The overall goal of the DOD/NTIA 5G Challenge is to drive the move to “true plug-and-play operation” with open radio access networks, said Julie Kub, program lead for the challenge, Thursday during an Informatech virtual conference. The challenge is focused on finding new entrants, promoting multivendor interoperability and reducing barriers to entry, she said.
T-Mobile is turning up the heat on the FCC to issue licenses bought in last year’s 2.5 GHz auction, linking the failure to do so to the agency’s focus on closing the digital divide. Neville Ray, T-Mobile president-technology, argued for issuing the licenses in a Thursday blog. Lawyers active in the proceeding said Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel continues to believe the FCC doesn’t have the authority to issue the licenses after expiration of its auction authority, though the Office of General Counsel is studying the issue.
Comments were sharply divided on a waiver request by the Wi-Fi Alliance of rules for the predictive propagation models that an automated frequency coordination system must employ in the 6 GHz band (see 2303210039). The alliance asked to be able to incorporate building entry loss (BEL) in its AFC model for specifically identifiable “composite devices” designed to operate in both low-power indoor (LPI) and standard power modes.
The receiver policy statement circulated by FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel (see 2303300070) likely won’t be too controversial and is at least a small step forward on one of the thorniest spectrum issues, experts told us. It builds on a 2015 paper by the FCC’s Technological Advisory Council, picking up some of the same themes starting with “interference realities.” The FCC document lays out nine principles, as TAC did, and in almost the same order. Commissioners approved 4-0 a broad receiver performance notice of inquiry last year (see 2204210049).
Major wireless carriers have agreed to extend protections for flight operations from some C-band deployments until Jan. 1, 2028. AT&T, Verizon, T-Mobile and UScellular filed the latest voluntary commitments Friday, posted by the FCC Monday in docket 18-122. The development comes as the U.S. wireless industry Monday celebrated the 50th anniversary of the first cellphone call, placed by Martin Cooper, then a researcher at Motorola.
NTIA Administrator Alan Davidson assured attendees at an NTIA listening session on a national spectrum strategy Thursday the administration understands the need for concrete action and a spectrum pipeline for 5G and 6G. Twenty other speakers signed up to offer comments, which covered all the usual spectrum issues, from the importance of unlicensed and dedicated license spectrum to evolving sharing technologies to the potential role for THz spectrum.
The FCC’s proposed policy statement on receivers lays out core principles to “help inform the Commission’s future actions and stakeholder expectations about interference from spectrally and spatially proximate sources,” according to a draft released Thursday for the commissioners’ April 20 open meeting. The draft draws on recommendations in a 2015 report by the FCC’s Technology Advisory Council.
Fixed wireless access makes sense for providing broadband in the hardest to reach areas, said Claude Aiken, Nextlink Internet chief strategy and legal officer, Wednesday during Fierce Wireless’ virtual 5G Blitz Week. “The ability to provide broadband at capabilities, at speeds, latency, jitter, all the characteristics that consumers really care about, fixed wireless is able to meet and exceed those requirements significantly,” he said. Nextlink received more than $700 million through the Connect America and rural digital opportunity funds but faces some reductions “because we found fewer funded locations in certain areas than the FCC thought there were,” he said. The “financial haircut” affects long-term planning, timeline to deployment and the speeds Nextlink will be able to offer consumers, he said. The broadband, equity, access and deployment program has a “decidedly fiber-heavy flavor,” he said. Nextlink does fiber and fixed wireless access, but the rules work against FWA deployments, he said. Telus sees FWA as critical to its 5G plans, particularly for rural communities, said Ibrahim Gedeon, chief technology officer at the Canadian provider. Telus has 350,000 FWA customers, all in its traditional wireline service area, which is probably the most of any provider in Canada, he said. The deployments provide speeds of up to 100 Mbps “providing, actually, what we think is a healthy lifeline,” he said. As the company upgrades more customers to fiber-to-the-home, deploying more fiber, Telus is also deploying FWA, he said: “It’s clicking well. … It’s the same network.”
With growing focus on the cloud and computing at the edge of networks, carriers are adopting different strategies, while trying to listen to what their customers want and need, experts said Wednesday at RCR Wireless’s Telco Cloud and Edge Forum.
The FCC is taking next steps on receivers, proposing a policy statement with "high-level principles" rather than rules or standards, which some industry observers had expected (see 2301180046), at commissioners' April 20 open meeting, FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel said Wednesday. The meeting is another busy one for the agency. The agenda includes a draft order on spectrum sharing rules among non-geostationary orbit (NGSO) fixed satellite service (FSS) systems, which has gotten little consensus among satellite operators (see 2204270015). Commissioners will also take on additional rules to get tough on Chinese carriers still operating in the U.S.