The Supreme Court circulated for June 24 discussion by justices the appeal by Portland, Oregon, and 35 other municipalities of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals' decision upholding much of FCC 2018 small-cell orders (see 2103230052), the court said Tuesday in docket 20-1354.

Better access to unlicensed spectrum in the 60 GHz band would “enable many fixed wireless providers to deliver" downloads from 100 Mbps to 1 Gbps-plus, a Wireless ISP Association representative told an aide to FCC Commissioner Nathan Simington. WISPA also urged county-sized licenses, in a filing posted Monday in docket 19-348.

As the FCC reconsiders 4.9 GHz public safety rules (see 2105270071), the Enterprise Wireless Alliance asked it to consider the needs of critical infrastructure companies. There's “opportunity for the Commission to consider other approaches that might yield appropriate and expanded usage of the band,” EWA said Monday: “While commercial systems are appropriate for certain of their applications and narrowband systems continue to address other requirements, recent events have highlighted their need for private broadband networks.”

Boeing representatives urged the FCC to move forward with an NPRM on service rules enabling use of the 5030-5091 MHz band for unmanned aircraft systems, in a call with acting Chief Ron Repasi and others from the Office of Engineering and Technology. The FCC sought comment in 2019 (see 1912270039). “Boeing described the existing, ongoing challenges of developing and testing new technologies in the UAS sector without dedicated licensed spectrum, including coordination issues with the Federal Aviation Administration, among other challenges,” said a filing posted Friday in RM-11798.

NTIA’s Institute for Telecommunication Sciences issued a “Broad Agency Announcement” Friday seeking prototype or commercial-off-the-shelf equipment for open radio access network tests. “ITS is seeking equipment used in Open RAN 4G and 5G networks, as well as Virtualized RAN (vRAN) software and RAN automation software,” the announcement said: “ITS will deploy the technology in its Communications Research and Innovation Network to evaluate performance, inter-vendor interoperability, and standard maturity compared with established RAN technologies.” Responses are due July 6.

“More and more” of AT&T’s spectrum is being redeployed for 5G, and it won’t disclose the makeup, Senior Vice President-Wireless and Access Technology Igal Elbaz told a UBS webinar Friday. Previously, carriers had to take a band out of service and re-farm it, he said. Dynamic spectrum sharing “really allows you to run both 4G and 5G, all in the same band,” he said. The 80 MHz of C band that AT&T bought in the recent auction is “extremely important in order for us, and by the way, for the industry, to scale 5G,” he said. AT&T is “very happy” with its current spectrum position, he said. AT&T will start to deploy C band at year-end, with plans to cover 75 million POPs at the end of 2022 and 200 million at the end of 2023, he said.

The Enforcement Bureau signed a consent decree with Broadband VI, ending an investigation of whether the wireless ISP bought assets from Surge Communications, including seven spectrum licenses, without FCC authorization. Broadband VI, which serves the U.S. Virgin Islands, agreed to pay $28,000 and implement a compliance plan, said an order released Thursday. “In the absence of material new evidence relating to this matter, we do not set for hearing the question of Broadband VI’s basic qualifications to hold or obtain any Commission license or authorization.”

The FCC and DOJ asked the Supreme Court to reject an appeal by Portland, Oregon, and 35 other municipalities of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals' decision upholding much of the commission’s 2018 small-cell orders (see 2103230052). That's despite the partial dissent by then-minority Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel who said then the FCC went too far in restricting local control of siting fees. Wednesday's pleading noted that partial dissent. “The court of appeals correctly upheld the portions of the FCC’s Small-Cell Order that are at issue here,” the government said in docket 20-1354: “Neither the court’s conclusion that the FCC has permissibly interpreted the statute, nor its determination that the Commission’s approach was supported by the record in this proceeding, conflicts with any decision of this Court or of another court of appeals.”

The FCC and NTIA updated potential bidders in the upcoming 3.45 GHz auction on the cooperative planning areas and periodic use areas requiring coordination after bidders take possession of licenses. In all but two of the areas, licensees “must coordinate with federal incumbents across all 100 megahertz of spectrum,” said a public notice in Thursday’s FCC Daily Digest. In the market around Fort Bragg, North Carolina, licensees need to coordinate in only the lower 40 MHz “because the federal incumbent will only use the lower 40 megahertz,” the PN said: In the Little Rock planning area, licensees will have to coordinate for the first year after the close of the auction across the band. “After this time period, however, licensees will only need to coordinate in the lower 40 megahertz.” The notice refers bidders to agency transition plans for more information. The plans “contain information on these federal systems, including the frequencies used, emission bandwidth, system use, geographic service area, authorized radius of operation, and estimated timelines and costs for relocation or sharing,” it said. DOD will create an online portal for initiating coordination, the PN said. “Before a 3.45 GHz Service licensee submits a formal coordination request, it may share draft proposals or request that federal incumbent coordination staff discuss draft coordination proposals,” the agencies said: “These discussions are voluntary, informal, and non-binding and can begin at any time after the conclusion of the auction.” Formal coordination requests can be submitted starting nine months after the auction closing public notice is released. NTIA posted more detailed transition plans and data from DOD.

The FCC Public Safety Bureau updated its template for wireless carriers to use in filing location accuracy live 911 call data reports to include a field to report on their use of vertical location technology, said a notice in Wednesday’s Daily Digest. Major carriers were required to certify by Wednesday they're delivering z-axis data on calls in the top 25 cellular market areas (see 2104020056).