At the end of 2019, positive train control was in operation across 98.5 percent of required Class I route miles, the Association of American Railroads said Tuesday. “The nation’s largest railroads remain on track to meet the final deadline for full implementation of the critical safety technology, … with several railroads already operating the technology across their entire required PTC footprint,” AAR said. The deadline is Dec. 31. “For the remainder of this year, the Class I railroads will continue to focus on testing to ensure that PTC systems are fully interoperable and work seamlessly across operations as railroads regularly run across each other’s tracks,” the group said. Class I railroads have invested $11.47 billion in PTC, now covering 53,001 miles of track, AAR said.

Commenters again stressed the importance of commercial spectrum to safe operation of unmanned aerial systems, in replies this week in docket 19-356. The replies, due Monday, follow initial comments in December (see 1912270039). The FCC sought comment on the use of the 960-1164 MHz and 5030-5091 MHz bands by drones. “New use cases and deployment scenarios for UAS are developing every day, and safe and secure UAS activities will require ample spectrum” and the two bands won’t be available for years, CTIA said. “The record demonstrates that licensed commercial wireless spectrum is an ideal alternative that is readily available today,” CTIA said: “Stakeholders deploying this reliable and secure communications platform are now exploring ways to minimize interference to other users and developing technological solutions that will enable even more advanced drone operations, including for safety-of-life services and higher-altitude flights.” Verizon said the record shows overwhelming support for “continued application of the Commission’s flexible use policies to encourage using commercial mobile spectrum for UAS.” Commenters agree “on the importance of ensuring the safe operation of UAS, and mobile network operators have proven that they are best positioned to ensure that commercial mobile spectrum can be leveraged safely and without interference,” the carrier said. Spectrum Financial Partners said 5G and other cellular networks “with modern dynamic tilt control, low latency,” support for massive IoT and machine-to-machine communications and shared spectrum approaches are well suited to providing spectrum for drones. “The UAS industry is still very much in its infancy and its needs and applications are rapidly evolving and commercial cellular networks are best equipped, deployed and competitively managed to ensure that UAS communications needs are immediately and responsively addressed in a spectrally efficient and cost-effective way,” the company said. The National Public Safety Telecommunications Council said it joins initial commenters “in noting the need for the Commission to move forward to define spectrum allocations and related regulations for UAS.” NPSTC supports “commenters’ recommendations for the Commission, the FAA and NTIA to work cooperatively and expeditiously together to provide regulatory certainty for UAS operations,” the group said: “The needs of public safety, in addition to those of other critical functions, as well as those of commercial wireless providers, should be part of this discussion.”

Raycap said use of light poles is critical to densifying 5G networks. High-band deployment “will depend largely on small cell street poles to meet coverage requirements in urban areas,” a Monday Raycap report said: “Next-generation integrated poles combine and conceal all the 5G/4G electronics, power and connectivity electronics needed to create a small cell site. Through scalable manufacturing, testing and fast turnaround times, these poles can reduce time-to-deployment, simplify installation and make it easier to upgrade.” The installations will become common in urban areas, the report predicts, and they “need to fit in seamlessly with the rest of the architecture, public spaces and pedestrian right of ways.”

AT&T told aides to FCC Chairman Ajit Pai and Commissioner Mike O’Rielly the FCC should dismiss a petition by Colorado's Boulder Regional Emergency Telephone Service Authority seeking FCC interoperability rules for FirstNet (see 1910150038). AT&T and FirstNet have made “tremendous progress” working together "towards accomplishing the statutory mission of deploying the nationwide, public safety broadband network,” AT&T said in docket 19-254, posted Monday.

FCC restrictions on commission payments to Lifeline enrollment representatives "may have unintended consequences that warrant reconsideration or clarification," Sprint said in Wednesday meetings with commissioner aides and Wireline Bureau officials and in a filing posted Monday in docket 17-287. The agency wants to implement new policies to help curb waste, fraud and abuse in the USF program (see 1908190028).

LightShed’s Walter Piecyk told investors Verizon faces problems on spectrum. “Verizon’s spectrum position has been a nagging concern for investors and it’s likely to persist in 2020,” he said Monday: “Verizon’s current network strategy leans heavily on small cell densification and [millimeter-wave] spectrum. However, the early performance of mmWave spectrum has been worse than promised and the pace of small cell deployments is slower than expected.” The carrier continues to convert its CDMA spectrum to LTE, not 5G, “to maintain and improve its network performance,” he said. Verizon didn’t comment.

No one objected to a study by Jeff Reed of Virginia Tech and Reed Engineering on sharing the C band with fixed point-to-multipoint operations (see 1907020061) when the FCC took comment last year, said officials with the Open Technology Institute at New America and Public Knowledge, in a meeting with FCC Commissioner Geoffrey Starks. Reed said “even after a repack of earth stations, every single megahertz of the ongoing [fixed satellite service] portion of C-band can be coordinated by local ISPs in 80 percent of the U.S. where more than 80 million Americans live, communities that are disproportionately rural and underserved,” the groups said in a filing in docket 18-122, posted Monday: “This is a perfect opportunity for the Commission to dedicate not only taxpayer dollars via the Rural Development Opportunity Fund, but also ‘spectrum as infrastructure’ to dramatically narrow the rural broadband divide.” Commenting on an auction, the groups said the FCC “has no legal authority to require or specify any incentive or ‘acceleration’ payments to C-band incumbents that extend beyond actual and reasonable relocation costs.” Making 280 MHz of C-band spectrum available for 5G “as soon as possible is a national priority,” said Verizon. It has no qualms about incentives for incumbents: The Communications Act “provides ample legal authority, and Emerging Technologies offers a well-established model, for auction winners to pay incumbents, including expenses and incentive payments for accelerated clearing.” T-Mobile officials met staff from the FCC Office of General Counsel to argue for incentive payments. “The record supports satellite operators receiving some compensation for transitioning out of the C-band and requiring winning bidders to make those payments as a condition to receiving their licenses,” the carrier said: The FCC “is on solid legal footing” to impose that requirement.

Crown Castle representatives told Wireless Bureau staff the FCC should act on CTIA and Wireless Infrastructure Association petitions seeking more changes to wireless infrastructure rules designed to accelerate siting of towers and other 5G facilities (see 1910300027). There's “uncertainty and delay associated with the inclusion of conditions in [eligible facilities requests] permits that are unrelated to the health and safety of the modification, are often impossible or impracticable to accept, and the implications of not complying with the conditions,” said a filing posted Friday in docket 19-250: “Clarification of the Commission’s rules implementing Section 6409 of the Spectrum Act is beneficial to all parties.”

Competitive telcos support T-Mobile buying Sprint, with Dish Network entering as a fourth national carrier, Incompas said in a Friday amicus brief (in Pacer) at U.S. District Court in Washington. “This creative settlement not only remedies the effects of what would otherwise be an increase in market concentration, but affirmatively improves the competitive conditions in that market to boot,” it told the court conducting the Tunney Act review. Dish will likely “provide wholesale capacity to carriers and enterprises at low prices reflecting its low marginal costs,” Incompas said.

Suburbs are the place to be for fewest wireless network problems, with urban areas experiencing the most, J.D. Power reported Thursday. Managing customer expectations for speed and reliability is important because user perceptions of speed on high-band vs. low-band frequencies vary, said analyst Ian Greenblatt. Multi-tier 5G strategies can address that “if providers properly set those expectations against the reality of the real-world speeds.” Verizon ranked first with fewest problems per 100 interactions in all six regions.