The FCC should focus on coordination and outreach to federal agencies when identifying future commercial spectrum, said Commissioner Nathan Simington in a virtual talk for WifiForward Monday. “Communication with other federal agencies is key,” Simington said. He compared finding new spectrum to a real estate developer building in “greenfield” versus one putting up buildings in Paris or New York. “No matter where you want to build, you are going to have to deal with prior efforts.” He said he would like to see the FCC’s November 5.9 GHz order remain in effect, but it isn’t clear whether the dedicated short-range communications industry and the Department of Transportation will succeed in having aspects of that order changed. “I haven’t heard any rumblings at the commission, but you never know.” Simington said “light-touch regulation” drove innovation in unlicensed spectrum bands, and the agency should hold to that philosophy going forward: “We have to be a little bit humble about what we can see in our foggy crystal balls.” The world “is in a pivotal place” for the future of the 6 GHz band, Simington said. He said it's likely China will raise the matter of Wi-Fi on the band at the 2023 World Radiocommunication Conference, and it's up to the U.S. to persuade European Union countries to “stay the course.” The more countries that adopt 6 GHz for Wi-Fi, the better the environment for advances in the technology, he said. Asked about concerns that the U.S. could be falling behind other countries in internet technology, the Canadian native said the U.S. spawned most of the fundamentals of modern telecom, and it should “buck up.” Americans have a “tendency to have low self-esteem in some of these areas,” Simington said: American innovation was “fantastic in the past and will be fantastic in the future.”

Wireless power-at-a-distance developer Ossia met with aides to FCC Acting Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel and Commissioners Brendan Carr and Gregory Starks to stress the U.S. needs a “level regulatory playing field” to compete with Canada, China, Japan and EU on the technology, said a filing posted Friday in docket 19-226. Regulatory authorities of U.S. competitors are “rapidly moving forward” to approve wireless power at a distance, said Ossia. Other countries have taken “significant steps to embrace wireless power transfer,” it said, and China is “particularly active” through innovations from Huawei, Lenovo and Xiaomi. “It is no exaggeration to say that 5G and IoT cannot fully develop” without technology like Ossia's, it said. Billions of new 5G and IoT devices will need power, “and there are not enough batteries or electricians in the world to make that possible,” it said.

Wireless stakeholders asked the FCC for flexibility in the supply chain reimbursement program, in comments posted Thursday in docket 18-89 (see 2105240071). Adopt a technically neutral policy and remove questions about open radio access network or virtualization in its supply chain reimbursement program, said Nokia. It wants a “blanket 6-month extension” for deployment and the ability to “seek additional individualized extensions of time as part of the initial reimbursement application template.” The Rural Wireless Association said the filing window should be open for at least 60 days and the FCC should provide applicants with a template to enter required data. RWA asked for the 15-day cure period to only be used as a “final mechanism” and “tie it to deficiency notices for individual applicants.” Adtran supported keeping proprietary information confidential because it “constitutes trade secrets” and forms should include an information request. Manevir offered suggestions to clarify field descriptions on the form.

Qualcomm will partner with Mavenir to develop indoor and outdoor 4G and 5G solutions for private and public network deployments, aiming to “broaden the choices” for open radio network access customers, they said Thursday. Rising “capacity and coverage demands” of 5G are creating “a growing need for network densification that harnesses all available spectrum based on flexible and cost-effective radio solutions,” they said: The collaboration will result in a “suite of radio solutions” based on ORAN architecture.

A Southern Co.-backed report on South, Lockard & White-Electric Power Research Institute testing of the impact on unlicensed low power indoor devices’ use of the 6 GHz band proves “the FCC’s decision to permit that unlicensed access into the 6 GHz band will cause harmful interference to existing users” (see 2008310049), said Utilities Technology Council CEO Sheryl Osiene-Riggs in a statement. The Southern report, filed Wednesday in docket 18-295, said LPI devices “will cause harmful interference to licensed fixed microwave systems, including those used to monitor and protect the electrical grid and for public safety operations.” Unlike “prior testing that utilized simulated equipment and configurations, these measurements used commercial off-the-shelf, FCC-approved 6 GHz LPI access points and mobile devices,” Southern said. “Several of the testing locations were co-located with existing Wi-Fi access points, thus making these measurements representative of actual locations used by consumers with real-world devices.”

Oral argument for AT&T's and others' challenge to the FCC 6 GHz order is Sept. 17 at 9:30 a.m. EDT, said a U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit order posted Wednesday (in Pacer; see June 23 oral argument entry). AT&T asked the court to overturn the order because it would result in “harmful interference” (see 2104050033).

Rio Broadband's long-form application for priority access licenses in 3550-3650 MHz awarded after last year's auction was accepted, per an FCC Wireless Bureau public notice Wednesday.

Qualcomm captured 70% unit share of the global 5G cellular baseband market in Q1, reported Strategy Analytics Wednesday: That market grew 27% from last year to $7.4 billion in Q1, with Qualcomm capturing 53% share to MediaTek’s 25% and Samsung’s 10%. Design wins for the iPhone 12 and across Android 5G smartphone OEMs drove Qualcomm’s baseband share dominance, said SA.

Amazon wants waiver of FCC rules limiting power levels of unlicensed devices in 57-71 GHz to let it market “radar sensors” to enable touchless control of “device features and functions” for monitoring sleep hygiene, said an undocketed request posted Wednesday. The agency has granted similar waivers for other gesture-based tech such as Google’s Project Soli, the request said. “Operation at the requested power levels would not increase the potential for harmful interference.”

The inventory in New York's Rochester, Syracuse and Watertown partial economic areas (PEA) for the forthcoming auction of new flexible-use licenses in the 3.45–3.55 GHz band was amended to reflect a Lockheed Martin special temporary authority grant, said an FCC Office of Economics and Analytics and Wireless Bureau public notice Wednesday. The agency said it corrected an error to indicate some PEAs in which coordination requirements apply to the upper six and the lower four blocks. It made available guides providing details on bidding procedures for clock and assignment phases.