A Southern Co.-backed report on South, Lockard & White-Electric Power Research Institute testing of the impact on unlicensed low power indoor devices’ use of the 6 GHz band proves “the FCC’s decision to permit that unlicensed access into the 6 GHz band will cause harmful interference to existing users” (see 2008310049), said Utilities Technology Council CEO Sheryl Osiene-Riggs in a statement. The Southern report, filed Wednesday in docket 18-295, said LPI devices “will cause harmful interference to licensed fixed microwave systems, including those used to monitor and protect the electrical grid and for public safety operations.” Unlike “prior testing that utilized simulated equipment and configurations, these measurements used commercial off-the-shelf, FCC-approved 6 GHz LPI access points and mobile devices,” Southern said. “Several of the testing locations were co-located with existing Wi-Fi access points, thus making these measurements representative of actual locations used by consumers with real-world devices.”

Oral argument for AT&T's and others' challenge to the FCC 6 GHz order is Sept. 17 at 9:30 a.m. EDT, said a U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit order posted Wednesday (in Pacer; see June 23 oral argument entry). AT&T asked the court to overturn the order because it would result in “harmful interference” (see 2104050033).

Rio Broadband's long-form application for priority access licenses in 3550-3650 MHz awarded after last year's auction was accepted, per an FCC Wireless Bureau public notice Wednesday.

Qualcomm captured 70% unit share of the global 5G cellular baseband market in Q1, reported Strategy Analytics Wednesday: That market grew 27% from last year to $7.4 billion in Q1, with Qualcomm capturing 53% share to MediaTek’s 25% and Samsung’s 10%. Design wins for the iPhone 12 and across Android 5G smartphone OEMs drove Qualcomm’s baseband share dominance, said SA.

Amazon wants waiver of FCC rules limiting power levels of unlicensed devices in 57-71 GHz to let it market “radar sensors” to enable touchless control of “device features and functions” for monitoring sleep hygiene, said an undocketed request posted Wednesday. The agency has granted similar waivers for other gesture-based tech such as Google’s Project Soli, the request said. “Operation at the requested power levels would not increase the potential for harmful interference.”

The inventory in New York's Rochester, Syracuse and Watertown partial economic areas (PEA) for the forthcoming auction of new flexible-use licenses in the 3.45–3.55 GHz band was amended to reflect a Lockheed Martin special temporary authority grant, said an FCC Office of Economics and Analytics and Wireless Bureau public notice Wednesday. The agency said it corrected an error to indicate some PEAs in which coordination requirements apply to the upper six and the lower four blocks. It made available guides providing details on bidding procedures for clock and assignment phases.

Any changes to link registration rules for the 70/80/90 GHz bands should include the requirement that operators in the 70/80 GHz bands certify that link construction is complete within 30 days after the construction deadline, or the registration automatically expires, Hughes told an aide to FCC acting Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel, per a docket 20-133 post Tuesday. Hughes said the agency should require 70/80 GHz operators to certify antenna patterns. It said the FCC shouldn't authorize aeronautical service there without a showing there won't be harm to fixed satellite service, which is allocated use on a co-primary basis.

Aerospace Industries Association, Rural Wireless Associations and Blooston petitions to reconsider the 3.45 GHz band order got pushback Tuesday in docket 19-348. CTIA said in an opposition the AIA petition is an attempt to essentially elevate Part 5 experimental license holders from non-interfering secondary operations to co-primary status through a new coordination framework, and presents nothing new as the basis for a reconsideration. CTIA said it opposes RWA's request the license term for new flexible-use licenses drop from 15 years to 10, since 15 years ensures new licensees have time to deploy service given DOD repurposing. T-Mobile said the FCC correctly rejected a coordination framework for federal contractors, and reversing that would undermine the proceeding's purpose of making more spectrum available for commercial mobile services. It said calls by RWA and small carriers represented by Blooston law firm to license on a countywide basis run contrary to the idea that licensing by partial economic area will better let carriers aggregate the spectrum across similar bands like C. AT&T said the petitions could delay the start of Auction 110, and they recycle previously made arguments. RWA said it backs Blooston's call to reconsider licensing 10 3.45 GHz channel blocks as PEAs, but the agency should license them instead by county. RWA agreed with Blooston that Auction 110 short form application deadlines should be delayed to Q1.

The FCC Wireless Bureau and Office of Engineering and Technology OK'd Key Bridge Wireless’ request for a six-month extension of deadlines to retest its environmental sensing capability (ESC), said a public notice Monday. The retesting and a report on the results are now due Dec. 31; it was June 30. Key Bridge “has been unable to coordinate access” to NTIA's Institute for Telecommunication Sciences lab “to retest its ESC capabilities,” due to COVID-19 restrictions, the PN said. This is the second extension the company received.

The deadline for some Part 22 and Part 90 applications for T-band facilities from incumbent licensees was extended 180 days to Dec. 19, said an FCC Public Safety and Wireless bureaus public notice Monday.