Comments are due Oct. 18, replies Nov. 4 on a petition for declaratory ruling by wireless ISP Wisp.net that FCC rules for over-the-air reception devices pre-empt Fountain Valley, California, denial of a zoning permit, the Wireless Bureau said in a public notice Wednesday on docket 19-270.
A three-week trial “is likely to be necessary” in the state attorneys general lawsuit against T-Mobile's buying Sprint, the defendant carriers wrote (in Pacer) Magistrate Judge Robert Lehrburger of U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York. To avoid trial on holiday weeks, consider moving the trial up one week to Dec. 2, the carriers said Monday. Defendants discussed it with plaintiffs, who plan to file soon, they said.
Cost-benefit analysis largely plays no role in spectrum transactions, the Phoenix Center said Monday. The center uses as a case study the proposed reconfiguration of the 900 MHz band, which commissioners agreed to seek comment on in March (see 1903130062). “Cost-Benefit Analysis is (or should be) an important part of regulatory decision-making, though such an analysis is often agonizingly complex and rarely determinative,” said Chief Economist George Ford. In some cases, such an analysis isn’t necessary, he said: “When market transactions determine the outcome, it may be presumed, in the absence of large third-party effects or antitrust concerns, that the benefits of the transaction exceed the costs. Additionally, when all costs are covered, if the transaction occurs it can be assumed that the benefits exceed the costs.”
Anterix, previously pdvWireless, discussed the FCC’s proposed reconfiguration of the 900 MHz band (see 1903130062) with an aide to Commissioner Brendan Carr. They had an “in-depth discussion of the voluntary versus mandatory realignment issue,” said a filing posted Monday in docket 17-200: “This process should start, and in many counties likely will conclude, with entirely voluntary agreements. Anterix has already negotiated agreements with a number of incumbents, including several large utilities whose 900 MHz systems have been redeployed on channels in the 2/2 MHz reserved for narrowband use.” The NPRM also recognizes that “an entirely voluntary process inevitably creates opportunities for hold-outs,” the company said. “This is not a concern about the great majority of 900 MHz incumbents.”
The Fixed Wireless Communications Coalition (FWCC) fired back at August tech company filings pressing for radio local access network operations in the 6 GHz band, a key band for Wi-Fi (see 1909090057). “These submissions are part of the proponents’ ongoing, as yet unsuccessful, effort to establish that certain 6 GHz unlicensed RLANs can operate free of automatic frequency control, without causing harmful interference to Fixed Service (FS) receivers,” the coalition filed, posted Monday in docket 18-295: “Our analyses have shown the opposite: that uncontrolled RLANs at any useful power are statistically certain to cause harmful interference to the FS. For that reason, they cannot lawfully be authorized.”
The FCC cleared spectrum access system administrators for the 3.5 GHz band, operated by Amdocs, CommScope, Federated Wireless, Google and Sony. The SAS administrators “have satisfied the Commission’s SAS laboratory testing requirements and are approved to begin their initial commercial deployments,” said a Monday order in docket 15-319, by the Wireless Bureau and Office of Engineering and Technology. A Citizens Broadband Radio Service Alliance event Wednesday marks launch of services in the band (see 1908210052).
Free State Foundation's Seth Cooper wants FCC clarity on the Telephone Consumer Protection Act: "Define prohibited ‘autodialers’ to mean equipment with current capacity to store or produce phone numbers using a random or sequential number generator and with capacity to dial those numbers without human intervention,” Cooper wrote. “Such a rule would track the plain meaning of the TCPA and also avoid a wrongful harmful overextension of autodialer liability for smartphone owners.” The FCC should also consider a rule “clarifying that receipt of a single unsolicited text message from another smartphone-owning consumer does not, by itself, constitute a violation,” said the FSF policy studies director.
The Environmental Health Trust filed studies raising concerns about the dangers of cellphone use. Current RF limits for devices licensed by the FCC are safe and don’t need to be strengthened, the agency said in August (see 1908080061). New research shows "non-thermal biological impacts from cellphones and other wireless radiating devices,” the trust said, posted Friday in docket 13-39: This research “indicates the clear and compelling need to revise the guidelines for evaluating these devices.”
Qualcomm and Ericsson completed the first 5G new radio (NR) data connection, compliant with global 3rd Generation Partnership Project 5G NR Release 15, in stand-alone (SA) operating mode. They can "support the 2nd phase of 5G commercialization with SA deployments that utilize a new 5G core network to provide more 5G capabilities -- including guaranteed quality of service and network slicing" to further the industrial IoT and more, the companies said Thursday.
Dish Network's Window asked the FCC for waiver tied to Dish’s business agreement with T-Mobile (see 1907260071) for Auction 103. T-Mobile sought a similar waiver (see 1909100062). Window said in docket 19-59 it filed a short-form application Monday to participate in the December auction of the upper 37, 39 and 47 GHz bands (see 1908270033).