CTIA endorses an FAA initiative to support the U.S. drone industry by streamlining the approval process for beyond-visual-line-of-sight (BVLOS) unmanned aircraft system (UAS) operations, said a filing posted Tuesday in response to an FAA NPRM. As President Donald Trump has argued, “American UAS leadership can enhance productivity, create high-skilled jobs, and ‘reduc[e] reliance on foreign sources, strengthening critical supply chains, and ensuring that the benefits of this technology are delivered to the American people,” CTIA said.
Petitioners Maurine and Matthew Molak asked the 5th U.S. Circuit Appeals Court on Friday to dismiss their challenge to an FCC decision that let schools use E-rate support for Wi-Fi on school buses (case 23-60641), since the agency voted to end the program. The 5th Circuit earlier agreed to hold the challenge in abeyance, with further FCC action expected. Last week, over dissents from Democratic Commissioner Anna Gomez, the FCC’s Republican majority eliminated two Biden-era programs designed to make broadband connections more readily available to students and their families (see 2509300051).
Airbus and Ericsson have deployed a private 5G solution at an Airbus production site in Hamburg, Germany, with another deployment underway in Toulouse, France, Ericsson said Monday. The deployment allows Airbus “to scale connectivity quickly and securely across multiple sites,” Ericsson said. It also “accelerates projects involving 3D simulation, augmented reality, improved traceability for parts, and predictive maintenance for assets.” Ericsson said it hopes to expand its private 5G offering across the U.S., the U.K., Spain and more.
Networking equipment manufacturer TP-Link Systems may be aiding the Chinese government in accessing and abusing American consumers’ data, said Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton (R) Monday as he announced an investigation into the company.
CTIA, wireless carriers and representatives of the airline industry briefed aides to FCC Chairman Brendan Carr and other agency staff about their work on opening the upper C band to licensed use while protecting air safety systems, said a filing posted Friday by CTIA. They updated the commission “on the efforts of the wireless and aviation industries to work together to define a consensus analytical framework for evaluating potential coexistence parameters between wireless operations above 3.98 GHz and altimeters operating in the 4.2-4.4 GHz band.”
The citizens broadband radio service (CBRS) band has moved beyond the experimental stage and demonstrated its effectiveness, Salt Point Strategies’ Dave Wright said last week during a webinar hosted by consulting firm Senza Fili. CBRS “works,” said Wright, former president of the OnGo Alliance, which promotes the CBRS. “We’ve been doing it for five years. We’ve got 420,000 base station radios operating in the band,” and “we’ve had zero reports of interference” to the military systems that share the spectrum.
EchoStar said Friday that it had completed the ITU's Bringing Back Into Use process for its 2 GHz spectrum rights in non-geostationary orbit, meaning all other operators in overlapping frequencies must coordinate with EchoStar. The company called it "a critical step in powering next-generation direct-to-device services."
The ITU's goal of a secure and sustainable space environment, free from harmful radio interference, is challenged by increasingly complex spectrum coordination in space, ITU Secretary-General Doreen Bogdan-Martin wrote Thursday. Reports of intentional interference to global navigation satellite systems "have surged," she said. Unintentional interference is also growing due to more satellites in orbit, shared frequency bands and insufficient coordination of frequency assignments and orbital maneuvers, she added.
T-Mobile is expanding its T-Satellite service, which launched in June, to add to the number of apps that will work beyond the range of wireless coverage. “Essential tools like app-based voice and video chat, mapping, weather and social media sharing, among others, are now part of the T-Satellite experience,” the carrier said Wednesday. “We’re talking about unleashing the most loved and cherished features of the app experience.” In the case of WhatsApp, “T-Satellite users can now use voice and video chat with other WhatsApp users over satellite … You can now talk live, even video chat, and send voice memos to friends, family, co-workers … anywhere you can see the sky.”
Petitions to deny SpaceX's acquisition of EchoStar spectrum licenses are due Oct. 30, according to an FCC Wireless Bureau public notice Tuesday (docket 25-302). Oppositions are due Nov. 14, replies Nov. 24. SpaceX is buying EchoStar's AWS-4 and H-block spectrum licenses (see 2509080052). Also due Oct. 30 are petitions to deny AT&T's purchase of EchoStar's 3.45 GHz and 600 MHz licenses (see 2509300046). EchoStar is reportedly talking with Verizon about the sale of its AWS-3 spectrum licenses (see 2509300057).