Southern Linc told the FCC it’s ready for the current hurricane season, responding to questions from the Public Safety Bureau. The company is “prepared to respond to additional major disasters while managing the impacts of COVID-19,” said a filing posted Thursday in docket 11-60: “Southern Linc has already responded to numerous disasters since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, including multiple rounds of severe weather and tornadoes throughout its territory.”

A May FCC order on streamlining rules and procedures for the final stage of the 800 MHz band rebanding (see 2005120062) takes effect July 27, says Thursday's Federal Register.

The FCC Wireless Bureau seeks comment on a request for waiver of 450 MHz general aviation air-ground radiotelephone service rules by Aura Network Systems and A2G Communications. “Petitioners seek relief of certain rules that dictate the types of services that may be provided, specify minimum separation between co-channel stations, limit the amount of spectrum assigned in a particular area, and set a minimum power limit for ground and airborne stations,” said Wednesday's notice. They argue waiver is needed “to provide new voice and data applications, including service to unmanned aircraft systems, to the broadest base of aviation subscribers possible.” Comments are due July 24, replies Aug. 10, in docket 20-185.

Rural Wireless Association members collectively received an average annual $30 million in USF money over the past seven years, the group said in a report Wednesday. During that period, members “increased data speeds for rural customers from less than 10 Mbps to more than 25 Mbps,” deployed 348 new and 711 upgraded cellsites and migrated customers from 2G to 3G and LTE, RWA said.

NextNav’s vertical location network will be available in 105 markets “well in advance of the April 2021 deadline for the provision of 3 meter accurate vertical location information to support public safety,” said a filing posted Wednesday in docket 07-114. CEO Ganesh Pattabiraman, Executive Chairman Gary Parsons and others spoke with an aide to Chairman Ajit Pai. Commissioners will consider z-axis rules July 16 (see 2006240058).

The FCC Public Safety Bureau sought comment by July 8 in docket 20-183 on last week’s T-Mobile outage (see 2006180047). The bureau “is conducting an investigation into this outage given the large area affected and the critical importance of dependable and resilient 911 service throughout the United States,” the Tuesday notice said: “To permit a thorough and accurate analysis of this outage, the Bureau … invites interested parties to provide all relevant information concerning the causes, effects, and implications of this outage.” T-Mobile didn’t comment Tuesday. Its officials attributed the problem to a fiber outage.

Verizon completed successful trials of dynamic spectrum sharing technology for 5G in Texas and Minnesota, the company said Monday. DSS allows 5G to run simultaneous with 4G on multiple spectrum bands. “When commercially deployed in the near future, this new technology will allow Verizon to use its full portfolio of current spectrum resources to serve both 4G and 5G customers,” the carrier said.

T-Mobile will sell more than 133 million shares as SoftBank sells part of its holdings in the company, said a Monday SEC filing. For every share it sells, T-Mobile agreed to repurchase one from a SoftBank subsidiary, T-Mobile said. The transactions won't involve gain or loss to T-Mobile or the number of shares it holds.

NTCA and USTelecom seek reimbursement for carriers that must replace Huawei and ZTE equipment, in comments on an NTIA letter. The FCC designated the two businesses as the first covered companies in last year’s supply chain order (see 1911220033), while Congress addressed the issue in the Secure Networks Act, enacted in March (see 2003120061). “Eligible telecommunications carriers risk being unable to upgrade or even maintain covered equipment if replacement funding is not in place prior to the Commission issuing a final designation that prohibits the use of USF support to procure or otherwise support equipment provided by a covered entity,” NTCA said. The FCC should promptly seek funding from Congress, USTelecom asked: “While carriers replacing wireless equipment should be able to upgrade to 5G, the carrier should be responsible for paying the delta between the cost of replacing the equipment and the cost of the upgrade so as not to disadvantage those who made the more costly decisions to enhance national security by avoiding Huawei at the outset.” Huawei said under the networks act, the FCC “is required to designate certain ‘communications equipment and services,’ not companies, to be covered by the law.” The act “confirms” the commission lacked “authority to promulgate the prohibition … and certainly lacks authority to make designations under the rule now,” Huawei said. Comments were posted Monday in docket 19-351.

Nokia completed a series of over-the-air 5G new radio trials using C-band spectrum in Dallas, the company said Friday. “The drive tests, which achieved stable peak throughput speeds of over 1 Gbps, confirmed that Nokia’s solution is ready for commercial deployment ahead of the U.S. C-band spectrum auction in December,” it said.