Microsoft officials met with aides to the five FCC commissioners on the TV white spaces NPRM set for a commissioner vote Friday (see 2002060013). “We explained that the TV White Spaces rules proposed by the NPRM will facilitate increased broadband access in rural and unserved areas and help close the digital divide,” said a filing posted Friday in docket 20-36. Microsoft asked for a tweak. The FCC should add language clarifying that the effective isotropic radiated power (EIRP) level allowed is “up to 16 W (42 dBm) EIRP in less congested areas,” the company said.

Under an agreement announced Friday, U.S. Cellular can buy Samsung's 5G network solutions, including 5G New Radio technology, said Samsung Friday. U.S. Cellular will launch its 5G network to deliver indoor and outdoor service, it said. No timetable was given. The agreement also covers 4G LTE network solutions, it said.

The amended T-Mobile/Sprint agreement, revealed Thursday (see 2002200066), doesn’t appear to raise any concerns, New Street said Friday. The agreement extends the outside date for closing to July 1, though the carriers aim to close as early as April 1. “The only risk to Sprint equity now would be if the deal were upended through an appeal, the Tunney Act review, or the [California Public Utilities Commission] process, all of which we consider unlikely,” New Street’s Jonathan Chaplin told investors. “Sprint stock is now a cheaper way to buy New T-Mobile, though we don’t expect many investors to have much of an opportunity to get Sprint at the discount implied by yesterday’s closing prices. Nevertheless, we upgrade Sprint to Buy, for the sake of consistency.” Sprint’s stock price was up 6% Friday to close at $10.05. MoffettNathanson’s Nick Del Deo said there remain unknowns for tower companies. “Is New T-Mobile going to stick to its plan, or end up retaining or decommissioning more sites than it has laid out?” he asked: “Is Dish [Network] going to aggressively build its network, or will it defer capex to the extent possible by relying on its wholesale deal with New T-Mobile? And how many sites will it build, and at what sort of rent?” Chairman Ajit Pai, meanwhile, assured Rep. David Cicilline, D-R.I., the FCC did a thorough review of the deal. “The Commission followed the standard administrative process,” Pai said in a letter posted Friday: “The Commission compiled a voluminous record following a series of public notices seeking public input on various aspects of the transaction. Commission staff conducted an exhaustive examination of the evidence, including review of hundreds of thousands of pages of pleadings, documents, and the substantial material filed by the Applicants and third parties in response to our information requests.”

APCO asked the FCC to act on the public safety organization's February petition for clarification of rules requiring national wireless carriers to meet a vertical location accuracy metric of plus or minus 3 meters for 80 percent of indoor wireless E-911 calls from z-axis capable handsets (see 2002070057). Initial comments were due Friday on a Further NPRM on advanced vertical location, mapping and 911 services. “The resolution of many questions raised in APCO’s Petition will impact whether and how to improve the location accuracy requirements,” APCO said in docket 07-114, posted Friday: “The feasibility and benefits of requiring more granular z-axis information depends on how the Commission defines what it means for carriers to deploy z-axis technology consistent with the manner in which it was tested. Which phones should consumers expect to provide vertical location information with 9-1-1 calls? How do carriers ensure that they have deployed z-axis technology in a manner that will achieve the accuracy demonstrated in the test bed?” The Industry Council for Emergency Response Technologies said “public safety’s many challenges are best addressed through technological innovation and collaboration between industry and public safety stakeholders.” The order rejected a more stringent standard, the council said: “Nothing has changed since the Order was adopted a few months ago to alter that conclusion. The establishment of a more stringent requirement, without the benefit of technical data to support it, would be arbitrary both in terms of the level of accuracy achievable and the timeframe in which it could be achieved.” The FCC asked in the FNPRM if "initiatives are underway to develop resources for mapping building heights and floor numbers," said 911 technology company RapidDeploy: “Indeed, such initiatives are underway, both private and public, at local, regional, and statewide levels.” Public safety answering points and first responders “can be ready to consume and utilize floor level information well before the proposed 5-year timeline -- many as soon as today,” the company commented.

Boeing said the FCC should act on an Aerospace Industries Association petition for service rules in the 5030-5091 MHz band to enable safety communications for unmanned aircraft systems. The company also asked the agency to act on its petition to exempt industrial, scientific and medical components in transportation vehicles from Part 18 licensing, said a filing posted Thursday in docket 19-356 on a meeting with Office of Engineering and Technology staff. “Boeing explained how it currently utilizes spectrum across its business units and the importance of access to spectrum to continue to support U.S. manufacturing, testing, and innovation, as well as for future growth,” the filing said.

Some utility pole owners in Florida, Maryland and Texas are violating Section 224 of the Communications Act, Crown Castle said in a Thursday filing in FCC docket 19-250. The tower company urged the FCC to clarify that blanket prohibitions on specific types of attachments or attachments to specific areas of a pole and negotiated pole-attachment agreement terms that conflict with FCC rules violate Section 224. “Major utilities -- in populous states like Texas and Florida, for instance -- simply ban all third-party attachments in the unusable space and will not entertain discussions for an exception,” said Crown Castle. The company won an exception in North Carolina but only after “many months” of talks with the utility and the relevant city, it said. “A Florida utility set up an unpassable ‘test’ for prospective antenna attachment: the utility will only permit pole-top antenna attachment if the proposed equipment will have no effect on the capacity of the pole; however, any piece of equipment placed on a pole -- no matter how small -- will affect a pole’s capacity, even if the impact is only negligible.” Meanwhile, Crown Castle has been struggling for two years to get authorization from a utility in “a large metropolitan area in Maryland,” it said. “Because the facility involves an antenna, the local jurisdiction is requiring approval and will not issue the needed approval until the utility issues its construction standard, which it has not done.”

Deutsche Telekom CEO Timotheus Hottges told analysts Wednesday it’s too early to say how active T-Mobile will be in a C-band auction. “Let’s figure out how the auction design will look like, when it’s going to take place,” he said. Hottges was pleased the T-Mobile/Sprint deal will soon be complete. “What an incredible journey this has been,” he said: “We see a light at the end of the tunnel, and we are now very confident that this deal is taking place with all the benefits it’s going to have for us here at Deutsche Telekom.” Chief Financial Officer Christian Illek said the deal's effect on DT’s balance sheet remains to be seen. “There is no new news because we don’t know anything further,” he said: “We will have full access to their numbers, to all of their accounting numbers and so forth, whenever we have closed. … Prior to that, we are not allowed to talk to them.”

Aviation interests told the FCC that proposed power limits and emission levels for the C band aren’t enough to protect radio altimeter radar systems operating in the 4200-4400 MHz band from harmful interference. The FCC rules should make clear that “flexible-use licensees in the 3700-3980 MHz band (1) will be responsible for preventing harmful interference to radio altimeters and (2) resolve any interference that does occur,” said a filing posted Thursday in docket 18-122. The FCC should require a multistakeholder group to “provide a forum for industry to work expeditiously and cooperatively to advance the assessment of the potential for interference -- by both flexible mobile base stations and handsets -- to the embedded base of tens of thousands of FAA-certified radio altimeters; develop efficient, technical solutions; and propose regulatory measures to implement such solutions,” the filing said. Representatives of the Aerospace Industries Association, Aviation Spectrum Resources, the Aerospace Vehicle Systems Institute, the Air Line Pilots Association, Airbus and Airlines for America were among those who met with Wireless Bureau and Office of Engineering and Technology staff.

T-Mobile and Sprint amended terms of their merger agreement through a unanimous vote by the companies’ boards, they said Thursday. The deal extends the outside date for closing to July 1, though carriers aim to close the deal as early as April 1, they said. A separate arrangement entered into by SoftBank Group will result in an effective exchange ratio of about 11 Sprint shares for each T-Mobile share after closing, an increase from the originally agreed 9.75 shares. SoftBank agreed to surrender about 48.8 million T-Mobile shares acquired in the transaction to New T-Mobile, making SoftBank’s effective ratio 11.31 Sprint shares per T-Mobile share, the carriers said. Other Sprint shareholders will continue to get about 9.75 Sprint shares for each T-Mobile share, they said. After SoftBank surrenders shares, Deutsche Telekom expects to hold about 43% of the new company’s shares, and SoftBank 24%, with the remaining third held by public shareholders, they said. “T-Mobile has agreed to re-issue to SoftBank the previously surrendered shares upon the achievement of certain stock price milestones by New T-Mobile during a specified measurement period, and subject to certain additional terms, as outlined in the letter agreement that will be filed by each of T-Mobile and Sprint with the SEC.”

FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr applauded the Department of Labor for awarding a $6 million apprenticeship grant to the Wireless Infrastructure Association. The department “has recognized the critical role of tower techs, linemen, and other 5G workers in building our country’s information infrastructure and has provided new resources to expand that workforce,” Carr said Wednesday. “The training offered at technical schools and through apprenticeships gives students a path up towers and into the middle class with only a couple of months in the classroom.” The 5G initiative “will help equip America’s future workforce with the skills needed to build next-generation wireless networks to lead the global race to 5G,” said WIA President Jonathan Adelstein.