The FCC Wireless Bureau is seeking comment by Dec. 21 on a request by American Electric Power for a waiver allowing it to operate 800 MHz low-power temporary repeaters and “talk-around on mobile units” in remote areas outside the range of its existing 800 MHz network. Replies are due Jan. 5, in docket 23-390. A power provider in 11 states, AEP made the request in a June filing in the FCC’s Universal Licensing System. “Section 90.621(b) of the Commission’s rules governs the required separation distances for fixed stations operating on frequencies in the 806/851–824/869 MHz band, and its underlying purpose is to ensure licensees can maintain interference-free operations,” the bureau said: “In its waiver request, AEP detailed the steps it intends to take that will ensure its proposed operations on the requested frequencies will not cause interference to co-channel licensees.”
NTIA’s revised Manual of Regulations and Procedures for Federal Radio Frequency Management is effective immediately, according to a notice for Tuesday’s Federal Register. The manual is “the compilation of policies and procedures that govern the use of the radio frequency spectrum by the U.S. Government,” the notice said: “Federal Government agencies are required to follow these policies and procedures in their use of spectrum.”
Amateur radio operators have filed hundreds of short comments urging the FCC to retain the 60-meter band for amateur use. The band was the focus of a question teed up in an April order and NPRM on implementing decisions by the World Radiocommunication Conference in 2015 and 2019. Replies are due Nov. 28 in docket 23-120. “We propose to allocate the 5351.5-5366.5 kHz band to the Amateur Radio Service on a secondary basis and seek comment on whether the amateur service should keep the existing channels they use in the 60-meter band,” the NPRM said. Federal agencies use the larger 5275-5450 kHz band “for services that include military, law enforcement, disaster relief, emergency, and contingency operations” and there are also non-federal operations, the FCC said at the time. The NPRM notes that amateurs often refer to frequency bands by the wavelength of the signal rather than by the spectrum range. “Commenters that support expanded access to the 60 meter band should provide information regarding how heavily the five amateur frequencies in the 5275-5450 kHz band are used and why additional amateur spectrum in this frequency range is needed if we adopt the proposed allocation,” the notice said. The FCC also asked about the power levels that should be allowed. Most comments run only a sentence or two. “The 60 meter band is ideally located between the amateur 80- and 40-meter bands, which is critical to ensuring signal propagation to certain geographic areas during variations in time and the solar cycle while providing communications for disaster relief,” said a filing by amateur operator Douglas Wilkerson, posted Monday. “I have used the 60 meter band to establish communications when propagation on other amateur bands was not optimal,” said operator Deane Charlson: “The 60 meter band is a nice option to have during emergency communications.”
Representatives of Responsible Enterprises Against Consumer Harassment (REACH) met with an aide to FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel on a March Further NPRM on robotexts (see 2303160061) and the effect on “the lead generation industry.” REACH said "banning lead generation would unfairly punish good actors and shut down an entire industry." Under the proposed rules “hundreds of thousands of small businesses would lose their ability to connect with consumers via the purchase of leads,” said a filing Monday in docket 21-402: “Tens of thousands of individuals -- if not more -- would lose their jobs instantly.”
ARRL sought a waiver of the FCC’s Part 97 rules to allow cross-band communications with stations authorized to use federal government frequencies, during an event commemorating the Pearl Harbor attack. “Tests such as those proposed provide opportunities to train operators and test two-way communications capabilities between military communicators and radio stations in the Amateur Radio Service,” said a filing posted Monday: “Such tests challenge the operators to demonstrate individual technical skills in a controlled exercise scenario.”
Guam Cellular and Paging will continue opting out of participating in the wireless emergency alert system, parent DoCoMo Pacific said Friday in a filing posted in docket 15-91. “DoCoMo reserves its right to change its election at a later date, in accordance with the Commission’s regulations,” the filing said. Vermont’s VTel Wireless also is opting out, although it “intends to participate in the provision of WEA in the near future," as is Texas provider Tampnet.
T-Mobile representatives laid out the company’s position on the proposed 5G Fund, proposing to FCC staff tweaks to the technical rules. “T-Mobile discussed the eligible areas for the 5G Fund Auction and how to reach areas that lack 100% coverage and contain roads and/or broadband serviceable locations,” according to a filing posted Friday in docket 20-32. T-Mobile noted that the FCC’s broadband data collection is based on 100-meter-by-100-meter square pixels, or hex-9 cells. “Using more granular hexagonal cells for the 5G Fund, such as hex-10 or hex-11 cells, may help mitigate the issue but would likely introduce more complexity into the mapping process,” T-Mobile said: “A smaller hexagonal cell would require higher resolution terrain and clutter maps that are not readily available. It would also dramatically increase the size of the data files and computer processing requirements for both the submitting carriers and the FCC in a way that is unachievable.” T-Mobile met with staff from the Wireless Bureau, Office of Economics and Analytics and Office of Engineering & Technology. Commissioners approved a Further NPRM on the fund in September (see 2309210035|).
The FCC Office of Engineering and Technology approved BlueWind Medical’s request for a waiver to permit its implantable medical device system operating at 6.78 MHz to exceed FCC emission limits. OET sought comment in January (see 2301190018). “We find there to be a low risk of harmful interference stemming from the operations of the BlueWind device,” said a Friday order: “In addition to the technical conditions imposed in this waiver, BlueWind employs near-field inductive power transfer that decays rapidly and has a short range of only a few centimeters from the body. The emissions from the [external control unit] are directed into a user’s body, and the device does not radiate into space or the outside environment.”
5G so far has underwhelmed by many measures, Stefan Pongratz, Dell’Oro Group vice president, wrote Thursday. Global wireless carrier revenues increased at a 1% compound annual growth rate between 2010 and 2022, “implying that both 4G and 5G have fallen short when it comes to this key metric,” Pongratz wrote. Fixed wireless access, one of the big use cases for 5G, isn’t new, but “the ability to offer 0.5 TB per month packages and position FWA as a fiber alternative instead of a DSL competitor is,” he wrote. He called FWA “a positive development.” The potential for private networks “is massive -- potentially worth tens of billions in annual revenues,” but the forecast is that private 5G networks will reach closer to $1 billion in revenues by 2027, he said.
The FCC’s draft order and Further NPRM protecting consumers from SIM swapping and port-out fraud saw several changes on its way to approval by commissioners last week (see 2311150042), according to our side-by-side analysis. The item was posted in Friday’s Daily Digest. Changes mostly rejected wireless groups' requests for adjustments. FCC officials clarified after the meeting the adopted item had the same implementation dates as proposed in the draft, despite concerns raised by the Competitive Carriers Association and those of CTIA that it will be difficult to meet a six-month implementation time frame (see 2311130040). “We conclude that providing six months after the effective date of the Report and Order to implement these revisions to our [customer proprietary network information] and number porting rules strikes the right balance between time for wireless providers to implement these changes and accounting for the urgency of safeguarding customers from these fraudulent schemes” and that the time frame is “consistent with other proceedings and regulatory frameworks adopted by the Commission where consumer protection and numbering requirements were at issue,” the order said. “We decline, at this time, to adopt a requirement that wireless providers immediately notify customers in the event of multiple failed authentication attempts in connection with SIM change requests,” the final item said, in added language: The final order also rejects a CTIA request that providers can use other data for verification “when customers are traveling and may not have access to or remember a PIN.” Commissioners found “such an exception would establish a significant loophole for fraudulent activity and note that in these circumstances, customers can use alternative methods of authentication, such as email.” Comment deadlines on the FNPRM will come in a Federal Register notice.