The Coalition for Emergency Response and Critical Infrastructure (CERCI) asked the FCC to complete a collection of “granular data on public safety operations in the 4.9 GHz band” promised in a January 2023 (see 2408130035) order before addressing rules for the band. CERCI is a leading opponent of a proposal that would give FirstNet and AT&T control of the frequencies. “The FCC cannot convert the 4.9 GHz band into an AT&T FirstNet/commercial shared band premised on vague promises of interference protection for all current public-safety licensees,” said a filing this week in docket 07-100. “Rather, it must first conduct the data collection it announced over a year-and-a-half ago,” CERCI said: “CERCI respectfully submits that if the Commission were to conduct the data collection … it would conclude that it is not in the public interest to deploy the 4.9 GHz band on AT&T’s network.”
SpaceX representatives met with FCC staff to discuss recent studies that found high-power terrestrial operations in the lower or upper 12 GHz band “would cause debilitating interference to Americans who rely on next generation satellite broadband in the 10.7-12.7 GHz band.” Representatives from SpaceX met with staff of the Wireless Bureau and Office of Engineering and Technology, according to a filing posted Thursday in docket 20-443. “SpaceX has once again unveiled [Dish Network’s] efforts to steal high-power spectrum rights to a terrestrial service in the lower 12 GHz band at the expense of millions of Americans who rely on the band for their broadband and broadcast service,” the filing said. An EchoStar executive slammed SpaceX’s earlier filing on lower 12 GHz (see 2409040035), calling it an “unserious and last-ditch effort” to block use of the frequencies for fixed wireless (see 2409050040). EchoStar is Dish’s parent company.
CTIA representatives spoke with aides to FCC Commissioners Geoffrey Starks and Nathan Simington about the group’s 2019 petition seeking clarity on pole attachment rules under Section 224 of the Communications Act. “The record on the Petition is thorough and many commenters supported CTIA’s request,” said a filing posted Thursday in docket 17-84: “As the Commission considers further actions in this docket, now is an appropriate time for it to make clear which infrastructure is in fact subject to Section 224’s requirements.” Representatives of the group previously met with aides to FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel and Commissioner Brendan Carr (see 2409180013).
CTIA completed a series of meetings with staff from all five FCC commissioner's offices on proposed rules requiring blocking texts. A vote on the issue is scheduled for the commissioners' Sept. 26 open meeting (see 2409050045). A filing, posted Thursday in docket 21-402, largely repeats points the group made based on an earlier meeting with an aide to Commissioner Nathan Simington (see 2409170044). “CTIA estimates that in 2023 wireless providers prevented over 47.5 billion spam messages from reaching consumers, and those numbers no doubt have continued to grow,” it said.
T-Mobile anticipates having 12 million home internet customers by 2028, CEO Mike Sievert said Wednesday during the company’s Capital Markets Day. The company added 406,000 fixed wireless subscribers in Q2 (see 2407310040) and plans to cover as many as 15 million homes with fiber, based on its current agreements with other companies. It will cover more homes if it makes additional investments, he said. Sievert noted this was the company’s first such event since March 2021, when it was virtual because of the COVID-19 pandemic. In 2018, when T-Mobile announced its buy of Sprint, it was “dead last in the 4G LTE era without a lot of runway for growth,” he said. But T-Mobile was the first of the major carriers to recognize the importance of mid-band spectrum for 5G. T-Mobile has the most and highest-quality spectrum of any U.S. carrier “and will have for years to come,” he said. Sievert noted that T-Mobile also has the densest network as a benefit of the Sprint buy and an after-effect of the days when the carrier didn’t have low-band spectrum and needed more towers. “The next three or four years will not only continue but actually extend and accelerate our success,” Sievert said: “This is an entrepreneurial team that acts very quickly.” T-Mobile expects it will generate $80 billion in cash between now and 2027. The first $10 billion will pay for already announced transactions and $50 billion will be returned to shareholders. That leaves $20 billion, some of which could go to further investments. “That’s incredible flexibility.” Among the announcements T-Mobile made Wednesday (see 2409180018), the carrier said it's using its 5G stand-alone network to offer first responders priority access through network slicing under a new T-Priority offering. “The network slice ensures first responders get lower latency and faster 5G speeds more consistently, and it also gives them the highest priority across every single 5G band, even in times of extreme congestion,” said a news release. T-Mobile said its first major customer is New York City.
Bill Tolpegin, CEO of Aura Network Systems, spoke with an aide to FCC Commissioner Geoffrey Starks on the company’s 2021 request for a rulemaking on expanding the use of air-ground radiotelephone service channels between 454.675-454.975 MHz and 459.675-459.975 MHz for voice and data communications, including by drones (see 2109230049). Aura’s nationwide network “is ideally suited to meet the near-term need for spectrum for networked [command and control] services that will allow uncrewed aircraft to safely fly beyond visual line of sight in controlled airspace,” said a filing posted Tuesday in RM-11912.
CTIA asked the FCC to act on its 2019 petition seeking clarity of pole attachment rules under Section 224 of the Communications Act. Representatives of the group met with aides to FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel and Commissioner Brendan Carr, according to filings posted Wednesday in docket 17-84. “As wireless providers continue to build out and enhance 5G networks nationwide, access to existing poles -- including light poles -- is critical,” CTIA said: “However, uncertainty exists today as to the application of Section 224 to light poles, which continues to impede their use and hamper wireless providers’ ability to increase capacity in their networks to meet ever-growing data demands and expand competitive home broadband offerings.”
T-Mobile on Wednesday unveiled a collaboration with Nvidia, Ericsson and Nokia that will “design and drive the future” of mobile wireless networks “with AI at the center.” An AI-based radio access network “will dramatically improve customers’ real-world network experiences and ever-growing demand for increased speeds, reduced latency, and increased reliability needed for the latest gaming, video, social media and augmented reality applications they like to enjoy on their mobile and fixed wireless devices,” T-Mobile said. AI-RAN will “leverage” billions of data points to develop algorithms “that determine optimal network adjustments for maximum performance and to predict real-time capacity where customers need it.” AI will also “supercharge mobile network infrastructure” to simultaneously run third-party AI application workloads at the network’s edge. The companies are founding members of the AI-RAN Alliance and are building an AI-RAN Innovation Center in Bellevue, Washington.
The FCC’s Broadband Data Task Force and Office of Engineering and Technology sought comment Tuesday on an application for approval of a Georgia Institute of Technology third-party mobile speed test app for use in the FCC’s broadband data collection mobile challenge process. Comments are due Oct. 17, replies Nov. 1, in docket 24-2. “We note that Georgia Tech has submitted only a beta version of the app, and has not made a production version of the app available for download,” said an FCC notice: “Any approval of the CellWatch v1.0 app by OET will be conditional and subject to submission of the production version of the app and review by OET to ensure that it complies with applicable technical requirements.”
AT&T agreed to pay $13 million and strengthen its data retention practices to settle an FCC Enforcement Bureau investigation into the integrity of the carrier’s supply chain and “whether it failed to protect the information of AT&T customers in connection with a data breach of a vendor’s cloud environment,” said a Tuesday news release from the FCC. The agency refers only to “Vendor X.” In January 2023, the vendor “suffered a data breach that exposed information” of nearly 9 million AT&T wireless customers, according to a consent decree. “AT&T failed to ensure the vendor: (1) adequately protected the customer information, and (2) returned or destroyed it as required by contract,” the FCC said. “The Communications Act makes clear that carriers have a duty to protect the privacy and security of consumer data, and that responsibility takes on new meaning for digital age data breaches,” said FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel. Protecting customer data is a top AT&T priority, a spokesperson said in an email. “A vendor we previously used experienced a security incident last year that exposed data pertaining to some of our wireless customers,” the spokesperson said: Though AT&T systems weren’t compromised “we’re making enhancements to how we manage customer information internally, as well as implementing new requirements on our vendors’ data management practices.”