FCC Commissioner Ajit Pai told the Corrections Technology Association the FCC has been too slow to help find a solution to combating contraband cellphones in correctional facilities. The FCC should make it easier for prisons and carriers to work together on the problem, but hasn’t acted, Pai said. “That’s a shame, and a disservice to the American public,” he said. Pai has raised the issue repeatedly, including at a field hearing in South Carolina in April (see 1604060058). “This issue isn’t an abstraction to me,” Pai said in his written remarks. “Over the past few months, I have heard directly from corrections officers who are on the front lines. I have visited with guards at prisons in Jackson, Georgia, in Bishopville, South Carolina, and in Leavenworth, Kansas. And later this week, I’ll be visiting a correctional facility in Boston.” The bottom line is “we have to prevent inmates from using contraband cellphones,” he said.

The FCC got eight applications from companies that want to be spectrum access system (SAS) and/or environmental sensing capability (ESC) operators in the 3.5 GHz shared band (see 1605160051), showing strong interest in the spectrum, FCC officials said Tuesday in a blog post. The SAS “builds on existing frequency coordination approaches by leveraging advanced computing to maximize the number of users that might be able to operate within a given area at a given time, making spectrum available where and when it’s needed, and enforcing protections and rights among use tiers,” said the post by Julius Knapp, chief of the Office of Engineering and Technology, and Jon Wilkins, chief of the Wireless Bureau. The ESC “is the technological solution that will enable new commercial use in coastal areas of the United States (and some inland locations) while still protecting important federal radar operations,” they wrote. Both are important, they said. “We are extremely excited about the level of interest from prospective SAS Administrators and ESC operators,” the FCC officials said. “There is a significant and growing community of innovative technology developers and potential operators that are invested in the success of the 3.5 GHz band, the SAS and ESC-enabled sharing scheme, and the potential of these new sharing tools.”

Qualcomm representatives urged FCC flexibility on out-of-band emissions levels as the agency approves rules for high-frequency spectrum, said a filing in docket 14-177. Qualcomm officials said they spoke on the phone with officials from the FCC Office of Engineering and Technology and the Wireless Bureau. “Qualcomm encouraged the FCC to implement flexible technical rules to foster innovation and experimentation in order to enable successful mobile deployments in the millimeter wave bands,” the filing said.

Tier 1 suppliers are “losing their roles” as system innovators and developers in the nascent autonomous vehicle market because more OEMs are engaging directly with software developers and hardware and semiconductor vendors to make self-driving cars a commercial reality, ABI Research said in a Monday report. “It is becoming increasingly evident that no single Tier 1 supplier can deliver a complete autonomous driving system,” the firm said. “As a result, OEMs are increasingly engaging directly with component vendors, and becoming more aligned with product roadmaps from across the value chain.” Just last week, Nvidia estimated it’s working with about 80 companies on autonomous vehicles through its Drive PX platform (see 1605130032).

The FCC established a pleading cycle on the exchange of full and partitioned PCS licenses between Sprint and T-Mobile. The deal involves spectrum in 166 counties across 65 cellular market areas and covering about 7 percent of the U.S. population, the FCC said in a Monday notice. States covered are parts of Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Montana, New Mexico, North Carolina, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Texas, Washington and West Virginia, the FCC said. “According to the Applicants, the proposed transaction involves only intra-market exchanges of spectrum, and in most markets the attributable spectrum holdings of Sprint and T-Mobile would be unchanged,” the FCC said. “The Applicants indicate that the intra-market exchanges would allow for holding larger blocks of contiguous spectrum and/or aligning spectrum blocks with those already held in adjacent markets, which in turn should permit more reliable and efficient operations.” Petitions to deny are due June 3, oppositions June 10 and replies June 17.

Sprint is tossing in a free 12-month Amazon Prime membership ($99 value) for new customers and switchers who sign up for the Amazon Better Choice XXL plan. The premium plan includes 40 GB of shared data ($100 per month) and unlimited talk and text, Sprint said Friday.

The FCC Public Safety Bureau gave the state of Washington until the end of the year to complete rebanding its 800 MHz public safety communications system, working with Sprint. But the bureau also ordered the state to submit detailed progress reports every two weeks beginning May 23 to the FCC, Sprint and the 800 MHz transition administrator. The reports are necessary because the state has fallen “well behind schedule,” the bureau said in the order. “While we are granting Washington until December 31, 2016, to complete rebanding, we urge Washington and Sprint to cooperate in finding ways to complete rebanding prior to that date, including Sprint providing such reasonable funding as may be necessary to accelerate the process.” The rebanding process nationwide was launched in 2004 and is designed to protect public safety communications from harmful interference.

The 800 MHz rebanding is complete in two more National Public Safety Planning Advisory Committee (NPSPAC) regions, said reports filed at the FCC by the 800 MHz transition administrator. The regions cover Louisiana and Mississippi. The rebanding process has been underway since 2004 and is designed to protect public safety communications from harmful interference. Both filings were posted in docket 02-55.

There's reason to be “cautiously optimistic” the 3.5 GHz shared spectrum band will be a bigger usage success for the FCC than the TV white spaces have been (see 1605110015), emailed Doug Brake, telecom policy analyst at the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation. “Making 150 MHz available where it is actually needed is huge,” Brake said. “There are a number of countries already using the band abroad, so we have some existing scale to work with. And there is healthy multistakeholder activity. But what deployment actually looks like is an open question. Given the short license terms, widespread investment from operators unfortunately seems out of the question -- the FCC is banking on there being enough momentum for other deployment scenarios. Carrier-neutral models are probably most intriguing, but a lot remains to be seen.” Brake said he's watching closely to see if there are any surprises in who files to be a spectrum access system administrator for the band.

Seismic Warning Systems (SWS) representatives told FCC officials they developed technology that provides quick alerts when earthquakes strike. SWS reported on a meeting with FCC officials as the agency develops a report to Congress on warning systems. CTIA and AT&T told the FCC the wireless emergency alert (WEA) system used by carriers wasn't set up to send almost-immediate warnings (see 1605100054). “SWS has developed and deployed technology that provides users with alerts of pending seismic activity,” the company said in a filing in docket 16-32. “Our offerings have been in commercial use for the past 15 years -- primarily in California -- and during that time, the SWS technology has developed an exceptional track record in terms of maximizing alert times and eliminating false positives.”