. The FCC “improperly disregarded the TEA and exceeded the agency’s spectrum allocation and licensing authority, and was otherwise arbitrary and capricious,” they said. The 5G Automotive Association said it supports a stay but opposes AREDN’s logic. The FCC, not the Department of Transportation, has authority “over the nation’s public airwaves,” 5GAA said (in Pacer): “A stay premised on DOT’s purported authority to dictate the terms of use of national spectrum resources would be contrary to law -- and could wreak havoc on a well-settled regulatory framework that has remained in place for more than a century.”

CTIA and other commenters urged the FCC to use caution as it considers adopting out-of-band emissions in the 24 GHz band aligned with limits adopted at the 2019 World Radiocommunication Conference, in filings posted Tuesday in docket 21-186. NTIA supports adoption of the WRC limits (see 2106280039). Comments were due Monday (see 2105260023). WRC-19 adopted emission limits not at the edge of the 24 GHz band, “but rather, as a limit on the total radiated power” wireless base and mobile stations can radiate into any 200 megahertz of the 23.6-24.0 GHz passive Earth Exploration Satellite Service (EESS) band,” CTIA said. WRC recommended two sets of limits for base stations and user equipment, one that applies now, and another set of limits for equipment brought into use after Sept. 1, CTIA noted. “As CTIA and other commenters have explained throughout this proceeding, the Commission’s existing OOBE limits are sufficient to protect EESS operations from interference,” the group said: The part used for wireless is separated by 250 MHz from “EESS passive sensing operations in the 23.6-24.0 GHz band.” The limits approved by the WRC “will provide even greater protection to passive EESS operations than is necessary, while still allowing for robust 5G deployment in the band," CTIA said. Nokia said its 24 GHz equipment can meet the initial limit of -33 dBW/200MHz before a Sept. 1, 2027, deadline and is working on the Phase 2 limit of -39 dBW/200MHz. “This effort requires close cooperation with radio frequency integrated circuit vendors to develop next generation of chipsets that can offer improved Power Amplifier linearity for the restrictive emission limit by the 2027 deadline,” Nokia said. The FCC’s current -13 dBm/MHz unwanted emissions limit below the lower 24.25 GHz edge of the band “should be maintained for mobile operations in the 24 GHz band because that limit provides adequate interference protection” of EESS passive systems, Qualcomm said. If the FCC adopts “substantially more stringent unwanted emissions limits” approved by the WRC “they should only be applied to mobile service base stations and handsets -- and not to any of the other operations” FCC rules allow, Qualcomm said. The FCC should be “cautious when it modifies its rules governing spectrum that has already been auctioned so as not to disrupt ongoing planning and deployment activities,” T-Mobile commented. The WRC limits “should apply only to mobile … and are not applicable to fixed operations permitted in the same band,” the carrier said. Opening the 26 GHz band for licensed use should be an FCC priority, CTIA said: “Because the Commission has already made spectrum in the 24 GHz and 28 GHz bands available for 5G, moving forward with the 26 GHz band is a rare opportunity to make a wide, contiguous swath of spectrum available for already globally harmonized, licensed use.”

Qualcomm launched a successor to the flagship Snapdragon 888 mobile platform at Mobile World Congress (MWC) in Barcelona Monday, and bolstered support for 5G millimeter-wave networks with a contingent of ecosystem supporters. Qualcomm’s next-generation 5G mobile platform for Android devices delivers the entertainment “users expect from flagship devices,” said Lekha Motiwala, director-product management, on an embargoed call Thursday announcing the launch of the Snapdragon 888 Plus. The follow-on to the 888 platform launched in December has step-up prime core performance to 3 GHz for faster app response time, and a 32 tera-operations-per-second AI engine that enables multiple neural networks to operate simultaneously, said Motiwala. Improved AI performance makes video calls and entertainment experiences more intelligent and immersive, she said. On the imaging side, the 888 Plus supports 8K video capture at 30 frames per second and 4K video with 64-megapixel stills. HDR support includes HDR10+, HDR10, hybrid log gamma and Dolby Vision; it can capture 4K HDR video at 120 frames per second and 4K HDR video with bokeh. Audio includes Bluetooth 5.2 with 24-bit/96kHz music streaming and low latency of under 90 milliseconds. “The global deployment of 5G mmWave is now inevitable,” said Qualcomm CEO-elect Cristiano Amon. Support from additional companies in the ecosystem “demonstrates the global scale and maturity of 5G mmWave,” he said. The Barcelona show, the first MWC since February 2019, is a hybrid event with 35,000 in-person attendees expected, said GSMA Monday. The number of 5G networks since last MWC has grown from three in South Korea to 165 in 65 countries, said the GSMA's global mobile economy update report. This year, 5G networks were launched in Indonesia, Kenya and Tajikistan. By 2025, 5G will be more than a fifth of total mobile connections, and more than 40% of people around the world will live in a 5G network coverage area, it said. GSMA thinks 4G still has “significant headroom” for growth, said the report. 4G is expected to peak at 60% penetration by 2023 when 5G gains additional traction in new markets. 4G has peaked, and in some cases begun to decline, in leading 5G markets such as China, South Korea and the U.S., it said.

Urging harmonization of FCC rules with the out-of-band emission (OOBE) limits into the 24 GHz band adopted at the 2019 World Radiocommunication Conference, NTIA in docket 21-186 Monday suggested caps on radiated power of emissions for international mobile telecommunications (IMT) stations operating in the 24.25-24.45 GHz or 24.75-25.25 GHz bands. It also said the FCC should urge or even incentivize licensees to meet the WRC-19 OOBE levels before Sept. 1, 2027. NTIA said systems deployed before then under less stringent limits could cause harmful interference to passive satellite sensors. It said the FCC should clarify that base stations and user equipment modified or replaced after Sept. 1, 2027, must comply with the post-2027 OOBE limits. It said the 23.6-24 GHz band OOBE limits should apply to all mobile systems, not just IMT.

The FCC should focus on coordination and outreach to federal agencies when identifying future commercial spectrum, said Commissioner Nathan Simington in a virtual talk for WifiForward Monday. “Communication with other federal agencies is key,” Simington said. He compared finding new spectrum to a real estate developer building in “greenfield” versus one putting up buildings in Paris or New York. “No matter where you want to build, you are going to have to deal with prior efforts.” He said he would like to see the FCC’s November 5.9 GHz order remain in effect, but it isn’t clear whether the dedicated short-range communications industry and the Department of Transportation will succeed in having aspects of that order changed. “I haven’t heard any rumblings at the commission, but you never know.” Simington said “light-touch regulation” drove innovation in unlicensed spectrum bands, and the agency should hold to that philosophy going forward: “We have to be a little bit humble about what we can see in our foggy crystal balls.” The world “is in a pivotal place” for the future of the 6 GHz band, Simington said. He said it's likely China will raise the matter of Wi-Fi on the band at the 2023 World Radiocommunication Conference, and it's up to the U.S. to persuade European Union countries to “stay the course.” The more countries that adopt 6 GHz for Wi-Fi, the better the environment for advances in the technology, he said. Asked about concerns that the U.S. could be falling behind other countries in internet technology, the Canadian native said the U.S. spawned most of the fundamentals of modern telecom, and it should “buck up.” Americans have a “tendency to have low self-esteem in some of these areas,” Simington said: American innovation was “fantastic in the past and will be fantastic in the future.”

Wireless power-at-a-distance developer Ossia met with aides to FCC Acting Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel and Commissioners Brendan Carr and Gregory Starks to stress the U.S. needs a “level regulatory playing field” to compete with Canada, China, Japan and EU on the technology, said a filing posted Friday in docket 19-226. Regulatory authorities of U.S. competitors are “rapidly moving forward” to approve wireless power at a distance, said Ossia. Other countries have taken “significant steps to embrace wireless power transfer,” it said, and China is “particularly active” through innovations from Huawei, Lenovo and Xiaomi. “It is no exaggeration to say that 5G and IoT cannot fully develop” without technology like Ossia's, it said. Billions of new 5G and IoT devices will need power, “and there are not enough batteries or electricians in the world to make that possible,” it said.

Wireless stakeholders asked the FCC for flexibility in the supply chain reimbursement program, in comments posted Thursday in docket 18-89 (see 2105240071). Adopt a technically neutral policy and remove questions about open radio access network or virtualization in its supply chain reimbursement program, said Nokia. It wants a “blanket 6-month extension” for deployment and the ability to “seek additional individualized extensions of time as part of the initial reimbursement application template.” The Rural Wireless Association said the filing window should be open for at least 60 days and the FCC should provide applicants with a template to enter required data. RWA asked for the 15-day cure period to only be used as a “final mechanism” and “tie it to deficiency notices for individual applicants.” Adtran supported keeping proprietary information confidential because it “constitutes trade secrets” and forms should include an information request. Manevir offered suggestions to clarify field descriptions on the form.

Qualcomm will partner with Mavenir to develop indoor and outdoor 4G and 5G solutions for private and public network deployments, aiming to “broaden the choices” for open radio network access customers, they said Thursday. Rising “capacity and coverage demands” of 5G are creating “a growing need for network densification that harnesses all available spectrum based on flexible and cost-effective radio solutions,” they said: The collaboration will result in a “suite of radio solutions” based on ORAN architecture.