Wireless carriers challenging FCC infrastructure rules in the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals told the court the FCC didn’t go far enough in writing rules for 5G. 5G deployment will require installation of hundreds of small cells, the carriers said (in Pacer) Wednesday: Small cells are “the backbone of next-generation, ‘5G’ wireless service.” Others say the rules go too far and court watchers say what the 9th Circuit will rule is difficult to predict (see 1906100021). Various challenges have been consolidated under Sprint v. FCC, No. 19-70123. The FCC’s failure to impose a deemed granted remedy is “arbitrary and capricious because it is ‘in apparent conflict with [its] finding[s] in this case,’” the carriers said in a reply brief. “An established way to provide prompt, sure relief in the case of a shot clock violation is to deem requests granted when siting authorities fail to announce a decision before the expiration of the shot clock time period. Nevertheless, the FCC did not impose a deemed granted remedy.” The FCC and DOJ, meanwhile, filed a brief in Portland v. FCC, No. 18-72689, which is before the same panel as the other case. The FCC issued the infrastructure orders “in response to considerable evidence that some states and localities have materially inhibited the deployment of communications infrastructure that is urgently needed to keep pace with consumer demand for wireless services,” the government said. “Among other things, states and localities have imposed moratoria on siting applications, assessed fees that exceed any actual deployment-related costs the localities must incur, failed to act on siting applications in a timely manner, and imposed conditions on the placement or appearance of facilities that providers cannot ascertain in advance.”

Aviation interests raised aeronautical mobile airport communications system (AeroMACS) concerns as the FCC took comment on an NPRM proposing changes to Part 87 aviation radio service rules. Reply comments were due Wednesday in docket RM-11793 on the NPRM, which also proposes rules for AeroMACS, which would enable broadband communications capability for airport surface operations (see 1906060056). The American Association of Airport Executives (AAAE) said it “generally supports the FCC’s proposed rules for implementing a broadband communications system to support airport surface operations in the United States, as well as the proposal to permit expanded use of a type of mobile station that helps reduce collisions between aircraft and airport ground vehicles.” But the group suggested improving the rules by saying airports shouldn’t be responsible for deciding whether non-aircraft AeroMACS licenses should be allowed to use the system. The proposed rule changes as a whole are positive, but the FCC needs to rethink the AeroMACS proposal, Boeing said. The FCC should ensure “any service rules properly take into account key limitations on the purpose and value of AeroMACS,” Boeing commented. It should impose “proper qualifications for non-aircraft licensees” and designate a “qualified frequency coordinator,” Boeing said: Preclude AeroMACS deployment “at certain airports with significant flight testing operations.” Aerospace and Flight Test Radio Coordinating Council also raised AeroMACS concerns at the airports collocated with aerospace manufacturing plants. The council questioned whether airlines are ready to lay out the money to pay for the service: “The concerned government agencies should consult with industry stakeholders to establish a reasonable sharing criteria, and this should be accomplished prior to any AeroMACS deployment at these airports and any others added on a case-by-case basis.” GE Aviation's AiRXOS urged the FCC to use the rulemaking to address “critical issues for the burgeoning” unmanned aircraft systems industry. “Adopt an interim regulatory regime that permits near-term commercial operations for UAS systems, which cannot rely on the Commission’s current regulatory mechanisms to secure FAA approval,” AiRXOS said.

Comments to the Federal Railroad Administration are due Oct. 18 on a Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority petition to increase to 184 days the time between periodic safety tests, some involving vehicles with positive train control, said Tuesday’s Federal Register. SEPTA said performing signal inspections under the same schedule as the locomotive inspections “would increase efficiency without compromising safety,” said the FR.

Former FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler and ex-Public Safety Bureau Chief David Simpson argued Tuesday that policymakers should devote an “equivalent -- if not greater -- focus on the security” of 5G networks as they do on the need for the U.S. to be at the forefront of the “connected future” the technology promises. Wheeler is a Brookings Institution visiting fellow and Simpson a Virginia Tech College of Business IT professor. “To build 5G on top of a weak cybersecurity foundation is to build on sand,” they reported for Brookings. “This is not just a matter of the safety of network users, it is a matter of national security.” Wheeler made similar arguments about the need for more attention on 5G security in July (see 1907090044). The former officials urged policymakers to treat 5G security as a priority and hold companies responsible for their cyber “duty of care,” meaning their responsibility to “identify and mitigate potential harms that could result” from services. Wheeler and Simpson said the federal government should establish a new “cyber regulatory paradigm" in which there’s closer cooperation here between the public and private sectors. FCC Chairman Ajit Pai in 2017 reversed a Simpson-authored white paper on communications sector cybersecurity regulation and a notice of inquiry on cybersecurity for 5G devices (see 1702060062 and 1702060059), among other moves (see 1702030070). The FCC and Commerce Department should “re-engage” with international standards-setting bodies like the 3rd Generation Partnership Project to ensure “informed third-party oversight early in the 5G industry’s design and deployment cycle in order to prioritize cyber security,” the ex-officials said.

TCL will bow its first branded smartphone for global markets at IFA, said the company Friday. The foldable smartphone concept design will introduce a ButterflyHinge system.

The FCC Public Safety Bureau OK'd a San Diego County ask for waiver in paperwork needed to let it add seven base stations to its trunked 800 MHz private land mobile radio system for improved public safety communications. In an order in Friday's Daily Digest, the bureau said waiver was needed of a certification from the operator of a co-channel station that would be relatively near the base stations, but that operator wasn't able to provide certification due to its channel not being fully operational, as rules state.

Santa Clara County, California, got limited wireless emergency alert waiver for commercial mobile service providers to participate in an end-to-end WEA test, the FCC Public Safety Bureau ordered in docket 15-94 and Thursday's Daily Digest. The fire department proposed Friday's test.

Best Buy trimmed 2019 forecasts due to the projected impact of the fourth tranche of U.S. tariffs on Chinese goods that take effect Sunday and again Dec. 15. A more-than-expected “drag” in the videogaming cycle, plus the maturing smartphone category also weighed heavily on the outlook, said executives on a Q2 call Thursday. Shares closed down 8 percent at $63.49. In May, the retailer held to its February FY 2020 revenue guidance of $42.9 billion-$43.9 billion on enterprise same-store sales increases between 0.5 percent and 2.5 percent. Thursday, it shaved the top end of the guidance range to $43.1 billion-$43.6 billion, and cut its same-store sales growth forecast to 0.7 percent-1.7 percent. This is “best estimate of the impact from the List 4 tariffs and the most recent announcement regarding List 3 moving to a 30 percent rate” from 25 percent, said Corie Barry on her first call as CEO. Vendors’ continuing migration out of China will result in a lower impact from tariffs next year, Barry predicted, “because you’re seeing supply chains already start to move.” Computing and mobile phones were 44 percent of Q2 revenue, down a point from Q1.

FCC staff wants comment by Sept. 16, replies by Oct. 1, on WaveSense's waiver request from sections 15.509(b) and 15.525 of commission rules for its driver-assistance technology using ultra-wideband ground-penetrating radar for "lanekeeping in challenging environmental conditions, such as snow or fog.” When a vehicle drives on a mapped road, the technology would use algorithms to match the current scan with previously captured data to determine position, the company says, per an Office of Engineering and Technology public notice in Wednesday's Daily Digest and for docket 19-241. The UWB radar operates at 103-403 MHz.

A solitary, unsolicited text message isn't enough to establish standing to sue in federal court, the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled Wednesday, reversing a lower court's decision in a Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) complaint. In the docket 17-14077 order, Judges Lisa Branch and Danny Reeves remanded the complaint with instructions to dismiss without prejudice, with Judge Jill Pryor concurring. A former client of a Florida attorney sued in 2016 after receiving a multimedia text message offering a discount on services. A U.S. District Court judge in Miami rejected a defense motion to dismiss the claim based on lack of standing, but allowed an interlocutory appeal. The appellate court said 11th Circuit precedent and the language of the TCPA are silent on unsolicited text message issues, but lawmaker focus on telemarketing points to a single text message being "qualitatively different from the kinds of things Congress was concerned about." The decision, penned by Branch, likened receiving a single text to having a flyer waved in one's face on a busy sidewalk -- "annoying, perhaps, but not a basis for invoking the jurisdiction of the federal courts." Pryor agreed the plaintiff had no standing to bring a TCPA claim but wrote separately to make clear the opinion was narrow and doesn't address whether a plaintiff receiving multiple unwanted texts would have standing to sue under TCPA. Class litigation defense lawyer Scott Goldsmith of Dorsey & Whitney, who wasn't involved in the Florida litigation, emailed that the 11th Circuit decision "applied a large dose of common sense." He said single-text message cases are usually filed as putative TCPA class actions and the plaintiff's bar will now likely look elsewhere, such as the 9th Circuit, where a single text message can stand up to standing scrutiny. Plaintiff's counsel didn't comment.