NTIA’s Institute for Telecommunication Sciences issued a “Broad Agency Announcement” Friday seeking prototype or commercial-off-the-shelf equipment for open radio access network tests. “ITS is seeking equipment used in Open RAN 4G and 5G networks, as well as Virtualized RAN (vRAN) software and RAN automation software,” the announcement said: “ITS will deploy the technology in its Communications Research and Innovation Network to evaluate performance, inter-vendor interoperability, and standard maturity compared with established RAN technologies.” Responses are due July 6.

“More and more” of AT&T’s spectrum is being redeployed for 5G, and it won’t disclose the makeup, Senior Vice President-Wireless and Access Technology Igal Elbaz told a UBS webinar Friday. Previously, carriers had to take a band out of service and re-farm it, he said. Dynamic spectrum sharing “really allows you to run both 4G and 5G, all in the same band,” he said. The 80 MHz of C band that AT&T bought in the recent auction is “extremely important in order for us, and by the way, for the industry, to scale 5G,” he said. AT&T is “very happy” with its current spectrum position, he said. AT&T will start to deploy C band at year-end, with plans to cover 75 million POPs at the end of 2022 and 200 million at the end of 2023, he said.

The Enforcement Bureau signed a consent decree with Broadband VI, ending an investigation of whether the wireless ISP bought assets from Surge Communications, including seven spectrum licenses, without FCC authorization. Broadband VI, which serves the U.S. Virgin Islands, agreed to pay $28,000 and implement a compliance plan, said an order released Thursday. “In the absence of material new evidence relating to this matter, we do not set for hearing the question of Broadband VI’s basic qualifications to hold or obtain any Commission license or authorization.”

The FCC and DOJ asked the Supreme Court to reject an appeal by Portland, Oregon, and 35 other municipalities of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals' decision upholding much of the commission’s 2018 small-cell orders (see 2103230052). That's despite the partial dissent by then-minority Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel who said then the FCC went too far in restricting local control of siting fees. Wednesday's pleading noted that partial dissent. “The court of appeals correctly upheld the portions of the FCC’s Small-Cell Order that are at issue here,” the government said in docket 20-1354: “Neither the court’s conclusion that the FCC has permissibly interpreted the statute, nor its determination that the Commission’s approach was supported by the record in this proceeding, conflicts with any decision of this Court or of another court of appeals.”

The FCC and NTIA updated potential bidders in the upcoming 3.45 GHz auction on the cooperative planning areas and periodic use areas requiring coordination after bidders take possession of licenses. In all but two of the areas, licensees “must coordinate with federal incumbents across all 100 megahertz of spectrum,” said a public notice in Thursday’s FCC Daily Digest. In the market around Fort Bragg, North Carolina, licensees need to coordinate in only the lower 40 MHz “because the federal incumbent will only use the lower 40 megahertz,” the PN said: In the Little Rock planning area, licensees will have to coordinate for the first year after the close of the auction across the band. “After this time period, however, licensees will only need to coordinate in the lower 40 megahertz.” The notice refers bidders to agency transition plans for more information. The plans “contain information on these federal systems, including the frequencies used, emission bandwidth, system use, geographic service area, authorized radius of operation, and estimated timelines and costs for relocation or sharing,” it said. DOD will create an online portal for initiating coordination, the PN said. “Before a 3.45 GHz Service licensee submits a formal coordination request, it may share draft proposals or request that federal incumbent coordination staff discuss draft coordination proposals,” the agencies said: “These discussions are voluntary, informal, and non-binding and can begin at any time after the conclusion of the auction.” Formal coordination requests can be submitted starting nine months after the auction closing public notice is released. NTIA posted more detailed transition plans and data from DOD.

The FCC Public Safety Bureau updated its template for wireless carriers to use in filing location accuracy live 911 call data reports to include a field to report on their use of vertical location technology, said a notice in Wednesday’s Daily Digest. Major carriers were required to certify by Wednesday they're delivering z-axis data on calls in the top 25 cellular market areas (see 2104020056).

Top officials from the Edison Electric Institute and Alliant Energy told FCC Commissioner Nathan Simington it's important to protect the 6 GHz band for electric utilities. “EEI is very concerned about the impact of interference on electric company microwave links from unlicensed devices operating in the 6 GHz band, particularly as such devices proliferate,” said a filing posted Wednesday in docket 18-295. EEI also said it convened a CEO-level task force “to explore how investor-owned electric companies can best play a role as solution partner in closing the digital divide.”

Federated Wireless has a mechanism for priority access licensees in the citizens broadband radio service band to lease the spectrum to others. The company “will accept PAL leasing notifications and support PAL Spectrum Manager Lease Agreements in compliance with sections 96.32 and 96.66” of FCC rules, said a filing posted Wednesday in docket 15-319.

Verizon is seeing traffic growth at its stores as the pandemic wanes, and is recruiting an additional 1,000 retail employees to keep pace, Verizon Consumer Group CEO Ronan Dunne told a Bernstein virtual conference Wednesday. Verizon is seeing strong economic recovery, “we're seeing the evidence of consumer confidence, we're seeing activity levels both on the network and in the marketplace, back to 2019 and maybe even above,” he said. Dunne predicted growing momentum for Verizon as its C-band spectrum comes online later this year. All “key” handsets are compatible with the newly opened band, which will offer 5G similar to what’s available now using high-band spectrum, he said. Verizon’s high-band 5G covers only a small percentage of customers, “but we make no apologies for that because we're delivering millimeter wave as a fundamental enhancement of experience and capacity in the areas that have the densest demand for traffic,” he said.

Wireless groups asked the Supreme Court to reject an appeal by Portland, Oregon, and 35 other municipalities of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals' decision upholding much of the FCC’s 2018 small-cell orders (see 2103230052). CTIA, the Competitive Carriers Association, Verizon and Wireless Infrastructure Association jointly filed a brief posted Wednesday in docket 20-1354. “Contrary to Petitioners’ claims, the decision … creates no conflicts worthy of this Court’s review,” the groups said. Claims the decision “subjects localities to ‘immense’ consequences rests on a mischaracterization of the FCC’s order,” they said: The “real interest” of local governments “is in being able to charge unlimited amounts for right-of-way access.”