UScellular remains focused on selling its wireless operations and about 30% of its spectrum to T-Mobile in a deal valued at about $4.4 billion, executives said during an earnings call Friday. The deal was unveiled in May (see 2405280047). UScellular reported results along with parent TDS. “We’ve launched the regulatory approval process, and we remain optimistic that this process will have a favorable outcome,” UScellular CEO Laurent Therivel said on a call with analysts: “We remain convinced that the transaction with T-Mobile is the best long-term option for our customers as they will have the long-term benefits of greater scale and a more competitive network.” Therivel noted UScellular plans on selling the remainder of its spectrum holdings. “That process is active and ongoing and given the nature of that process, we don’t expect to have updates until it is concluded,” he said. TDS reported total operating revenue of $1.238 billion in Q2, down from $1.267 billion a year earlier. TDS lost $14 million, compared with a $19 million loss the previous year. UScellular said it has 134,000 fixed wireless subscribers. It plans on retaining more than 4,300 towers.

NTIA received 227 applications seeking more than $2.94 billion in response to a notice of funding opportunity for Public Wireless Supply Chain Innovation Fund (see 2405070060). The agency has just $420 million to award in phase 2 of the program, which focuses on open radio unit commercialization and innovation. Applications were due July 17. NTIA earlier said it expects it will grant $25 million-$45 million per commercialization award, and $5 million-$10 million per innovation award. “Making open radio units more widely available will build momentum toward greater adoption of open and interoperable networks,” NTIA Administrator Alan Davidson said in a Thursday news release. “The interest in this round of funding will lead to a stronger wireless supply chain for the U.S. and our allies,” he said. The agency said it expects to start making awards later this year.

Anterix representatives spoke with an aide to FCC Commissioner Geoffrey Starks seeking action on a rulemaking authorizing 5/5 MHz broadband deployments in the 900 MHz band (see 2405210041). "Adoption of rules consistent with the Petition would advance” the FCC’s “commitment to promote the availability of broadband technology in rural areas along with its efforts to maximize the technologically advanced use of available spectrum resources,” a filing posted Thursday in docket 24-99 said.

Communications Workers of America supports a Public Safety Spectrum Alliance (PSSA) proposal that assigns the 4.9 GHz band to FirstNet, a hotly contested FCC issue (see 2407230045). Doing so would ensure public safety makes use of the band, a filing posted Friday in docket 07-100 said. “CWA is deeply invested in the success of FirstNet, which was built and is maintained by AT&T, the only wireless carrier with a union-represented workforce,” the union said: Allocating the band “to a single nationwide licensee rather than multiple commercial users would facilitate rapid and efficient nationwide deployment and stop the slow and fragmented approach that has led to prolonged underutilization of the band in the last 20 years.”

While time division duplexing (TDD) dominated early 5G deployments, frequency division duplexing (FDD) is starting to outpace the other technology, Stefan Pongratz, Dell’Oro Group vice president-radio access network market research, said in a blog this week. FDD relies on different frequencies for uplink and downlink, while TDD uses different time slots. “Operators initially tend to focus on the upper mid-band before complementing it with narrow-band FDD deployments,” Pongratz blogged. But results from 5G FDD-only deployments suggest “significant potential,” he said. In the Netherlands, a delay in making C-band spectrum available prompted providers “to optimize the use of existing assets, coordinating 4G and 5G technologies across high and low FDD bands to create a high-performance network.” Testing shows “impressive average data rates and latency results in the Netherlands even with the C-Band delays.”

Mobile & Wireless Forum (MWF) representatives met with FCC Wireless Bureau staff to discuss e-labeling for hearing-aid compatible phones. MWF considers the limitations in FCC rules “overbroad" and requested a discussion about the issue, a filing posted Thursday in docket 23-388 said. Especially post-COVID-19, “QR codes have become ubiquitous,” the group said: “Their use on packaging to present complicated information that calls for more explanation than there may be space for on physical packaging makes eminent sense.” MWF said e-labeling should be permitted for HAC devices and QR code usage for packaging.

The FCC Public Safety Bureau closed all remaining dockets for filings on review and approval of regional plans or plan amendments for spectrum in the 800 MHz National Public Safety Planning Advisory Committee band, except for consolidated docket 23-237. The agency created that docket last year but didn’t close all the other dockets at the time (see 2307210053). “Some of these individual dockets have previously been closed and we now close the remaining individual dockets,” the bureau said in a notice in Wednesday’s Daily Digest.

Telecom fees required by Rochester, New York, effectively prohibited providing telecom services in violation of sections 253 and 332 of the Communications Act, U.S. District Judge Elizabeth Wolford for Western New York said in a judgment Wednesday. Making official a settlement agreement the parties reached Friday (see 2407290010), the court permanently enjoined the city from enforcing the fees and ordered “any other causes of action or claims brought in the above-referenced actions are rendered moot by this judgment and are dismissed without prejudice." Extenet, Crown Castle and Verizon Wireless had challenged the Rochester fees.

Nokia supported launch of a proposed rulemaking authorizing 5/5 MHz broadband deployments in the 900 MHz band (see 2405210041). “With the necessary interference mitigation and remediation protections in place, expanding this band has the potential to support a variety of use cases including secure wireless broadband networks for utilities, business enterprise entities and other critical infrastructure,” a filing posted Wednesday in docket 24-99 said. “Utilities and private enterprises must have access to the spectrum they require for current and future use cases,” Nokia said.

The Wi-Fi Alliance told the FCC that proposed modifications of a waiver request to market three investigative and surveillance devices operating at higher power levels than allowed in the 5 GHz band don’t adequately address interference concerns. Axon proposed in July that its devices operate primarily using channels at the upper and lower edges of the U-NII-3 band, “avoiding operations in the more congested center of the band.” The compromise Axon suggests won't “cure the fundamental problem with its Request -- that Axon’s devices will block Wi-Fi access to U-NII-3 spectrum that is critical to meet Americans’ connectivity requirements,” the Alliance said in a filing not yet posted in docket 24-40: “As the record demonstrates, unlike Wi-Fi, Axon’s devices would not implement contention-based protocols intended to ensure equitable access among unlicensed devices to the U-NII-3 band. Axon’s ‘always-on’ protocol makes the failure to ‘listen-before-talk’ even worse.”