Aviation associations updated the FCC on their look at potential interference to flight operations in the 4.2-4.4 GHz band by expanded use of the nearby C band for 5G. The commercial aviation industry continues testing “to better evaluate the impact of unwanted emissions into radio altimeters,” the groups said. “As radio altimeters provide essential safety of flight information during the most critical phases of flight, it is vital that the testing accurately reflect any potential impact the aircraft will experience during take-off and landing, or when conducting extended low altitude operations, as are common with helicopters,” said the filing in docket 18-122. “This has added complexity to the assessment with the various proposed 5G and other new entrant services, and it is anticipated that the results from this effort will be shared with the Commission in the coming months as the work develops.” The Air Line Pilots Association, Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association, Aerospace Industries Association, General Aviation Manufacturers Association and International Air Transport Association were among those signing the filing, posted Thursday.

Bosch asked the FCC to launch “at an early date” a” comprehensive” review of the part 15, subpart F regulations on ultra-wideband devices and systems. The auto gear and tech maker proposed modified rules for UWB operations. “These amended rules will facilitate the development and provision of new, innovative UWB products,” said an undocketed filing, posted Wednesday. “Many such products and systems are not permitted by the current UWB rules, due to a conservative initial regulatory environment created for this technology by the Commission sixteen years ago.”

State and local government interest in the right of way “is more than commercial,” Oregon told the 9th U.S. Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals. “Its primary purpose is to enhance safe and efficient transportation,” said an amicus brief, corrected and reposted (in Pacer) Tuesday, supporting localities’ challenge of the FCC September small-cells order. “The FCC ruling, if upheld, would reduce revenues for road improvements significantly.” The Telecom Act protects state and local authority to require fair and reasonable compensation, the state said. “Obtaining fair-market value from wireless providers who receive and use right-of-way access -- for purposes other than enhancing traffic safety or efficiency -- qualifies as fair and reasonable compensation.”

New Street’s Jonathan Chaplin told investors Wednesday if T-Mobile and Sprint really have reached an agreement to sell assets to Dish Network for $6 billion, the sale probably includes as many as 12 million prepaid subscribers and spectrum in either the 800 MHz or 2.5 GHz bands. Agreement could be enough to end the lawsuit filed by state attorneys general (see 1906110044), he said. “Presumably, the asset acquisition helps establish DISH as a credible enough fourth carrier such that the DOJ can approve the deal,” Chaplin said: “The state AG’s will then decide whether the divestitures and other conditions are sufficient to cure the competitive harms that they see arising from the deal. … We think the concessions could weaken the state’s case enough such that they drop their suit or lose in court, but it will depend on the details of the concessions.”

Claims that 5G will harm other services, including weather forecasting, are wrong, GSMA said. In the U.S, questions were raised in particular about the 24 GHz band (see 1906170023). “The mobile industry has already demonstrated within leading international standards bodies that 5G can be used safely alongside other services, including weather sensing services, commercial satellite, radar and other applications using adjacent airwaves,” said a Monday news release: “The GSMA is confident that 5G services and weather sensing services can co-exist, and warns against giving credence to those claiming a negative impact from 5G networks on weather forecasting data.”

New York City officials said the city has made progress on wireless emergency alerts and thanked the FCC for pushing carriers for better geotargeting of alerts in November, said an ex parte on a meeting with Public Safety Bureau staff. “The City provided the FCC with an overview of Notify NYC, our official emergency communications system, in particular, the steps the City has taken over the past two years to implement multilingual alerting,” said a filing posted Tuesday in docket 15-91: “Beginning in July 2019, Notify NYC will offer most of its messages in 13 languages.”

Pressure on antitrust chief Makan Delrahim to not sue to block T-Mobile’s proposed buy of Sprint is reminiscent of the fight over whether DOJ should drop its legal action to break up AT&T in the early 1980s, Georgetown Law Institute for Technology Law & Policy's Gigi Sohn blogged Tuesday. At the beginning of the Reagan administration, powerful figures, including Secretary of Defense Caspar Weinberger, Secretary of Commerce Malcolm Baldridge and Counselor to the President Ed Meese leaned on DOJ to drop its case against AT&T, Sohn said. Then-antitrust chief Bill Baxter stood firm, she said: “Baxter engaged the Cabinet secretaries in a lengthy debate over whether the case should be dismissed. In the end, the President did not weigh in on either side. That meeting put an end to the pressure on Baxter to drop the AT&T case, and the rest is history.” Delrahim faces similar pressure now, Sohn wrote. She's opposed to T-Mobile/Sprint.

The FCC’s September wireless infrastructure order “is having a strongly positive effect on its ability to deploy wireless facilities throughout the country,” Crown Castle representatives said in a meeting with Wireless Bureau staff. Other problems remain, Crown Castle filed, posted Tuesday in docket 17-79. The tower owner faces problems getting “investor owned utilities (IOUs) to provide power to small cell installations on utility poles in a timely fashion,” the company said. “Without power, small cells cannot operate, but IOUs generally do not hold to any particular deadline or schedule in providing power to these facilities, meaning that in some cases it can be six months or more between when a small cell is installed and when it is powered up, on air, and providing service.”

AT&T won licenses covering more than 98 percent of the U.S. population in the 24 GHz auction, it said Monday. The company said it's buying spectrum in 383 partial economic areas for a nationwide average of 254 MHz. All the licenses are in “the more valuable upper 500 MHz portion of the 24 GHz band, giving AT&T stronger nationwide coverage and additional spectrum depth and capacity in many top markets where demand is often greatest,” it said. “AT&T will use the spectrum to bolster its mobile 5G strategy.” The licenses cover all but one of the 100 largest PEAs. Starry, a fixed-wireless broadband provider, said Tuesday it won 104 licenses, covering 51 markets in 25 states and more than 60 million people. “Combined with Starry’s current deployment roadmap, Starry’s fixed wireless footprint will reach more than 40 million households, covering more than 25 percent of all U.S. households,” it said.

Wireless ISP Association President Claude Aiken discussed the 2.5 GHz educational broadband service band, in a meeting with an aide to FCC Commissioner Mike O’Rielly, said a Monday filing in docket 18-120. Chairman Ajit Pai is expected to propose new 2.5 GHz rules for a vote at the July 10 commissioners’ meeting (see 1906120043). “WISPA’s preference for an open eligibility auction designed with a 63-megahertz limit (roughly half of the EBS spectrum) on the amount of spectrum a bidder could acquire at an auction” would “ensure that multiple parties would be better able to compete for spectrum and in the marketplace,” the group said.