The FCC posted a paper by its Technological Advisory Council testing an earlier proposal for probabilistic risk analysis, looking at the protection of meteorological satellite earth stations from interference by cellular mobile transmitters in the 1695-1710 MHz band. The band made up part of the spectrum the FCC sold in the AWS-3 auction. The paper finds that the methodology offers “useful insights for assessing coexistence, including the unexpected result that the binding interference constraint is not the lowest antenna elevation considered in previous analyses.” The report recommends the FCC make more use of risk-informed interference assessment. But it also said a lack of transparency can be an issue. “We recommend that the FCC encourage all parties to be as complete and transparent as possible in disclosing the methods underlying interference criteria and coexistence assessments,” the paper said. TAC approved the paper, by its Spectrum and Receiver Performance Working Group, at a Dec. 9 meeting (see 1512090067).

The Competitive Carriers Association asked the FCC to hold the TV incentive auction as planned and ignore broadcaster arguments for a transition period beyond the 39 months in the current rules. “The FCC’s planned 39-month transition period is more than enough time for broadcasters to relocate off the 600 MHz spectrum,” CCA President Steve Berry said in a Tuesday news release. “In fact, by the time the 39-month period ends, broadcasters will have had more than seven years to prepare for the introduction of new wireless broadband services that consumers crave. … Instead of asking for more time, broadcasters should be making plans now to relocate.” Patrick McFadden, NAB vice president-spectrum policy, said at the CCA convention in October that forcing all broadcasters off their spectrum by a given date makes little sense and will be unworkable (see 1510080026). “NAB supports a successful incentive auction that is voluntary and realistic in its deadlines," an NAB spokesman said in response. "It is not realistic to think that upwards of 1,000 stations can be repacked into a shrunken TV band in 39 months. Rather than setting an arbitrary 39-month deadline, the FCC should wait until the auction is over to set an end date for when stations turn in their licenses.”

TracFone representatives met with FCC officials to explain its proposals for the Lifeline program, said a filing by the company posted Monday in docket 11-42. TracFone discussed its proposal “to make broadband available to Lifeline households by requiring wireless Lifeline providers to offer at no charge to qualified consumers Wi-Fi-enabled smartphones that could utilize free Wi-Fi hotspots provided through public facilities” and the company’s support for a third-party eligibility verifier, the carrier said.

Home broadband adoption has plateaued, the number of smartphone-only households has increased and 15 percent of adults have become cord cutters, new Pew Research Center surveys released Monday said. The percentage of consumers in the country adopting broadband is at 67 percent, down from 70 percent in 2013, one of the surveys said. While 68 percent of Americans said they have a smartphone, 13 percent said they use their smartphone for their Internet access instead of buying a broadband connection, it said. That figure is up from 8 percent in 2013. Those who have only a smartphone run into challenges such as more frequently having to cancel or suspend service due to financial constraints, running into data-cap limits and not being able to fill out job applications, a report about the findings said.

Changes to the FCC’s RF exposure regulations and assessment techniques likely are necessary to enable portable-device applications in the millimeter wave frequency bands, Qualcomm said in a meeting with officials from the FCC Office of Engineering and Technology, including Chief Julius Knapp. Qualcomm’s comments, in docket 14-177, relate to the FCC’s October NPRM on use of frequency bands above 24 GHz (see 1510230050). “For the mmWave bands under consideration in the NPRM, assessment of RF exposure for portable device applications, such as smartphones and tablets, needs to be done in the near field,” Qualcomm said. “It is important that spatial averaging be used for a meaningful exposure assessment against the limit, as the power density distribution varies drastically in the near field, especially in close proximity of the source.”

The Electronic Frontier Foundation filed an amicus brief, asking the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to uphold a district court ruling and strike down a 2006 Wisconsin statute requiring individuals who have completed their criminal sentences to wear GPS ankle bracelets for the rest of their lives. While the law was aimed at individuals who committed certain sexual violence offenses, it "applied to any person released from jail, prison, treatment, or involuntary civil commitment after January 1, 2008 -- regardless of the date of their offense, without any determination of their risk of recidivism, and even to those fully discharged from their criminal sentences," wrote EFF Legal Fellow Jamie Williams in a Monday blog post. She wrote EFF filed its brief last week in a case involving Michael Belleau, who sued the state, saying the law violated the Fourth Amendment and the U.S. Constitution's ex post facto clause, "which prohibits states from passing laws that retroactively change the legal consequences of a crime or action." In September, the U.S. District Court in the Eastern District of Wisconsin sided with Belleau. The ruling said Belleau served his sentences and the state "is not entitled to add to his punishment because it now believes the sentences imposed were too lenient or provided insufficient protection to the public. Nor may the State force Belleau to wear a GPS tracking device around his ankle so that it can record his movement minute-by-minute for the rest of his life because it believes he might commit another crime in the future." Wisconsin appealed the ruling. EFF's Williams wrote that GPS tracking helps law enforcement not only know individuals' whereabouts but "also learn an extraordinary amount of highly sensitive information about who we are." Wisconsin's "GPS surveillance program severely and pervasively invades [their] privacy interests," she wrote, citing the EFF brief.

Four FCC bureaus jointly approved a temporary, limited waiver for Cellular South of a requirement that the carrier support text telephony technology for the deaf and hard of hearing to the extent it uses IP technologies like wireless VoIP. The FCC earlier approved similar waivers for Verizon and AT&T (see 1511130050). The order was issued Friday by the chiefs of the Consumer and Governmental Affairs, Public Safety and Homeland Security, Wireless and Wireline bureaus. In a November petition filed in docket 15-178, Cellular South asked the commission to waive certain rules and other TTY accessibility requirements for VoIP networks, "subject to the same customer notification, progress reporting, and duration conditions applied to AT&T and Verizon." The waiver expires Dec. 31, 2017, a notice by the bureaus said.

The FCC should turn down a waiver request filed by a group of licensees controlled by Warren Havens, the Enterprise Wireless Alliance said in comments filed Monday in docket 15-282. The requests seek to extend the construction deadline for 2,132 Part 22 UHF/VHF paging economic area licenses. A requirement that licensees serve two-thirds of the covered population no later than five years after initial grant of the license lapsed Nov. 3. On Nov. 19, the Wireless Bureau sought comment on the waiver request and initial comments were due Monday. The bureau said in a notice the Havens-controlled companies are examining a “nationwide multi-cell system based on Meteor Burst propagation technology deployed in the 35-50 megahertz range that could be used for non-profit services in support of Federal and other governmental agency programs.” EWA said the FCC needs to carefully weigh such requests, but this one shouldn't be approved. “The Waiver Request, at its core, relies on a single argument: The Havens Companies bought one-way Low Band paging channels five years ago that they do not intend to use for that or any other immediate purpose and, instead, want double the permitted construction period as they explore yet again fantastic potential uses to which these 2,132 channels could be placed,” EWA said.

The FCC Wireless Bureau approved a 700 MHz licensing agreement between AT&T and Pine Cellular even though the agreement puts both over the threshold requiring additional scrutiny of low-band spectrum deals. AT&T will lease from Pine a single lower 700 MHz B Block license covering a local market area in Arkansas. Pine is leasing from AT&T 700 MHz spectrum covering parts of Oklahoma. “After carefully evaluating the likely competitive effects of the proposed leasing arrangements, as well as the other factors ordinarily considered in a case-by-case review, we find that the likelihood of competitive harm is low,” the bureau said in an order in docket 15-13 released Monday. “Further, we find some public interest benefits are likely to be realized, such as increased network quality and a better consumer experience.”

The FCC Enforcement Bureau ordered iWireless to continue providing roaming to AT&T at an earlier agreed-upon rate as the agency addresses a roaming dispute between the companies. AT&T potentially could have to pay more depending on the outcome of the dispute. The contractual rates were redacted from the public version of Friday's order. A contract between the two expired Sunday, the bureau said.