FCC creation of the 5G Fund for Rural America -- which puts USF dollars in support of 5G deployment (see 2010270034) -- takes effect Dec. 28, says Wednesday’s Federal Register.

Challengers to Thomas Kurian's application to partition and disaggregate 219.5-220.0 MHz of automated maritime telecom system (ATMS) spectrum to freight railroad consortium PTC-220 didn't show why pending litigation in Nevada involving Kurian should preclude denying the application or why it was a breach of the applicants' duty not to disclose that litigation in their application. That's according to an FCC Wireless Bureau order Monday denying a petition by Warren Havens and Polaris PNT Group against the application. The bureau granted a waiver of AMTS rules PTC-220 sought to facilitate use of the spectrum for positive train control and related rail safety systems.

Windstream agreed to pay $18,000 and institute a compliance plan as part of a settlement with the FCC Enforcement Bureau over the company’s construction of two wireless towers on tribal land without the on-site monitoring requested by the affected tribes, said a consent decree Monday. Windstream self-reported the violation in 2019 and said a contractor performed “construction activities.” The company “admits that it constructed at the Nebraska Tower and Arkansas Tower without the onsite monitoring requested by the affected tribes,” said the consent decree. The carrier must implement a compliance procedure and employee training and report on its compliance to the FCC for three years. The telco didn’t comment.

The FCC Wireless Bureau dismissed requests by seven tribal entities for waivers of the 2.5 GHz tribal application window. The requests were filed by the Ho-Chunk Nation, Lummi Indian Business Council, the Muscogee Nation, Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community, San Felipe Pueblo, Shoshone-Bannock Tribes and Table Mountain Rancheria. The window to apply closed Sept. 2 (see 2007310066).

Move forward with proposed rules for a 2.5 GHz auction, T-Mobile said in a call with an aide to FCC Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel. “Since the closing of its merger with Sprint,” T-Mobile “has been rapidly rolling out 2.5 GHz spectrum as part of its nationwide 5G network and that access to additional 2.5 GHz spectrum will help deliver 5G services to even more Americans,” said a filing posted Friday in docket 18-120.

AT&T’s key focuses are 5G, fiber and high-speed connectivity, Chief Financial Officer John Stephens said Friday at a Morgan Stanley virtual investor conference. While AT&T has deployed high-band spectrum in almost 40 cities, low band has proven more important during the COVID-19 pandemic, he said. There has been “a dramatic shift in volumes into the suburban and into the rural areas, where our extensive … low-band spectrum holdings and our extensive towers and fiber footprint have really served us well and served our customers well,” he said. Millimeter wave is “only part of an integrated solution,” he said. COVID “provided a reassurance of the quality of the resilient products of broadband, wireless connectivity,” he said. But AT&T is still recovering. “It's challenged the media business, the closing of theaters,” he said: “The challenge with getting production completed and having to postpone or delay production.” AT&T is betting big on fiber, and not just broadband service to the home, he said. “I think about building a fiber plan that allows me to have backhaul for wireless, particularly when you think about some of the residential areas where traffic has grown substantially because you are working from home,” he said.

AT&T supports concerns raised by Southern Co., CTIA and others (see 2011170040) on the potential for harmful interference from uncontrolled very-low-power devices fixed service microwave systems in the 6 GHz band, said a filing posted Thursday in docket 18-295. FCC Chairman Ajit Pai indicated Wednesday he won't seek a Dec. 10 vote (see 2011180065).

Sagebrush Cellular told the FCC it supports a Rural Wireless Association petition (see 2011090047) for clarity on whether providers eligible for reimbursement will get funds before adoption of final rules requiring they replace equipment from nonsecure vendors like Huawei. Sagebrush said it uses Huawei gear and faces “increasingly difficult business decisions” absent clarity, in a filing posted Thursday in docket 18-89. “Sagebrush does not need all uncertainty removed … but we do need some assurance that significant expenses and purchases will be reimbursed.”

Make the 3.45-3.55 GHz band available for wireless service in the U.S. territories, including American Samoa, Guam and the Northern Mariana Islands, said BlueSky and Docomo Pacific in an FCC filing posted Wednesday in docket 19-348. “These areas of the country have a substantial and ever-increasing demand for wireless broadband service, and thus, the same urgent need for mid-band spectrum exists in the territories, as in the contiguous United States,” the carriers said: “However, the 3.7 GHz band is wholly unavailable, and the 3.5 GHz … band is largely unavailable, in the territories.”

Verizon and T-Mobile urged light-touch regulation in replies on an NPRM commissioners approved in July (see 2007160045) on potential changes to telecom service priority (TSP) and wireless priority service (WPS) rules. Comments “reflect a broad recognition that the Commission should preserve today’s reliance on negotiated commercial agreements between providers and [the Department of Homeland Security], and continue to apply the light regulatory touch already governing the IP-enabled services [National Security and Emergency Preparedness] users demand,” Verizon said. Rules should define DHS program administration responsibilities “to ensure that countervailing DHS rules or guidelines do not compromise the Commission’s light regulatory touch for IP-enabled services,” the carrier said: “Commenters recognize that prescriptive technical and operational requirements governing the implementation of priority and preemption capabilities are unnecessary.” T-Mobile said a "light touch" approach “where the details of carriers' priority service offerings are determined predominantly by contract better allows industry to meet the specific needs of … users and creates a flexible regulatory environment that will encourage innovation.” Rules should “ensure that carriers providing Title II services remain insulated from any potential violations of the Communications Act when affording those services priority treatment” and “ensure that priority service users are treated consistently across networks,” T-Mobile said. No one else filed replies in docket 20-187.