The American Gas Association and Edison Electric Institute’s Feb. 12 petition for expedited declaratory relief from the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) is “overly broad,” said NARUC in comments posted Monday in docket 02-278. AGA and EEI’s petition asks the agency to confirm that when a customer provides a telephone number to an energy utility, it constitutes “’prior express consent’” to receive autodialed or recorded nontelemarketing informational calls. NARUC agreed utilities should be allowed to send notifications about outages and restoration of service, and with “summer storms on the horizon,” the agency should immediately declare that those calls are exempted from TCPA as calls made for emergency purposes. But an exemption should be limited to those calls, the filing said. Wireless customers "should not have to pay for other communications from utilities that they may not wish to receive," according to NARUC.

The FCC Wireless Bureau posed questions Monday to both Cellular Network Partnership (CNP) and KanOkla Telephone Association, which have asked for the FCC's blessing on a deal in which KanOkla would sell three lower 700 MHz C block licenses in Oklahoma to CNP. The letter to CNP asks for details on the company’s plans, “including the timeline, to provide fixed broadband or any other service using the spectrum that it would acquire under the Proposed Transaction.” The CNP letter notes that in two of the license areas CNP already has 47-59 MHz of below-1-GHz spectrum and the deal would increase its concentration to 51-71 MHz. “Provide a detailed explanation of why this additional concentration of below-1-GHz spectrum, specifically, would not preclude rival service providers and potential new entrants from expanding or entering into these two markets, and how its acquisition is necessary to enhance or expand services to the Company’s customers,” the letter said.

Local governments don't generally do a good job regulating small cells and distributed antenna systems (DAS), said Jonathan Kramer, principal attorney-Telecom Law Firm, Monday during a webinar hosted by NATOA. “We don't regulate buzzwords and we don't regulate technology,” he said. "We're not allowed to regulate technologies under federal law, but we are, and should, be regulating community asthetics." As wireless companies move away from using cell towers, they will need to install tens of thousands of small cells and DAS in communities to continue to have good coverage, which gives those companies and municipalities a chance to work together, said Gabriel Garcia, director and senior counsel-CPS Energy. The carriers will need citywide installation sites, access to poles, electricity connections, fiber backhaul, predictable city procedures and right-of-way permitting, he said. Wireless carriers will want cities to have rights of way throughout the city, their own traffic light poles, fiber lines along rights of way and control of rights of way outside the zoning process, Garcia said. A license agreement needs to benefit both parties, he said. “The general bargain is that the local government would grant a master license for the provider to install small cells or DAS anywhere in the city,” Garcia said.

The FCC Wireless Bureau Monday denied a request for a waiver by Spectrum Networks Group (SNG) so subsidiary M2M Spectrum Networks can offer a third-party service providing machine-to-machine communications using 900 MHz Business/Industrial/Land Transportation channels. When the bureau sought comment last summer, the Enterprise Wireless Alliance (EWA), Motorola Solutions and the Utilities Telecom Council raised concerns, (see 1408130033). SNG responded, arguing that “the record provides clear evidence that M2M is able and ready to deploy its network with dispatch.” SNG’s applications request a total of more than 2,000 channels in approximately 150 of the 186 basic economic areas, "including the last remaining 900 MHz B/ILT channels in most of the top-ten markets where channels are still available," the bureau said. "It also intends to seek additional 900 MHz B/ILT channels after it satisfies the loading requirements on its initial channels. Grant of the waiver request could thus have a significant effect on the nature of the 900 MHz B/ILT band. We are reluctant to grant waiver requests that effectively circumvent the Commission’s rulemaking function."

The FCC should rule that nonemergency, service-related phone calls and text messages to customers who have provided a phone number don't violate the Telephone Consumer Protection Act, said the Alarm Industry Communications Committee in comments posted Friday in docket 02-278. AICC supported a petition for expedited declaratory ruling sought by Edison Electric Institute and the American Gas Association (see 1503270020). Calling the proposed exemption a “common sense approach to customer relations,” AICC acknowledged TCPA exempts communications made for emergency purposes, but “alarm companies may also benefit by being able to use the contact number provided by their customer … to contact that customer about their account and alarm system status and to verify installation/maintenance appointments.” Other notifications “can best be quickly distributed to alarm subscribers by auto-dialer and/or text message," the group said, citing alerts about the need for an equipment upgrade, an equipment recall, alerts regarding a system security risk, suspicious activity like someone is knocking on doors, or about home invasions in the area. Customers who give a vendor or creditor a phone number expect “to be contacted on that number in connection with its relationship with that vendor,” AICC said.

The FCC will take up a public notice seeking additional comment on designated entity (DE) rules at its meeting Friday, the commission said Friday in an announcement. Chairman Tom Wheeler circulated the draft notice last month (see 1503240055) after promising he would do so during an appearance before the House Appropriations Financial Services Subcommittee. Commissioners Mike O’Rielly and Ajit Pai earlier urged the FCC to revisit the rules in the wake of the AWS-3 auction, where Dish Network used two DEs to indirectly buy $13.3 billion worth of licenses for $10 billion (see 1504090053). The notice will look at “how to ensure that small businesses, rural telephone companies, and businesses owned by members of minority groups and women have an opportunity to participate in the provision of spectrum-based services, while ensuring that there are adequate safeguards to protect against unjust enrichment to ineligible entities,” the FCC said. The agency is also taking up rules for the 3.5 GHz band, as was expected (see 1503270052).

The FCC released a Small Entity Compliance Guide to help small businesses, small organizations and small governmental jurisdictions comply with the FCC’s revised wireless E-911 location requirements. The guide is no substitute for the rules, released in February, the document noted. “In any civil or administrative action against a small entity for a violation of rules, the content of the Small Entity Compliance Guide may be considered as evidence of the reasonableness or appropriateness of proposed fines, penalties or damages.”

Apple will take Apple Watch pre-orders exclusively at apple.com beginning Friday at 12:01 a.m. PDT, for delivery starting April 24, the company said Thursday. Apple expects Apple Watch demand at launch will easily outstrip supply, Angela Ahrendts, Apple senior vice president-retail and online stores, said in a statement. The online-only pre-order policy will be in place “to provide the best experience and selection to as many customers as we can,” she said.

The FCC Wireless Bureau will host its annual educational workshop on the environmental compliance and historic preservation review process for the construction of cell towers and other wireless facilities May 12, the bureau said Thursday. Starting time is 9 a.m. at FCC headquarters. Topics include National Environmental Policy Act compliance, “with an emphasis on wetlands and endangered species review,” and National Historic Preservation Act Section 106 compliance under the Nationwide Programmatic Agreement, the bureau said.

Federated Wireless Chief Technology Officer Kurt Schaubach and others assured FCC officials that a spectrum access system (SAS), a key part of the agency's proposed rules for the 3.5 GHz band, will work. Federated Wireless develops systems to allow more sophisticated sharing of spectrum. “There is tremendous interest in unlocking the value of this spectrum, including among carriers, and moving forward with innovative uses of the band,” the company said in meetings with FCC officials, according to a filing in docket 12-354. The WInnForum, a multistakeholder SAS working group, “is already hard at work addressing the functional and performance requirements for SASs that will achieve the Commission’s goals for the Citizens Band,” the company said. “There should be no doubt that skepticism about how SASs will work, and requests for static PAL licenses, are rooted in the same place -- conventional notions about the value of licensed spectrum.” The skepticism is because the proposed use of the 3.5 GHz band is a “new paradigm,” Federated Wireless said. “The Citizens Band, with SASs, sensing technologies, and spectrum sharing, is not intended to replicate spectrum use as it exists today in licensed bands.” The company also stressed the importance of interoperability of devices designed for the band. Federated Wireless said it hopes “to ensure not only that there is technology neutrality, but also that devices for the band work for all users of the band, and that any technology used in the band will not favor one class of users (e.g., carriers) over all other users of the band.” The FCC is to vote on rules for the band next Friday (see 1503270052).