As Charter Communications' wireless business grows, it's tough to peg when its losses peak and it begins swinging toward profitability, said Chief Financial Officer Chris Winfrey in an analyst call Tuesday as the company announced Q1 results. CEO Tom Rutledge said Charter is testing its Spectrum Mobile wireless product to see if mobile capabilities can be increased by using Dual SIM technology along with unlicensed and potentially licensed spectrum. It said it added 176,000 mobile lines in the most recent quarter, ending with 310,000. "Mobile is ramping nicely," Winfrey said. He said the bulk of capital spending, such as setting up retail locations, should be in 2019. The company said revenue in the quarter was $11.2 billion, up 5.1 percent year over year. It said during the quarter it had residential and small and mid-sized business internet net adds of 428,000, video net losses of 145,000 and wireline voice net losses of 99,000. It ended the quarter with 15.95 residential video customers, 24 million residential broadband customers and 10 million residential voice.

FCC Commissioner Mike O’Rielly said at a Citizens Broadband Radio Service Alliance meeting Tuesday the 3.5 GHz band will likely be the first mid-band spectrum to come online for 5G, next year. “Left on the Commission’s plate to get CBRS fully operational is concluding the review and approval of the Spectrum Access Systems, or SAS, and Environmental Sensing Capability systems, commonly referred to as the ESC,” O’Rielly said. “I have been working with the leadership of the CBRS Alliance to help make sure this process stays on track. While some steps experienced unfortunate delays and this process has taken far longer than anyone would have liked, it appears to be nearing the end.” The FCC this week approved the first ESCs, he said. “I must admit that I never expected it to leapfrog ahead of the SAS testing and development process,” he said: “Unfortunately, the SAS testing is still in progress.” Monday, staff OK'd environmental sensing capabilities of CommScope, Federated Wireless and Google in the 3550-3650 MHz portion of the 3550-3700 MHz band. "These ESCs may operate in areas covered by registered and approved ESC sensors subject to ... compliance obligations," said the public notice.

FCC Chairman Ajit Pai thanked DOD for cooperation in developing rules for sharing in the upper 37 GHz band, approved by commissioners this month despite concerns by Commissioners Mike O’Rielly, Jessica Rosenworcel and Geoffrey Starks (see 1904120058). The rules clear the way for the 37, 39 and 47 GHz auction, to start Dec. 10. Pai spoke Tuesday at a National Spectrum Consortium event in Arlington, Virginia. “The issues here are quite complex, and I appreciate [DOD’s] working in good faith to reach a mutually agreeable resolution,” Pai said. “Reaching a compromise that worked for both sides wasn’t easy, but it was well worth it. And I hope that those efforts will serve as a model for future collaboration between the FCC and federal agencies. ... We recognized that at the end of the day, we are all on the same team working towards the same goal: advancing the national interest of the United States.” Pai said the FCC is focused on making more mid-band spectrum available for 5G. “We have ongoing rulemakings to free up spectrum in the 2.5 GHz, 3.7 GHz, 4.9 GHz, and 6 GHz bands, an upcoming auction in the 3.5 GHz band, and ongoing work with our federal partners to share the 3.1 GHz, 3.45 GHz, and 5.9 GHz bands,” he said.

A year after Toyota announced it would introduce dedicated short-range communications systems on vehicles sold in the U.S. starting in 2021 (see 1805110014), the automaker decided to “pause its deployment,” it told the FCC, posted Monday in docket 13-49. Though there continues to be “general excitement about DSRC and the benefits of widespread deployment among key stakeholders,” Toyota hasn’t seen “significant production commitments from other automakers.” The “cooperative safety benefits” won't “be fully realized without greater automotive industry commitment to deploy the technology,” it said. Toyota expressed confidence a year ago that the FCC “would implement a sharing mechanism for unlicensed operations in the 5.9 GHz band only if testing fully validated that such operations could safely occur in the band and not disrupt the current or future deployment of DSRC technology by existing licensees,” it said. But the “regulatory environment” for the 5.9 GHz band since has become “even more uncertain and unstable,” it said. In addition to the “long-standing pending proceeding” involving unlicensed operation in the band, the agency recently launched a second proceeding to explore “reallocating channels away from DSRC” to cellular vehicle to everything technology, it said. “The chance that DSRC operations could be subject to harmful interference from unlicensed operations or other technologies should they be permitted in the band, that channels used for DSRC could be reallocated after services using those channels have entered the market, or that spectrally-inefficient band fragmentation could impair the ability to expand DSRC services and applications over time creates a substantial and arguably insurmountable risk.”

An equal employment opportunity enforcement item listed as circulated to FCC commissioners’ offices is the draft Further NPRM on EEO enforcement announced by Chairman Ajit Pai during the FCC’s February approval of an item eliminating midterm EEO reports (see 1902140053), FCC officials told us Monday. Pai promised the FNRPM as a compromise in response to a request from Commissioners Jessica Rosenworcel and Geoffrey Starks; it was the latter’s first full-length meeting as a commissioner. Though Starks and Rosenworcel sought a 30-day turnaround, Pai promised it within 90 days of EEO order adoption. Pai said then the FNPRM would seek broad comment on the agency’s EEO enforcement, while Starks and Rosenworcel hoped for comments on the agency’s collection of EEO data. Starks and Rosenworcel said in February the agency should take the final steps to begin collecting data on workforce diversity and resolve a 15-year-old open proceeding. In the midterm report EEO order, the FNPRM was described as seeking comment on the FCC’s “track record” on EEO enforcement and “how the agency can make improvements to EEO compliance and enforcement.”

An additional $65.7 million annually over the next 10 years in alternative connect America cost model (A-CAM) support means an added 106,000 rural customers getting improved broadband service from rate-of-return companies, the FCC said Monday. Bringing and maintaining broadband "in deeply rural America is not at all easy," NTCA said. "But the connections these funds will enable will help to drive commerce, unleash innovation, and promote distance learning and telemedicine in communities across rural America currently waiting for higher speed connectivity." The companies commit to building out 25/3 Mbps broadband to those 106,000 sites that otherwise would have received slower 10/1 Mbps service -- which Chairman Ajit Pai tweeted Monday was "good news on the rural broadband front!" It helps further close the digital divide, he said. Alaska, Arizona, Montana, Nebraska, New Mexico, South Dakota, Utah and Wyoming will have more than double the number of customers served by 25/3 service, the agency said. Massachusetts will have the smallest gains, at 9.1 percent. Minnesota will have the biggest jump in number of sites, with 11,358 additional sites getting 25/3 service under the A-CAM funding, the FCC said. Others with big jumps are Oklahoma with 7,724 additional sites and Texas with 7,025. Of the 186 rate-of-return companies receiving the money, Minnesota's Arvig Enterprises is the biggest single recipient, with $24.7 million annually. Also receiving substantial funding: Pioneer Telephone Cooperative ($24.42 million), Great Plains Communications ($22.52 million), Telephone and Data Systems ($20.32 million) and Blackfoot Telephone Cooperative ($13.67 million). "This program is great for all rural America," said Arvig Chief Financial Officer Staci Malikowski in an interview. She said the money helps "us do what we do ... a whole lot faster" and can make the difference in broadband being provided at all. Malikowski said rural customers, and the funding helps pay for deployment of such technologies as copper or fiber, plus electronic upgrades of existing infrastructure. The 186 companies had been authorized to receive A-CAM support but had picked revised offers that carried extended funding and new deployment obligations, the FCC said.

Apple representatives said the FCC shouldn’t adopt rules for the 6 GHz band that would put users’ privacy at risk. Technical rules in an NPRM “will robustly protect incumbents, making privacy-intrusive device-identification requirements unnecessary,” the company said in docket 18-295, posted Thursday. “Successful rules for the 6 GHz band will support innovative consumer products, including portable and mobile devices, in addition to access points.” Apple met with aides to all commissioners, except Chairman Ajit Pai. The agency is examining Wi-Fi and other unlicensed use of the band (see 1903190050).

CTIA, the Competitive Carriers Association and USTelecom urged the FCC reconsider a decision to merge under one contract and a single administrator the administration of the reassigned numbers database “with the already consolidated” North American Numbering Plan Administrator and Pooling Administrator “functions.” Others also sought reconsideration of the order. In December, commissioners voted 4-0 to create a reassigned number database (RND) to help combat unwanted and illegal robocalls to people with new numbers. “Combining the databases under a single contract will not promote the Commission’s desired goals of operational and cost efficiencies; it will actually reduce efficiencies on both accounts,” said the telecom groups in docket 17-59. The groups said instead the FCC should refer the issue to the North American Numbering Council. NANC should have the flexibility “to best satisfy its overarching mandate from the Commission to ‘consider the most cost-effective way of administering the database, with the goal of minimizing costs and burdens for all users and service providers, while ensuring that it will fully serve the intended purpose,’” they said. The Professional Association for Customer Engagement said business landlines and other toll-free numbers shouldn't be included in the database. Including them would “create an unnecessary burden for Providers seeking to comply with the RND’s requirements while accomplishing nothing in achieving the Commission’s goal of protecting consumers from unwanted calls,” PACE said: Adding these numbers “needlessly increases the cost of database administration and neither businesses nor consumers are expected to query the database for such numbers.”

Americans for Tax Reform President Grover Norquist wrote members of Congress opposing the C-Band Alliance's plan for clearing more than 200 MHz of 3.7-4.2 GHz band (see 1811130055), saying it “misses the mark.” Stakeholders believe the FCC will need to find a compromise between CBA's proposal and rival plans from T-Mobile and others (see 1904250060). The top executive of an alliance member said separately that the transition will take work. The CBA's proposal “is unworkable because it lacks transparency and does not provide a mechanism to reimburse the taxpayers for the sale of this valuable asset,” Norquist said. “Should the CBA produce a new and credible proposal for a secondary market transaction it is worth consideration.” It's “fortunate that the incumbent satellite companies have shown a willingness to work with the FCC to find a win-win solution to re-organizing the band,” Norquist said. The band “is not only the most readily available mid-band spectrum, it is also globally harmonized, a rare valuable benefit that would enable wireless carriers to keep costs lower through economies of scale.” CBA said in a statement it's "appreciative of [ATR] acknowledging" the alliance's bid "to create a fast path to clearing spectrum" for 5G. "We are presently engaged with a number of stakeholders so that we can fully understand the concerns regarding a market-based approach," but it's "our intent to present an approach to the FCC which is fully transparent and responsive to the needs of market participants," CBA said. Relocating C-band customers will require "a significant amount of investment," SES CEO Steve Collar said in an earnings call Friday with analysts, according to a transcript. He said SES isn't focused on C-band clearing as "any potential financial opportunity," at least currently. He said the FCC seems motivated to move on a band-clearing plan "relatively quickly," with "some activity" by the agency in the second half of the year.

The 9th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals denied the FCC’s motion to hold in abeyance the challenges to the agency’s infrastructure orders from last summer (see 1904180006). That means last week’s briefing schedule (in Pacer) “remains in effect,” the court said in Wednesday orders (in Pacer) in Sprint v. FCC and Portland v. FCC. The agency declined comment.