The FirstNet board approved a resolution reappointing Harlin McEwen as chairman of its Public Safety Advisory Committee. The 42-member PSAC provides advice to FirstNet from the standpoint of first responders. FirstNet tweeted the news Friday. The board approved the resolution through its written consent process, said the resolution posted on FirstNet’s website. McEwen had three terms as PSAC chairman.

AT&T is seeking a three-year experimental license to test 5G in Austin, it said in an FCC filing. The tests, mobile and fixed, would be done in the 3400-3600 MHz, 3700-4200 MHz, 14500-15350 MHz and 27500-28500 MHz bands. “Applicant’s testing and the expected experimental equipment would support potential fifth generation (5G) multi-gigabyte per second (Gbps) applications for fixed and mobile wireless communication networks at higher transmission rates and lower latency than is currently available,” AT&T said. Verizon said in January it plans to be the first U.S. carrier to do field tests of 5G. The first phase of the 3rd Generation Partnership Project standard for 5G won’t be ready until the second half of 2018, with the second phase due in December 2019 (see 1602030043).

A court granted the request of Assist Wireless and others to dismiss their challenge to an FCC Oklahoma map decision that will restrict the scope of areas where carriers are eligible for enhanced tribal Lifeline USF support. The brief order Friday of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit dismissing Assist Wireless v. FCC (No. 15-1324) came days after the FCC gave Lifeline providers a 120-day extension -- from Feb. 9 to June 8 -- on implementing the map's tribal-related boundaries (see 1602030027), which itself came days after Assist Wireless filed its dismissal motion (see 1601290066).

T-Mobile US plans an earnings call and “an extended, open conversation” about the company’s Q4 and full-year 2015 financial and operational results Feb. 17, T-Mobile said in a news release. T-Mobile is the last of the four major wireless carriers to hold an earnings call. The call and webcast start at 8:30 a.m. EST.

The FCC Wireless Bureau said it approved some 40 licenses bought by Cypress Cellular in last year’s AWS-3 auction. The licenses cover markets across the U.S. The company is owned by Anderson Pacific Partners, according to FCC records. The bureau also approved seven licenses bought by Beaulah Kurian, also covering a diverse group of markets. The Thursday public notice lists only the licensee and markets, without additional information.

Sprint is committed to demonstrating that its Lifeline customers are fully qualified for the USF program, Sprint representatives told FCC Wireline Bureau officials during a meeting. Sprint also is updating its analysis of the impact of a minimum service standard for Lifeline broadband service, said the filing in docket 10-90. “Sprint remains deeply concerned that Commission adoption of a minimum standard for Lifeline broadband service may well necessitate an out-of-pocket end user charge," the carrier said. "Lifeline customers are extremely cash-constrained (the average household income for an Assurance Wireless customer is approximately $14,000 per year); thus, even a seemingly modest monthly fee may prove to be an insurmountable barrier to subscription,” Sprint said.

T-Mobile ranked highest for customer service performance among full-service wireless carriers, while Virgin Mobile topped the charts for customer service among noncontract providers, in J.D. Power's 2016 U.S. Wireless Customer Care Performance studies. Overall, wireless carrier customer satisfaction with self-service channels, such as online and automated response systems, "is higher than at any time, as a growing shift in demographics is impacting the service experience," J.D. Power said in a news release Thursday. According to the surveys, 49 percent of full-service customers have had a walk-in service contact in the past three months, with 43 percent having an automated response system (ARS) contact, followed by contact with a customer service representative, 42 percent had online contact and 24 percent had an ARS-only experience. ARS-only satisfaction increased 31 points -- on a 1,000-point scale -- from the previous survey, said J.D. Power. Overall customer service satisfaction among full-service wireless consumers is at 788 out of 1,000, an improvement of 7 points from the final 2015 survey, while noncontract customer satisfaction is at 738 points. The survey also found millennials are "relatively heavy users of customer service," and the first-contact resolution rate is lower among millennials across all four measured channels than among baby boomers.

The FCC Wireless Bureau released system data file formats for the assignment phase of the forward part of the TV incentive auction. The FCC decided “qualified bidders in the forward auction will have access to detailed information related to the results of bidding, and the specifications set forth the file formats in which this information will be made available to qualified bidders,” the bureau said in a notice Thursday. “We release specifications for Auction System file formats now in order to enable prospective forward auction bidders to continue familiarizing themselves with the auction process.”

The FCC will start accepting applications for the operation of mobile repeaters on six VHF frequencies March 15, the Wireless and Public Safety bureaus said Wednesday. The frequencies are: 173.2375, 173.2625, 173.2875, 173.3125, 173.3375 and 173.3625. The Land Mobile Communications Council filed a consensus protocol on use of the spectrum in September, a public notice said. The PN ”serves as the Bureaus’ approval of the protocol as well as announcing that we will begin accepting applications on March 15,” the bureaus said. “Coordinators must include their analysis with the application so staff can understand which method the coordinators are using to coordinate the application.” The FCC approved an order allowing public safety to use the frequencies for vehicle repeater systems in August (see 1508100055).

Based on the latest Open Signal report, T-Mobile caught up with AT&T on coverage and is catching Verizon, T-Mobile CEO John Legere said on Periscope Tuesday. Legere also revealed the long version of T-Mobile’s Super Bowl ad featuring Canadian rapper Drake. Legere said T-Mobile's network is getting better every day. In Q4, OpenSignal measured T-Mobile’s time coverage at 81 percent, “which means that T-Mo 4G customers saw an LTE signal 81.2 percent of the time no matter where and when they connected,” OpenSignal said Tuesday in a blog post. “The most obvious explanation is T-Mobile’s recent network buildout in the 700 MHz airwaves. Those low frequency airwaves can travel much further afield in suburban and rural areas, and in dense urban cores they can more easily punch through walls to provide stronger indoor signals.” OpenSignal measured AT&T’s coverage at 82.6 percent and Verizon’s at 86.7 percent. Legere also said that T-Mobile would broadcast a "surprise" second commercial as well during Sunday's Super Bowl. A Verizon spokesman questioned the OpenSignal results, which are based on crowdsourcing. “Surveys that use crowd-sourced data sound cool, but they can be misleading -- when you can’t reliably connect to a network, there’s no way to measure its performance or speed,” the spokesman emailed. “OpenSignal’s own methodology page on their website states that the results include ‘an inherent bias’ due to the crowd-sourced nature of the survey. Most respected, impartial third-parties that use actual testing equipment rate the Verizon Wireless network as fastest and most reliable -- in fact, in four national studies in a row, Verizon has won RootMetrics awards for best overall performance, reliability and speed.” An AT&T spokesman said the OpenSignal results don't "align with our own analysis or with other third party speed test data. We’re proud of the mobile experience we’re delivering so that our customers have fast, reliable service.”