Local governments opposed the FCC’s motion to hold in abeyance challenges to the agency's September wireless infrastructure order at the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, but supported consolidating the dozen pending cases, as expected (see 1902260037). Holding the cases would bring “significant hardship” to localities and courts, but letting them proceed “would cause minimal hardship to the FCC,” said (in Pacer) one group of localities Thursday including Bowie, Maryland. FCC review of reconsideration petitions won’t affect the matters before the court, they said. Another local group including Huntington Beach, California, agreed (in Pacer) that “hardships are significant.” San Jose and other local intervenors similarly opposed delay in a third filing (in Pacer).

T-Mobile said it has alerted customers to more than 10 billion “scam likely” calls since launching scam protection technology two years ago. The technology works on many Samsung devices. “Scammers aren’t slowing down,” the carrier said Wednesday. “So far in 2019, the Un-carrier has detected and notified customers of 225 million Scam Likely calls per week! And it’s anticipated that by the end of the year, nearly 50 percent of US mobile calls will be scams.”

The FCC Office of Engineering and Technology OK'd AT&T special temporary authority to test “capabilities of certain digital transmissions to and from Federal aircraft” using spectrum in the 347-370 MHz range. In supplemental filings, AT&T asked to keep other information confidential. OET on Wednesday noted AT&T must coordinate with the FAA. The company said the application “contains information that, if disclosed, would raise significant threats to national security.”

Apple landed a two-year FCC experimental license Tuesday to test GPS functionality indoors in California at five locations in its Cupertino headquarters and one in Sunnyvale, Office of Engineering and Technology records show. Apple applied Dec. 6, saying the indoor tests are part of the “continued exploration of utilizing GPS technologies" in consumer devices "to provide innovative applications and continue to provide safe products.” The company will use the know-how it gains in the tests for “further design, development and enhancement of existing GPS applications to provide greater efficiency and more effective means of utilizing GPS derived information,” it said. Apple didn’t comment Wednesday.

That Auction 96 procedures were based on an undisclosed deal between the FCC and Dish Network points to the agency's H-block license decisions being anything but ordinary, appellant NTCH said in a docket 18-1241 reply brief (in Pacer) Wednesday with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. It said Dish's $1.56 billion bidding commitment, and the FCC-granted waivers in response, were "entirely unprecedented" and went against basic tenets of administrative law. It said the agency and Dish argue that reversing the Auction 96 results would strand millions of dollars of investments the satellite-TV company has made, but the MVPD admitted it made little progress in network facility construction. The regulator and counsel for appellee intervenor Dish didn't comment.

The Public Safety Bureau deleted from FCC rules an opt-out process from FirstNet. The bureau acted because “no state or territory elected to opt out within the statutory timeframe” and “there is no continued need for the rules.” The bureau said launching a rulemaking “is unnecessary and contrary to the public interest because the lack of any opt-out election by any state or territory has rendered the opt-out rules moot.” Wednesday's order, in docket 16-269, is signed by bureau Chief Lisa Fowlkes.

CTIA sought tweaks to the FCC draft Further NPRM that proposes carriers be required to identify a vertical location accuracy metric, also known as the z-axis, of plus or minus 3 meters for 80 percent of indoor wireless calls to 911. It's set for a vote by commissioners next week (see 1902220062). CTIA and Verizon, AT&T, T-Mobile and Sprint met Public Safety Bureau Deputy Chief David Furth and bureau staff, said a filing Wednesday in docket 07-114. “Further technology development and testing remains necessary to validate the accuracy of vertical location technology solutions to meet the FCC’s proposed metric … across regions, weather conditions and devices.” The association asked to modify a sentence in the draft requiring compliance with the standards, adding the words “as demonstrated in the test bed.” CTIA asked to seek comment “on ways to ensure that the rules maintain flexibility and technological neutrality so that … providers can adopt any solutions that meet the proposed metric and corresponding Commission rules.” The group noted another round of vertical-accuracy testing is underway in the industry’s location technologies test bed (see 1902260064). “Given the ongoing evolution of vertical location solutions, the participants urged the Commission to encourage all z-axis technology solutions vendors to participate in Stage Za,” the filing said.

A Dec. 13 order extending the time frame for collecting speed test data for the Mobility Fund Phase II challenge process is effective Wednesday, with Federal Register publication. The FCC released the housekeeping order Jan. 3 (see 1901030035). “Speed test data in support of a challenge will be accepted if collected on or after February 27, 2018, and through November 26, 2018,” the FR notice says: “Respondents may submit information that was collected any time on or after April 29, 2018, through the close of the response window.”

The Wireless Bureau sought comment on Verizon's asking the FCC for clarity, or waiver, of handset unlocking rules imposed as a result of the rules for the 700 MHz C-block it bought in a 2008 auction. Verizon's petition last month seeks “temporary, 60-day lock on the 4G LTE handsets it provides, to ensure that the handsets are purchased by bona fide customers,” the bureau said Tuesday. “With respect to whether its temporary locking proposal is consistent with the handset locking rule, Verizon asserts that the rule is ambiguous and that clarification is needed.” Comments are due April 4, replies April 19, in docket 06-150. “Every other large U.S. wireless carrier has continued to lock 4G LTE handsets at the time of purchase, at least in part to help prevent this type of fraud and identity theft,” Verizon said. “Neither Sprint, T-Mobile, nor AT&T provides 4G LTE handsets unlocked at the time of purchase as Verizon does.” The C block offered large spectrum blocks but came with special rules.

Frontier and Cox won’t participate in the 24 GHz auction, leaving only the nationwide carriers and Dish Network as likely major bidders (see 1902270055), New Street wrote investors Monday. Prices likely will be in the same range as the 28 GHz auction, with an estimated $3.3 billion in proceeds, the firm predicted. “The 24 GHz band doesn’t have the same global vendor ecosystem support as the 28 GHz and 39 GHz bands, and the band plan suggests that there will be plenty to go around,” New Street said. “The 24 GHz auction is the first recent FCC auction of nationwide mmWave spectrum, providing a unique opportunity for those with a dearth of mmWave spectrum to close the gap with industry leader Verizon.” Licensees in the band's upper 500 MHz will have to share with fixed satellite service operators in a few markets, covering less than 2 percent of the U.S., New Street noted. The auction starts March 14. Recent auctions have taken 74 days on average, it said.