The FCC lifted one of the restrictions, limiting on-board units (OBUs) to 20 dBm transmitter output power, that was part of the joint waiver allowing some proponents of cellular-vehicle-to-everything in the 5.9 GHz band to start to deploy. The FCC approved the waiver in April (see 2304240066) and waiver recipients sought the change last month (see 2306080023). Petitioners are correct that NTIA “recommended limits it deemed sufficient to protect federal systems from potential interference from C-V2X operations, in terms of [equivalent isotropic radiated power], during the waiver period, and did not require a Transmitter Output Power limit,” the Wednesday order said: “We also note that the Commission has moved away from defining the transmitter output power limit and antenna gain requirement in recent rulemakings in order to provide product design flexibility to manufacturers.” The waiver conditions aren’t “intended to add unnecessary burden or constraint on the deployment of C-V2X-based technology,” the FCC said. The order was handed down by the chiefs of the Public Safety and Wireless bureaus and the Office of Engineering and Technology.

CTIA and member companies raised concerns about an FCC proposal that carriers more precisely route wireless 911 calls and texts to public safety answering points through location-based routing (LBR) (see 2212210047), in a meeting with staff from FCC Public Safety and Wireless bureaus. “As wireless providers take different approaches to implementing LBR, CTIA noted that a wireless providers’ obligation to use LBR should be premised upon a valid PSAP request that includes the provision of the shapefiles, which are necessary for wireless providers to tailor their networks to unique geographies and PSAP boundaries,” said a filing posted Monday in docket 18-64: “For these reasons, CTIA also noted that non-nationwide wireless providers should have more time to deploy LBR within their networks than proposed in the NPRM.” CTIA also offered counsel on rules for providing location information with next-generation text solutions. The group “encouraged the Commission to focus on the use of LBR for real-time text and ensure that wireless providers have the flexibility to implement LBR for text-to-911 in ways that are consistent with their unique network and handset configurations.” AT&T, Dish Network, Southern Linc, T-Mobile and Verizon participated in the meeting.

The Commerce Spectrum Management Advisory Committee will meet July 18, starting at 3 p.m., said a notice for Wednesday’s Federal Register. CSMAC last met in March (see 2303100038). The meeting will be at Wilkinson Barker, 1800 M St. NW, Suite 800N, Washington, D.C.

Public safety answering points continued to have a 30% increase in call volume in June, apparently tied to interface updates to some Android phones (see 2306210030), the National Emergency Number Association said. “NENA staff has been working with Google and Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) regarding a recent and large uptick in accidental calls caused by changes to default behavior in some devices for the Emergency SOS feature in Android,” the group said last week. Android operating system software from both Google and the OEMs have updates to address the issue, NENA said: “For multiple major OEMs, the updates have already been pushed to the public and installed on many devices. It will take some time for updates to reach a critical mass of handsets, and for users to install them, for the issue to be completely addressed. This may take weeks to months. NENA advises all Android users to update their OS to the latest version.”

Michael Calabrese, director of the Wireless Future Program at New America, told an aide to FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel the FCC was right in its approach proposing sharing in the 42 GHz band, approved by commissioners 4-0 in June (see 2306080042). Calabrese had been an early advocate of the approach (see 2305300055). Most of the licensed “Spectrum Frontier” spectrum “sits mostly idle in mobile carrier warehouses awaiting an economically viable use case,” said a filing posted Monday in docket 23-258: “In contrast, … this band, particularly in combination with the lower 37 GHz band, could facilitate very high-capacity point-to-multipoint fixed access wireless deployments where they are needed most in both less densely populated areas, as well as in multi-tenant environments.” Calabrese also asked about remaining unresolved issues in the 2020 Further NPRM on the 6 GHz band (see 2306230046). Public interest groups find it “very discouraging that some staff seem to want to take the Commission backwards to focusing on corner cases based on hypothetical measures of ‘interference’ … that are unrelated to actual harmful interference (i.e., to link availability),” Calabrese said.

Representatives of New York City's Metropolitan Transportation Authority urged the FCC to finalize rules for the 4.9 GHz band, consistent with comments MTA filed on final rules for the band (see 2305160065). MTA discussed its communications based train control (CBTC) for the city's subway, said a filing recapping a meeting with an aide to Commissioner Nathan Simington and posted Friday in docket 07-100. “MTA explained that 5G spectrum options suitable for public safety applications are limited in the New York City market,” the filing said: “Once finalized, the new framework for the 4.9 GHz band will facilitate MTA’s substantial CBTC investment and promote increased utilization of the band.”

Wells Fargo said in a new report fixed wireless access will continue to grow but could shift its focus away from urban and suburban markets. "The distribution of fixed wireless customers so far has largely been in urban and suburban areas (in part due to midband 5G's availability largely in more urban environments), with ~65-70% of subscribers coming from urban/suburban footprints and ~30-35% from rural or smaller markets," said a report to investors: "The next leg of FWA growth will likely happen in suburban and rural locations where fixed wireless is less penetrated.” Smaller markets make up more than “40% of the US population, which often only have one high-speed Internet provider (or in some cases zero).” Carriers “should have substantial excess wireless capacity in those markets, as many are rolling out midband channels of 150-200MHz, which is unlikely to be fully utilized by mobile use cases given lower population densities in those markets,” the firm said.

The Wireless ISP Association met with an aide to FCC Commissioner Nathan Simington as it urges a technology neutral approach to rules for the FCC’s Alternative Connect America Cost Model program (see 2306260044). “We emphasized that the Commission has never precluded the use of unlicensed spectrum for its high-cost programs,” said a filing posted Friday in docket 10-90: “In its 2016 order adopting rules for the A-CAM program, the Commission specifically stated that it would not require rate-of-return carriers to deploy service with terrestrial wireline technology if the cost would exceed the $250 per-line per-month cap.”

The U.S. Supreme Court denied Northstar Wireless' cert petition on the FCC's denying designated entity AWS-3 auction credits to Northstar and another Dish Network (see 2301230007), per a notice Friday in docket 22-672. The court said Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson didn't take part in the consideration or decision. The cert petition denial raises the prospects of a re-auction of spectrum soon, New Street Research's Blair Levin wrote in an investors' note Friday. The FCC doesn't have auction authority now, but that probably will be restored in 2023's second half, he said. Dish already paid $515 million and would be on the hook for any shortfall in a re-auction of the licenses, said Levin, though he deems such a shortfall unlikely.

United Wireless Holdings agreed to pay $15,000 to settle an FCC investigation of unapproved international ownership changes, the Enforcement Bureau said Friday. On Sept. 20, 2021, the company filed a petition for declaratory ruling, reporting several ownership changes and seeking retroactive approval for transactions that occurred after the 2009 grant of the prior approval of 100% ownership of United by Andrew Fitton, a U.K. citizen, the bureau said. The International Bureau agreed to the changes last year but warned of potential enforcement actions. “United Wireless intends to assign its remaining licenses to an FCC-qualified, unaffiliated third party or to cancel those licenses in connection with the winding down” of the company’s “paging activities,” the order said: “United Wireless expects these licensing actions to be initiated within the next few months and in no event later than the end of 2023.”