Towerstream agreed to pay $25,000 to end of an investigation of whether it violated FCC rules by operating radio transmitters without a license, causing harmful interference to FAA Terminal Doppler Weather Radar (TDWR) systems. Towerstream offers advanced, high-speed internet access to businesses in multiple major markets using rooftop tower facilities, operating in U-NII spectrum in the 5 GHz band, the bureau said. “In 2009, the Enforcement Bureau began receiving complaints from FAA TDWR systems about interference caused by U-NII devices,” the bureau said. The bureau found Towerstream interfered with TDWR systems at Kennedy Airport in New York and in Miami and Fort Lauderdale, the consent decree said. In 2013, the bureau proposed a $202,000 penalty for the violations, the bureau said. Negotiations followed. “During those negotiations, Towerstream admitted for purposes of this investigation that operation of its U-NII transmission systems violated the Part 15 rules and Sections 301 and 333 of the Communications Act,” the bureau said. “Towerstream also presented financial information establishing its inability to pay the proposed forfeiture amount.” The bureau noted the FAA hadn't reported any additional interference to the systems in question. Towerstream didn't comment.

Wireless associations and groups representing the deaf and hard of hearing met last week with all five FCC commissioners to press the agency to adopt the consensus plan on hearing aid compatibility (HAC) both sides had agreed to last year and presented to the FCC (see 1511130027). The agreement would establish a path to achieving 100 percent HAC-handsets within eight years, if technically feasible. Chairman Tom Wheeler said in an earlier blog post the FCC will “enshrine” the consensus plan when revised HAC rules get a vote at Thursday’s meeting (see 1607150024). “During the meetings, the Parties reaffirmed their support for adoption of the historic Consensus Proposal that they presented to the Commission, which balances the goal of hearing aid compatibility for all wireless handsets with the need to encourage continued innovations that can benefit all consumers, including those who use hearing aid devices,” said a filing by the industry and consumer groups, in docket 15-285. The Competitive Carriers Association, CTIA, the Deaf/Hard of Hearing Technology Rehabilitation Engineering Research Center at Gallaudet University, the Hearing Loss Association of America and the Telecommunications Industry Association participated in the meetings at the FCC. “Specifically, the Parties continued to support the enhanced benchmarks and encouraged the Commission to adopt them as described in the Consensus Proposal, including (but not limited to) the timeline and the additional compliance periods specified for Tier I and non-Tier I service providers,” the filing said.

The FCC Office of Engineering and Technology gave Cisco and Qualcomm more time to submit prototype devices as the FCC looks more closely at sharing between Wi-Fi and dedicated short-range communications (DSRC) systems in the 5.9 GHz band. Devices were due to be submitted to the agency Saturday. OET gave Qualcomm until Aug. 8 to submit devices and Cisco until Aug. 18. Those were the new deadlines each company requested. KEA Technologies said in a filing not yet posted by the FCC that it also had submitted a device for testing. “Accompanying this letter is a complete test bench for the ‘detect and avoid’ concept that several parties in this proceeding, including the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers, Association of Global Automakers, Intelligent Transportation Society of America and DENSO International America, Inc., recommend be evaluated by the FCC,” KEA said. Key differences of opinion remain about how the band can be shared between Wi-Fi and DSRC systems designed to prevent motor vehicle accidents (see 1605260059).

T-Mobile and Nokia met with FCC officials to press for tests of coexistence between LTE-unlicensed and Wi-Fi, said a filing in docket 15-105. “Nokia described the ability of its devices to meet Part 15 authorization requirements as well as pass currently agreed coexistence tests,” the filing said. “Moreover, Nokia representatives stated that they are prepared today to test devices for coexistence based on the current version of the Wi-Fi Alliance test plan.” The companies complained of delays. “It has been more than a year since the Wi-Fi Alliance announced that it was creating a cooperative process to evaluate coexistence between LTE-U and Wi-Fi devices, and the Commission has held off approving devices in anticipation of results from the process,” they said. “Although the test plan is fundamentally complete, we have seen numerous deadlines come and go without finalization of the procedure.” The Wi-Fi Alliance didn’t comment. T-Mobile and Nokia met with Julius Knapp, chief of the Office of Engineering and Technology, and Edward Smith, aide to Chairman Tom Wheeler, and others, the filing said. On a recent financial call, T-Mobile Chief Technology Officer Neville Ray said the carrier was “frustrated” by the lack of progress on LTE-U (see 1607270050). The Wi-Fi Alliance will deliver an “industry-validated Coexistence Test Plan as quickly as possible while ensuring industry-agreed-upon objectives for fair coexistence are met,” the alliance said in a statement. “While a significant number of test cases are nearly validated, validation of all test cases is necessary to deliver a test plan that will determine whether LTE-U devices are able to fairly share unlicensed spectrum with Wi-Fi. In addition, all of the test cases in the test plan are necessary to ensure LTE-U fairness with Wi-Fi.” The alliance said it shares the desire of other stakeholders to accelerate progress. “We will continue to serve as the forum for industry stakeholders to achieve a test solution in September. In facilitating this cross industry effort we welcome specific, actionable suggestions and contributions to accelerate delivery of the test plan.”

FirstNet will give public safety operatives better situational awareness, FirstNet said in a blog post Thursday. “For our nation’s first responders, having a common operating picture during emergencies and day-to-day scenarios is essential,” FirstNet said. “When emergencies happen in remote areas, public safety often lacks access to a radio signal or broadband connections that could help with response operations.”

The International Symposium on Advanced Radio Technologies (ISART) meeting next week in Westminster, Colorado, will explore “spectrum forensics,” said Keith Gremban, director of the Institute for Telecommunication Sciences, in an NTIA blog post. ISART starts Monday, he noted. “Inexpensive radios and comprehensive code repositories have given those with limited skills and know-how the ability to misuse spectrum and cause interference with increasing frequency, severity and consequences. To help address this, some of the questions researchers and policymakers are trying to answer include: What are the best practices for isolating an interfering signal and tracking it to its origin, and what should the consequences be for the offending transmitter to prevent future interference?”

The FCC established a pleading cycle Thursday on AT&T’s proposed buy from Eastern Colorado Wireless of a single lower 700 MHz C-block license covering a local market in Colorado. “The Applicants maintain that the proposed transaction would provide AT&T with additional spectrum that would enable it to increase its system capacity to enhance existing services, better accommodate its overall growth, and facilitate the provision of additional products and services in Cellular Market Area (CMA) 355 (Colorado 8 – Kiowa),” said the notice in docket 16-189. “The Applicants assert that, as a result of this proposed transaction, AT&T would hold 24 megahertz of contiguous, paired Lower 700 MHz spectrum in the five counties involved in this transaction, which would allow for a 10×10 megahertz LTE deployment.” Since the deal would give AT&T 55 MHz of low-band spectrum in the market it will get enhanced review under spectrum aggregation rules, the FCC said. Petitions to deny are due Aug. 18, oppositions Aug. 25 and replies Sept. 1, the FCC said.

Broadcom plans to submit a prototype device for testing as the FCC looks more closely at sharing between Wi-Fi and dedicated short-range communications (DSRC) systems in the 5.9 GHz band, said Christopher Szymanski, Broadcom director-product marketing and government affairs, in a call with Rashmi Doshi, head of the FCC lab. Wi-Fi advocates want the FCC to divide the band, reallocating the top 30 MHz to exclusive use of DSRC systems designed to curb traffic accidents (see 1607080037). Broadcom believes “rechannelizing” the 5.9 GHz band is the preferred course, said a Thursday filing in docket 13-49. Testing will show “the U-NII-4 band can be used quickly and meaningfully in the near term by existing Wi-Fi devices” and rechannelization will better protect DSRC, Broadcom said.

The FCC is seeking comment on proposed changes to its amateur radio regulations, sought by the American Radio Relay League. The FCC sought comment on whether it should remove limitations on the symbol rate, also known as the baud rate, or “the rate at which the carrier waveform amplitude, frequency, and/or phase is varied to transmit information -- applicable to data emissions in certain amateur bands,” said an NPRM the FCC released Thursday. “We believe that this rule change will allow amateur service licensees to use modern digital emissions, thereby better fulfilling the purposes of the amateur service and enhancing its usefulness.” The baud rate limits were approved 36 years ago, the FCC said. ARRL argues the FCC should “remove all of the symbol rate limits, and add a bandwidth limitation for RTTY [radioteletype] and data emissions in the medium frequency (MF) and high frequency (HF) bands (i.e., below 30 MHz) of 2.8 kilohertz,” the NPRM said. “We tentatively agree that a baud rate restriction has become unnecessary due to advances in modulation techniques, and no longer serves a useful purpose,” the FCC said. “Our rules do not impose a symbol rate limit on data emissions in any other amateur bands or in any other radio service.” The change also could promote experimentation, “innovation, more efficient use of the radio spectrum currently allocated to the amateur service, and the ability of the amateur service to support public safety efforts in the event of an emergency,” the FCC said. Comment deadlines will be set when the NPRM is published in the Federal Register.

The FCC Wireless and International bureaus approved a complicated spectrum transaction involving AT&T, Tampnet and Broadpoint and spectrum in the Gulf of Mexico. Broadpoint holds four cellular licenses with 50 MHz of capacity covering the Gulf of Mexico Exclusive Zone (GMEZ). Broadpoint proposed to assign to AT&T two of the licenses, which would provide 50 MHz of spectrum covering a partitioned area in the GMEZ extending 16 nautical miles from the coastline. Tampnet will lease back from AT&T 25 MHz of cellular spectrum in that portion of the Gulf and buy Broadpoint’s remaining two cellular licenses, which provide 50 MHz covering the rest of the GMEZ, along with two AWS-1 licenses also in the Gulf of Mexico and licenses for satellite earth stations primarily located in the gulf, the order said. The bureaus said they gave the deal enhanced scrutiny because of spectrum aggregation concerns. In the area covered, AT&T, post-transaction, would hold 108 MHz of spectrum in total and 68 MHz of below-1-GHz spectrum, the bureaus said. Tampnet would hold or lease 55 to 80 MHz including up to 50 MHz of below-1-GHz spectrum, in parts of the Gulf of Mexico. The bureaus said they weighed the deal and agreed it was in the public interest. “After carefully evaluating the likely competitive effects of both AT&T’s and Tampnet’s increased aggregation of below-1-GHz spectrum in the Gulf of Mexico, we find that the ability of rival service providers to offer a competitive response to any anticompetitive behavior on the part of AT&T or Tampnet is unlikely to be materially lessened,” the bureaus said. “Further, we find that the record provides general support for the Applicants’ claims of potential public interest benefits. Therefore, under our sliding scale approach, we find that the likelihood of public interest harms is low and the potential public interest benefits outweigh any harms.” The deal also required a clearance under the FCC's foreign ownership rules. Tampnet is a “direct, wholly-owned subsidiary of Tampnet AS, a Norwegian company,” the order noted.