The FCC posted a staff ex parte filing on a February conference call with representatives from state historic preservation offices (SHPOs) in 18 states, plus the National Conference of State Historic Preservation Officers (NCSHPO) on the public notice on twilight towers, approved by commissioners in December (see 1712140049). Action on the towers potentially will open thousands of existing towers for collocations “without the need for either the collocation or the underlying tower to complete an individual historic review, thus ensuring that these towers are generally treated the same as older towers,” the FCC said then (see 1712150038). One participant requested a summary of how FCC staff considered concerns by tribal historic preservation officers and SHPOs, said the filing posted Tuesday in docket 17-79. “Staff explained that the Commission considered whether Twilight Towers should be subject to a review process and determined, subject to further consideration in light of the record, that the balance of interests weighed in favor of a Program Comment that did not require such review,” the FCC said. Another state representatives asked what would happen when properties of historic significance may have been disturbed at the time of construction. “Staff noted that there is a presumption in the draft Program Comment that current collocations will have no effect on historic properties and that if there are circumstances where there are ongoing concerns re specific sites, they can be addressed with the Commission on a case-by-case basis,” the agency said.

A federal capital-area wireless emergency alert test starts 10 a.m. Thursday, the FCC reminded in a Wednesday note to media. Governments in the National Capital Region are using social media and doing a flurry of local media interviews before Thursday’s WEA test by the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments (see 1803300026).

The FCC should tee up for auction all five of the millimeter-wave bands it has approved for 5G (see 1804040042) and not just the 24 and 28 GHz bands, T-Mobile officials said in a meeting with FCC staff, including Wireless Bureau Chief Donald Stockdale. “T-Mobile recently announced its plans to deploy 5G infrastructure in 30 markets this year using both 600 MHz and millimeter wave band spectrum,” said a filing posted Wednesday in docket 18-85. “Yet, more spectrum is required to realize the full potential of 5G networks and to promote competition. That is why the Commission should make millimeter wave band spectrum available, as quickly as possible, in a manner that best encourages competition and will produce the most pro-consumer impact.” Commissioners are to vote at their April 17 meeting on a public notice that will move the agency toward an auction of the 24 and 28 GHz bands (see 1803270052). Of the two bands, only 24 GHz “presents any meaningful opportunity for new entrants,” T-Mobile said: The 28 GHz band “is already heavily encumbered based on acquisitions by Verizon.”

The IEEE Geoscience and Remote Sensing Society Technical Committee on Frequency Allocations in Remote Sensing raised some technical concerns with the FCC’s spectrum horizons rulemaking proposal, looking at use of bands above 95 GHz. Some of the research quoted in the NPRM needs to be updated, the committee said, citing a study on space research service and earth exploration-satellite service (EESS), which relies on a 2012 study. "The original study is now six years old and more recent analyses should be performed to verify that the conclusions from the 2012 study are still valid,” said the filing in docket 18-21. “Passive services are especially sensitive to artificial transmission and, even at the current power level limits, if a large number of unlicensed operators were transmitting at the same time, the aggregate interference could potentially disrupt EESS operations,” the group said. “Given the current trend in growth of wireless commercial services, the number of emitters will likely reach large numbers. Therefore, we recommend that the permitted power levels in those bands not be increased.”

The FCC should reverse a Wireless Bureau consent order approving the AT&T/FiberTower deal and auction FiberTower’s terminated licenses, the Competitive Carriers Association said. “The Bureau did not conduct a meaningful analysis of the AT&T/FiberTower Transaction’s competitive impact or public interest benefits, and CCA strongly encourages the Commission to instead auction the valuable spectrum,” said CCA President Steve Berry in a news release. “AT&T fails to provide an adequate defense of the Bureau’s decision and wrongly suggests the public will benefit from the Transaction. Allowing one of the nation’s largest carriers to gain an enormous swath of valuable spectrum resources causes a real threat of additional spectrum aggregation to the detriment of American taxpayers, competition, and the overall economy.” The bureau authorized AT&T to take control of 39 GHz licenses as part of its buy of FiberTower in February (see 1802080055). The FCC and AT&T didn't comment.

Verizon Wireless was timely in its challenge of a Georgia county’s 2014 denial of the carrier’s wireless tower application, said the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. In a Monday opinion in case 15-12067, the appeals court reversed a decision by U.S. District Court in Macon, Georgia, and remanded it for a determination on merits of Verizon’s challenge to the Oconee County Board of Commissioners’ decision. The county and Verizon disagreed over when the 30-day shot clock for appeals began, with the Georgia county saying it was when the county clerk recorded the board’s vote and the carrier saying it was later when the board formally approved minutes from the meeting where it voted. The Telecom Act (TCA) doesn’t expressly say when a local government’s permitting decision becomes a final action starting the 30-day clock, wrote Judge Gerald Bard Tjoflat. Judge Lewis Kaplan joined and Judge Robin Rosenbaum concurred. The district court decided based on local zoning laws, but it should have consulted Georgia law and the county code, which agrees with Verizon’s position, he said. “Congress must have intended that localities provide notice sufficient to allow applicants such as Verizon to vindicate their rights. Otherwise, the TCA’s judicial review provisions, and the substantive rights they exist to protect, would be meaningless.” U.S. District Court in Wilmington, Delaware, last week rejected as untimely a T-Mobile lawsuit against a local zoning board that denied the carrier's wireless antenna application (see 1803270047).

Representatives of the Fixed Wireless Communications Coalition met with FCC staff on the importance of the 6 GHz band to coalition members. An accompanying presentation said, “6 GHz is the only band available for links that must span tens of miles.” The group stressed high fade margin, which it said is expensive but critical. “Fade margin is reserve power that allows communication to continue through fades,” FWCC said in docket 17-183. “Higher-reliability links require greater fade margin. Even a brief outage to one link can be catastrophic: all networked links in a system go down for several minutes while the system resynchronizes.”

Lifeline wireless resellers defended their request for FCC reinstatement of port freezes of 12 months and 60 days for broadband and voice services, respectively, and subsidization of Premium Wi-Fi service under the low-income USF program. Telrite, i-Wireless and AmeriMex Communications noted Q Link Wireless and TracFone Wireless backed their reconsideration petition's port-freeze request (TracFone's support was limited to the voice part), saying they recognized "the scourge of flipping" service from one carrier to another, both for Lifeline providers and program costs. They disputed Smith Bagley's lone opposition to their petition's requests, in their reply posted Friday in docket 17-287. A Smith Bagley counsel didn't comment Monday.

The FCC Office of Engineering and Technology approved revisions to a Microsoft experimental license as the software maker tests use of spectrum white spaces in various bands to provide connectivity for school buses along a rural bus route. The tests are being done in Hillman, Michigan. Microsoft said it wants to “improve coverage and service for school buses operating within the experimental area and to evaluate the capabilities of an experimental White Space device for this purpose.” The company said it needs to operate the devices at a higher conducted and radiated power level “than previously requested and to operate an experimental fixed base station device under manual database control, with periodic human intervention.”

The Competitive Carriers Association lost its bid for a stay of an order transferring 5G high-frequency licenses from Straight Path to Verizon. The licenses include 735 millimeter-wave spectrum licenses in the 39 GHz band, 133 licenses in the local multipoint distribution service bands at 28, 29 and 31 GHz, nine common carrier point-to-point microwave licenses and one nonexclusive nationwide license in the 3650-3700 MHz band. Verizon bought Straight Path and the licenses last year after a bidding war with AT&T and needed approval for the license transfers (see 1705170012). CCA sought to block the deal (see 1708110051). “After fully reviewing the record, we conclude that CCA has failed to make an adequate showing under any of the stay criteria,” the FCC Wireless Bureau ordered Monday. “The competitive injury it alleges is speculative and as an economic loss would not form the basis for a stay. Furthermore, CCA has not substantiated its claim with any factual showing that its members will be irreparably injured absent a stay during the pendency of its Application for Review or that harm is certain to occur in the near future.”