An amendment to the Federal Table of Frequency Allocations covering fixed and mobile applications in the 2025-2110 MHz band took effect Tuesday, said a notice in the Federal Register, also Tuesday. Release of the notice was on hold pending the close of the AWS-3 auction satisfaction of a joint certification requirement in Section 1062(b)(1)(B) of the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2000, the FCC said. Under a deal between the Department of Defense and NAB in 2013 (see 1311260054), DOD agreed to partially vacate the 1755-1780 MHz band and move operations to the 2025-2110 MHz band. The former band was part of the spectrum sold in the AWS-3 auction.

Reform is "essential" for the FCC’s designated entity (DE) rules (see 1505110048), AT&T said on a call with FCC Wireless Bureau Chief Roger Sherman and others at the commission last week to explain its proposal, made along with smaller carriers, for a rethink of the rules. Officials said "we believed a new approach should be considered -- one that would assure policymakers and taxpayers alike that auction subsidies will be directed to true small communications businesses and rural telephone companies,” said a filing on the call, posted by the FCC Tuesday in docket 14-170. “We also explained that while any new program should support new entrants, such support must be sufficiently defined so as to not invite big business dollars and deep pocketed investors to stand behind newly formed [DEs] in a play for unmerited financial advantage.”

PCIA asked for some changes to rules for installing communications antennas on federal lands. The Office of Management and Budget sought comment as it looks at whether to clear an approval form proposed by the General Services Administration. One problem PCIA sees is that the proposed form requires “detailed drawings and specifications of proposed equipment, structures and installation” at the time a company seeks approval of a project. “That information may not be available at the time of the application,” PCIA said. “GSA should make clear that an application may not be rejected for a provider’s omission of those details.” PCIA said the form should instead request as much detail as possible. PCIA also said GSA should require each government agency to supply a contact person for each federal property and make applications easy to track online. GSA also shouldn't require Radio Frequency Identification certification reports to be filed, except for antennas on military property, PCIA said. GSA also should drop a proposed requirement that companies submit a security deposit with their applications. “The requirement for a security deposit is misplaced prior to the lease or easement negotiation stage," PCIA said. “While an application fee is reasonably required with the proposed form, it would be highly unusual and burdensome to require a security deposit prior to negotiation and execution of a lease or easement.”

The National Public Safety Telecommunications Council was the only one to oppose an FCC waiver letting AT&T use power spectral density (PSD) measurements in complying with radiated power limits for 800 MHz cellular operations in parts of Missouri, and the waiver should be approved (see 1505010039), said the carrier in reply comments posted in docket 15-86 Monday. “Notwithstanding NPSTC’s reservations, it would serve the public interest for the Commission to grant AT&T’s Petition for Waiver,” AT&T said. “Use of the PSD measure would allow AT&T to deploy LTE over Cellular service -- existing spectrum -- generating significant operational and spectrum efficiencies.” Waiting for a rulemaking to be completed on the proposal, as NPSTC suggests, “would unjustifiably delay those benefits, without any demonstrable harm to public safety, adjacent channel or co-channel licensees,” AT&T said.

Big companies that have invested in W-Fi should welcome LTE-unlicensed, not fight it, said Richard Bennett, a developer of the Wi-Fi media access control (MAC) protocol, in a Tuesday blog post. Because LTE-U is a variation of the MAC protocol used by mobile phones, “it can operate over large distances -- miles -- without substantial loss of efficiency, and it can also operate more efficiently over short distances at high data rates,” Bennett wrote. “The LTE-U base station acts as coordinator to ensure that spectrum is shared fairly and quickly without unnecessary overhead.” Big companies that have invested heavily in Wi-Fi complain about possible interference between Wi-Fi and LTE-U, but “they usually don’t emphasize the more pertinent issue: performance,” he said. “Even when LTE-U and Wi-Fi are operating on different channels and therefore not interfering with each other, LTE-U will outperform Wi-Fi. This makes LTE-U a more attractive technical offering.” Bennett is an American Enterprise Institute fellow.

T-Mobile said its proposal for wireless-friendly changes to FCC E-rate rules, made in a March petition for reconsideration, are “unopposed, supported by all commenters who addressed it, and should be granted without delay.” Among the changes T-Mobile sought was clarification of FCC guidance on how wireless local area network upfront costs are to be amortized for comparison to the yearly cost of mobile broadband service contracts. T-Mobile also asked the FCC to “seek comment on reasonable time periods for amortizing Wi-Fi networking equipment, given such equipment’s short useful life span, and provide a uniform and public template for cost-effectiveness comparisons” and to clarify mobile broadband isn't “necessarily duplicative” in cases where parts of the network lack sufficient Wi-Fi coverage and it's impossible or not cost-effective to construct a WLAN. “The record reveals no disagreement on the need to clarify the cost-effectiveness requirement for applicants seeking funding for mobile broadband solutions,” T-Mobile said in reply comments in docket 13-184. “The clarifications and reconsiderations that T-Mobile has requested are essential to ensuring that schools and libraries can continue to take advantage of the significant benefits of mobile broadband where it is cost-effective to do so.” CTIA filed in support of T-Mobile. “As the T-Mobile Petition correctly observes, the effective and efficient use of E-rate support requires a fair evaluation of the cost-effectiveness of services relative to one another,” the association said. “Schools and libraries participating in the E-rate program should be able to select mobile services when those services are the most cost-effective way to meet their connectivity needs.” The Competitive Carriers Association also said the E-rate program should support mobile solutions: "Rather than restraining the types of broadband services available to schools and libraries, the Commission should set objective performance requirements and benchmarks so that carriers -- both fixed and mobile -- can compete to provide E-rate services on a level playing field.” CCA said T-Mobile’s petition “offers common-sense clarifications that will improve the E-rate program and promote increased competition.”

The FCC released a “Small Entity Compliance Guide” on a November order changing how the 800 MHz cellular service is licensed -- from a site-based to a geographically based regime (see 1411120015). “With the Report and Order, the Commission achieved regulatory reform goals by eliminating the need for a wide range of regulatory filings, modernizing the rules that will remain in place, and deleting obsolete provisions,” the guide said. “Under the newly adopted licensing regime, licensees’ administrative burdens and time-consuming regulatory processes are reduced. Licensees will also benefit immediately from greater flexibility to modify their systems quickly in response to market demands, facilitating advanced broadband services to the benefit of consumers.”

Global advertising spending on mobile devices is expected to reach $105 billion by 2019, up from an estimated $51 billion this year, said Juniper Research. The growth in mobile ads is due to an “attitude shift” among brands and retailers using mobile as a core channel for consumer engagement, said Juniper. The ability of smartphones to deliver targeted, personalized and timely ads -- along with media-stacking trends among consumers -- makes mobile advertising primed for high visibility and high response rates, it said. An uptick of ad spending in the Far East and China, fueled by the adoption of mobile commerce within China, is expected to bring that region’s share of the mobile ad spend to 43 percent by 2019, said Juniper. It cited increasing concerns around consumer privacy based on advertisers use of big data analytics to gain insight into consumers’ purchase patterns and behavior online and offline. With consumers feeling an increasing violation of their rights when their information is shared for ad purposes, it’s important for marketers to offer consumers a way to opt in to data sharing to avoid adverse publicity and possible litigation, said the researcher. As the prevalence of video increases in mobile ads, it will be important for advertisers to address viewability on small screens, it said.

The Wireless Communications Association and its members asked FCC officials to move forward on an NPRM addressing the licensing of unlicensed Educational Broadcast Service spectrum. WCA representatives shared with staff examples of rural areas that have no EBS licensees “and thus lack the 2.5 GHz band educational and commercial broadband services that operators are providing in areas where the EBS spectrum is fully licensed,” said a filing on the meeting in docket 13-213. Nextwave HoldCo, Sprint and ZTE were among the WCA members at the meeting, which included Wireless Bureau Chief Roger Sherman.

The FCC should ignore requests from some companies and groups to revise the rules reserving some spectrum for smaller carriers in the TV incentive auction, Mobile Future Chairman Jonathan Spalter and others from the group told FCC officials in recent meetings. “In these meetings, Mobile Future urged the Commission to reject calls by certain parties for reconsideration of the spectrum set aside in the upcoming incentive auction,” said an ex parte filing by the group. “There is no need to revisit these issues and put the success of the auction potentially at risk or cause unnecessary delay.” The filing was posted by the FCC Monday in docket 12-268.