WiMax Forum representatives pressed for FCC action on rules for the aeronautical mobile airport communications system (AeroMACS), in meetings with Wireless Bureau staff and an aide to Chairman Ajit Pai. AeroMACS would provide broadband communications capability for airport surface operations (see 1906060056), though parts remain controversial (see 1909040057). “Forum representatives discussed the growing momentum and demand for AeroMACS,” the group said in docket 19-140, posted Monday. “The Forum representatives stressed the need for final rules to facilitate further progress and discussed the public interest benefits of a flexible, light-touch regulatory approach for this service.”

Google said the FCC should consider allowing carriers to transmit information on the floor level of a wireless call to 911 as an alternative to providing height above ellipsoid (HAE) data. Commissioners are to vote on an order Friday (see 1911130030). “An HAE estimate may not provide actionable information in the short term, particularly with regard to identifying which floor to search,” Google said in a filing posted Monday in docket 07-114: Google understands that “not every person in public safety is (or is on a clear path to be) equipped with technology capable of interpreting HAE information.” The National Emergency Number Association disagreed. “A handset’s location, including z-axis, must be delivered to the 9-1-1 system in its original format,” NENA said. “Google’s proposal -- to the extent it removes z-axis HAE from the location payload -- would reduce overall vertical location accuracy and upend the marketplace for downstream mapping and location solutions, disrupting many of the benefits of a ubiquitous standard for vertical elevation measurement.” NENA said “the vast majority of organizations representing public safety” support the z-axis mandate. A Monday news release from the FCC chairman's office laid out public safety support for the z-axis mandate.

The U.S. needs to make the C band and other mid-band spectrum available for 5G, said Ericsson Global CEO Borje Ekholm and North American CEO Niklas Heuveldop in a meeting with FCC Commissioner Geoffrey Starks. “It is being rolled out faster than anticipated,” said a filing posted Friday in docket 18-122: “Globally, Ericsson is seeing a lot of demand for 5G mobile broadband, but we expect to see more use cases centered on enterprise solutions -- taking IoT and industrial applications to the next level.” The FCC may act soon on an auction of the C band for 5G.

The FCC is seeking comment on what constitutes a small business when determining a company’s eligibility for bidding credits in the 2.5 GHz auction. The FCC agreed in July to a still-unscheduled auction of the spectrum, over partial dissents by Commissioners Jessica Rosenworcel and Geoffrey Starks (see 1907100054). That auction is expected in late 2020 (see 1909300064). The Wireless Bureau and Office of Economics and Analytics sought comment Friday, with due dates to come in a Federal Register notice. “We seek comment on the definitions of a ‘small business’ as an entity that, together with its affiliates, its controlling interests, and the affiliates of its controlling interests, has average gross revenues that are not more than $55 million for the preceding five years, and a ‘very small business’ as an entity that, together with its affiliates, its controlling interests, and the affiliates of its controlling interests, has average gross revenues that are not more than $20 million for the preceding five years,” said a notice in docket 18-120.

Utilities Technology Council President Joy Ditto warned FCC Commissioner Mike O’Rielly of risks to critical communications systems from Wi-Fi in 6 GHz. O’Rielly has said some utilities were looking for protections beyond which they're entitled by their licenses (see 1908210052). “Utilities and other critical infrastructure industries operate extensive microwave communications systems in the 6 GHz band,” UTC said in docket 18-295, posted Friday. “Refrain from allowing unlicensed operations in the 6 GHz band, and require further field testing of the automated frequency control technology proposed to mitigate harmful interference before any such unlicensed operations should be permitted in the band.”

Don't rely on the Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act to ban equipment from Huawei for USF, as proposed by FCC Chairman Ajit Pai, asked the Chinese company. Huawei opposes the ban, scheduled for commissioner vote Friday (see 1910290054).“The Commission cannot rely on CALEA as a source of authority for its rule because it never proposed to rely on CALEA in its NPRM,” Huawei said in docket 18-89, posted Friday. “In the Draft Report and Order, the Commission cites two provisions of CALEA, 47 U.S.C. §§ 229 and 1004. But the Commission cited § 229 nowhere in the NPRM and cited § 1004 only in a footnote with no explanation or context whatsoever,” Huawei said. The FCC’s proposed interpretation of CALEA “departs from the statute’s plain text, ignores statutory structure, purpose, and legislative history, and is otherwise patently unreasonable,” the company said.

The FCC Enforcement Bureau fined WinPR, a wireless ISP in Puerto Rico, $25,000 for “willfully operating” unlicensed national information infrastructure (U-NII) devices “in an unauthorized manner that caused interference to the FAA’s terminal doppler weather radar station in San Juan.” The bureau proposed fines against three WISPs in August, including WinPR (see 1908220031). “WinPR’s U-NII devices were not configured to sense the presence of the FAA’s terminal doppler weather radar station and to move to a non-interfering frequency,” said Thursday's order: “WinPR has not filed a response to the Notice.” Staff reduced a proposed fine against Caribbean Network Solutions, a second WISP in Puerto Rico, to $7,912 from $20,000. The bureau's “persuaded by the argument in the Response (and accompanying documentation) that Caribbean lacks the ability to pay the full $20,000 forfeiture,” it said. The bureau wasn’t persuaded by arguments the company was unaware it was causing interference to the Doppler stations or that it took “remedial actions” after receiving notice or on its history of compliance with rules. The WISPs didn’t comment.

The C-Band Alliance told the FCC its proposal has broad support. “As the record makes clear, a diverse set of entities and interests, spanning a variety of industries and immediate economic interests, have come together to support the market-based approach," said a filing in docket 18-122, posted Thursday. Supporters include carriers, aerospace manufacturers, video programmers, wireless equipment makers, broadcast station operators and free market organizations. CBA filed a report by Brattle Group’s Coleman Bazelon. A “market-based mechanism, such as the consortium proposed by the C-Band Alliance, can overcome market failures that lead to significant holdout problems, solve issues of informational complexity that lead to regulatory failures, maximize the amount of spectrum available in the marketplace while protecting incumbent operations, and ensure that the spectrum is put to its highest valued use,” the report said: “This approach, which is applicable in incentivizing incumbents to discover value creating spectrum repurposing well beyond the C-Band, fits in well with the FCC’s light-touch approach to regulating the mobile market.” AT&T said the FCC should reallocate the C band, and ensure its order would survive legal challenge. “Modify the satellite operators’ authorizations under Section 316 of the [Communications] Act to add a terrestrial use component, but specify that those flexible use rights would have to be collectively assigned, within a stated period, through an auction process in order to, among other things, fund the transition of existing C-band users,” AT&T asked. The carrier met with Chief Donald Stockdale and others in the Wireless Bureau.

The FCC and Energy Department have nothing to fear from low-power Wi-Fi in the 6 GHz band, said the Wi-Fi Alliance, responding to DOE concerns. The alliance supports “rigorous protection of those and other critical incumbent licensed uses of the 6 GHz band,” said a filing posted Wednesday in docket 18-295. “The FCC’s proposal does just that by contemplating that the immediate unlicensed use of the 6 GHz band will be limited to low-power devices operating indoors only, ensuring that there will be no impact on incumbent operations like those of the water and energy industries,” the group said: Higher-power use of the band “will be subject to fully developed and tested automatic frequency coordination systems.”

Verizon explained its stance on out-of-band emissions (OOBE) limits and other protections for C-band incumbents. The company backed a receiver protection threshold of -128 dBm/MHz to protect earth stations “rather than imposing across-the-board restrictive power levels and OOBE limits on all 5G transmitters,” posted Wednesday in FCC docket 18-122. That “would shift the responsibility of interference management away from static and overly-restrictive limits on base station/end-user equipment and onto 5G operators that can use dynamic and flexible network management techniques to locally modify network operations to protect earth stations,” Verizon said. The FCC adopted a similar approach to protect broadcast auxiliary services and cable TV radio services in the 2025-2110 MHz band from adjacent-channel AWS-1 services at 2110-2155 MHz, the carrier said in a call with Chief Julius Knapp and other staff from the Office of Engineering and Technology, plus the Wireless Bureau and Office of Economics and Analytics. Qualcomm discussed acceptable emissions limits in a call with OET and OEA staff. “Imposing less stringent OOBE limits on mobile devices that use the new C-Band will ensure robust 5G services while providing adequate protection of [fixed satellite service] receivers,” Qualcomm said. “The C-Band Alliance worked for many months with filter manufacturers to develop a 5G rejection filter with much-improved performance over the filtering on which the FCC’s [citizens broadband radio service] rules are based.”