The FCC Public Safety Bureau provided guidance Thursday to public safety agencies on roaming in Canada, the use of U.S. base station repeaters while in Canada and Canadian public safety licensees seeking to communicate through base station repeaters in the U.S. “Our guidance is based upon recent arrangements and understandings reached by Bureau staff with officials from Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada (ISED),” the bureau said in a public notice. “The licensing guidance we provide below applies to any public safety licensee operating a Private Land Mobile Radio (PLMR) system in any frequency band authorized under Part 90 of the Commission’s rules.” The bureau said first responders operating mobile or hand-held radio equipment along the U.S.-Canada border may communicate through base station repeaters located in the other country provided they obtain written consent from the licensee of the repeater. The repeater must be properly licensed in the country in which it's located, the host licensee must maintain control and is responsible for operation of its base station repeater at all times and a licensee must obtain “written consent from the host licensee before permitting its first responders to communicate with a base station repeater in the other country,” the bureau said.

The FCC Wireless Bureau sought comment Thursday on an application by Alaska’s General Communication Inc. for waiver of channelization and other limitations so GCI can use 6 GHz spectrum for wireless backhaul. The company sought authorization to deploy common carrier fixed point-to-point microwave service using 60 MHz channels across the three upper 6 GHz sub-bands at various sites in rural Alaska, as well as for microwave paths directly connected to those sites, the bureau said. “GCI operates TERRA, which it states is the first terrestrial … middle-mile network in western Alaska,” said a bureau notice. “TERRA is a hybrid fiber-microwave network that provides broadband to more than 70 isolated, mostly Alaska Native, communities, many of which, according to GCI, are separated by vast distances and cannot be reached by road. GCI states that it continues to upgrade and expand TERRA, but the backbone paths of the microwave system are nearing capacity.” Comments are due July 15, replies Aug. 1, in docket 16-209.

The June FCC order addressing accreditation of testing labs (see 1606150051) formally takes effect July 29, it said in Wednesday's Federal Register.

Broadband service providers need to invest in advanced home Wi-Fi systems, such as Wi-Fi mesh networks, or run the risk of customer churn, said an ABI Research report Wednesday. It forecast more than 831 million households will have residential Wi-Fi networks in 2021. Mesh networks improve Wi-Fi coverage by relying on multiple access points in the home, said analyst Khin Sandi Lynn, but their cost could price some residential broadband users out of the market. A Wi-Fi mesh system with three access points ranges in price from $300 to $500, said Lynn.

Amazon, which failed with the Fire Phone to find a market for its company-branded smartphone, is taking a different route through its Prime program. The company said Wednesday Prime members can buy unlocked Android smartphones at discounted rates in exchange for being pitched personalized offers on the phone’s lock screen. The concept was successful with tablets and e-readers, said Laura Orvidas, vice president-consumer electronics. She said most Fire and Kindle buyers chose the advertising-supported lower priced version vs. the no-ad option.

IEEE and the IEEE Standards Association formed a working group on standards for communications between manned, unmanned, civil and commercial aircraft, IEEE said in a news release. “The growing utilization of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) is driving a need to ensure safety through increased situational awareness and direct air-to-air communications for all types of aircraft,” said Kamesh Namuduri, chair of the IEEE Aerial Network Communications Working Group. “The work ahead is of utmost importance.” The working group launched a web page and will meet starting in September, IEEE said.

Michael Calabrese, director of the Wireless Future Program at New America, confirmed his group’s concerns with parts of the FCC-proposed spectrum frontiers order (see 1606280070). “Our primary concern is that selling carriers exclusive licenses that cover large geographic areas will foreclose public access and innovative uses, particularly outside the largest urban areas and most profitable venues where it will be most profitable to densely deploy small cells,” Calabrese emailed. “It is still possible that the Commission will follow through on its proposals for robust opportunistic access to rural and other areas where licensees leave this spectrum fallow. It’s also possible the Commission will ultimately approve open and shared access to the 600 megahertz it proposes to set aside from 37 to 37.6 GHz.” Calabrese said that “the public interest would be best served by making those basic decisions now in this initial order -- and not kick that can down the road.”

Customs and Border Protection said a Fossil-brand watch that includes Bluetooth wireless connectivity should be classified based on its watch function and not the ability to connect to a smartphone. The decision was announced in a recently released ruling, HQ H268657, dated March 28. "Physical characteristics and wireless functions of the Grant Connect Watch substantially differ from those of other 'smart watches' previously classified by CBP." Users can't view or use the data on the watch itself and "the device is not capable of independently collecting, storing, or processing data when 'unpaired' from a smartphone -- functions that both the Apple Watch and Samsung Gear Live are capable of performing when used in 'paired' and 'unpaired' configurations," CBP said. Wireless features are "limited" and it lacks a "pre-installed mobile operating system," the agency said. Fossil didn't comment.

Wireless and various healthcare groups filed comments at the Department of Health and Human Services underscoring the importance of wireless devices in medicine. DHS’s Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) sought comment as it prepares rules for physician reimbursement. Tools “ranging from wireless health products, mobile medical device data systems, converged medical devices, and cloud-based patient portals (to name a few) are revolutionizing the medical care industry by allowing the incorporation of patient-generated health data (PGHD) into the continuum of care,” the filing said. Despite many benefits, connected health technology is “largely ignored by the current Medicare system,” the filing said. “Remote monitoring technologies, which are mostly dependent on technologies disallowed as telehealth services, are unreasonably restrained by CMS’ decision to bundle monitoring with other codes, resulting in a lack of reimbursement for remote monitoring solutions.” CTIA, NTCA, Qualcomm and 29 other organizations signed the filing.

Puerto Rico Telephone Co. and PRTC parent América Móvil of Mexico agreed to pay $1.1 million to resolve an investigation by the Enforcement Bureau, the FCC said Tuesday. Stock purchases of América Móvil by owner Carlos Slim Helú and family “repeatedly exceeded the foreign ownership levels approved by the Commission,” the FCC said in a news release. Bureau Chief Travis LeBlanc said the fine is the largest ever for violating the agency’s foreign ownership rules. The companies exceeded their approved foreign ownership three times in five years, the FCC said. Most recently, in June 2014, “the Slim family increased its ownership in and control of América Móvil through a purchase of stock from AT&T International,” the FCC said. “This also increased the family’s ownership in FCC licensee PRTC beyond the voting and equity interests then approved by the agency’s International Bureau in accordance with the FCC’s foreign ownership rules and policies.” As part of the settlement, PRTC and América Móvil also agreed to adopt compliance plans to prevent future stock purchases by the Slim family without first receiving the International Bureau’s review and approval, the FCC said. The companies didn’t comment.