The concerns of the unlicensed community about LTE-unlicensed could be addressed if the FCC used authority already on the books, said Joan Marsh, AT&T vice president-federal regulatory, Thursday in a blog post. Marsh cited Telecom Act Section 333 rules against “willfully or maliciously” interfering with licensed communications. “If this provision were broadly interpreted as applying to licensed and unlicensed services alike, it could provide protection against the very type of apocalyptic results that the Wi-Fi proponents fear,” Marsh wrote. “It could stand for the proposition that, while no existing unlicensed technology is entitled to any specific incumbency protections, no new unlicensed technology will be permitted to do the spectral equivalent of throwing existing users off park benches or flinging rocks at them.” If the FCC adopts that approach, companies deploying LTE-U “would be expected to listen and respond in good faith to co-existence concerns, but they would not be required to adopt specific protocols, achieve standardization in any specific governing body, or remain mired in some endless loop of interference testing before deploying,” she said.

T-Mobile expects a very successful TV incentive auction, Chief Technology Officer Neville Ray said Thursday at a Morgan Stanley financial conference. “There is a dearth of low-band spectrum and there’s a dearth of licensed spectrum, period,” Ray said. “I think there’s going to be a lot of interest in the spectrum.” He predicted it would be difficult for any carrier to pass up the opportunity to buy 600 MHz spectrum if they can. The auction is going to be a “once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to level the playing field for T-Mobile US versus the other national carriers who have always had low-band spectrum,” said T-Mobile Chief Financial Officer Braxton Carter, also speaking at the conference. T-Mobile plans to raise about $6 billion in capital before the auction but could spend as much as $10 billion, he said. Carter also predicted T-Mobile will see relatively affordable spectrum as a result of the FCC's decision to set aside reserve spectrum for competitive carriers in many markets. Peter Ewens, executive vice president-corporate strategy, said T-Mobile will be in the market for additional 700 MHz spectrum right up to the start of the incentive auction quiet period Jan. 28.

The FCC established a pleading cycle on a proposal by T-Mobile to sell a single lower 700 MHz A-block license to the Alaska Wireless Network. “The Applicants maintain that the proposed transaction would provide AWN with additional spectrum in the geographic area authorized under the license that would improve its ability to compete with national service providers in more urban areas of Alaska and allow it to expand wireless broadband access to rural communities where national service providers have yet to deploy wireless facilities," the FCC said in a Tuesday public notice in docket 15-265. Petitions to deny are due Dec. 1, oppositions Dec. 11 and replies Dec. 18. The license covers 29 boroughs and four cellular market areas, the FCC said.

The labor union representing flight attendants is again raising red flags over a proposal for air-to-ground (ATG) mobile broadband service over the contiguous U.S. Like its comments earlier this year on the docket and similar comments on an FCC proposal to lift the ban on using mobile phones for voice and data on flights (see 1502060034), the Association of Flight Attendants' ex parte filing posted Monday in docket 13-114 said the ATG proposal "would greatly enhance communications capabilities for terrorists and increase cyber warfare vulnerabilities." The filing recapped a pair of meetings between union representatives and staff of Commissioners Ajit Pai and Jessica Rosenworcel. Any FCC decision should wait until after the Safety and Security in the Air Coalition interagency group develops a study on potential threats and vulnerabilities and looks at possible mitigation, it said. An ATG draft order was taken off circulation earlier this year (see 1502120054).

NASA is testing software-defined radio (SDR) and the latest technologies for spectrum sharing on the International Space Station (ISS), NTIA said Tuesday in a blog post. NTIA is promoting spectrum sharing research and NASA shares that goal, installing the Space Communications and Navigation (SCaN) Testbed on the ISS, NTIA said. “NASA is partnering with other government agencies, industry, and academia to use the SCaN Testbed as a unique space-based platform to test new radio communication techniques and protocols.” Since being installed three years ago, more than 2,600 hours of experiments have been done, testing a total of 149 individual communication protocols on the testbed, NTIA said. “Some of the early results of these real-world tests have already been used to determine the types of communications technologies that can be utilized across NASA’s wide range of missions. In the future, spacecraft employing SDR radios will be able to be reconfigured with the latest and most efficient technologies that will allow them to adapt to disruptions and to more effectively share the same spectrum.”

The FCC acted properly in dismissing an NTCH 2012 petition for reconsideration challenging Verizon’s buy of AWS-1 licenses from SpectrumCo and Cox, the agency said in a brief to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. NTCH challenged that dismissal. NTCH had raised concerns about the deal because of the 45 percent ownership of Verizon Wireless then held by the U.K.’s Vodafone. In the 2015 order (see 1504170050), the FCC said the petition was moot since Vodafone had since sold its stake in Verizon Wireless. NTCH’s arguments are barred by the doctrine of judicial estoppel, the FCC told the court. “NTCH has not established that the relief it seeks from this Court will redress the injury it claims,” the agency said. “Even if it had made that showing, the Court lacks authority to order the relief requested by NTCH -- initiation of a license revocation proceeding against Verizon Wireless -- because an agency’s exercise of prosecutorial discretion is unreviewable.” The FCC also said NTCH lacks standing to bring the challenge. “NTCH claims it has been injured by Verizon Wireless’s dominance of the data roaming market and that its injury would be redressed if the Commission revoked some of Verizon Wireless’s licenses,” the FCC said. “It is unclear how revocation would help NTCH.” NTCH also mischaracterizes the data roaming rule as “toothless," the agency said. “Not so,” the FCC countered. “The Data Roaming Order established a specific complaint process to ensure that the rule is enforceable … and NTCH is availing itself of that mechanism in a pending proceeding before the FCC’s Enforcement Bureau.” The case is NTCH v. FCC, docket 15-1145.

The FCC should reject a request by T-Mobile that the agency block two Dish Network-backed designated entities, and Dish itself, from bidding for the licenses they opted not to buy after being the initial winners in the AWS-3 auction, said John Muleta, who heads one of the DEs, SNR Wireless. T-Mobile's letter last month was seen by analysts as a sign the carrier is interested in the returned licenses (see 1511020064). “The letter is an untimely request for reconsideration of the Commission’s August 18, 2015 order, which determined, inter alia, that the conduct of SNR, Northstar and DISH during Auction 97 did not violate Commission rules,” Muleta wrote the commission in a letter posted Tuesday in docket 14-78. “It is also an untimely request for reconsideration of the construction requirements applicable to AWS-3 spectrum.” The other Dish affiliate, Northstar Wireless, made similar arguments, in a separate filing.

The FCC should drop the enhanced transparency requirements in its new net neutrality rules, or at least spare smaller carriers, CTIA representatives said in meetings at the FCC. The wireless marketplace is already “vibrant,” CTIA said, according to an ex parte filing Monday in docket 14-28. “Compliance with the enhanced transparency requirements will be time-consuming and costly, especially for smaller carriers that operate with smaller staffs and more limited budgets,” CTIA said.

Tom Sugrue, former head of the Washington, D.C., office for T-Mobile, joined Hogan Lovells as of counsel to the Communications Practice Group, the law firm said Monday. Sugrue is former chief of the FCC Wireless Bureau and deputy administrator of NTIA. Hogan represents T-Mobile and other competitive wireless carriers. Sugrue retired from T-Mobile in early 2014 (see 1404150041).

CTIA said the FCC should reject arguments by GE Healthcare for additional protections for wireless medical telemetry service (WMTS) use of channel 37 in the commission’s recently approved Part 15 rules (see 1508060025). GEHC argued in a petition for reconsideration that the FCC should change how it analyzes building penetration loss and revise the rules accordingly. How that factor is analyzed “significantly impacts computation of the separation distances required to prevent harmful interference from adjacent band mobile base stations to WMTS operations on Channel 37, such that these distances cannot reasonably be assumed to exist without requiring coordination,” GEHC said. The arguments should be rejected, CTIA said in comments filed Monday at the FCC in docket 12-268. “The GE Petition relies on arguments that have been fully considered and rejected by the Commission twice in this proceeding and, therefore, has not met the legal requirements for a petition for reconsideration,” CTIA said. “The rules adopted by the Commission more than adequately protect Channel 37 incumbents, and indeed the Commission made several concessions to ensure [WMTS] would be protected.”