The FCC should require wireless carriers to lift data caps and drop data overage charges on wireless plans due to the novel coronavirus, NARUC President Brandon Presley said Wednesday. Telecom companies should “work proactively with communities to ensure that students left out of school are not left behind academically.” The COVID-19 pandemic “heightened attention to the digital divide that exists in many communities,” he said. Presley praised NARUC members for acting to stop service disconnections (see 2003170005, 2003160035 and 2003130065). FCC Chairman Ajit Pai “has already exhorted companies with low-income broadband programs like Connect2Compete to expand and improve them (for example, by increasing speeds to 25/3 Mbps and expanding eligibility) and those without to adopt such programs,” a spokesperson emailed. “He also called on broadband providers to relax their data cap policies in appropriate circumstances, on telephone carriers to waive long-distance and overage fees in appropriate circumstances, on those that serve schools and libraries to work with them on remote learning opportunities, and on all network operators to prioritize the connectivity needs of hospitals and healthcare providers.” Presley and fellow Mississippi Public Service Commission members separately urged unlimited mobile and satellite data in a Tuesday letter to the Satellite Broadcasting and Communications Association, and in an identical letter that day to CTIA. The wireless industry is “focused on keeping Americans connected, and our members have taken significant and innovative steps to meet that challenge," said CTIA Senior Vice President-External and State Affairs Jamie Hastings. SBCA didn’t comment.

The FCC Wireless Bureau Tuesday approved special temporary authority for U.S. Cellular to use additional spectrum to meet increased customer demand during the coronavirus pandemic. The grant “will allow the company to operate for 60 days in spectrum licensed to Advantage Spectrum in the AWS-3 Band in order to provide additional capacity to U.S. Cellular customers in parts of California, Oregon, Washington, and Wisconsin,” the FCC said.

Wireless backhaul advocates asked the FCC to make a “discrete change” to the Part 101 microwave rules for antenna gain in the 70/80 GHz band. The FCC should reduce the minimum antenna gain for the band from 43 dBi to 38 dBi, and remove the co-polar discrimination requirement in footnote 14 applicable below 5 degrees, said Aviat, Comsearch, Ericsson and Nokia. Adjusting the standards would “allow for the use of smaller, lighter, lower cost, less susceptible to pole sway, and more visually attractive antennas for wireless backhaul, ideal for 5G network densification,” they said. The companies spoke with Wireless Bureau staff and aides to the five commissioners, said a filing posted Tuesday in docket 10-153.

The Boulder Regional Emergency Telephone Service Authority told the FCC more-accurate data for vertical location accuracy rules is possible than the standard commissioners approved in November (see 1911220034), “Contrary to the assertions of at least one commenter, barometric pressure sensor-based elevation technology is not in its nascent stages,” the authority said: “NextNav demonstrated its integrated terrestrial-GPS and BPS elevation technology to a BRETSA representative almost 9 years ago, and has continued refining and demonstrating the technology. NextNav has consistently met a 2-meter accuracy standard.” Development of databases correlating this data to floor level “will be a labor-intensive project” and “require a community effort” but is doable, the authority said in a filing posted Tuesday in docket 07-114.

The FCC Public Safety Bureau reminded wireless providers they must file certifications of compliance with the agency’s E911 location accuracy benchmark by June 2. The benchmark requires carriers to provide, as of April 3, “dispatchable location or x/y location (latitude and longitude) information within a tolerance of 50 meters for 70% of all wireless 911 calls,” said a Monday notice in docket 07-114.

Wireless Infrastructure Association officials asked an aide to FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr to act on a petition from last year seeking a declaratory ruling putting additional pressure on local governments to act on wireless siting applications (see 1908230052), said a filing posted Monday in docket 19-250. Carr is the FCC lead on changes to wireless infrastructure rules.

FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr Monday slammed a since-deleted tweet claiming 5G deployment was causing the coronavirus. The tweet by Keri Hilson, a “designer of audible art,” claimed the virus started in China shortly after 5G launched there last year. “This tweet by someone with 4 [million] followers is straight from the most dangerous depths of tin foil hat land,” Carr said: “COVID-19 is a virus spread by person-to-person contact, not radio waves.”

CTIA said claims in docket 18-295 that it opposes Wi-Fi in the 6 GHz band, and that more licensed mid-band spectrum isn’t needed for 5G, aren’t true. “Members are eager to make use of and benefit from additional unlicensed capacity and wider unlicensed channels in the lower 6 GHz band,” CTIA said in a filing posted Monday. The wireless industry also supports “consideration of licensing in the upper portion of the band,” the group said. A licensed spectrum gap will continue even with planned auctions, CTIA said. The Fixed Wireless Communications Coalition said the FCC should allow unlicensed operations in the band only with automated frequency control. “No one has yet proposed a methodology that has been proven accurate in estimating propagation loss in the clutter environments where much unlicensed use is likely to occur,” the coalition said.

The Wireless ISP Association told members Monday the FCC is communicating to it that it will allow six months for 3.65 GHz licensees whose licenses expire April 17 to transition from Part 90 to Part 96 gear. WISPA President Claude Aiken shared the news in a private Facebook group. Aiken said licenses expiring in May will likely get a five-month extension. WISPA and the Utilities Technology Council jointly requested the extension (see 1812040002). The spectrum is part of the citizens broadband radio service band. The proposal got mixed reviews when the FCC took comment in 2018 (see 1812260035).

Electric utilities countered Crown Castle arguments the FCC should clarify Communications Act Section 224 to speed deployment of wireless infrastructure (see 2002250019). The utilities said the recommendations were more specific than others made to the FCC. “Crown Castle should not be asking the Commission to determine what constitutes an appropriate design standard for any and all electric utilities,” the coalition said: “The Commission currently lacks the resources necessary to make such determinations.” Arizona Public Service Co., Evergy, Eversource Energy, Exelon, FirstEnergy, Hawaiian electric companies, Minnesota Power, NorthWestern Energy and Puget Sound Energy signed the filing, posted Friday in docket 17-84.