AT&T extended two union contracts covering 24,000 AT&T Mobility technicians and call center and retail workers in 45 states, D.C., and the U.S. Virgin Islands. The carrier and Communications Workers of America extended by one year a contract set to expire Feb. 11 and another that would have ended Feb. 10, 2022, CWA said Tuesday. The extension includes a 2.5% wage increase. AT&T and CWA also agreed to let call center workers continue to work from home through June. The extended contracts provide certainty to employees while allowing the carrier to continue providing jobs "with competitive wages and benefits, while maintaining the flexibility the company needs to operate in an extremely competitive industry," an AT&T spokesperson emailed Wednesday.

The FCC Consumer and Governmental Affairs Bureau sent letters to seven wireless carriers Monday asking about their request to waive the June 30 deadline to offer real-time text (RTT) instead of traditional text technology (TTY). Commissioners approved an order on a common standard for the transition in December 2016 (see 1612150048). The Competitive Carriers Association in June sought additional time on behalf of six of the companies (see 2006170039). The letters to Appalachian Wireless, Viaero Wireless, Inland Cellular, Southern Linc, GCI, Nex-Tech Wireless and Cellcom were posted Tuesday in docket 16-145. “Have any customers contacted the Company, complained to the Company, or both, regarding their ability to use a TTY with the Company’s service since it began offering IP-based voice calling services, and if so, when did each of these customers contact the Company and how did it respond?” the letters ask: “Have any customers contacted the Company, complained to the Company, or both, regarding the availability of RTT since it began offering IP-based voice calling services, and, if so, when did each of these customers contact the Company and how did it respond?”

The FCC Wireless and Public Safety bureaus delayed comment deadlines on the 4.9 GHz Further NPRM approved by commissioners 3-2 in September. Comments are now due Jan. 13, replies Feb. 12, in docket 07-100. Revised rules for the band permit one statewide licensee per state “to lease some or all of its spectrum rights to third parties, including commercial, critical infrastructure, and other users, thus making up to 50 megahertz of mid-band spectrum available for more intensive use.” The American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials and Land Mobile Communications Council sought delays of the original deadlines -- Dec. 29 and Jan. 29. The bureau provided more time but not as much as the groups wanted.

CTIA, AT&T, Southern Co., UScellular and Verizon representatives spoke with FCC Office of Engineering and Technology staff on a recent report raising 6 GHz interference concerns (see 2011160032). “This report is the first field test assessment of how untethered low power indoor and very low power devices in the 6 GHz band would affect incumbent Fixed Service links and shows there is a significant and material risk of harmful interference to incumbent Licensees,” said a filing posted Monday in docket 18-295.

The appellate National Advertising Review Board upheld a decision by the lower National Advertising Division of BBB National Programs recommending T-Mobile discontinue claims implying that 5G is more reliable than 4G and that no 5G network is more reliable than T-Mobile’s, said the board Monday. NARB also wants T-Mobile to discontinue claims implying its 5G service is “generally available in locations that have traditionally been challenging for cellular service” and to stop denigrating other carriers’ 5G coverage as “so limited in any area as to cover only the space taken up by a single bench,” it said. NARB said T-Mobile’s superior coverage claims “did not imply overall network superiority, rejecting NAD’s conclusion that such claims required the disclosure of material differences,” it said. T-Mobile plans to comply with NARB’s recommendations and welcomes its decision that T-Mobile “can continue to advertise its superior 5G coverage without qualification,” the company said. Verizon, which challenged T-Mobile’s ad claims at the NAD, didn’t respond to questions.

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration signed an agreement with the FCC and the NATE infrastructure contractors association establishing a three-year partnership to eliminate worker fatalities and injuries during wireless and telecom tower erection and maintenance, NATE said Thursday. It said the partnership will deal with such hazards as falls, falling objects, tower collapses and inclement weather.

Google urged the FCC to move forward on an incumbent-informing spectrum sharing system operated by DOD for the citizens broadband radio service and adjacent 3.45-3.55 GHz band. “Such a system would notify authorized non-government users when they need to temporarily cease commercial operations in all or portions of the 3.45-3.55 GHz band to protect government operations” and would “avoid spectrum waste” inherent in the environmental sensing capability framework used in CBRS, said a filing posted Friday in docket 19-348.

The FCC dismissed various petitions seeking reconsideration of its order on the 2.5 GHz band, which was approved last year over partial dissents by Democrats (see 1907100054) and is expected to lead to an auction next year. The National Congress of American Indians sought reconsideration of the decision to focus the tribal priority window on rural tribal land. The Schools, Health & Libraries Broadband (SHLB) Coalition and others asked the agency to reinstate the eligibility restrictions it eliminated and allow additional educational use of the band, and the Hawai’i Broadband Initiative filed a recon petition it asked to withdraw. “We affirm the framework the Commission adopted to make available the 2.5 GHz band quickly by eliminating outdated legacy regulations that inhibited full use of the band and establishing flexible-use rules that will allow commercial providers to use this large swath of prime mid-band spectrum to provide 5G and other advanced services to American consumers,” said Thursday's order. Only Commissioner Geoffrey Starks released a statement: The educational broadband service (EBS) model “has not been perfect” but “should have been improved rather than undercut,” he said. “Given our nation’s need for mid-band spectrum and the importance of this spectrum to future wireless broadband service, particularly in tribal communities and rural America, I concur so we can make this spectrum available as soon as possible.” The tribal priority window closed in September with more than 400 applications (see 2009030012). John Windhausen, SHLB Coalition executive director, called the order disappointing Friday: “For many schools, access to EBS spectrum would have been their golden ticket to quickly deploy networks that reach their students without home internet access.” He said the coalition “provided many examples of successful wireless deployments by schools working with private sector companies, and we provided detailed economic evidence that awarding schools EBS licenses would promote economic growth and help address the homework gap.”

In its first 100 days, President-elect Joe Biden’s administration should prioritize FCC finalization of rules for opening up access to the 3.45-3.55 GHz, 5.9 GHz and 6 GHz bands, increasing broadband funding and expanding ISPs’ ability to gain access to poles and other critical infrastructure under Communications Act Section 224, the Wireless ISP Association said Wednesday.

The FCC Wireless Bureau and Office of Engineering and Technology OK'd additional environmental sensing capability sensors for the 3.5 GHz band, as sought by ESC operators CommScope, Google, Federated Wireless and Key Bridge Wireless. That's per a public notice Thursday.