The FCC shouldn’t rethink whether to authorize automated frequency coordination system operations in the 6 GHz band, Wi-Fi advocates said in calls with aides to all four FCC commissioners, said a filing posted Friday in docket 21-352. Some 6 GHz incumbents “have attempted to use the [Office of Engineering and Technology] Public Notice process to relitigate issues already resolved by the 6 GHz Report and Order and advocate for additional requirements on AFC operations that do not appear in the Order and are beyond OET’s delegated authority in this process,” they said. Broadcom, CableLabs, Cisco, Meta Platforms, the Wi-Fi Alliance and Wireless Broadband Alliance were among those represented.

The FCC Consumer and Governmental Affairs Bureau let Inland Cellular withdraw a pending waiver request of the FCC 2020 deadline to offer real-time text (RTT) instead of traditional text technology. Inland says its plan to launch voice over LTE service was delayed “and it does not intend to begin providing voice service over an IP network until it is ready to launch its RTT capability,” said an order Thursday: So Inland has no need for a waiver.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit gave the Amateur Radio Emergency Data Network three minutes to discuss concerns with an order dividing the 5.9 GHz band, when judges hear argument Jan. 25. Thursday's order (in Pacer) gives ITS America 12 minutes and respondents 15 minutes. In an order last week, the court said both sides should be prepared to address the question: “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?”

The Alarm Industry Communications Committee warned the FCC that 2 million alarm customers must be retrofitted before AT&T shutters its 3G network in six weeks (see 2109150041). AICC representatives recently spoke with aides to Commissioners Brendan Carr and Nathan Simington, said a filing posted Thursday in docket 21-304. AICC said every one of the comments filed last year on the need for delay other than AT&T's "supports an extension.” AICC said the COVID-19 pandemic is a new challenge: “The country is experiencing numerous shut downs due to Omicron. None of this messaging gives alarm customers the ‘all clear’ to let outsiders like alarm installers … into their homes.”

The International Association of Fire Chiefs supported concerns raised by APCO and others on companies and organizations seeking FCC certification to become automated frequency coordination (AFC) system operators in the 6 GHz band (see 2112220070). A representative of the group spoke with David Furth, deputy chief of the Public Safety Bureau, said a filing posted Wednesday in docket 21-352. “All fourteen AFC proposals failed to meet FCC’s rules and should be rejected until each proposal is supplemented with additional technical details,” the group said.

The FCC Consumer and Governmental Affairs Bureau let Cellcom withdraw pending requests for waiver of the FCC’s 2020 deadline to offer real-time text (RTT) instead of traditional text technology. The carrier says it wasn't "providing voice service on an IP network prior to September 9, 2020, and on that date it simultaneously launched [voice over LTE] and RTT,” said Wednesday's order in docket 16-145: “The record does not indicate any need to further extend the waivers previously granted.”

The FCC Office of Engineering and Technology opened docket 21-363 Tuesday, on “Updating References to Standards Related to the Commission’s Equipment Authorization Program.” Commissioners are scheduled to vote on an NPRM on the topic at their Jan. 27 meeting (see 2201060057).

The Enterprise Wireless Alliance urged the FCC to start accepting applications for 12.5 kHz bandwidth channels in the 809-817/854-862 MHz bands. “Because the rules governing these channels are fully effective, the only action required of the FCC is issuance of a Public Notice announcing the date when applications for them will be accepted,” said a Tuesday filing in docket 15-32: “The private land mobile community is eager to make productive use of this additional 800 MHz capacity and urges the FCC to take this final step as promptly as possible.” The FCC declared the 800 MHz rebanding complete in April (see 2104220056).

MoffettNathanson said T-Mobile's and Verizon's fixed wireless offerings raise complicated questions. “Consider the network capacity implications of fixed wireless,” the analyst firm emailed Tuesday. “Most investors will by this point understand that the burden of serving homes with a wired broadband replacement is far greater than that of serving individual phones for mobility.” T-Mobile says the average fixed wireless customer is using 35 GB monthly, or about triple the average unlimited LTE user, the firm said: “Total network throughput is largely irrelevant (although, at least for conceptualizing orders of magnitude, it is useful for framing the discussion). What matters is highly localized throughput, and indeed, highly localized throughput -- individual sectors of individual cells -- at specific times of day.” According to OpenVault, the average cable broadband household uses some 434 GB a month, or 40 times more than an average unlimited wireless customer, it said. At current pricing, a typical fixed wireless customer generates about $50 in monthly revenue, or about 10 cents/GB, which compares with $48, or about $4.36/GB, MoffettNathanson said: “As a business matter, it would be hard to imagine prioritizing $0.10 per GB customers over $4.36 per GB customers; one would therefore assume that T-Mobile will be incredibly careful to ensure that [fixed] customers don’t impede the experience of vastly more valuable mobile customers.”

T-Mobile is buying Octopus Interactive, a national network of interactive video screens inside Uber and Lyft vehicles, the companies said Monday.