Top executives at T-Mobile spoke with all five FCC commissioners on their proposed buy of Sprint, in calls through Monday. CEO John Legere spoke with Chairman Ajit Pai and his Republican colleagues, President Michael Sievert with the Democrats. The executives “referenced the draft order on circulation and urged the Commission to move expeditiously to approve the license transfers and recognize the many benefits flowing from the transaction that the Applicants have detailed in the record,” said a filing posted Tuesday in docket 18-197. “They noted that they are eager to get started standing up New T-Mobile and building its world-leading 5G network. They also stressed that there was no need for an additional round of comments.” Pai last week circulated a draft order that would approve the deal (see 1908140052).

It's time for the FCC to OK the T-Mobile/Sprint deal and provisions selling some assets to Dish Network, the Free State Foundation tweeted Monday. FCC Chairman Ajit Pai circulated for a vote last week an order approving the deal (see 1908140052). “The merger would benefit consumers even without the special carve-out of #spectrum and assets for Dish,” FSF tweeted: “But with the divestitures, the anti-merger claims lose much force.”

The FDA offered the FCC advice on medical and other devices that operate on frequencies not covered by FCC rules, in an April letter, posted by the FCC Monday. “We agree that with the increase in technology that uses frequencies below 300 kHz and even below 100 kHz, setting human exposure limits below 300 kHz and 100 kHz would better ensure the protection of the general public,” said the letter posted in docket 13-84. The biological response to frequencies below 300 kHz is “complex,” the letter said: “At the lower end of this range, electrostimulation (nerve stimulation) and induced currents predominate; at the upper end, heating is the predominant effect.” Current guidelines by IEEE and the International Commission on Non-Ionizing Radiation Protection don’t have identical specifications, the agency said. Both are “adequate to protect the general public in this frequency range,” FDA said: “Either of these would be an adequate model for the FCC to adopt for their rules below 300 kHz.” Chairman Ajit Pai recently circulated an item that keeps current limits in place, while making a few changes to update the rules (see 1908080061).

The Airports Council International-North America supports FCC proposals for aeronautical mobile airport communications system (AeroMACS) rules, said a filing posted Monday in docket 15-93. “A number of our airport members have or are actively considering utilizing AeroMACS to provide secure, high bandwidth wireless communications links between remote locations at their airports and their operations, security, and communications control centers,” the group told the FCC: “Airport operators are also interested in the potential for tenants such as airlines and ground handlers to utilize AeroMACS to facilitate safety and operational-critical applications at their facilities." In June commissioners voted 5-0 to launch an NPRM proposing changes to Part 87 aviation radio service rules, including technical and service rules for AeroMACS (see 1906060056).

The Ultra Wideband Alliance supported a June filing by engineering company Robert Bosch, which said the FCC should launch an "early” and ”comprehensive” review of Part 15, Subpart F regulations on ultra-wideband devices and systems (see 1907190010). When the commission issued the order establishing the UWB rules in 2002, it “characterized the limits and restrictions of Subpart F as ‘ultra-conservative’ and stated that the Commission intended to reconsider many of the restrictions and conditions at a later date based upon industry experience,” the alliance said in comments that were due Saturday in docket RM-11844: “There is now extensive industry experience which confirms this characterization by the Commission. UWB has been widely used and proven to cause no harmful interference to other radio services. As noted in the petition, the FCC has acknowledged the extremely low risk of harmful interference by issuing multiple waivers to reduce some of the Subpart F restrictions.” Novelda, which makes radar semiconductor devices and modules operating under the UWB rules, agreed the rules should get a fresh look. “Our products are used in a wide variety of applications,” Novelda commented: “Many of these applications will benefit from a review of the UWB rules as proposed by Robert Bosch. … A more globally harmonised set of rules will promote UWB technology worldwide and help Novelda and its customers to bring the benefits of our technology to many more consumers.” Vayyar, which develops and supplies 3D imaging sensors, also supported the petition. “In sensors the transmitter and the receiver are in most cases collocated in the device and whenever the device transmits, it configures the receiver to await the reflected signals, the provisions of 15.519(a)(1) do not make sense in this context, and we believe that part 15.519(a)(1) should be cancelled,” Vayyar said. “ZIGPOS would like to underline the importance for such a review, revision and enhancement of the so far still very conservative UWB rules in the U.S. in order to allow for further growth and increased competitiveness of automated production systems and advanced manufacturing sites,” that company said.

Applied Materials expects smartphone OLED “to increase as a percentage of the overall market next year," said CEO Gary Dickerson on a fiscal Q3 call. He sees a continuing "conversion" to OLED in mainstream mobile devices, “and eventually innovations like RGB OLED TV, foldable smartphones, all of those different areas.” OLED for Applied will be more “capital-intensive” than other technologies, he said. So as it's adopted “in more types of devices, that's good for us from a capital-intensity standpoint,” he said.

The FCC should complete all three testing phases before deciding if unlicensed devices in the 5.9 GHz band are OK, urged Toyota. "'Re-channelization' devices submitted to the Commission for Phase I testing were not fully capable," Toyota employees told Office of Engineering and Technology and Office of Economics and Analytics staff. "Characteristics of 160 MHz devices are different than those of 20 MHz devices and, as a result, have a greater likelihood of causing harmful interference to Dedicated Short Range Communications." Backing DSRC, the carmaker acknowledged some seek access to the band for cellular vehicle-to-everything (C-V2X), with "additional challenges for interference testing." But "existing sharing proposals are DSRC-specific and are not applicable to potential sharing with C-V2X," Toyota added. Don't fragment the band into non-interoperable vehicle-to-vehicle and vehicle-to-infrastructure communication technologies as "interoperability is essential" here, it said, posted Friday to docket 13-49. Some at the FCC and elsewhere want at least part of the band to be used for things like Wi-Fi (see 1906040021).

The FirstNet board unanimously approved an $82 million budget for operations in FY 2020, during a brief meeting Thursday. The budget also allocates reserves of $82 million and $145 million for reinvestment in the network, which AT&T is building. FirstNet had an active presence at the recently concluded APCO meeting in Baltimore and earlier this week unveiled its public safety road map (see 1908130016). Engagement with public safety will be a top priority in FY 2020, said Jeff Bratcher, chief technology officer, who shares leadership of the authority until a new CEO is named. The road map “has been well received from what we monitored through social media and other channels so far,” he said. “This is FirstNet 2.0. We’re moving into the next phase,” Bratcher said. Chief Financial Officer Kim Farington said staff started the budget process last November. “We have analyzed every line item requested by every business unit,” she said. “We made sure that every dollar request aligned to our strategic objective.” The budget for FY 2019 provided $81 million for operations, $81 million for reserve and reinvested $78 million in the network (see 1808130063).

The FCC Thursday posted a March 22 letter by Office of Engineering and Technology Chief Julius Knapp to Jeff Shuren, director of FDA's Center for Devices and Radiological Health, seeking counsel on health effects of cellphones. FCC Chairman Ajit Pai subsequently circulated an item that keeps current limits in place, while making a few updates (see 1908080061). "We are aware that the final reports of the National Toxicology Program (NTP) Study and your public statements that NTP’s experimental findings should not be applied to human cell phone usage, that the available scientific evidence to date does not support adverse health effects in humans due to exposures at or under the current limits, and that the FDA is committed to protecting public health and continues its review of the many sources of scientific literature on this topic,” Knapp wrote: “There has been strong interest for the FCC to address the standards matter, particularly as new technologies such as 5G are introduced.” Knapp sought “guidance as to whether any changes to the standards are appropriate.” His agency didn't immediately say why it took several months to release the letter.

EU studies demonstrate “Wi-Fi can share the 6 GHz band without causing harmful interference to fixed and satellite operations,” said Broadcom and Qualcomm representatives in a meeting with FCC Office of Engineering and Technology staff. European regulators have started to draft “harmonized regulations that will enable” unlicensed use of the 5925-6425 MHz band, said a filing posted Wednesday in docket 17-183. “Europe’s experience and the conservative assumptions that they used should give U.S. regulators confidence in opening the 6 GHz band to indoor low power unlicensed operations." Tech players see the band, under examination at the FCC, as critical to Wi-Fi's future (see 1906260055).