The FCC established a pleading cycle Thursday on AT&T’s proposed buy from Eastern Colorado Wireless of a single lower 700 MHz C-block license covering a local market in Colorado. “The Applicants maintain that the proposed transaction would provide AT&T with additional spectrum that would enable it to increase its system capacity to enhance existing services, better accommodate its overall growth, and facilitate the provision of additional products and services in Cellular Market Area (CMA) 355 (Colorado 8 – Kiowa),” said the notice in docket 16-189. “The Applicants assert that, as a result of this proposed transaction, AT&T would hold 24 megahertz of contiguous, paired Lower 700 MHz spectrum in the five counties involved in this transaction, which would allow for a 10×10 megahertz LTE deployment.” Since the deal would give AT&T 55 MHz of low-band spectrum in the market it will get enhanced review under spectrum aggregation rules, the FCC said. Petitions to deny are due Aug. 18, oppositions Aug. 25 and replies Sept. 1, the FCC said.

Broadcom plans to submit a prototype device for testing as the FCC looks more closely at sharing between Wi-Fi and dedicated short-range communications (DSRC) systems in the 5.9 GHz band, said Christopher Szymanski, Broadcom director-product marketing and government affairs, in a call with Rashmi Doshi, head of the FCC lab. Wi-Fi advocates want the FCC to divide the band, reallocating the top 30 MHz to exclusive use of DSRC systems designed to curb traffic accidents (see 1607080037). Broadcom believes “rechannelizing” the 5.9 GHz band is the preferred course, said a Thursday filing in docket 13-49. Testing will show “the U-NII-4 band can be used quickly and meaningfully in the near term by existing Wi-Fi devices” and rechannelization will better protect DSRC, Broadcom said.

The FCC is seeking comment on proposed changes to its amateur radio regulations, sought by the American Radio Relay League. The FCC sought comment on whether it should remove limitations on the symbol rate, also known as the baud rate, or “the rate at which the carrier waveform amplitude, frequency, and/or phase is varied to transmit information -- applicable to data emissions in certain amateur bands,” said an NPRM the FCC released Thursday. “We believe that this rule change will allow amateur service licensees to use modern digital emissions, thereby better fulfilling the purposes of the amateur service and enhancing its usefulness.” The baud rate limits were approved 36 years ago, the FCC said. ARRL argues the FCC should “remove all of the symbol rate limits, and add a bandwidth limitation for RTTY [radioteletype] and data emissions in the medium frequency (MF) and high frequency (HF) bands (i.e., below 30 MHz) of 2.8 kilohertz,” the NPRM said. “We tentatively agree that a baud rate restriction has become unnecessary due to advances in modulation techniques, and no longer serves a useful purpose,” the FCC said. “Our rules do not impose a symbol rate limit on data emissions in any other amateur bands or in any other radio service.” The change also could promote experimentation, “innovation, more efficient use of the radio spectrum currently allocated to the amateur service, and the ability of the amateur service to support public safety efforts in the event of an emergency,” the FCC said. Comment deadlines will be set when the NPRM is published in the Federal Register.

The FCC Wireless and International bureaus approved a complicated spectrum transaction involving AT&T, Tampnet and Broadpoint and spectrum in the Gulf of Mexico. Broadpoint holds four cellular licenses with 50 MHz of capacity covering the Gulf of Mexico Exclusive Zone (GMEZ). Broadpoint proposed to assign to AT&T two of the licenses, which would provide 50 MHz of spectrum covering a partitioned area in the GMEZ extending 16 nautical miles from the coastline. Tampnet will lease back from AT&T 25 MHz of cellular spectrum in that portion of the Gulf and buy Broadpoint’s remaining two cellular licenses, which provide 50 MHz covering the rest of the GMEZ, along with two AWS-1 licenses also in the Gulf of Mexico and licenses for satellite earth stations primarily located in the gulf, the order said. The bureaus said they gave the deal enhanced scrutiny because of spectrum aggregation concerns. In the area covered, AT&T, post-transaction, would hold 108 MHz of spectrum in total and 68 MHz of below-1-GHz spectrum, the bureaus said. Tampnet would hold or lease 55 to 80 MHz including up to 50 MHz of below-1-GHz spectrum, in parts of the Gulf of Mexico. The bureaus said they weighed the deal and agreed it was in the public interest. “After carefully evaluating the likely competitive effects of both AT&T’s and Tampnet’s increased aggregation of below-1-GHz spectrum in the Gulf of Mexico, we find that the ability of rival service providers to offer a competitive response to any anticompetitive behavior on the part of AT&T or Tampnet is unlikely to be materially lessened,” the bureaus said. “Further, we find that the record provides general support for the Applicants’ claims of potential public interest benefits. Therefore, under our sliding scale approach, we find that the likelihood of public interest harms is low and the potential public interest benefits outweigh any harms.” The deal also required a clearance under the FCC's foreign ownership rules. Tampnet is a “direct, wholly-owned subsidiary of Tampnet AS, a Norwegian company,” the order noted.

T-Mobile notified the FCC it won't deliver 911 text messages to 13 public safety answering points that told the FCC they're text-ready. In the cases of all but one of the PSAPs, T-Mobile said the calling center isn't currently within the T-Mobile coverage area. The PSAP serving Virginia's Carroll and Grayson counties and the city of Galax said it encountered a software conflict and would resubmit its request for service later, T-Mobile said.

The FCC’s final regulatory scheme for the shared 3.5 GHz band is now effective, the FCC said in a notice in Tuesday's Federal Register. The only parts not in effect are a few information collection requirements still being reviewed by the Office of Management and Budget, the notice said. “Facing ever-increasing demands of wireless innovation and constrained availability of clear sources of spectrum, the Citizens Broadband Radio Service is an opportunity to add much-needed capacity through innovative sharing,” the FCC said. “With this Second Order, we finalize the regulatory scheme we created in 2015, putting in place the last rules necessary for this service to become commercially available.” The FCC approved the order at its April open meeting (see 1604280062) and it was released May 2 (see 1605020059).

Cisco asked the FCC for extra time to submit a prototype device as the agency looks more closely at sharing between Wi-Fi and dedicated short-range communications systems in the 5.9 GHz band. Cisco has been one of the major players in the debate over the band (see 1602050048). A June FCC public notice imposed a July 30 deadline for submitting devices for testing, but gave the FCC Office of Engineering and Technology authority to “grant waivers or extensions of the deadline or requirements as necessary,” Cisco said in a filing in docket 13-49. Cisco asked for a delay until Aug. 18. “Due to prototype production timelines, and previously scheduled business travel on the part of Cisco staff overseeing the testing of the prototype (e.g., attendance at standards meetings), we will be unable to complete our internal review by July 30,” Cisco said.

Government officials met with prospective spectrum access system (SAS) administrators and environmental sensing capability (ESC) operators headed into the launch of sharing in the 3.5 GHz band. “We are encouraged by ongoing industry harmonization efforts to develop a common set of models,” was part of the message from the government, said an FCC filing in 15-139. “Testing of SASs will be based on a single model to ensure consistency and accuracy with expected correct outcome. The initial model to be used for implementation and testing may evolve in future, e.g. more accurate modeling of clutters and use of measured data.” Officials from the FCC, NTIA, DOD and the U.S. Navy were also at the meeting. CTIA and companies Amdocs, Comsearch, Federated Wireless, Google, iPosi, Key Bridge, Qualcomm and Sony attended, said the filing. The FCC is reviewing applications of companies to be SAS administrators and ESC operators, the FCC said. The FCC said in May it received eight applications from companies that want to fill either role, and interest was high in the band. (see 1605170042).

As 5G is launched, consumers shouldn’t be able to tell the difference between Wi-Fi and wireless networks, Deutsche Telekom’s 5G Executive Program Manager Antje Williams told the Broadband Forum’s quarterly meeting in Berlin, said a Wednesday news release. “When you look at the amount of challenges and traffic that has to be transported in the future, we will not manage that with just the mobile network,” Williams said. “Today, a much bigger portion of whatever is transported runs through fixed line networks and we strongly believe the solution for the future has to be a combination of the two, or access-agnostic networks. This means that when using the networks, consumers shouldn’t see a difference between mobile access and Wi-Fi access.” Standardization of the two networks is now separate but “to become one network, we need more alignment,” she said.

The FCC established a pleading cycle on a proposed spectrum swap between AT&T and U.S. Cellular (USCC). The FCC already is examining a swap between USCC and Sprint (see 1607070042). The latest swap includes lower 700 MHz, PCS and AWS-1 licenses, but no customers or network facilities would change hands, the FCC said in a Wednesday notice in docket 16-178. “As a result of the proposed transaction, AT&T and USCC each assert that they would augment network capacity and improve the quality of services offered in the subject geographic areas,” the FCC said. “The Applicants also claim that they each would use the newly acquired spectrum to implement enhanced LTE capacity. In particular, AT&T maintains that it would hold 24 megahertz of contiguous, paired Lower 700 MHz spectrum in most of the counties involved in this transaction, allowing for a 10×10 megahertz LTE deployment.” Under the trade, USCC would pick up spectrum in 21 counties in parts of Illinois, North Carolina and Washington, the FCC said. AT&T would gain 12-24 MHz of 700 MHz spectrum in 23 counties in portions of Idaho, Illinois, Indiana and North Carolina. The deal will get higher scrutiny because those pickups move AT&T above one-third of the low-band spectrum in many of the markets, the FCC said. Petitions to deny are due Aug. 17, oppositions Aug. 24 and replies Aug. 31.