The FCC Wireless Bureau on Friday extended comment and reply deadlines by 30 days on an August NPRM that asks about further rules changes for the citizens broadband radio service band (see 2408160031). The new deadlines are Nov. 6 for initial comments, Dec. 5 for replies, in docket 17-258. The bureau took the step following a request by the Wireless Innovation Forum, the OnGo Alliance and the Wireless ISP Association (see 2409200015). “We find that Joint Petitioners have established that additional time is necessary to enable commenters to adequately assess highly technical data and to produce studies in response to the complex technical, legal, and policy issues presented in the NPRM,” the bureau said: “Given the importance of receiving robust input from all of [the groups’] respective members on the questions raised in the NPRM, along with the Commission’s stated desire for detailed technical analyses, we find there is good cause to extend the deadlines.”
The FCC Public Safety Bureau extended by 10 days the application deadline for CTIA and TUV Rheinland of North America to become cybersecurity labeling administrators (CLAs) or lead administrator under the FCC’s voluntary cyber-trust mark program (see 2409240063). The new deadline is Oct. 11. “The Bureau finds that the Parties’ request for an extension of time is warranted to ensure applicants have sufficient time to prepare full and informed responses,” said an order in Friday’s Daily Digest.
The Alliance for Automotive Innovation emailed FCC commissioners' staff, except that of Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel, laying out its positions on an order finalizing rules for cellular vehicle-to-everything use of the 5.9 GHz band. Rosenworcel circulated the order in July (see 2404180050). “Finalization” of the order “will help address the ongoing regulatory uncertainty that has delayed the widespread deployment of this important technology,” said a filing Friday in docket 19-158. “C-V2X technologies and the use cases enabled by the technology continue to evolve and the technical rules” established “should be flexible enough to support that continued evolution,” the alliance said. The group also stressed the importance of protecting C-V2X from “harmful interference from unlicensed operations in the U-NII-4 band.”
T-Mobile emergency teams were activated “in anticipation of the severe winds up to 125 mph, 8-12 inches of rain and potentially fatal storm surge Hurricane Helene may bring across Florida, Alabama and Georgia,” the carrier said Thursday. It sent emergency operations centers, “large RVs with network management and monitoring equipment,” satellite cells and other satellite equipment, portable generators and other gear to the area, the company said. It has also been topping off fuel at permanent generators along Helene’s expected path. “T-Mobile’s network modernization allows local teams to swiftly and digitally fine-tune network coverage, focusing on critical areas to boost signal concentration as needed.”
SpaceX representatives met with aides to FCC Commissioners Geoffrey Starks and Brendan Carr on concerns about interference from high-power terrestrial operations in the lower or upper 12 GHz band. “Although SpaceX had hoped to find a way to have its next generation broadband service coexist with such a high-power terrestrial service, its prior filings and its study demonstrate that it cannot,” Space X said in a filing posted Thursday in docket 22-352 on the Carr meeting. The company raised the same concerns with Wireless Bureau and Office of Engineering and Technology staff (see 2409190022). EchoStar disputes those arguments (see 2409050040).
In the wake of Hurricane Helene, the FCC Wireless Bureau on Thursday approved a waiver for Google of rules that require environmental sensing capability systems to protect federal incumbents in Florida in the citizens broadband radio service band from harmful interference. The bureau on Wednesday approved a similar waiver for Federated Wireless (see 2409250048).
CTIA representatives spoke with an aide to FCC Commissioner Anna Gomez about the group’s 2019 petition seeking clarity of pole attachment rules under Section 224 of the Communications Act. “The requested clarification will serve the Commission’s goal of speeding broadband deployment,” said a Wednesday filing in docket 17-84: “The record on the Petition is thorough, and many commenters supported CTIA’s request.” CTIA also reported on meetings with aides to Commissioners Geoffrey Starks and Nathan Simington. The group previously spoke with aides to FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel and Commissioner Brendan Carr (see 2409180013).
Carriers are starting to go beyond the early stages of 5G, with at least 60 operators across 34 countries moving to 5G stand-alone networks, Ruth Brown, Heavy Reading principal analyst-mobile networks and 5G, said during a LightReading webinar Thursday. Another 143 stand-alone networks are in progress, she added. The 3rd Generation Partnership Project has frozen Release 17, the first for 5G-advanced, Brown noted. Huawei, working with provider du, recently deployed the first indoor 5G-advanced network in the United Arab Emirates and T-Mobile made clear it plans to be the first U.S. carrier to adopt the new generation of wireless, she said. But not everyone is on board. Some question whether 5G has been “a little bit too ambitious” and whether 3GPP was moving too quickly to issue updated releases, Brown said. “There’s still quite a bit of concern" whether "6G is required.” Telefonica Germany expects it will spend the next few years working on 5G-advanced, while also getting ready for 6G, said Tilo Heckmann, senior technology strategy manager. The carrier expects the first commercial 6G deployments in 2030, in line with industry projections, he said. 6G promises "ubiquitous connectivity to everything and everyone” and will facilitate the integration of different networks and sensing. As a carrier, “we have to handle multiple access technologies” and “become a network of networks,” Heckmann said. Carriers also must manage expectations, he said: “Our resources are limited” as is the spectrum that will be available for 6G. The big question for carriers worldwide, said Tingfang Ji, Qualcomm vice president-engineering, is how to handle the massive increase in data expected in coming years. It’s not the “big, bad cellular industry” that needs spectrum for 6G, it’s the entire country. The power levels that are allowed are as important as the amounts, he said. “Do I need to deploy 10 million base stations to actually deliver the coverage the economy actually needs, the ubiquitous coverage?” If the power levels are similar to what’s allowed in 5G, engineers “will have a solution and give you the capacity that you need,” he said. “We need to be really careful when people talk about coexistence and pretend” a band is dedicated to 6G, “but it’s not useful.”
The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Thursday scheduled oral argument for Nov. 4 to hear Maurine and Matthew Molak's challenge (docket 23-60641) to last year’s declaratory FCC ruling clarifying that the use of Wi-Fi on school buses is an educational purpose eligible for E-rate funding (see 2409190030). The court, meanwhile, dismissed on procedural grounds a second Molak case (docket 24-60446), asking the 5th Circuit to reject a July order allowing schools and libraries to use E-rate support for off-premises Wi-Fi hot spots and wireless internet services (see 2409230024). The court dismissed the case, saying only that it lacked jurisdiction, as well as a motion by the couple to stay further proceedings, which was “denied as moot.” The FCC argued that the Molaks lacked standing to bring the case (see 2409190030) because they didn’t participate in the proceeding and hadn’t demonstrated “an actual or imminent injury-in-fact.” The FCC also argued that the case wasn’t ripe because the agency was still addressing reconsideration petitions, including one filed by the Molaks, whose 16-year-old son David died by suicide after he was cyberbullied. Argument in the school bus case will start at 1 p.m. at the 5th Circuit’s En Banc Courtroom in New Orleans.
Lycamobile asked to withdraw a May petition seeking reconsideration of the FCC’s approval of T-Mobile’s buy of Mint Mobile and other assets from Ka’ena (see 2404250047). T-Mobile and Lycamobile recently told the FCC they resolved litigation and put their differences behind them (see 2409120012). The filing was posted Wednesday in docket 23-171.