FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr promoted 5G jobs in Mississippi Thursday. Carr also focused on “telehealth, infrastructure builds and enhanced use of technology in K-12 classrooms,” said a news release.

T-Mobile unveiled a suite of offerings Thursday targeting business customers as part of the carrier's "WFX" work from anywhere platform. The offering includes unlimited 5G, home broadband and T-Mobile Collaborate, “a suite of mobile-first, cloud-based tools for business calling, messaging and conferencing from virtually any device, anywhere.” The pandemic “pushed the fast forward button on the future of work, giving us a decade’s worth of progress in a year’s time. And it’s clear that work will never be the same,” said CEO Mike Sievert.

Boost Mobile founder Peter Adderton joined the Communications Workers of America for a call with FCC staff to raise questions about Verizon’s proposed Tracfone buy. Adderton asked the FCC to require the divestiture of Tracfone subscribers currently served by third-party networks. “We noted Verizon’s vague intentions about its plans for TracFone’s 1.7 million low-income customers,” said a filing this week in ITC-T/C-2020093000173: “Rather than providing specific commitments on the Lifeline program, as prior applicants provided in their merger review or as the FCC has required in past mergers, Verizon simply repeats the same vague intention without specifics and without commitments. Absent real enforceable commitments, the proposed Verizon-TracFone transaction could curtail availability of the Lifeline program for low-income consumers from TracFone.” They spoke with officials from the Office of General Counsel, Office of Economics and Analytics and the Wireless and Wireline bureaus.

CTIA and carrier representatives discussed an industry proposal for curbing contraband cellphones in prison with acting Chief Joel Taubenblatt and others from the FCC Wireless Bureau, said a filing posted Thursday in docket 13-111. CTIA’s termination framework “proposes an FCC-directed process that requires wireless providers to terminate service to devices that have been identified as contraband if specified conditions are met,” the filing said: “This approach protects the interests of all parties that are involved in combating contraband device use. For corrections officials, the proposal offers a comprehensive, nationwide solution that is consistent and easy to administer.” AT&T, Verizon, T-Mobile and UScellular were on the call.

Require “rigorous testing … to demonstrate that unlicensed devices can coexist with incumbent” 6 GHz licensees before allowing additional equipment certifications for unlicensed low-power indoor devices, utility and public safety groups urged an aide to acting FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel. The groups asked the FCC to pause authorizations in January (see 2101270037). “Such testing should be conducted before more LPI devices … become commercially available, otherwise it will be extremely difficult to retrieve these devices from consumers,” they said in an ex parte posted Thursday in docket 18-295. The Utilities Technology Council, Edison Electric Institute, American Public Power Association, National Rural Electric Cooperative Association, American Petroleum Institute, American Water Works Association, American Gas Association, National Public Safety Telecommunications Council, International Association of Fire Chiefs and APCO were on the call.

The Competitive Carriers Association asked the FCC to tweak rules for a 3.45 GHz auction to provide smaller licenses than were proposed in the draft, set for a commissioner vote March 17 (see 2102240063). CCA representatives met with aides to Commissioners Brendan Carr and Geoffrey Starks, said a posting Thursday in docket 19-348. "Adopt 10-megahertz channels rather than the proposed 20-megahertz channels,” CCA urged: “With only 100 megahertz of spectrum available, ten-megahertz licenses would encourage broader participation from smaller providers and create more opportunities to win licenses, while still allowing larger carriers to acquire up to 40 megahertz of spectrum.” CCA also urged licensing the band by county rather than larger partial economic areas.

El Paso retuned its 800 MHz radios last week, and “all public safety retunes across the entire country have now been completed,” T-Mobile told the FCC. The process, begun in 2005, “is now virtually complete,” the carrier said in a report posted Wednesday in docket 02-55. T-Mobile last week asked the FCC to declare this done (see 2103010029).

UScellular CEO Laurent Therivel sought a 3.45 GHz auction with similar rules as the C-band auction, but with smaller license sizes, in a call with FCC Commissioner Geoffrey Starks. “Adopt 10X10 MHz licenses as opposed to 5X20 MHz,” said Wednesday's posting in docket 19-348: That “provides more opportunities for more competitors to win licenses.” Therivel urged county-sized licenses.

More Wi-Fi advocates defended the FCC's April 6 GHz order, in an amicus brief (in Pacer) Tuesday at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit in docket 20-1190. Commission "engineers spent years assessing technical analyses and arguments from parties on all sides,” said Apple, Broadcom, Cisco, Google, Hewlett Packard Enterprise, Intel, Microsoft, NCTA and the Wi-Fi Alliance. “The [6 GHz] Order embodies a careful, conservative decision, based on a massive technical record, to unlock the benefits of next-generation unlicensed technologies while protecting licensed users from harmful interference.”

Ericsson North America CEO Niklas Heuveldop cited the importance of the proposed 3.45 GHz auction and making midband spectrum the agency’s top 5G focus, speaking with acting FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel. Heuveldop supported open radio access networks, said a filing posted Wednesday in docket 21-63. “The policy of the U.S. should continue to be technology neutral,” Ericsson said: “The U.S. has clearly demonstrated that open and intense competition, not government mandates, is the most effective way to mobilize the telecom industry.”