One year ago Wednesday, FirstNet held its initial state consultation meeting in Maryland, said Dave Buchanan, FirstNet director-state consultation, Wednesday in a blog post. Since then, FirstNet has held consultation meetings with 43 states and territories, including a meeting in California this week, “to discuss in detail their specific requirements for the network,” Buchanan said. More than 2,600 government officials have attended the meetings, he said. “FirstNet has gained a better understanding about what it will take to deploy the network in the states and territories from these meetings,” he wrote. “We have learned a great deal about the use of mobile broadband, coverage challenges, and emergency communications usage in each state and territory. We have also heard from small rural agencies and large urban departments about the benefits FirstNet will bring to public safety, including improved situational awareness at planned events and emergency response incidents, more efficient and effective response operations, and improved first responder safety.”

The FCC needs to ensure that three channels are available for unlicensed use in every U.S. market and the agency should designate additional channels, including Channel 37, for unlicensed use, Google executives said in a series of meetings at the FCC. Alan Norman, Google principal-access strategy team and General Counsel Austin Schlick were among those who met with the FCC officials, Google said in a filing in docket 15-146. The officials also said new data shows a 40 mW white spaces device can safely operate in the duplex gap between carrier operations without causing interference to LTE in adjacent spectrum. "Common use cases add significant shadowing losses to unlicensed device signal propagation, as compared [with] idealized free space conditions,” Google said. Also, out-of-band emissions from an unlicensed white spaces device “do not affect LTE operations,” the company said. Google also discussed the possible benefits of establishing a 1 MHz separation between unlicensed channels in the duplex gap.

T-Mobile fired back at a filing by Verizon asking the FCC to ignore new data on revisions to the reserve spectrum trigger for the TV incentive auction (see 1507280049). The data had been filed by T-Mobile and Sprint and was largely redacted. “Verizon was neither able to produce outside counsel to review the information as part of standard procedure, nor able to make employees available for review who weren't working on the incentive auction,” a T-Mobile spokesman said. “Their comments are self-serving at best.” T-Mobile and Sprint made a filing at the FCC Wednesday saying they had offered Verizon a chance to examine the documents. "Despite having a market capitalization of more than $186 billion and approximately 177,000 employees, Verizon apparently could not find external counsel, a consultant or a single internal staff member to review the Confidential Information," the carriers said. “More long letters from T-Mobile can’t obscure the fact that it continues to press the FCC to change the auction orders to enable it to get more spectrum free from competitive bidding and at even more discounted prices," a Verizon spokesman said in response. "T-Mobile filed pages of detailed predictions as to what it thinks will happen in the upcoming auction, used those predictions to argue for preferential rules, then refused to provide those same predictions on the record. T-Mobile’s attempt to inject allegedly ‘confidential’ data into the record at the 11th hour risks creating even further issues for the FCC as it attempts to close this proceeding.”

A vulnerability affecting the Uconnect software in Fiat Chrysler Automobiles (FCA) that may have allowed an unauthorized user to take remote control of an affected vehicle requires access to Sprint’s cellular network, as Sprint connects FCA vehicles to the Internet, a U.S. Cyber Emergency Readiness Team (U.S.-CERT) alert said Monday. Sprint blocked the port used for attacks, it said, and FCA and the National Transportation Safety Administration initiated a safety recall for all potentially affected Chrysler, Dodge, Jeep and Ram models, the alert said. Uconnect users are encouraged to review the recall announcement and apply the software update, it said.

Verizon said the FCC should reject, or at least require the release of additional data from T-Mobile and Sprint as they seek revisions to the reserve spectrum trigger for the TV incentive auction (see 1507270071). “Three years after the FCC began its incentive auction rulemaking and 14 days before the sunshine period starts, T-Mobile and Sprint filed jointly fifteen pages of ‘simulations of potential broadcaster and wireless carrier bidding’ that they claim support their request to trigger the set-aside earlier in the auction,” Verizon said. The data in the filings was redacted, Verizon noted in the ex parte filing posted Monday. “The FCC should reject T-Mobile and Sprint’s filing outright without consideration. Alternatively, the FCC should deny their request for confidential treatment and make the filing public.”

The FCC was right to mandate band-wide operability as part of its rules for the 3.5 GHz shared spectrum band, Federated Wireless said in comments filed in docket 15-105. “Band-wide operability is critical to ensuring that all prospective users of the band have access to the same equipment, devices, and technological capabilities,” the company said. “Federated Wireless believes that a diverse equipment ecosystem will arise in the Citizens Band as long as the Commission’s rules for the band remain technology-neutral.”

The FCC Wireless Bureau sought comment Tuesday on a new program alternative aimed at speeding the siting of small wireless facilities, including distributed antenna systems and small cells. In particular, the bureau said it's looking at amending the Nationwide Programmatic Agreement (NPA) for the collocation of wireless antennas. The FCC requires applicants for new wireless facilities to follow the regulations of the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation, as covered by two NPAs. “Our goal is to amend the Collocation Agreement by adopting provisions specific to the review of small wireless communications facility deployments that meet specified criteria,” the bureau said. The FCC doesn't plan to publish the notice in the Federal Register, the bureau said. Comments are due Sept. 28 and the bureau isn't seeking reply comments.

“Contrary to the claims of several commenters” Qualcomm “has worked, and is continuing to work” with the whole wireless industry to ensure that LTE-unlicensed can peacefully coexist with Wi-Fi, Qualcomm said in a filing at the FCC. The comments, in docket 15-105, respond to other filings there. In April, when the FCC finalized rules for the 3.5 GHz shared spectrum band, it agreed to seek comment on LTE-U and license assisted access (LAA) services (see 1504170055). The comment cycle closed in June (see 1506290060). Qualcomm also disputed claims that LTE-U’s and LAA’s coexistence features are vague and undefined. “To put these claims in perspective, Wi-Fi has no coexistence specification,” Qualcomm said. “The Wi-Fi Alliance merely has an interoperability specification and is currently studying whether to adopt a Wi-Fi coexistence specification. By contrast, LTE-U was built from the ground up to coexist well with Wi-Fi and to ensure that there will be no adverse impact on Wi-Fi.” The record also shows LTE-U and LAA “do share spectrum fairly,” Qualcomm said. “The record shows that Qualcomm, in the case of LTE-U, has conducted comprehensive testing in the laboratory and in the field, demonstrating that LTE-U has no adverse impact on Wi-Fi, and in many cases actually improves throughput for nearby Wi-Fi users.”

Trey Hanbury, lawyer for T-Mobile, made the carrier’s case for a revised trigger for the spectrum reserve in the TV incentive auction. Hanbury, of Hogan Lovells, said he spoke last week with FCC Chief of Staff Ruth Milkman and Howard Symons, vice chair of the FCC’s Incentive Auction Task Force. “Consistent with T-Mobile submissions in the record of the proceedings referenced above, I explained how delayed implementation of the spectrum-reserve trigger could permit anti-competitive gaming by the dominant players,” his filing said. “I also noted the many alternative proposals in the record intended to accelerate the spectrum-reserve trigger as a means of preventing anti-competitive abuse.” The filing was posted Friday in docket 14-252.

Representatives of the Wireless Medical Telemetry Service Coalition made their case Thursday for delaying a decision on Channel 37, used by medical devices, and for not addressing future use of the channel at the commission’s Aug. 6 meeting. The coalition representatives in meetings with FCC officials discussed a letter the group filed at the FCC last week (see 1507230053), seeking a three-month delay in a decision on Channel 37, said a filing in docket 12-268, posted Monday. “The Coalition also generally discussed the framework of discussions underway with representatives of the unlicensed device community … which would form the basis for an industry-wide resolution of those technical rules for the Commission’s consideration,” the coalition said.