NextWave Spectrum fired back at T-Mobile in its fight over whether the carrier is exploiting an “exception” in the commission’s 2.5 GHz rules, allowing higher power levels at the border of a license when there's no licensee providing service in the adjacent market (see 2505130029). “Instead of promoting deployment, expansion, and competition in the 2.5 GHz band, the Exception is being used by T-Mobile, holder of 92% of the 2.5 GHz spectrum nationwide, to unlawfully serve customers in its neighbors’ [service areas], using its neighbors’ spectrum without consent, enriching itself at their expense, and destroying competitive services in neighboring markets,” said a filing posted Monday in docket 25-133. By unlawfully using neighbors' spectrum, T-Mobile “is not only unjustly enriching itself, it also is preventing other licensees/lessees from fully and robustly building out wireless service.”

WISPA on Monday urged the FCC not to make disruptive changes to rules for the citizens broadband radio service (CBRS) band, which it said offers a “scalable rural broadband solution.” CBRS advocates have said they're concerned about potential changes to power levels in the band, which they see as possible under Chairman Brendan Carr (see 2503130049). The spectrum provisions in the reconciliation package signed into law by President Donald Trump also don’t exclude CBRS from potential reallocation (see 2507070045).

Public Knowledge and the National Congress of American Indians are asking the FCC to rethink draft rules for the AWS-3 reauction, which don’t include a window giving tribes a first shot at spectrum. They met with an aide to FCC Chairman Brendan Carr, according to a filing posted Monday in docket 25-70. Commissioners are slated to vote July 24 on auction rules (see 2507030049).

UScellular provided answers to the FCC Wireline Bureau's questions on eligible telecom carrier (ETC) issues after closing its sale of spectrum, customers and other assets to T-Mobile. The filing was posted Monday in docket 09-197 but dated Saturday, the day after the bureau approved the deal (see 2507110045).

T-Mobile asked the FCC to block the access of outside counsel for Verizon to confidential information in the docket on T-Mobile’s proposed buy of wireless assets from UScellular, which FCC approved Friday (see 2507110045). Wiley’s Joshua Turner and Sara Baxenberg filed last week seeking access to the information. “Verizon has not filed an application, petition to deny, or material comments in this proceeding and the time for doing so has long ago expired,” T-Mobile said in a filing posted Friday in docket 24-286. “Given that over 9 months have passed since the filing of the applications and nearly half a year has passed since the deadline for filing petitions and/or comments, there is no basis to believe that affording Verizon’s counsel access to T-Mobile’s [confidential information] at this late hour would serve any permitted purpose.”

The FCC Wireline Bureau sought comment by Aug. 25 on a multi-day May outage that prevented customers from making and receiving calls and sending text messages over Cellcom’s network. The outage apparently affected calls and texts to 911 and was caused by a cyber incident, the bureau said Friday. It asked for information about the Wisconsin-based carrier's handling of the outage, its impact and how problems were communicated to customers. Comments should be filed in docket 25-218.

CTIA officials met with an aide to FCC Chairman Brendan Carr urging the agency to take the next steps toward an auction of upper C-band spectrum. Carr has promised to move quickly on spectrum and put a notice of inquiry on the upper C band on the agenda for his first meeting as chairman in February (see 2502050057). CTIA noted that the FCC once again has auction authority following the enactment of the reconciliation package (see 2507070045).

NextNav filed at the FCC a supplement to its early engineering report, addressing interference issues raised by the company’s proposal that the FCC reconfigure the 902-928 MHz band “to enable a high-quality, terrestrial complement” to GPS for positioning, navigation and timing services (see 2503030023). The supplement filing, posted Thursday in docket 25-110, slammed critics of the earlier report (see 2504280045).

GCI representatives met with an aide to FCC Chairman Brendan Carr concerning the company’s petition seeking clarity of the agency's Alaska Connect Fund mobile requirements (see 2501310053). Part of the filing, posted Thursday in docket 23-328, was redacted. As GCI and the Alaska Remote Carrier Coalition “have made clear, it is not possible to extend 5G-[new radio] at 7/1 or 35/3 Mbps to the edge of the voice service areas reached by the Alaska Plan,” the filing said. “Even excluding voice-only areas, Alaska providers will need significant flexibility and, as such, the general expectations should be more realistically calibrated in light of the nature of Alaska’s communities and the realities of wireless signal propagation and attenuation.”

In light of Congress restoring FCC auction authority, Ligado said on Thursday it’s time for the commission to address the 1675-1680 MHz band, the topic of a record refresh this year (see 1905090041). “Since 2019 the Commission has studied how to reallocate the 1675-1680 MHz band for shared federal and commercial use, and recent submissions by [NTIA] clearly establish that the band can be used for both uplink and downlink and shared with Government users,” Ligado said in docket 19-116. The opportunity to make the band available for shared use “is the fruit” of the Wireless Bureau’s “diligent efforts to refresh the record in this proceeding over the first half of this year.”