The FCC should drop any proposal to require wireless carriers to submit information for public disclosure on cell site operational status during and immediately after major disasters, CTIA said in reply comments filed at the FCC, reflecting carrier comments during the initial comment cycle (CD Jan 22 p2). “The proposed metric will not serve consumers,” CTIA said (http://bit.ly/MANDrW). “Rather, the metric would send consumers the incorrect message that site outage statistics are a reasonable proxy for the reliability of individual providers’ networks and the quality of their resiliency practices. Indeed, the proposed [Disaster Information Reporting System] DIRS-related metric is statistically meaningless.” The requirement won’t make the public safer, CTIA said. It could have “the negative unintended consequences of creating incentives to favor individual cell site restoration over service restoration, and it may create disincentives for carriers to engage in the type of voluntary, mutual assistance that has successfully characterized restoration efforts on an ongoing basis.” PCIA offered similar advice: “The record demonstrates that additional regulation is unnecessary because robust competition among wireless providers drives investment in network resiliency and [they] plan extensively for rapid restoration of service” (http://bit.ly/MAO7hz). But Consumers Union and Public Knowledge said in joint replies that after reading the record they still believe the data filing mandate would be good for consumers. “We remain convinced that public disclosure of wireless network performance and recovery during and after major weather events and other disasters, using the proposed metric, would provide consumers with useful information,” PK and CU said (http://bit.ly/1nOlI2Y). “We remain convinced that it would also help promote important improvements in network strength and resiliency."

T-Mobile US said the U.S. position should be to support allocations for wireless broadband at 470-698 MHz and 5350-5470 MHz bands at next year’s WRC. “T-Mobile advises ... that in order to reach the National Broadband Plan’s goal of identifying 500 MHz of spectrum for mobile flexible use, 300 MHz of which should be under 3.7 GHz and available by 2015, additional studies should be done on sharing or repurposing such bands,” T-Mobile said in a filing at the FCC (http://bit.ly/MALFYp).

The FCC Office of Engineering and Technology will begin a 45-day public trial of Comsearch’s TV band database system Tuesday. The trial is intended to let the public access and test Comsearch’s database system “to ensure that it correctly identifies channels that are available for unlicensed radio transmitting devices that operate in the TV band ... properly registers radio transmitting facilities entitled to protection, and provides protection to authorized services and registered facilities as specified in the rules,” said OET in a public notice Wednesday (http://bit.ly/1eSCCYY). Parties may participate in the trial by accessing Comsearch’s test facility at http://comsearch.whitespacedatabase.com, it said. Participants are encouraged to test features like the channel availability calculator, the multichannel video programming distributor receive site and the wireless microphone registration utility, it said. Registrations for MVPD receive sites and temporary broadcast auxiliary service links that are made during the trial period will be deleted by Comsearch after the trial, it said.

Globalstar told the FCC it should allow the ongoing discussions between Globalstar and NCTA to continue toward a mutually agreeable resolution of the outdoor Unlicensed National Information Infrastructure-1 (UNII-1) issues. A hastily adopted rule permitting unlimited, unlicensed outdoor deployment in the UNII-1 band “would be counter to the record evidence and permit harmful interference to Globalstar’s licensed MSS by unlicensed operations,” Globalstar said in an ex parte filing in docket 13-49 (http://bit.ly/1gSrVdd). “Neither NCTA nor any other party in this proceeding has identified an effective way to mitigate harmful interference to Globalstar and its customers.” The two sides had been at odds over access to spectrum for Wi-Fi (CD Feb 5 p11).

The FCC Enforcement Bureau proposed a fine of $6,000 against small carrier Assist Wireless for “apparently willfully and repeatedly” violating the commission’s hearing aid compatibility status report filing requirements, in a notice of apparent liability released Tuesday. The carrier failed to “timely file” its hearing aid compatibility status report for 2012, said the NAL (http://bit.ly/N7cFig).

Older mobile app users are highly concerned about the privacy of their information, said a report AARP released Tuesday (http://bit.ly/1oNDerm). And older consumers are one of the fast-growing groups using mobile devices, the report said. “We welcome new technology but want to help ensure that all people that use mobile devices have the opportunity to protect their privacy,” said AARP Executive Vice President Debra Whitman, saying older users aren’t using mobile devices as a replacement for, but in addition to, a landline phone. “We hope this report encourages industry, legislative, regulatory, and other consumer groups to have an open dialogue about how best to safeguard consumers so that technology can continue to benefit people of all ages.” The report suggested “privacy disclosure notices that are short, standardized, and easily accessible on smaller screens” and “standards governing the collection, transfer, use and disposal of sensitive data, such as locational data gathered through mobile devices.” It recommended the creation of a do-not-track mechanism, a concept that has been long in the works on the industry side, but yet to come to fruition (CD Dec 27 p4).

AT&T continues to have “strong support for public safety issues” and thinks it’s time to begin discussing indoor location accuracy for E-911, officials told an aide to FCC Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel Thursday, an ex parte filing said (http://bit.ly/1ghud66). The “FCC should be careful to ensure that any proposed rules on location accuracy are aligned with proven capabilities of the current state of technology and they should set realistic accuracy benchmarks that the industry and public safety can embrace,” the filing said. AT&T said the partnership between the industry and the public safety community “has been highly successful in resolving public safety issues in the past, and it remains the best approach for resolving the indoor location accuracy issues raised in the upcoming proceeding."

Radisys introduced a high-capacity MPH6 media processing card to support the processing requirements for large deployments of real-time telecom services. The card enables mobile operators, IP multimedia subsystem platform providers and over-the-top service providers to deliver voice over LTE, HD videoconferencing and high-capacity multimedia transcoding services, Radisys said in a news release (http://bit.ly/1eXXFO7). The card overcomes video-over-LTE transcoding challenges and delivers scalability and reliability, Radisys said. It’s compatible with the MPX-12000 Broadband Media Resource Function, the company said.

AT&T executives asked the FCC to “move expeditiously” to issue an NPRM on AT&T’s request for a rule change allowing a power spectral density (PSD) power limit in the 800 MHz band and to issue an order adopting CTIA’s plan for new geographic licensing rules, in a meeting Monday. The AT&T executives told FCC acting Wireless Bureau Chief Roger Sherman and other FCC officials that both issues have been pending for years, saying CTIA filed its petition for the licensing rule change in 2008. CTIA, NTCA and the Rural Wireless Association jointly lobbied in April on a “consensus approach” that would convert all current authorized Cellular Geographic Service Areas (CGSA) to geographic licenses and would allow carriers to claim “unserved” areas greater than 50 square miles under existing Phase II procedures, AT&T said in an ex parte filing. The Wireless Bureau can “move immediately” to adopt an order on the licensing plan with an accompanying FNPRM on open issues, as well as adopt “an interim waiver of the requirement to file minor modifications that do not change the CGSA during the pendency of this FNPRM,” AT&T said. The carrier told the FCC it can proceed with the licensing rules change independently of its request for a new PSD rule, saying PSD “can be implemented under either the current cellular licensing rules or the new rules for geographic licenses. Once the current CGSAs are converted to geographic licenses, AT&T will maintain the power limits at border sites as needed to maintain the current [Study Area Boundary].” AT&T said it believes the FCC should consider its PSD petition using the same standard it used in its order on Sprint’s petition seeking a rule change for [Specialized Mobile Radio] licenses on the 800 MHz band. The commission considered “whether public safety licensees would be ’subject to increased harmful interference when [Economic Area]-based 800 MHz SMR licensees comply with or exceed the [current] protections,'” AT&T said. The carrier said its PSD petition demonstrated that “public safety will not experience increased harmful interference as a result of the requested PSD rule change,” and no entity has proven that’s untrue since the petition was filed more than two years ago. AT&T also urged the FCC to approve its South Florida PSD waiver request “as soon as any remaining issues have been addressed."

The FCC should establish a “safe harbor reflecting a minimum level of due diligence” that a Lifeline eligible telecom carrier “should employ to screen for duplicates,” five ETCs told an aide to Chairman Tom Wheeler Thursday, an ex parte filing said (http://bit.ly/1aVLQbC). “It is clear that ETCs can be close to perfect at screening for intra-company duplicates, but they cannot be perfect. The lack of perfection, however, does not signal that an ETC has ignored the Commission’s rules or exploited the Lifeline program,” they said.