The National Academy of Sciences’ Committee on RF (CORF) opposed a Millimeter Wave Coalition petition to modify allocation table footnote US246 to allow emissions into exclusive passive bands. The request “should be rejected because it is inconsistent with and cannot be executed under the rules and procedures” of the ITU, CORF said in FCC docket 18-21, posted Thursday. “Interference-free access to the US246 bands is uniquely important for scientific use of the spectrum.” The coalition defended the August petition (see 1910150032).

Takeaways on wireless network security can help "shape the debate surrounding the U.S. approach to addressing threats posed by untrusted communications equipment currently located in U.S. communications networks," FCC Commissioner Geoffrey Starks said on a report Thursday on the integrity of 5G, 4G and 3G networks. Concerns continue over possible risks from Chinese manufacturers such as Huawei and ZTE. Starks hosted the workshop June 27 (see 1906270039). The FCC released Thursday quotes from lawmakers, DOJ and interest groups supporting national security supply chain rules set for a vote Friday (see 1911200030).

WTA said it supports a request last year by the Wireless ISP Association and the Utilities Technology Council that the FCC waive requirements that 3650-3700 MHz licensees complete the transition to Part 96 citizens broadband radio service rules by April 17 (see 1812040002). “WTA did not participate during the earlier stages of this proceeding, but has recently become aware that some of its members have been using the … band to provide fixed wireless broadband service to significant numbers of their rural customers and that these members are not going to be able to conform their operations to the Part 96 CBRS rules” by the deadline, said a filing in docket 18-353, posted Tuesday.

Verizon executives made clear in a meeting with sell-side analysts Tuesday it doesn’t need the C band for its 5G plans, Wells Fargo’s Jennifer Fritzsche told investors Wednesday. “Over the next year, [Verizon] will be rolling out additional 5G Mobile markets, with plans to upgrade cell sites to enable dynamic spectrum-sharing with 4G LTE and to bring more compatible devices into the ecosystem,” Fritzsche said: “They are certainly interested in C-band spectrum to accelerate their 5G deployments, but their current plans contemplate only using their existing assets in place.” She noted Verizon is building its 5G network using technology from Samsung, Nokia and Ericsson and plans to launch a mobile-edge computing product this year.

The Supreme Court distributed for a Dec. 6 conference CTIA’s challenge of an RF disclosure law by Berkeley, California (see 1910310041), the court said Wednesday in docket 19-439.

APCO said many 911 directors agree they need floor-level identification and not just height above ellipsoid (HAE) data to provide first responders with the information they need to respond to wireless emergency calls. APCO reported on a meeting with an aide to FCC Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel, posted Wednesday in docket 07-114. Commissioners will vote Friday on an order requiring carriers to provide vertical axis data, but not floor levels (see 1911140060). Officials from New York City; Washington, D.C.; New Orleans; Tarrant County, Texas; the Denver and Seattle areas; Richmond; and Raleigh are among those demanding floor-level data, APCO said. “Even the largest departments in the country do not have the resources to operationalize a raw vertical estimate in terms of HAE by creating and maintaining indoor maps for the buildings in their jurisdictions, nor should they be expected to do so,” APCO said: “They have also cautioned the Commission against assuming that first responders in the field will have devices capable of matching altitude measurements to those received from 9-1-1 callers.”

FirstNet Executive Director Ed Parkinson and others from the authority told the FCC it should reject a request that the agency impose interoperability rules on the national first responder network (see 1909270054). The FCC earlier commented on Colorado's Boulder Regional Emergency Telephone Service Authority (BRETSA) petitions for declaratory ruling or rulemaking. The petitions seek measures “inconsistent with and not actionable under the FirstNet Authority’s enabling statute, and which would damage the FirstNet program fought for by public safety and prescribed by Congress,” FirstNet said in a meeting with Public Safety Bureau staff: The FirstNet network “is interoperable as required under the 2012 Act.” The FCC has already “fulfilled all of its duties and responsibilities” in that act, said the filing posted Monday in docket 19-254.

Hughes Network Systems wants the FCC to define "latency-sensitive traffic" through a public comments proceeding, it said in a filing posted Tuesday in docket 19-126. Hughes said it's interested in showing that hybrid broadband networks that use multiple paths to reach customer locations can participate in upcoming Rural Digital Opportunity Fund auctions. "To permit the RDOF to realize the benefits of these hybrid networks, rules need to be adopted that address performance measurement with the same flexibility as the networks themselves, requiring networks to perform within the required parameters of a particular performance tier with regard to the traffic that demands that performance level," Hughes wrote. It asked that RDOF performance rules be modified to require hybrid networks to deliver latency-sensitive traffic at latency levels at or below 100 milliseconds at least 95 percent of the time.

FCC Commissioners Jessica Rosenworcel and Geoffrey Starks dissented in an order released Tuesday (and adopted last Friday) that updates rules for the USF Lifeline program's minimum mobile broadband service standards. The FCC said it would waive the increase in minimum standards, but only in part, to require mobile broadband Lifeline carriers to offer more than 3 GB per month Dec. 1-Nov. 30, 2020, and the agency denied industry petitions to pause a phase-down in voice-only support from $9.25 to $7.25 per month, as expected (see 1911150062).

RigNet has concerns about unlicensed use of the 6 GHz band, its executives told officials from FCC Office of Engineering and Technology, including Chief Julius Knapp. RigNet is worried about the “critical communications” the company offers on its network, which covers “approximately 60,000 square miles of seawater in the Gulf of Mexico and, especially, with the beach crossings where the 6 GHz backbone for the network comes ashore.” RigNet seeks “a 35-mile radius exclusion zone around each of the sites where the 6 GHz point-to-point network crosses the shore,” said a filing Monday in docket 18-295.