Mapping EchoStar's supposed coverage in the San Francisco area raises more questions about whether the company reached roughly 80% of the U.S. population as of the end of 2024, as it claimed, said Kristian Stout, innovation policy director for the International Center for Law & Economics. In a docket 22-212 filing posted Friday, Stout said it appeared that EchoStar attested that it covers adjacent markets using spectrum for which it doesn't hold a license.

The Utility Broadband Alliance supported a transaction announced in March, in which Grain Management would buy all of T-Mobile's 800 MHz spectrum in exchange for cash and Grain's 600 MHz spectrum portfolio (see 2503210033). Comments were due Friday in docket 25-178.

The Fixed Wireless Communications Coalition on Friday asked the FCC to rethink its approval of waivers for Comsearch and C3Spectra, which provide automated frequency coordination systems in the 6 GHz band, to take building entry loss into account for “composite” standard- and low-power devices that are restricted to indoor operations (see 2505200016). The Office of Engineering and Technology approved the waivers last month.

Nokia filed a report this week at the FCC on its initial commercial deployment as a spectrum access system manager in the citizens broadband radio service band. Nokia asked the FCC not to make public the information it filed, which was posted Wednesday in docket 15-319 and completely redacted. The FCC approved Nokia’s application last summer (see 2407180035).

NCTA vigorously defended its arguments against making major changes to the technical rules for the citizens broadband radio service band. In a filing posted Wednesday in docket 17-258, NCTA said the CBRS framework “has enabled an impressive and growing array of users and use cases in the 3.5 GHz band, reinforcing the United States’s global leadership in spectrum policy.” It said, "Higher base station power levels and a relaxed in-band emissions limit of -13 dBm/MHz, individually and together, would fundamentally alter the nature of the CBRS band and yield a multitude of harms.”

The Better Business Bureau's National Advertising Division found Wednesday that some Verizon advertising claims about its satellite coverage weren’t misleading, but the phrase “largest network” in other ads was “ambiguous.” NAD examined the ads at the urging of T-Mobile and concluded that Verizon “has provided a reasonable basis for the claims ‘VERIZON Satellite Powered’ and ‘Verizon is conquering dead zones with satellite.’” But NAD recommended that in the future, "Verizon ensures that any accompanying disclosures describing the availability of the satellite texting features be clear and conspicuous.”

The FCC administrative law judge will hear Anuvu's arguments concerning reimbursement for C-band relocation costs. The C-band relocation payment clearinghouse appeals procedure lets any party appeal a reimbursement dispute by petitioning for an evidentiary hearing before the ALJ, said acting Wireless Bureau Chief Joel Taubenblatt in a hearing designation order Wednesday (docket 21-333). Anuvu petitioned in April for a de novo review of the bureau upholding a rejection of some of the company's reimbursement claims (see 2504070044). Anuvu received $326,520 for its relocation expenses but was denied an additional $960,694 related to its Raisting, Germany, earth station site.

The FCC Wireless Bureau on Tuesday approved an order it proposed in December granting a request from GeoLinks that it surrender some local multipoint distribution service (LMDS) licenses in return for others from the commission’s inventory (see 2412120057). GeoLinks proposed using federal funding to serve some 47,000 locations across Arizona, California and Nevada that now lack high-speed broadband access. The bureau sought comment on the request last year (see 2405170028).

SpaceX is pushing back on concerns from GE Healthcare Technologies and the Aerospace and Flight Test Radio Coordinating Council (AFTRCC) regarding space launch use of the 2360-2395 MHz band. In a docket 13-115 opposition Tuesday to reconsideration petitions, SpaceX said launch operators need "robust and rapid access" to that upper S-band spectrum. There can be efficient coordination with wireless medical device facilities without reconsideration of the FCC's upper S-band rules, it said, and AFTRCC is proposing "unnecessary restrictions and complexity" on launch operations. The FCC in late December reallocated the 2360-2395 MHz band on a secondary basis for space launch operations (see 2412310029).

The launch of Trump Mobile as a mobile virtual network operator (see 2506160040) will likely have minimal effect on the wireless industry, New Street’s Blair Levin told investors Monday night. “The Trump Organization’s track record in various consumer product business lines does not suggest that facilities-based carriers or other MVNO’s should feel threatened,” Levin wrote. “We won’t go through all the Trump business enterprises, but its track in consumer offerings is a long record of enterprises that did not, shall we say, have a material impact on the markets they entered.”