Verizon was potentially wrongly identified by the FCC as “reserve eligible” and able to buy incentive auction spectrum set aside for competitors in as many as 12 markets, T-Mobile said in a letter to the commission posted Tuesday in docket 12-268. The markets include Oklahoma City; Brownsville, Texas; Springfield, Massachusetts; and Bozeman, Montana. Major national carriers are excluded from bidding for the reserve spectrum if they have holdings of 45 MHz or more in a market, which is about one-third of the available low-band spectrum. Verizon is reserve-eligible in 112 of 416 U.S. markets, said a list published by the FCC (see 1510160065).

Wi-Fi advocates continue to have concerns about LTE-unlicensed, said Michael Calabrese of New America’s Open Technology Institute in meetings with aides to FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler and Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel, in a filing posted Friday in docket 12-268. “Mobile carriers have both the ability and strong incentives to use LTE-U to engage in anti-competitive behavior harmful to consumers, while for the first time being able to charge consumers for the use of unlicensed spectrum,” he said. “Carriers have powerful incentives to use LTE-U to deter mobile market entry by ‘Wi-Fi First’ providers, such as wireline ISPs.”

In what NTIA called an “important step" forward on spectrum sharing, its Institute for Telecommunication Sciences (ITS) launched an online site that allows carriers and federal agencies to coordinate spectrum use in the 1695-1710 MHz band. Access requires a username and password that must be provided by the NTIA. The band was one of three sold in the AWS-3 auction. “Although many federal incumbents will eventually relocate out of the AWS bands, relocation is not feasible for agencies that operate meteorological satellite Earth stations in the 1695-1710 MHz band,” NTIA said in a Monday blog post. FCC rules require AWS-3 winners to coordinate with these federal incumbents. “A team of 10 ITS developers, documentation experts and quality assurance personnel worked over a period of five months to develop the portal,” NTIA said. “The solution was designed to be cost efficient, modular and scalable, combining commercial off-the-shelf hardware and software into an advanced web-based architecture.”

François Rancy, ITU director-radiocommunication, highlighted the importance of an agreement on the allocation of spectrum for global flight tracking in civil aviation at the World Radiocommunication Conference, in a blog post Monday. U.S. officials reported the agreement last week (see 1511120035). Rancy said more than 3,000 delegates from some 160 countries are attending the monthlong meeting. “The countries present in Geneva are taking great effort to ensure that everybody’s interests are taken into account so that at the end of the conference, all 193 Member States can sign the new treaty which will result from the conference decisions,” he said. “Consensus ensures that decisions are not challenged once adopted, thus building a sustainable ecosystem which enables new developments and investments in radiocommunications, while avoiding disruptions to the services provided to [billions of] users around the world.”

The FCC should quickly reject NAB arguments that the agency locate one or more vacant channels for unlicensed users in broadband spectrum rather than the UHF band, the Competitive Carriers Association said in a letter to the FCC in docket 15-146. NAB “contrary to evidence in the record, questions the need for wireless broadband spectrum opportunities,” CCA said. “NAB’s proposal contradicts the Spectrum Act, disregards competitive carriers’ dire need for low-band spectrum and the likely robust competition for reserve spectrum, and ignores the agency’s consistent public interest findings regarding the 600 MHz band plan.” NAB and other broadcaster commenters strongly opposed the FCC’s vacant channel proposal in comments at the agency (see 1511020059). NAB warned in Oct. 30 reply comments the proposal would be a windfall for some big companies that want spectrum for free rather than buying it in the TV incentive auction. “The Commission’s reversal of years of decisions regarding the priority of licensed over unlicensed services is not only legally questionable, it also represents picking winners and losers in the marketplace,” NAB said.

The FCC approved a waiver for Verizon to use real-time text (RTT) IP-enabled wireless services as a substitute for text telephony (TTY) services for the deaf and hard of hearing. AT&T earlier received a similar waiver (see 1510060026). The waiver expires Dec. 31, 2017, “or upon the effective date of Commission rules providing for alternative IP-based wireless accessibility solutions, whichever is earlier,” the agency said. “We find that good cause has been demonstrated to grant Verizon’s request for a temporary waiver,” the order said. “We are persuaded that the Commission’s goals of ensuring access to telecommunications specifically for individuals with disabilities and more broadly for the general public, will be best served by granting a temporary limited waiver of the Commission’s TTY requirements for Verizon’s wireless IP offerings.” The order was issued by the chiefs of the Consumer and Governmental Affairs, Public Safety, Wireless and Wireline bureaus.

FCC Office of Engineering and Technology Chief Julius Knapp isn't likely to easily put to bed concerns the FCC plans to clamp down on third-party firmware installation on devices, including Wi-Fi routers, said Richard Bennett, network architect, in a High Tech Forum blog post Friday. Knapp put out a blog post of his own Thursday saying the FCC is still only asking questions (see 1511120056). Knapp’s latest comment, “while reasonable on its face, isn’t going to satisfy the complainers, who insist that no part of the router code, not even the part that relates to regulatory compliance, should be locked down,” Bennett wrote. “The issue that most people don’t appreciate here is that Wi-Fi chips don’t have any features built-in … to ensure compliance, so compliance is effectively an honor system,” he wrote. “The other issue that isn’t widely appreciated is that there’s no money in developing home router code at this point, so the only way to make home routers better is through open source projects sponsored by the firms with a legitimate interest in good home routers, which would be major ISPs and network equipment vendors.” The only protections in Wi-Fi chips are designed to sense military radars and avoid them as much as possible, Bennett said.

Stamford, Connecticut, must pay Sprint $956,259.64 after the city tossed out 800 MHz equipment it was supposed to return to Sprint, the FCC Public Safety Bureau ruled Thursday. The city had a frequency reconfiguration agreement (FRA) with Sprint under which it was to receive $4.9 million as part of the 800 MHz rebanding. “A material provision of the FRA is that Stamford is required to send to Sprint the used equipment that is being replaced as part of the upgrading of Stamford’s system. This includes infrastructure equipment and subscriber radios," the bureau said in a letter to both parties. “Instead, Stamford contends that its rebanding contractor consigned the used infrastructure equipment to trash receptacles and donated the used subscriber radios to the City of Hartford, Connecticut.” Stamford officials didn't comment.

Investor Chamath Palihapitiya and his boutique venture capital firm Social Capital are looking at coming into the TV incentive auction in a big way, spending as much as $10 billion on 600 MHz spectrum, said a report in Re/code. The new venture, Rama, would use software from one of Palihapitiya's companies, LotusFlare, to help manage and organize a new network, he reportedly said. Preston Padden, former Expanding Opportunities for Broadcasters Coalition executive director, had a brief response in an email: “WooHoo!” Palihapitiya didn't comment. He's an electrical engineer and partial owner of the NBA's Golden State Warriors.

Julius Knapp, chief of the FCC Office of Engineering and Technology, reassured industry Thursday the FCC won't impose rules to prohibit third-party firmware installation on devices, including Wi-Fi routers, as part of changes to its device certification rules (see 1511100043). “There is concern that our proposed rules could have the unintended consequence of causing manufacturers to ‘lock down’ their devices and prevent all software modifications, including those impacting security vulnerabilities and other changes on which users rely,” Knapp said in a blog post. “Eliciting this kind of feedback is the very reason that we sought comment in an NPRM and we are pleased to have received the feedback that will inform our decision-making on this matter.”