Antitrust authorities cleared the way for Verizon to acquire four entities. FTC early termination notices dated Wednesday and released Thursday ended the Hart-Scott-Rodino waiting period for acquisitions of Duo County Telephone Cooperative, Kentucky RSA #3 Cellular General Partnership, Brandenburg Communications and South Central Rural Telecommunications Cooperative.

The FCC’s draft 5.9 GHz order won’t give industry immediate use of 30 MHz of the band proposed for cellular vehicle-to-everything technologies, Qualcomm warned in a call with an aide to Commissioner Geoffrey Starks. “C-V2X is ready to be deployed across America today and therefore needs the spectrum now,” said a filing posted Thursday in docket 19-138. “Ford and other automakers want to sell cars equipped with highly advanced C-V2X technology, and state and local transportation agencies are ready to install CV2X roadside units."

American Tower agreed to buy InSite Wireless Group, which owns and operates some 3,000 communications sites, mostly in the U.S. and Canada, for $3.5 billion, American Tower said Thursday. It adds to “our foundational U.S. business through the addition of a well-run, high-quality, complementary, macro-tower focused portfolio, while also marking our entry into Canada,” said CEO Tom Bartlett. InSite has 1,400 towers in the U.S., more than 200 in Canada and about 70 distributed antenna system networks in the U.S., the company said. “The purchase multiple of 30x tower cash flow is high relative to historical US tower deals” but is expected to immediately add to earnings, New Street’s Spencer Kurn told investors. “The relative underexposure of InSite to the big three wireless carriers should yield faster growth on their portfolio relative to [American Tower’s] existing US towers,” he said. “We like the deal, accretive on day 1, bolstering [American Tower’s] position in the early innings of 5G cycle,” Credit Suisse said.

Apple representatives urged approval of revised 6 GHz rules allowing very-low-power devices at 14 dBm effective isotropic radiated power, in a call with FCC Chief Technology Officer Monisha Ghosh. “This power level is essential to ensuring that VLP devices are functional in typical high body loss cases,” said a filing posted Thursday in docket 18-295. “Allowing 6 GHz mobile standard-power access points in the U-NII-5 and U-NII-7 bands controlled by Automatic Frequency Coordination systems will provide significant benefits while protecting incumbents.” Verizon asked aides to Chairman Ajit Pai and Commissioners Mike O’Rielly, Jessica Rosenworcel and Geoffrey Starks to act on its petition for reconsideration seeking higher power for unlicensed standard-power 6 GHz access points subject to AFC control (see 2011030021). Southern Co. raised 6 GHz interference concerns. A recent cable industry study “underestimates the number of Very Low Power devices, their transmissions, and a variety of other link budget parameters to falsely support the claims that licensed fixed microwave systems would be protected from harmful interference,” the utility said. NAB raised concerns about proposed test procedures for unlicensed devices in the band, speaking with Office of Engineering and Technology staff. It’s “unclear what division of OET was making final determinations on those procedures, which is troubling given that the Laboratory Division’s draft publication appears to include arbitrary requirements that are not found in the Commission’s order in this proceeding and will fail to protect licensed users of the band,” NAB said. The FCC didn't comment.

T-Mobile added a company record 2 million postpaid subscribers in Q3 to bring its customer rolls to 100 million, the carrier said Thursday. That includes 689,000 postpaid phone net adds. The carrier reported $341 million in COVID-19-related expenses and $352 million in free cash flow, headed into upcoming FCC spectrum auctions. Free cash flow was $1.1 billion a year ago. The U.S. “has never seen anything like this network build,” CEO Mike Sievert said on a financial call, noting the company moved further ahead of AT&T on total customers. T-Mobile plans to offer 5G nationwide using its 2.5 GHz spectrum by the end of next year, he said. The band has both “massive capacity and … reach, measured in miles from our towers,” he said. T-Mobile’s low-band network already covers 270 million people, he said. “T-Mobile’s momentum has continued to accelerate quarter after quarter, as we profitably take share and outpace the competition,” he said: “We surprised the skeptics, and the optimists, yet again. … We’re working hard to go big and to go fast.” The COVID-19 pandemic posed challenges “with a much slower switching environment than a year ago,” Sievert said. T-Mobile reported $1.2 billion in earnings on revenue of $19.3 billion. That compares with $870 million and $11 billion a year ago, before the Sprint buy closed. Some 79.7 million subscribers had post-paid and 20.6 million prepaid plans. Postpaid churn was 0.9%, a slight increase over the first two quarters of the year. T-Mobile “remains highly confident” it will deliver $43 billion of synergies from the Sprint deal, with $1.2 billion this year and more than twice that likely next year. Sievert credited avoided site builds and a streamlined marketing push. T-Mobile is also consolidating back office operations. It shut off the Sprint brand for new customer sales at the start of August.

Public safety groups said don’t delay timelines the FCC commissioners approved in July for finding the vertical location of wireless callers to 911 (see 2007160055). CTIA sought reconsideration in September, citing COVID-19 delays (see 2009290024). The order affirms the 2021 and 2023 z-axis requirements and rejects a proposal to weaken them. APCO, the International Association of Chiefs of Police, Major Cities Chiefs Association, National Public Safety Telecommunications Council, National Sheriffs’ Association and others opposed the recon petition. “Achieving three-meter accuracy for 80% of calls has been shown to be technically feasible,” the groups said: “Carriers cannot be permitted to alter the timeline based on a desire for additional, late-stage testing, regardless of the reason that this testing has not been possible.” CTIA says carriers haven’t integrated solutions into devices, they said. “This wrongly attempts to absolve the carriers of their ability and responsibility to influence the capabilities of devices operating on the carriers’ own networks,” the groups said. The pandemic had “dramatic effects” on the U.S., but “CTIA overstates” the problem, said the International Association of Fire Chiefs, International Association of Fire Fighters and Metropolitan Fire Chiefs Association. “In the spring, many buildings were shut due to the pandemic,” they said: “However, states have been opening public buildings and even schools across the nation since May. Private buildings have likewise been opening for use. It would seem that handsets could be tested in buildings in a socially distanced manner.” Comments were posted Wednesday in docket 07-114. Apple said testing of its technology is unlikely before April (see 2011040026). CTIA didn't comment.

Only two systems remain to be retuned and four frequency reconfiguration agreements to be closed as part of the 800 MHz reconfiguration, T-Mobile said in an FCC filing posted Tuesday in docket 02-55. That's same as a month ago.

The top U.S. spectrum focus should be midband frequencies for 5G, CTIA responded to an FCC request for comment as the World Radiocommunication Conference Advisory Committee prepares for WRC 2023. Comments were due Monday. “The overarching goal should be to ensure that international efforts are consistent with 5G policy here at home, including identifying and allocating additional mid-band spectrum for terrestrial mobile 5G services,” CTIA said, in docket 16-185. A top focus should be the 3.3-3.4, 3.6-3.8, 7 and 10 GHz bands, the group said. The Aerospace Industries Association’s focus is protecting bands used by its members, including “aeronautical mobile and maritime mobile services in the 4800-4990 MHz range.” The 3.3-3.4 and 10.0-10.5 GHz “have been critical to the operation of radars for many years,” the group said: “The continued availability of these two bands globally without technical, regulatory, or operational restrictions is vital for the aerospace and defense industry, and their customers, to deploy and operate advanced radar systems reliably.” The American Radio Relay League said 3.3-3.4 and 10.0-10.5 GHz should be preserved for amateur use on a secondary basis “subject to all of the protections accorded primary users.”

CTA and tech companies asked the FCC to act on revised rules for very low-power devices in the 6 GHz band, in a call with Commissioner Brendan Carr. “Appropriate power levels for VLP, specifically 14 dBm [effective isotropic radiated power], which is the minimum power level needed to overcome body loss and channel fading associated with portable operations,” are important, CTA said Monday in docket 18-295. That's “approximately four times less power than permitted for typical smartphones, laptops, and tablets, and five times lower power than already allowed for low power indoor client devices.” Intel, Google, Broadcom, Apple, Facebook and Microsoft officials participated. The Wi-Fi Alliance urged action in calls with aides to Chairman Ajit Pai and Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel. Verizon spoke with a Carr aide about a petition for reconsideration requesting higher power for unlicensed standard-power 6 GHz access points subject to automatic frequency coordination. Commissioners are expected to consider rules in December (see 2010190040).

Ericsson completed its $1 billion buy of Cradlepoint (see 2010080053), a U.S.-based wireless wide-area network edge solutions company, Ericsson said Monday. “The investment is key to Ericsson’s ongoing strategy of capturing market share in the rapidly expanding 5G enterprise space.”