APCO warned the FCC that public safety agencies are seeing increasing interference in the 800 MHz band. The problems are a result of increased deployments by carriers overloading the front end (862-869 MHz) portion of public safety radios, APCO said. “Filters, if made available, could help alleviate the problem, but may work more effectively for mobile devices than for portable devices,” APCO said in a filing. “There are limited options at this point for purchase of new radios that do not contain the front end frequencies, assuming that public safety agencies have the funding in place and the radios offer the features they require.” APCO officials said they met with officials from the FCC Wireless and Public Safety bureaus. A filing on the meetings was posted Friday in docket 12-40. The FCC approved an order in 2004 "rebanding" the 800 MHz band designed to alleviate public safety interference problems.

Wireless carriers face a double standard on free data services compared with the rest of industry, CTIA President Meredith Baker said in a commentary in Morning Consult. The FCC is reportedly close to a decision on whether some practices by carriers are considered a violation of agency rules for zero-rated offerings (see 1603300032). The largest video provider in the U.S., Netflix, announced last week it was throttling traffic on some mobile networks without clear notice, Baker wrote. “JetBlue and Amazon have a partnership that lets you watch Amazon Prime movies for free on your flight over Wi-Fi. This is a good thing for passengers in the sky: free data and free content,” she said. “Yet this week, special interest groups demanded that the FCC also outlaw those same free data relationships when provided by a wireless provider because of the FCC’s sweeping general Internet conduct standard under the Net Neutrality regime. All of this despite the fact that consumers have embraced free data services and benefit from a better mobile experience -- not just on planes, but everywhere.”

Netflix’s throttling of its own video stream on AT&T and Verizon devices (see 1603250050) was a bad thing, net neutrality advocates concede, Fred Campbell, executive director of Tech Knowledge, said Thursday in a Forbes blog post. But Netflix, as an edge provider, didn’t violate FCC net neutrality rules, which shows a fundamental problem with the rules, Campbell wrote. “Netflix’s behavior was clearly inconsistent with the ‘end goals’ of net neutrality articulated by Google in the FCC first open Internet proceeding: ‘an open, transparent, and neutral Internet environment’ that ‘would optimally extend across all communications platforms and providers,’” he said. “The fact that Netflix’s behavior violated net neutrality’s goals without violating the rules the FCC wrote doesn’t vindicate Netflix. It impugns the FCC’s inexplicable practice of exempting web-based … companies from regulatory oversight while micromanaging the network management practices and investment decisions of Internet service providers.” Campbell is former chief of the FCC Wireless Bureau.

The 9-1-1 Location Technologies Test Bed, an independent entity established by CTIA, said Thursday it has picked LCC Design Services as the administrator of the indoor 911 location accuracy test bed. “As the independent administrator of the test bed, LCC will develop a process to evaluate the indoor performance of wireless carriers’ deployed and new technology vendor[s]’ ... wireless 9‑1‑1 location accuracy solutions,” CTIA said in a news release. “The test bed results will provide critical information to determine compliance with the FCC’s rules and potential improvements to existing capabilities that will enhance public safety’s abilities to respond to emergencies quickly and safely.” The FCC approved an order in January 2015 requiring carriers to improve their performance in identifying the location of wireless callers to 911 (see 1501290066).

There’s no secret agenda in the objectives-based request for proposal issued by FirstNet, the authority stressed Thursday on its blog. FirstNet, the independent government authority charged with building a wireless broadband network for public safety, has answered more than 400 questions in the past month about its RFP, wrote James Mitchell, FirstNet director-program management. It released the RFP in January, and proposals are due May 13 (see 1603160052). “Despite our best efforts, some still think we’ve hidden a series of requirements in the RFP to gear the solution to one corner of industry or that we have a specific outcome in mind that can only be achieved by meeting these imaginary requirements,” Mitchell said. “The simple fact is we have an objectives-based RFP, including 16 objectives, for Offerors to address in their proposals. We even ask for a Performance Work Statement … so that Offerors have the freedom and flexibility to produce truly innovative solutions and approaches for the network.” If FirstNet had chosen a requirements-based RFP, it would have restricted offerers from suggesting a different model or surpassing FirstNet’s expectations for the network. “With this RFP, there’s an opportunity to deliver something truly great for public safety,” he said. “Anything else would just be ‘business as usual’ for the Government, and FirstNet is anything but business as usual.”

An FCC order granting Deere a waiver allowing it to install TV white spaces (TVWS) equipment manufactured by Koos on agricultural equipment (see 1603240068) shows that even when lawyers think they have a “regulatory scheme that works,” engineers can come up with a new idea that doesn’t fit, said Mitchell Lazarus, lawyer at Fletcher Heald, Wednesday in a blog post. “Grant of the waiver is subject to 14 specific conditions, and is premised in part on the common-sense observation that waivered devices will be used in rural areas and in large agricultural fields having few broadcasters and widely dispersed TV receivers,” Lazarus wrote. The waiver is effective only in places where at least half the TV channels are available for TVWS use, he said. “That last is bad news because, personally, we were hoping to use the waiver and some TVWS gear to stream the HGTV Channel across the lawn to our suburban John Deere riding mower,” Lazarus deadpanned. “Maybe it’s just as well. The popcorn would bounce all over the place.”

The FCC, especially its incentive auction team, deserves praise for getting the TV incentive auction off to a safe start, Free State Foundation President Randolph May said in a Wednesday blog post. “Often enough -- more than I would like -- I'm in the position of criticizing the FCC's leadership for what I consider to be a seemingly endless string of unduly regulatory decisions that fail to account for the increasingly competitive communications marketplace,” May wrote. “Not today.” Chris Pearson, president of 5G Americas, also marked the start of the auction. “Getting more licensed spectrum to the market for mobile broadband is critical for the U.S. to maintain its lead in delivering high-speed, innovative wireless applications to subscribers,” Pearson said in a news release. The U.S. ked the world on 4G because of earlier FCC auctions, he said. “The U.S. can maintain its leadership by continuing to provide licensed spectrum for the mobile wireless industry.”

The FCC Wireless Bureau granted additional licenses that had been bought in the AWS-3 auction, which ended in January 2015. The bureau approved multiple licenses for Puerto Rico Telephone Company and Smith Bagley, and a single license for Spotlight Media. Granting the licenses “serves the public interest, convenience, and necessity,” the bureau said in a Wednesday notice. The bureau approved its first set of licenses bought in the auction in April 2015.

The FCC rejected a TracFone counsel's appeal to view Lifeline enforcement records under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). The agency denied an application for review filed by Mitchell Brecher of Greenberg Traurig seeking to reverse a 2014 Wireline Bureau decision. The bureau had denied his FOIA request that sought information relating to FCC notices of apparent liability (NALs) against his firm's client TracFone and 11 other companies for apparently violating Lifeline USF rules by obtaining subsidy support for more than one subscriber from the same household. Brecher narrowed and clarified his request to three categories of records, but the bureau said the documents were exempt from FOIA disclosure. The full commission agreed in an order Tuesday, with Commissioner Mike O'Rielly partially dissenting. He said he agreed the records were exempt from FOIA release but dissented from the application of Exemption 5 to communications between the FCC and the Universal Service Administrative Co. He said USAC was neither part of the FCC nor a separate federal agency, but an independent, private nonprofit corporation. "FCC-USAC communications are clearly neither intra-agency nor inter-agency communications protected by the deliberative process privilege, and should not be treated as such," he said in a statement attached to the order. Brecher didn't comment.

AT&T filed a petition at the FCC outlining a smart grid solution that can be deployed in the unpaired C and D blocks of the Wireless Communications Service band, said Joan Marsh, AT&T vice president-federal regulatory, Wednesday in a blog post. The WCS spectrum presents challenges, especially the need to protect adjacent Satellite Digital Audio Radio Service and Aeronautical Mobile Telemetry users from harmful interference, Marsh wrote. “Notwithstanding these challenges, AT&T remains on pace to deploy mobile and fixed broadband services to satisfy the FCC’s performance requirements for the paired WCS A and B Blocks,” she said. “Finding a noninterfering use for the C and D Blocks, however, has proven more daunting, even with the cooperation of our spectrum neighbors.” AT&T partnered with Nokia to “design and develop a private, highly secure, high-capacity LTE network solution for smart grids -- and related smart cities applications” using the spectrum, she said. “AT&T and Nokia recently began to present this solution to utilities companies across the country and the proposal has garnered significant interest and the support of UTC,” the Utilities Telecom Council, she said. The problem is AT&T won't be able to deploy the solution quickly and broadly enough to meet the build-out requirements for the WCS spectrum, Marsh said. AT&T is requesting a waiver or modification of the deadline, she said. “AT&T’s proposal addresses a longstanding national priority, ensures users of adjacent spectrum are protected from harmful interference, and offers the best near-term prospect for making productive use of the C and D Blocks,” Marsh said.