Open radio access network supporters told the FCC the proposed 5G Fund should be seen as an opportunity to encourage the deployment of open networks, per comments posted this week in docket 20-32 (see 2310240046). The 5G Fund “presents a unique and critical opportunity for the FCC to reinvigorate U.S. technological leadership with Open RAN deployments using open and interoperable interfaces,” said Mavenir. ORAN is “ready for the U.S. market today,” already being deployed by Dish Network and Triangle Communications “and thus should be a key part of 5G Fund deployments given its cost savings and improved security benefits,” the ORAN company said. “The competitive, security, and innovation-related advantages of Open RAN are widely recognized, and DISH’s successful nationwide Open RAN deployment demonstrates that these benefits are not merely theoretical: they are being realized each day in the field,” Dish said. The FCC should use the 5G Fund to encourage the deployment of ORAN technologies, said US Ignite. ORAN “has the potential to bolster U.S. leadership in wireless technology, bolster the domestic telecommunications supply chain, and enhance national security,” US Ignite said: “Despite telecom networks being critical to our national security and economic development, there are no large U.S. radio equipment vendors in the marketplace, with only a handful of European and Asian vendors able to provide at-scale deployment of 5G networks globally.” ORAN is “poised to promote wireless network security while driving innovation, lowering costs, increasing vendor diversity and supply chain robustness, and enabling more flexible network architectures,” said the ARA Platform for Advanced Wireless Research at Iowa State University. ORAN is “of particular interest to rural America, not only because it can potentially reduce cost and thus is consistent with the Commission’s objective to efficiently and effectively distribute finite universal service support, but also because it reduces barrier[s] to innovation and can enable rural-focused wireless technology development and deployment,” ARA said.
The FCC should reject the Electric Power Research Institute's request to extend by 30 days the deadline to file challenges to ongoing public trials of the automated frequency coordination (AFC) systems that will manage access to the 6 GHz band (see 2310180053), the Wi-Fi Alliance said. FCC rules “state that ‘[i]t is the policy of the Commission that extensions of time shall not be routinely granted,’” said a filing posted Tuesday in docket 21-352. “EPRI fails to provide any facts or circumstances that require the Commission to deviate from its policy in this case,” the alliance said: “To the contrary, the Commission routinely denies requests for extension of time when, as here, the requesting party is simply dissatisfied with the amount of time permitted for a required action.”
U.S. District Judge Timothy Kelly for the District of Columbia agreed to give Dish Network additional time to buy 800 MHz licenses from T-Mobile, accepting a motion filed last week by the two companies and the DOJ (see 2310190010). Kelly granted the consent motion, “with no party to this action opposing the requested relief," said his signed order Monday (docket 1:19-cv-02232). The option to buy the licenses was part of a series of agreements tied to T-Mobile’s buy of Sprint, aimed at helping Dish emerge as fourth national wireless provider essentially replacing Sprint (see 2308170065). Dish missed an August deadline to buy the licenses and asked for an extension until June 30. The new deadline is April 1. Dish also agreed to pay T-Mobile a $100 million extension fee.
The FCC’s USF program is in need of “substantial reform,” the Rural Wireless Association said in comments posted Monday in docket 10-90. RWA opposes picking winners through the use of reverse auctions. “In support of the FCC’s universal service goals, the Commission should expeditiously … transition high-cost support for fixed broadband to ongoing support to maintain networks that are deployed with funds from the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act and other federal and state grant programs; and … develop a model-based support mechanism for mobile networks,” RWA said.
An Information Technology and Innovation Foundation report, released Monday, calls on the federal policymakers to develop policies that consider tradeoffs of licensed, unlicensed and shared spectrum, and make allocations for the right reasons. “Licensed spectrum is good for providing the certainty needed to sustain wireless applications that require large, sustained investments,” but revenue from license auctions should be seen as “a side effect, not a goal in itself,” the report said. Spectrum auctions can generate lots of revenue, but “it is the market mechanism (including tradability on secondary markets) and the type of rights embodied by an exclusive license that make it a productive allocation,” it said. Unlicensed spectrum, “is a good way to prevent usage rights from becoming too fragmented,” but claims of congestion shouldn’t justify making more available, ITIF said: “One commonly cited claim is that unlicensed spectrum’s uses are important and valuable, and therefore more bandwidth should be freed up to ensure more reliable access to it. The problem with this argument is that licensed spectrum exists precisely for those who can’t operate under the uncertainties associated with unlicensed spectrum.” Spectrum sharing has become increasingly necessary as spectrum becomes more congested, ITIF said. Dynamic sharing “could even become the first-best allocation if technological advances enable a generalized use-or-share framework” and “there can be little objection, from a policy perspective, to allowing additional uses of a licensed band that does not cause harmful interference to the licensee,” the report said. But there are also limitations, ITIF said, noting power levels permitted in the citizens broadband radio service band are “327 times lower than those in the exclusively licensed band just above it.”
The FCC Wireless Bureau is asking for comment by Nov. 8 on the C-band Relocation Payment Clearinghouse’s proposal to set final claims submission deadlines as part of the ongoing C-band transition, said a notice for Tuesday’s Federal Register. The bureau “seeks comment on any other steps” it should take “pursuant to its delegated authority to facilitate the conclusion of the C-band transition reimbursement program and wind down of the RPC’s operations in an efficient and timely manner and in keeping with its remit to prevent fraud, waste, and abuse, including proposals advanced in recent ex parte submissions by AT&T, Verizon, and SES,” the notice said.
The final version of the FCC wireless emergency alerts order, approved by commissioners 5-0 last week (see 2310190056), contained a few tweaks over the draft. The order requires participating wireless providers to transmit emergency messages in the 13 most commonly spoken languages in the U.S., in addition to English and American Sign Language. The order now requires participating carriers to update their WEA election information in a new database “biannually as we do with our Broadband Data Collection.” While the draft proposed updates within 30 days of any changes “we are persuaded” by CTIA and the Competitive Carriers Association “that filing every 6 months (biannually) is consistent with our BDC requirements [and] would accomplish our goals without unduly burdening Participating … Providers,” the order says. In another change, the FCC now directs the Public Safety Bureau to seek comment on whether templates, to be installed on handsets to translate alerts into various languages, “can be made available on all devices.” The order adds a paragraph on how best to educate consumers on the availability of alerts in other languages. “Raising public awareness about this critical step is an important component of ensuring consumers are able to take advantage of multilingual alerts,” the order says: “Equally important is helping consumers understand how to set a WEA-capable device to a default language that enables them to receive multilingual alerts. We encourage all stakeholders involved in the distribution of WEA … to conduct outreach to educate the public about setting their WEA-capable devices to their preferred language to receive multilingual alerts.” The FCC also directs its Consumer and Governmental Affairs Bureau to publish a consumer guide. The order was posted in Monday’s Daily Digest.
Dish Network Chairman Charlie Ergen and other executives met with FCC Commissioners Nathan Simington and Anna Gomez about the company’s advocacy for action this year allowing use of the lower 12 GHz band for fixed-wireless (see 2309110061). “The 12 GHz band represents 500 megahertz of spectrum that can be authorized for higher-power fixed service without causing harmful interference to existing services,” said a filing posted Thursday in docket 20-443. “DISH reiterated that the Commission can, and should, act expeditiously to unlock the power of 5G-ready spectrum in this band,” the filing said: “DISH highlighted the importance of updating the Commission’s spectrum screen to ensure competitive carriers have access to a critical input for wireless service.”
The three major wireless carriers told the FCC the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s Oct. 4 wireless emergency alert had relatively few problems (see 2310040071), in filings posted Thursday in docket 15-91, though each reported some glitches. T-Mobile said repeatedly it had no difficulties receiving FEMA’s integrated public alert and warning system (IPAWS) alert. Test alert messages broadcast via LTE, UMTS and GSM “were transmitted 14.411 seconds after receipt from FEMA IPAWS due to mapping requirements imposed on these three broadcast technologies by the significantly larger database underlying T-Mobile’s nationwide coverage footprint,” the carrier said: “This represents an improvement of over 20 seconds from the 2021 test. Test Alert Messages broadcast via 5G were transmitted in under one (1) second.” T-Mobile also observed “an anomaly” for subscribers using some handsets running the Android R or newer operating system (OS). “Affected devices had the device language set to English but presented the alert in both English and Spanish,” T-Mobile said: “The anomaly was caused by an inadvertent overwrite of the logic in the device OS by the OS vendor, affecting National Alerts. T-Mobile is not aware of an instance in which this anomaly delayed or prevented receipt of the Test Alert Message.” Verizon said the system largely worked. Verizon had a delay of 1.663 seconds between the receipt of the test alert message from FEMA IPAWS and transmission to subscribers. “Verizon does not consider this a ‘delay,’ ‘complication,’ or ‘anomaly,’” it said: “The processing time between receipt of the alert and transmission to subscribers simply results from the large number of cell sites in our network, and the need for the two mated [cell broadcast entities] facilities to efficiently coordinate the delivery of both the English and Spanish language versions of the alert across all those sites.” Verizon also reported complaints and inquiries to its customer care channels that indicated “some cases where subscribers may not have received the alert due to the local RF propagation environment, or where the user’s device was operating in Wi-Fi mode only.” AT&T said some customers in Texas didn’t receive an alert, because of a fiber cut affecting 30 cellsites. “AT&T did not observe any instances of excessive delay in the network and does not consider the lapse of one second between the receipt of the alert from IPAWS and the transmission of the alert to subscribers as in any way delayed or abnormal,” it said. AT&T also said it surveyed more than 1,000 employees about their experience: More than 99.3% “received and reviewed the English version of the alert,” 85% “received and reviewed the alert within 1 minute or less. And 90% … received and reviewed the alert within 3 minutes or less.” AT&T also worked with a handset vendor in four states to test the alert on 77 handsets. “Of these, 100% of the devices received the English version of the alert and 97.4% of these devices received the test alert within 1 minute,” AT&T said. Also, 42 of the devices “were enabled to receive Spanish alerts and 100% of the devices received the alert in Spanish and 100% of these devices received the alert within [one] minute.”
The Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) asked the FCC to extend by 30 days the deadline to file challenges to ongoing public trials of the automated frequency coordination (AFC) systems that will manage access to the 6 GHz band (see 2308250061). An August order requires that test portals be able to accept challenges for 15 days after the close of a 45-day trial period. EPRI “in collaboration with multiple utilities, other 6 GHz fixed service (FS) system operators, and … FS equipment vendors, has been conducting research for the past three years on the potential for harmful interference from the introduction of unlicensed use into the 6 GHz band,” said a filing posted Wednesday in docket 18-295. EPRI said for a Comsearch trial the end date is Oct. 23 and challenges are due Nov. 7. EPRI said it submitted test vectors to the test portal Sept. 5 and received responses Sept. 8. “EPRI invested significant hours analyzing the responses and is currently preparing challenges to some of the responses” but then on Oct. 11 “received revised responses from Comsearch for the entire set of requests,” the institute said: “For EPRI to provide accurate analysis, we respectfully ask the FCC for more time.”