T-Mobile provides service to its customers who travel within Alaska through a partnership with General Communications Inc. (GCI) because the geography, climate, terrain and government land-ownership issues make it challenging for T-Mobile to do it on its own, the company said in an FCC filing Tuesday in docket 15-265. Because T-Mobile doesn't have the infrastructure to deploy services in Alaska, it chose to use one of the facilities-based operators serving the state that could make more efficient use of the spectrum covered by the license involved in the transaction in question -- consent to assign a lower 700 MHz A block license. GCI, as well as both T-Mobile and GCI's customers, will benefit because the sale of the license will ensure that spectrum covered by the license will be deployed more quickly than it might otherwise be, the filing said. GCI will also benefit from acquiring additional low-band spectrum that provides more coverage over large distances than high- or mid-band spectrum and can reduce network deployment costs in rural areas, T-Mobile said. T-Mobile will benefit from having an enhanced network for customers to roam on.

M2M Spectrum Networks and PCIA met with the FCC on the company's request for a proceeding to let business/industrial/land transportation license applicants provide for-profit service to "eligibles" for those categories. The agency should "eliminate special privileges for incumbent users" in the 800 MHz band, said the association on a meeting including PCIA CEO Jonathan Adelstein and M2M representatives with Wireless Bureau officials. "Machine-to-Machine ('M2M') applications can be utilized in both regional and national scopes and impact a variety of verticals including the retail, education, and entertainment sectors," said a PCIA filing posted Wednesday to RM-11719. "As the technology is in its nascent stage, however it is important that the FCC allow for innovation and competition to thrive as these applications develop and mature." Though PCIA backed the company's request, the Enterprise Wireless Alliance and other groups raised concerns (see 1509220034).

Comments on the ex parte proposal made by FirstNet to facilitate the relocation of incumbent public safety communications systems operation on Band 14 are due Dec. 9, said a notice published by the FCC Public Safety Bureau in Wednesday's Federal Register. In its ex parte filing, FirstNet said its board recently approved a Spectrum Relocation Grant Program designed to facilitate the relocation of Band 14 incumbents, and it expects a federal funding opportunity for the grant program to be released in early 2016.

The FCC should encourage public safety answering points to implement 911 call-blocking methods directly, either within the PSAP's networks or on customer premises equipment, CTIA said in an ex parte notice posted Wednesday in docket 08-51. Even though PSAPs are worried about fraudulent or harassing 911 calls from non-service-initialized wireless handsets, CTIA said the FCC's record shows that millions of legitimate 911 calls are made from NSI devices.

Alcatel-Lucent and the Wireless Internet Service Providers Association (WISPA) back a nine-month extension of a June 2 U-NII-3 equipment compliance deadline. As suggested by Intel and Netgear, nine months after an order on reconsideration "would be appropriate given the need for chip makers and equipment manufacturers to design compliant U-NII-3 products and distribute them through the supply chain to broadband providers, utilities and consumers," said Alcatel-Lucent, WISPA and others in a filing posted Wednesday in docket 13-49; in that docket, the FCC said U-NII-3 is for operation in the 5725-5850 MHz band. The agency should adopt the group's out-of-band emission proposal, which also would provide "sufficient certainty and time for the marketplace to implement and test equipment, and sufficient time for the FCC to approve these devices before the deadline," said the filing signers, which also included Cambium Networks, Mimosa Networks, Ubiquiti Networks and Zebra Technologies. Earlier this year, the commission delayed by five months a U-NII-3 deadline for certifying broadband gear (see 1507010044). The group also wants that deadline again delayed, emailed communications lawyer Stephen Coran of Lerman Senter, who made the recent filing. The Dec. 2 deadline, which is the one the FCC had already delayed, is when U-NII-3 devices can no longer be certified under the “old” out-of-band emission rules, he said. The June 2 deadline is when those devices can no longer be marketed or deployed, noted Coran.

The Office of Management and Budget OK'd revised information collection requirements in FCC rules for the 3.5 GHz shared spectrum band, which the commission sees as being used for a forthcoming Citizens Broadband Radio Service (see 1504210061). OMB's Nov. 9 approval means the changes are effective Dec. 16, the commission said in Wednesday's Federal Register.

Cellular South asked the FCC for a text telephony (TTY) waiver to use IP-enabled wireless services for the deaf and hard of hearing, just like the ones given previously to AT&T and Verizon (see 1510060026 and 1511130050). In a petition filed Monday in docket 15-178, Cellular South asked the commission to waive certain rules and any other TTY accessibility requirements for VoIP networks, "subject to the same customer notification, progress reporting, and duration conditions applied to AT&T and Verizon." Cellular South said it didn't believe such a waiver was necessary but was seeking it "out of an abundance of caution in light of the recent TTY Waiver Orders." If the waiver is granted, Cellular South pledged, consistent with the Verizon and AT&T orders, to submit a preliminary report describing its initial plans to meet a "commitment to develop and deploy [real-time text] or an alternative text-based solution that is accessible, interoperable other carriers' accessibility solutions, and backward compatible with TTY technology."

Since the inception of the 911 emergency call system in the 1960s, new technology, such as wireless and VoIP, has been accommodated, but the service is not where it needs to be, said David Furth, FCC deputy bureau chief-Public Safety and Homeland Security Bureau, during the Diane Rehm Show on NPR Tuesday. Steve Souder, Fairfax County, Virginia, director-Department of 911, agreed, saying 911 has been solid as a rock, but infrastructure improvements are needed to accommodate the technology that is available to everyone in America with a smartphone -- photos, text messages, video. The biggest concern public safety officials have when someone calls is finding the caller if the call drops or the caller wasn't able to give an address, said Eddie Reyes, Alexandria, Virginia, police deputy chief. Because 98 percent of Americans think their location is easily determined on their wireless devices, they don’t think about Reyes’ concern. But the GPS can take a long time to kick in on someone’s cellphone and when a call is coming from inside a building the elevation is just as important as the address, Furth said. To upgrade the location services in mobile phones, the federal government is going to have to shoulder very little cost, said Richard Bennett, visiting fellow at the American Enterprise Institute Center for Internet Communications and Technology Policy. Instead, most of the cost will fall to the manufacturers and carriers, he said.

NTelos shareholders OK'd its proposed sale to Shenandoah Personal Communications and the associated license deal with SprintCom, nTelos and Shenandoah told the FCC in a letter posted Friday in docket 15-262. They said the Rural Utilities Service approved nTelos' request to assign its Broadband Initiatives Program grant to Shenandoah Telecommunications Co., Shenandoah PC's parent. The Department of Justice previously gave the proposed nTelos transaction antitrust clearance, and all state regulatory approvals have been received, said the companies. FCC approval of nTelos communications license transfers to Shenandoah PC and SprintCom is the only remaining federal or state action needed, they said. FCC approval isn't expected to be problematic and Shentel said in August it expects the deal to close by early 2016 (see 1508110067).

The outdoor small-cell market is expected to experience a 43 percent compound annual growth rate (CAGR) through 2020, while the beginning of "meaningful deployments" of small cells will occur in 2015, said an ABI Research report released Monday. Vendors and infrastructure owners, such as Alcatel-Lucent, American Tower, Crown Castle and Ericsson, are overcoming the challenges of backhaul and tower permitting and siting by utilizing small cells as a service, the report said. ABI said several infrastructure providers have reported strong quarter-over-quarter small cell-related growth. The report said 4G small cells have been the fastest-growing small-cell type in 2015 due in part to dense urban deployment, and that the number of LTE small cells is projected to double in 2015 and by a "similar factor" each following year. The value of LTE small cells in 2020 will be more than 85 percent of the small cell equipment market, ABI said.