CTIA urged the FCC to freeze filing of applications in the 3450-3550 MHz band, while it's being studied by NTIA for potential reallocation for wireless broadband. NTIA said in February it's looking at the band, though much depends on DOD ability to find another location for military radar systems that operate there (see 1802260047). “With NTIA’s commitment to study the … band, the Commission should act now to prevent any future commercial encumbrances,” said CTIA. Commercial weather radar systems are licensed to use the band, the group said: “Continuing to accept and process applications here would complicate a future reallocation.” The spectrum sits just below the 3.5 GHz citizens broadband radio service band.

Making more spectrum available for 5G, not prescriptive regulations, will help IoT growth, Seth Cooper, Free State Foundation senior fellow, blogged Friday. “Given the potentially dizzying diversity of network infrastructure, smart devices, and applications, the IoT is not conducive to one-size-fits-all prescriptive regulation,” Cooper wrote. “A hands-off approach toward nascent IoT technologies and services should be maintained. ... Sophisticated enterprise customers can bargain at arm’s length with IoT service providers for data privacy and other protections.”

AT&T said the Wireless ISP Association is incorrect in recent arguments on dangers of large license sizes in the 3.5 GHz citizens broadband radio service band (see 1804240067). WISPA disagreed with AT&T claims that census-tract-sized licenses are unworkable for carriers. “WISPA’s argument rests on the incorrect assertion that Priority Access License (PAL) holders will have a degree of certainty from the Spectrum Access System (SAS) that allows them to mitigate the impact of small licensing areas and, effectively, aggregate up to larger regions,” AT&T countered in a Thursday filing in docket 17-258. WISPA’s claim is “incorrect and contradicted by the FCC’s rules,” AT&T said. “Even if an algorithm could be developed to maximize common channel assignments to the satisfaction of all stakeholders, common channels cannot be guaranteed because of auction and incumbent issues in any event. And those problems get even worse when channel assignments are remapped because of dynamic events.”

Toyota and Lexus plan to start deployment of dedicated short-range communications (DSRC) systems on vehicles sold in the U.S. starting in 2021, “with the goal of adoption across most of the Toyota and Lexus lineup by the mid-2020s,” Toyota said in an FCC filing. It posted Friday in 13-49, the day after the new 5G Automotive Association presented its vision for a connected future with cellular vehicle-to-everything technology as an alternative to DSRC (see 1804260040). The development “builds on Toyota’s decision to commercialize vehicles equipped with DSRC in Japan starting in 2015,” Toyota said. “As of March 2018, more than 100,000 DSRC-equipped Toyota and Lexus vehicles were on the road in Japan.”

CTIA generally supports the state model code approved by the Broadband Deployment Advisory Committee Wednesday (see 1804250064) but raised concerns about parts of it in a letter to the FCC posted Friday in docket 17-83. It "can serve as a constructive framework and building block for state efforts to promote broadband deployment, building on the momentum already achieved over the past few years in more than a dozen states,” CTIA said. It said BDAC went wrong narrowing the definition of utility poles to exclude all poles not used to support electric or communications lines. “The State Model Code contains other provisions that ensure that such poles can safely hold such facilities,” CTIA said. “As the size of wireless facilities continues to shrink, the State Model Code misses a critical opportunity here: the State Model Code should have defined ‘utility pole’ to promote -- not hinder -- broadband service.” The panel also is wrong in calling for “a new manager with extensive regulatory, enforcement, and dispute resolution powers,” the association said: “Creating a new layer of regulatory bureaucracy does not align with the BDAC’s charter to recommend ways to lower regulatory barriers.” Universal service provisions “impermissibly seek to assess contributions on broadband services and improperly discriminate among different types of providers,” CTIA said. The code correctly declines to place franchising requirements on carriers and instead “properly makes election of a state-wide franchise an option at the discretion of the communications provider,” CTIA said. Because the statewide franchising provisions “were substantially re-drafted at the eleventh hour, a number of important questions remain unanswered,” the group said. The FCC didn't comment.

Smartphone brands are expected to increasingly adopt under-display fingerprint sensors, which let phones have full-screen displays with an invisible fingerprint feature, from 9 million units this year to more than 100 million by 2019, IHS Markit reported Thursday. Samsung, Vivo, Huawei and Xiaomi are among brands expected to incorporate the sensors. Almost all fingerprint integrated circuit makers are interested in developing under-display fingerprint solutions to take advantage of higher profit margins, said the researcher.

States, localities, utilities and big companies signed an Aviat Networks letter warning the FCC not to allow unlicensed users on 6 GHz spectrum. The list included Colorado, Idaho, Nevada, Verizon, Sprint, T-Mobile, Northrop Grumman, Chevron, the Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority and the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association. In a letter posted Wednesday in docket 17-183, CEO Michael Pangia disagreed with a January study by RKF Engineering Solutions for Apple, Facebook, Google and other tech companies. The study said the band can be shared with no downside (see 1804130061). "The 6GHz band is the work horse of the fixed link world in the United States," Pangia wrote. "No other band can support such long links at such high availability." It provides critical communications for public safety and national infrastructure, the CEO said. Unlicensed or unregistered radio LANs can't coexist with licensed fixed links and "it would be virtually impossible for the FCC to locate any sources of interference" to protect the licensed links, he said. Aviat included endorsing quotes from EcliptixNet Broadband, Marcus Communications, Occidental Petroleum and Tusa Consulting.

AT&T is pleased with the reception it has gotten on FirstNet, with about 600 public safety agencies in 48 states signing on, Chief Financial Officer John Stephens said Wednesday on a Q1 earnings call. AT&T has spent money and time over the better part of a year “getting to know our potential clients, getting into the industry, making a bigger effort to be a known player,” Stephens said. FirstNet customers can already get “relentless or ruthless pre-emption” and “priority services,” he said. The carrier is installing FirstNet’s 700 MHz Band 14 spectrum on its towers, Stephens said. “Over the next five years, we'll be putting Band 14 on tens of thousands of new and existing sites nationwide,” he said. “We plan to touch about a third of our cellsites this year.” AT&T’s new agreement with Crown Castle “will help us speed this process,” he said. “The agreement simplifies and expands our long-term leasing deal for wireless network infrastructure.” On buying Time Warner, Stephens said: “Both sides are wrapping up their cases and are now preparing for closing arguments on April 30. We'll wait for the court's ruling. Based on the court's determination, we stand ready to close. Funding is in place, even after we settle the special mandatory redemption bonds.” Stephens said 5G networks will be up by the end of the year, though handsets won’t be readily available until 2019. The technology works for fixed wireless, though AT&T doesn’t see much of a market, he said. “We're not as excited about the business case. It's not as compelling yet for us as it may be for some.” Tests of 5G in high-band spectrum are encouraging, he said. AT&T is seeing speeds of 1 Gbps and higher “under line-of-sight conditions to distances up to 900 feet and with extremely low latency rates,” Stevens said: The spectrum “is able to penetrate foliage, glass and even walls better than anticipated with no discernible signal performance impacts due to rain, snow or other weather issues.” Operating revenue fell about 3 percent to $38.04 billion from the year-ago quarter, falling slightly below expectations. Profit rose by about a third to $4.76 billion. AT&T said it added 187,000 linear video subscribers and 312,000 subscribers to its streaming service DirecTV Now. The telco added 49,000 postpaid wireless customers in the U.S. The stock closed down 6 percent Thursday at $33.10.

Almost two-thirds of home security system owners believe wireless signals from their system are encrypted, though the practice isn't industry-standard, Parks Associates reported Wednesday, saying 64 percent of U.S. broadband households are concerned about security and privacy when using connected devices. "The reality falls shorts of their expectations regarding the security of their home security system," said analyst Tom Kerber. The National Institute of Standards and Technology developed a voluntary cybersecurity framework (see 1804170042), noted the research firm. The framework describes voluntary standards, “but it is only a matter of time before mandatory cybersecurity standards are enacted,” Parks said.

Comment dates are set on an FCC Public Safety Bureau notice seeking to update the record (see 1803280029) on feasibility of carriers including multimedia content in wireless emergency alerts. Initial comments are due May 29, replies June 11, says a notice for Thursday's Federal Register. “Commenters should address the technical feasibility for requiring multimedia content in WEA messages, including the current state of multimedia testing and standards development,” the notice said. “Commenters should also address with particularity the potential costs and benefits to public safety and Participating … Providers.”