T-Mobile started rolling out four-carrier aggregation on its 5G stand-alone network in limited markets, to go nationwide in coming weeks, the company said Tuesday. Peak speeds top 3.3 Gbps, T-Mobile said. The technology combines two channels of 2.5 GHz spectrum with one channel each of 1900 MHz and 600 MHz spectrum. “That’s like taking four separate highways and turning them into a massive superhighway where traffic can zoom faster than before,” T-Mobile said: “Customers with the Samsung Galaxy S23 will be the first to experience four-carrier aggregation with more devices to follow.”
Attorneys general from states led by New York raised concerns about how the FCC addresses wireless emergency alerts in multiple languages, in a filing at the FCC in docket 15-91 (see 2307240045). “We are concerned that relying on machine translation to translate WEAs from English to other languages may result in inaccurate alerts,” the AGs said in a filing posted Monday: “It is critical that alerts be accurate. We therefore urge the Commission to adopt the alternative approach of requiring installation on cell phones of translated alert templates prepared for the National Weather Service and other federal alert originators by human translators.” The AGs also questioned whether the 13 languages, other than English, proposed by the FCC are enough. AGs from Colorado, Connecticut, the District of Columbia, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, Washington, Wisconsin and New York City also signed the filing. The National Weather Service said with dedicated funding it could create templates in different languages for alerts. The "long-term goal is to automatically translate all alerts and forecasts into other languages,” the service said: “Experience with Spanish translation has shown that if NWS alerts use a limited set of words and phrases, the AI/[machine learning] process can automatically provide translated products with an accuracy exceeding 97%.”
The Nebraska Department of Transportation became the latest to seek an FCC waiver allowing early cellular vehicle-to-everything deployments in the 5.9 GHz band (see 2307170049). “The Applicant requests this waiver as it is prepared to deploy and operate C-V2X on-board units and roadside units to improve roadway safety, but cannot do so absent a waiver that permits such deployment,” said a filing posted Monday in docket 19-138. The state DOT said C-V2X roadside units are already deployed along three highway segments in the Omaha area, with additional units planned in western Nebraska.
JMA Wireless launched a three-year research partnership with Muriel Medard, software science and engineering professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, focused on ultra-reliable low-latency (URLLC) wireless. “Historically, the industry has traded performance to achieve reliability -- making wireless URLLC impossible,” said a Tuesday news release: “MIT and JMA are working to make URLLC a reality without sacrificing performance -- delivering wirelessly what could previously only be done with a hard-wired connection.”
The FCC Wireless Bureau approved Midland Radio’s request for waiver of FCC rules for general mobile radio service devices in the 462 MHz band (see 2110120061). Midland requested a waiver to allow digital data transmission from non-handheld radios, the automatic transmission of digital data more than once within a 30-second period, and antennas to be a non-integrated part of the GMRS unit. “We find that Midland has shown that a waiver is warranted because, based on the unique circumstances, application of several GMRS provisions to this particular software application would not serve the public interest,” the bureau said Monday: “By granting a waiver, we allow increased functionality and safety for the off-road community, in support of the public interest.” The bureau said it agreed with Midland that the waiver “would serve the public interest by ensuring that critical communications and location information are available in dangerous remote locations where traditional communications infrastructure is lacking.” The approval came with conditions, including that transmitters “must not be capable of modification by end users to adjust the frequencies of operation” and that operations be restricted to the 462 MHz main and interstitial channels.
Samsung inevitably "will join the Iridium bandwagon" of Android smartphone makers that use Qualcomm's Snapdragon Satellite platform enabled by Iridium, William Bair's Louie DiPalma wrote investors Monday: "It's just a matter of when." He said a Samsung announcement of Iridium compatibility would either come this week at the smartphone company's Z Flip Unpacked event or in February at the Samsung Galaxy S24 unveiling.
A report and order on rules for the 60 GHz band approved by commissioners 4-0 in May (see 2305180036), is effective Aug. 23, said a notice in Monday’s Federal Register. The 60 GHz order adopted proposals in a July 2021 Further NPRM to permit mobile field disturbance sensors to operate throughout the band and clarify that radars are a type of FDS operation. It also adopts rules for devices other than pulse radars, based on an industry consensus agreement, and rules for pulse radars, based on another agreement. “The Commission’s decision is a significant step in the continuing expansion and evolution of its rules and will supercharge the development and deployment of new and innovative radar operations -- including valuable safety applications that detect unattended children in vehicles and which previously could only be permitted through a waiver of the rules,” the notice said.
University of Michigan tests found little risk to 6 GHz incumbents from unlicensed use of the band, researchers from that school, the University of Notre Dame and the University of Chicago, told the FCC. The researchers presented the results to staff from the Office of Engineering and Technology and filed a paper in docket 18-295, said a Friday filing. Some 16,000 Wi-Fi 6E access points (APs) have been deployed in about 225 buildings at the Michigan school, researchers said. “We gathered tens of thousands of measurements of Received Signal Strength Indicator (RSSI) along with other system parameters with consumer devices, smartphones and laptops, over two representative areas: a dense enterprise deployment in the main campus area and a residential deployment close to campus,” they said: “We also presented results of measurements made at a single building in the University of Notre Dame with 70 deployed APs. Our results demonstrate that while outliers with high RSSI values are observed, the median outdoor RSSI values do not pose any interference risk to incumbents.” The research was funded by the National Science Foundation and aims at developing an “unbiased, statistical understanding of the nature of a real-world, dense Wi-Fi 6E deployment,” the filing said.
The independent compliance officer (ICO) monitoring Verizon’s compliance with conditions imposed as part of the FCC’s approval of its buy of Tracfone (see 2111220069) wants additional changes, in its overview of the transaction. “The Verizon Plan is reasonably designed to ensure the Company’s implementation and compliance with the Order and appears to be largely effective,” said a report by the ICO, posted Monday in docket 22-210: “Several prior ICO Recommendations remain in-progress and priority areas for the Company to address. The ICO found that while Verizon has revised or enhanced its Order compliance activities in response to certain ICO Recommendations or otherwise, it has not memorialized those changes in the written Verizon Plan or Compliance Manual.” This was the third report. The ICO urged the carrier to “review and update the Implementation and Compliance Plan, Compliance Program Manual, and related documents on a periodic basis to reflect any material enhancements or changes, especially if those enhancements or changes are not entirely consistent with the current content, and consider aligning the process for Recommendation responses and program updates to align to the Plan.” The ICO plans a “deeper dive into the Company’s Order compliance efforts and verification of Data Reporting.”
The FCC Public Safety Bureau said Friday it’s creating a single docket, 23-237, for filings on review and approval of regional plans or plan amendments for spectrum in the 800 MHz National Public Safety Planning Advisory Committee band. “We are establishing this single docket as an administrative convenience to replace the previous 55 individual dockets established on a region-by region basis,” the bureau said: “Some of the regional dockets have closed, and we will close the remaining individual dockets at a later date. All active filings from the regional dockets will be transferred into the new docket.”