Global eSIM device installations will reach 3.4 billion by 2025, up 180% from the 1.2 billion projected for 2021, reported Juniper Research Monday. Juniper predicts global eSIM deployments across “consumer verticals” will increase by 170% over the next four years, “with widespread adoption reliant on backing from network operators,” it said. “Fragmentation of hardware vendors in the cellular IoT device market will require each vertical to adopt a combination of wireless technologies, hardware, and management tools.”

Acconeer asked the FCC to approve its request for a waiver allowing marketing of its 60 GHz short-range radar system at higher power than specified in agency rules. Acconeer cited support from other commenters in its Monday filing in docket 21-48. The system would be used for passenger detection, seat belt and intruder alarms, and gesture control for vehicle access, the company said.

Update Part 22 rules, as requested by the Enterprise Wireless Alliance (see 2103160036), the Utilities Technology Council, New York State Electric & Gas and consultant Trott Communications urged the FCC. “We agree with EWA that action in the Part 22 Public Notice proceeding is ‘long overdue,’” said a filing posted Monday in docket 20-241.

Deere representatives told an aide to acting FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel that there's a need for more broadband on farms. “Many areas of active agricultural operations do not have reliable access to high-speed mobile broadband that is necessary to support working farms and high precision agriculture technologies,” said a Monday posting in docket 10-90. The reps noted the importance of protecting GPS from interference. Deere began exhibiting at CES two years ago (see 1901090024).

Southern Co. is having problems getting cooperation from Wi-Fi proponents on 6 GHz interference tests, it told the FCC Office of Engineering and Technology. “Manufacturers and proponents of unlicensed use continue to ignore or reject repeated requests to participate in any field testing and continue to decline ... to provide any prototype or sample devices that could be used in such testing,” said a filing posted Monday in docket 18-295.

Comments are due April 28 on an FCC notice of inquiry on open radio access networks and securing the communications supply chain, says Monday’s Federal Register (see 2103190063). Replies in docket 21-63 are due May 28.

The FCC Office of Engineering and Technology extended through Sept. 30 a waiver of the push notification requirement for fixed and mode II personal/portable TV white space devices, set to expire March 31. The original waiver was approved in a 2015 order on Part 15 rules.

Ericsson executives briefed FCC staff on the complexity of offering real-time text (RTT) instead of traditional text technology (TTY), as required by the regulator. “To transfer information from IP-based networks using RTT to legacy circuit-switched networks using TTY, operators must incorporate multiple gateways (depending on which systems require interconnection),” said Thursday's posting in docket 16-145. Activating RTT requires several steps, starting with the introduction of voice over LTE “and then adding hardware and/or software conversion for enabling RTT to TTY conversations,” the company said.

GeoLinks is buying 208 Verizon local multipoint distribution service (LMDS) licenses, making it the biggest holder of LMDS licenses in 29/31 GHz, the company said. Licenses cover markets including New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Philadelphia, Dallas-Ft. Worth, Atlanta, Houston, Washington, D.C., Boston, Tampa-St. Petersburg, Minneapolis-St. Paul, Detroit and Miami-Ft. Lauderdale, GeoLinks said. “We will control our own airwaves and have the ability to provide gigabit and multi-gigabit speeds at lower prices and with fiber-like latency and jitter statistics to our customer base across these markets,” said CEO Skyler Ditchfield. The spectrum will be used for fixed point-to-point and point-to-multi-point wireless and 5G backhaul, the company said.

Making more spectrum available for such ISPs is as important as subsidies for increasing broadband, Wireless ISP Association President Claude Aiken said on a webinar Wednesday. “We need to have a multifaceted solution to getting incredibly high speed broadband … to 100% of Americans.” WISPA called for localizing spectrum policy, with more licenses for WISPs and other players “to supercharge competition” and get to 1 Gbps. Subsidies should focus on current providers, “resulting in significant savings today while still delivering evolutionary capabilities of the future,” the plan said. Aiken urged the FCC to offer smaller geographic licenses than proposed in the 3.45 GHz auction (see 2103170061). The partial economic area licensing model “forecloses participation by some of these smaller providers that serve rural communities today,” he said. WISPA wants use-it-or-share-it rules in future auctions, he said. Aiken said some WISPs need utilize unlicensed spectrum, though thousands of megahertz of licensed spectrum goes unused. Federal subsidies aren’t reaching the least populated, hardest-to-reach areas, he said: “We’re wary of programs that would subsidize connectivity in suburbia before it really gets out to rural America.” Infrastructure rules, especially on pole access, are important, he said. "All the money in the world isn’t going to do much good if you can’t get into a right of way or onto a pole or onto a tower.”