AT&T’s industry-leading bids of $9.1 billion in the 3.45 GHz auction won't affect its ratings since expenditures in that range were expected, S&P Global Ratings said in a Wednesday note. AT&T’s adjusted debt to EBITDA ratio remains “elevated in the 3.7x-3.8x range” but should decline after its sale of Warner Media, S&P said. “We view AT&T's longer-term competitive position as weaker relative to that of its wireless peers Verizon and T-Mobile,” S&P said: “While the acquisition of 40 MHz of nationwide spectrum will improve the company's overall mid-band spectrum position, it still operates at a competitive disadvantage to T-Mobile, especially given T-Mobile's head start in building out its 2.5 GHz band for 5G services.” The firm sees few opportunities to buy more mid-band spectrum this year.

CTIA asked the FCC to make the change it sought in its September petition for partial consideration of rules on combating contraband cellphones in prisons (see 2112210032). It was the lone party to file reply comments, due Tuesday in docket 13-111. “CTIA sought only one very limited adjustment to the … service termination rules, to allow wireless providers sufficient time to disable contraband devices upon receipt of a qualifying request,” the group said. It asked the FCC to say providers must disable contraband devices “as soon as practicable, but not later than five business days after receipt of a qualifying request” rather than within the two days now required. “The record that has now been compiled … confirms that two days is unworkable, and no party filed in support of retaining the two-day deadline,” CTIA said, posted Wednesday.

FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel named Dean Brenner, a former Qualcomm executive, as chairman of the FCC’s Technological Advisory Council, replacing longtime chairman Dennis Roberson. The focus will be on 6G, Rosenworcel said. The U.S. “must lead the world in advancing ambitious 6G research and development," she said Wednesday: "Maintaining our leadership in high-priority emerging technology requires careful planning and execution. There are signals that need our attention, from the need for more spectrum to the vulnerabilities of supply chains to the changing dynamics of global standards development.” The new TAC scheduled its first meeting online for 10 a.m. EST Feb. 28. The FCC rechartered the group for a two-year term in July and asked for nominations for membership. The agency said then the first meeting was likely in October (see 2107230039). The group last met a year ago. Other members of TAC will be included in upcoming communications personals sections of this publication.

Ookla's Q4 market report found T-Mobile’s network was faster than those of AT&T and Verizon. Tests found a median download speed of 90.65 Mbps on modern chipsets for T-Mobile, up from 62.35 Mbps in Q3. AT&T was at 49.25 Mbps, Verizon Wireless 44.67.

NTIA released a new manual of regulations and procedures for federal radio frequency management, effective immediately, says Wednesday Federal Register. The manual provides the rules federal agencies “must comply” with “when requesting use of radio frequency spectrum,” the notice says.

DOJ will address a question posed by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit (see 2201130046) during oral argument next week of the 5.9 GHz appeal, DOJ said in a Friday brief. The court asked: “What significance should be accorded to the fact that the United States through the Justice Department is representing the FCC not the Department of Transportation?” DOJ said: The U.S joined the FCC’s brief “after assessing the merits of these cases and considering all relevant federal interests, including the Commission’s policy judgments and the views of executive-branch agencies that participated before the Commission.”

Microsoft representatives asked the FCC to scale back the notification requirements for white spaces devices, in a draft item scheduled for a commissioner vote next week (see 2201060057). Microsoft spoke with aides to Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel and Commissioner Brendan Carr. “As currently constructed, the application of the draft requirements to narrowband fixed white space devices (WSDs) used for IoT applications would negatively impact the battery life, limit potential form factors, and increase the costs of those devices,” said a filing posted Tuesday in docket 04-186. Microsoft urged the FCC to “maintain its existing requirement that narrowband fixed WSDs be required to check the white space database once a day to ensure capturing wireless microphone reservations rather than the proposed 24 times a day.”

The Wi-Fi Alliance asked the FCC to quickly act on a limited remand by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit of one part of the agency’s 6 GHz order (see 2112280047), in calls with FCC Office of General Counsel and Office of Engineering and Technology staff. The court instructed the FCC to address NAB concerns about interference in the 2.4 GHz band. Despite the court’s “strong affirmation of the 6 GHz Report and Order, the limited remand creates regulatory uncertainty in the market for unlicensed deployments in the 6 GHz spectrum,” said a filing posted Tuesday in docket 18-295: “That uncertainty may impede introduction of low-cost wireless connectivity solutions, frustrating the Commission’s intentions and harming American consumers.” The remand can be easily addressed by noting “that the use of a contention-based protocol is not required in the 2.4 GHz band, unlike the rules adopted in the 6 GHz” order, the group said.

Discussions about opening the 12 GHz band to 5G need to start focusing on technical issues such as the right interference criteria, the acceptable probability of interference and the means for determining how much of a terrestrial signal has been attenuated before it reaches a satellite receiver, Dish Network said in an FCC docket 20-443 filing Friday. It said differences are minimal between the interference thresholds being proposed by satellite and terrestrial 5G interests. It said the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit's 6 GHz decision last month (2112280047) eviscerates two key arguments of 5G opponents -- that satellite and terrestrial spectrum sharing needs to be rejected unless there's zero interference, and that a "Monte Carlo"-style statistical analysis is inferior to a worst-case-scenario one. It said SpaceX hasn't supplied any evidence of its own to back its contention that 5G/non-geostationary orbit fixed satellite service sharing is impossible and studies it cites "were based on extremely conservative assumptions ... and a worst-case analysis." It said SpaceX also is mischaracterizing those studies. SpaceX didn't comment.

Google urged the FCC to adopt an incumbent-informing capability framework for the 3.45 GHz band and extend it into the adjacent citizens broadband radio service band, in a conversation with an aide to Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel. “We also urged expeditious, evidentiary-based action by the Commission to make 60 GHz regulations more flexible for innovative, unlicensed, low-power radar applications,” said a filing, posted Friday in docket 15-319.