The FCC Wireless Bureau signed off on buys by NE Colorado Cellular and two other companies in the AWS-3 auction. The FCC is slowly working its way through applications to take title on the spectrum sold in the record-setting auction. While 30 applications were accepted for filing, many are awaiting action. Eleven applications were granted April 8 and two more Aug. 24, the FCC said Thursday. Nineteen of the 21 applications approved were from NE Colorado. The bureau also approved Docomo Pacific’s buy of a license covering Guam and Northern Mariana Islands and RigNet Satcom’s buy of a license in the Gulf of Mexico.

NYU Wireless Wednesday filed at the FCC a technical report on millimeter wave propagation measurements inside an office building. The study found a “strong dependence on path loss over distance as the frequency increases,” NYU said. “The paper also shows that simpler, distant-dependent path loss models do virtually the same job at predicting signal strength as more cumbersome and less intuitive models currently used in industry.” Researchers looked at the 28 and 73 GHz bands. The report noted that while the 2.4 and 5 GHz Wi-Fi bands have been widely used for indoor wireless communications for more than 10 years, less is known about high-frequency spectrum. “The impending spectrum and capacity crunch for outdoor cellular may very well lead to the use of the 28 GHz and 73 GHz mmWave frequency bands as an extension for 5G outdoor and indoor communications, especially due to the trend of shrinking cell sizes,” the report said. The FCC is expected to approve an NPRM on high frequency spectrum at its Oct. 22 open meeting (see 1510010067).

The FCC’s February net neutrality order threatens to reverse decades of light-handed regulation in the U.S., Brendan Carr, an aide to FCC Commissioner Ajit Pai, on Wednesday told attendees at a conference in Brussels sponsored by think tank New Direction. “There’s been a dramatic turn towards heavy-handed regulation of the Internet -- one that has injected tremendous uncertainty into the market and already resulted in a substantial decrease in capital spending by U.S. broadband providers,” Carr said, according to remarks posted by the FCC. Carr cited a recent report by the Progressive Policy Institute, which found that capital expenditures by the largest wireline ISPs plunged 12 percent in the first half of 2015, compared with the first half of 2014, while expenditures overall fell 8 percent. “This decrease represents billions of dollars in lost investment and tens of thousands of lost jobs,” he said. “And it cannot be dismissed as part of a normal fluctuation in spending. Broadband providers’ capital expenditures have fallen on a year-over-year basis only twice before: following the dot-com bust in 2000 and the Great Recession in 2008.” Anecdotal evidence shows that small ISPs, including some wireless ISPs, are also curbing their investments in their networks, he said.

Sprint launched its Direct 2 You service, which provides on-site wireless sales, consultations and customer service (see 1506290070), in seven new cities, it said in a news release Tuesday. Direct 2 You is now available to customers in Charlotte, North Carolina; Cincinnati; Las Vegas; Nashville; New Orleans; Pittsburgh; and Salt Lake City, Sprint said. "We're excited to see such positive customer reaction to Direct 2 You, and we plan to expand its reach into new communities," Vice President Rod Millar said.

The National Public Safety Telecommunications Council Tuesday released an updated report on public safety control of the Nationwide Public Safety Broadband Network (NPSBN) being built by FirstNet. “The effective coordination of people, process, and technology is critical to establishing a successful inter-jurisdictional, inter-disciplinary, interoperable, and shared NPSBN,” the report said. NPSTC points out that public safety entities (PSEs) joining or subscribing to the network “must accept that they are becoming a part of a community sharing a critical communications resource and that their decisions can have significant impact on other participating entities.” FirstNet must “take a lead role in educating PSEs about technical factors under their control and how they can ensure effective operation of the NPSBN,” the report said. It said that FirstNet also needs to “facilitate regular dialogue on the best practices and cooperative use of common resources.”

The FCC Wireless Bureau Tuesday sought comment on proposals by two different companies to use extreme high-frequency spectrum. ZenFi sought a waiver to use the 102-109.5 GHz band under its existing Millimeter Wave Radio Service license for high-speed, point-to-point data streams between users of its service, a public notice said. ZenFi would use the band in Chicago, New York City, San Francisco and Washington metropolitan markets, the bureau said, noting that the company already has a regulatory framework set up for similar use of the 70/80/90 GHz bands. McKay Brothers seeks a similar waiver to allow its subsidiary Geneva to operate links in and around Chicago, New York City and northern New Jersey, the bureau said. Comments are due Nov. 12, replies Nov. 30. The FCC is set to take up an NPRM on high-frequency “spectrum frontiers” at its Oct. 22 open meeting (see 1510010067). Also in the high-frequency arena, the bureau Tuesday also sought comment on waiver requests by two companies that want to use smaller antenna for operations in the 71-76 and 81-86 GHz bands. Aviat Networks, a provider of microwave networking, and Fastback, which makes outdoor networking products, asked for waivers allowing use of antennas with lower minimum gain, higher maximum beamwidth and modified suppression criteria, the bureau said in a separate PN. The Fixed Wireless Communications Coalition has asked for changes to the antenna rules, the bureau noted: “Aviat and Fastback specify that they seek waivers to allow antennas meeting the proposed requirements to be used immediately, prior to the resolution of this rulemaking.” Comment due dates are the same as for the other PN.

Doubts about whether smaller carriers will compete in the TV incentive auction are on the rise at precisely the same time that expectations for what the larger players might actually spend are falling, analyst Craig Moffett of MoffettNathanson told us in an email. Questions emerged at last week’s Competitive Carriers Association conference over whether small carriers will jump in in a big way during the auction, slated to start March 29 (see 1510090022). “We’re still a long ways out from March, but I think it is fair to say that skepticism seems to be mounting about just how much the auction might raise,” Moffett said. “Sprint’s decision not to participate, coupled with cautious comments from Verizon, AT&T, and T-Mobile, have led equity investors to lower their sights a little bit. All this may be posturing, but there are reasons to think that large carriers may be more restrained" than they were in the AWS-3 auction. The small license sizes for sale in the incentive auction “allow regional and rural carriers to focus their very limited resources on acquiring low-band spectrum that better fits their service areas,” countered Michael Calabrese, director of the New America Foundation’s Wireless Future Project. “As a result, selling other spectrum in secondary markets to raise funds to participate in the incentive auction is a strategy some non-national carriers can use to right-size their spectrum holdings and get more bang for the buck.”

The FCC Wireless Bureau sought comment Tuesday on a petition by “cloud-based developer-platform company” Twilio asking the agency to clarify that messaging services fall under Title II of the Communications Act. “Twilio asserts that wireless providers engage in a variety of discriminatory and anti-competitive practices that cannot be adequately addressed absent a declaratory ruling classifying messaging services under Title II,” the bureau said. Comments are due Nov. 20, replies Dec. 21. The FCC sought comment on a similar petition in 2008, but didn't take action, the bureau said. The notice doesn't mention the agency’s February net neutrality rules but says that “marketplace and legal developments since” 2008 justify a record refresh.

Contrary to concerns raised by the prpl Foundation and other groups (see 1509300063), the FCC doesn't plan to ban third-party firmware installation on devices, including Wi-Fi routers, said Julius Knapp, chief of the Office of Engineering and Technology, in a Thursday blog post. Numerous parties continue to raise the issue in comments on proposed rules for the evaluation and approval of RF devices. “Like the U-NII rules we adopted, the proposed rules do not require device makers to prevent installation of third party firmware or otherwise favor specific security solutions,” Knapp said. “Quite the contrary, the proposed rules would require manufacturers to select the security method they deem appropriate to prevent modifications that take the device out of compliance.” Interference prevention is key to a flexible use spectrum regime, Knapp said. “The proposed rules aim to create a certification process that recognizes this goal without creating burdensome red tape for manufacturers and headaches for users while also allowing innovative solutions by 3rd party vendors,” he said. “It’s critical that we get the details right, and we look forward to fielding comments in the record this fall.”

Fred Moorefield, director-spectrum policy and programs with the Department of Defense’s Chief Information Officer, received the department’s Distinguished Civilian Service Award Thursday. The award is the highest honor DOD can bestow on a civilian employee. Moorefield is widely viewed as reshaping DOD’s spectrum policy, leading discussions with industry on sharing and possible reallocation of DOD spectrum.