The Rural Wireless Association asked the FCC to request equipment manufacturers share their signal-to-interference-and-noise ratio (SINR) information with smaller carriers, allowing them to comply with the agency’s broadband data collection requirements. Some equipment makers have to disclose the SINR information but say it’s “highly confidential, even after executing Nondisclosure Agreements with the carriers and/or their engineering consultants,” RWA said, in a filing posted Thursday in docket 19-195: “At the same time, these equipment manufacturers have apparently disclosed this SINR information to the larger carriers.” RWA also noted some of its members have Huawei and ZTE gear in their networks and are unable to get the information from the two Chinese companies, which are exiting the U.S. market. RWA members also have concerns with the broadband service location fabric data, the group said. “According to filers, there [are] a lot of missing locations due to outdated and inaccurate addresses.”
The FCC Wireless Bureau approved Amtrak’s application to offer positive train control on a line from Poughkeepsie to Schenectady, New York, using automated maritime telecommunications system spectrum, subject to protection for broadcasters. Amtrak has operated the 13 base stations since 2018 under a grant of special temporary authority and now has permanent authority, the bureau said Thursday.
Comments are due Sept. 12, replies Oct. 11, on waiver requests by the Transportation departments in Florida and Georgia and the Maryland State Highway Administration to operate roadside units using cellular vehicle-to-everything technology in the upper 30 MHz of the 5.9 GHz band, said a notice for Friday’s Federal Register. An earlier waiver request by C-V2X proponents got general support when the commission took comments this summer (see 2207290032). The University of Michigan and the Hawaii Department of Transportation also asked for waivers, both posted Thursday in docket 19-138.
Nex-Tech Wireless told the FCC it will soon be able to offer real-time text (RTT) to its customers. The provider “expects to complete implementation of RTT to 911 within the next 30-60 days based upon the latest information provided to Nex-Tech Wireless by its RTT vendor,” said a filing posted Wednesday in docket 16-145. The company is one of a group of smaller carriers that struggled to implement RTT (see 2012220031).
The C-band relocation payment clearinghouse has an Aug. 22 deadline for responding to a Mongoose Works appeal of clearinghouse decision, said an FCC Wireless Bureau public notice Wednesday. Mongoose's reply deadline is Aug. 29, it said.
The National Spectrum Management Association urged the FCC to incorporate Universal Licensing System data into the national broadband map. “Maps outlining existing, licensed and proposed fixed wireless deployments provide highly detailed information about planned and deployed systems that are broadband capable for backhaul and last mile,” said a filing posted Wednesday in docket 11-10: “NSMA suggests harnessing this data for the nation’s broadband map, including by allowing coordinators and licensees to submit it into the broadband mapping system.”
The National Science Foundation asked for protection for various radioastronomy sites if the FCC approves a waiver request by ContiTech to use radars in 76-81 GHz spectrum for mining, milling and tunneling operations. Comments were due on the waiver request Monday in docket 22-260 (see 2207080050). NSF asked that the company be prohibited from using the bands, “unless coordinated,” within 25 kilometers of 10 National Radio Astronomy Observatory very long baseline array sites and within 150 km of six observatories. NTIA submitted the comments to the FCC.
High-tech companies met virtually with staff from the FCC Office of Engineering and Technology to lay out a plan for a regulatory framework for the 60 GHz band. The plan proposes effective isotropic radiated power levels of 20 dBm in the lower part of the band, which is double the limit in current rules. “The Radar Representatives offer this proposal in the spirit of compromise to advance the resolution of the above-referenced proceeding and enable reasonable coexistence between a wide variety of unlicensed communications devices and radar devices, as well as other technologies, throughout the 60 GHz Band,” said a filing posted Tuesday in docket 21-264. Amazon, Google, IEE Sensing, Infineon Technologies Americas, Texas Instruments and Vayyar Imaging were on the call. The FCC sought comment last summer in a Further NPRM, seeking revised rules for short-range field disturbance sensor radars in the 60 GHz band (see 2107090047).
Allowing grandfathering of 60 GHz automotive safety equipment manufactured under previous waivers under revised rules for the band is important to public safety, IEE Sensing said in a comment to the FCC. “IEE Sensing is particularly concerned about being able to transition/migrate to the new rules without needing to try to implement a ‘flash cut,’ because given the long lead times in the automotive sector to introduce new technology, it would otherwise leave a gap before the re-engineered sensors were qualified and deployed,” said a filing posted Monday in docket 21-264: “Particularly given the life-saving nature of these sensors in this particular use case, such a gap would be contrary to the public interest.”
The FCC asked for comment by Aug. 23, replies Sept. 2, on a waiver request by Ericsson of 3.45 GHz rules to allow the company to offer a multiband radio. “Ericsson requests relief to permit the multiband device to exceed the 3.45 GHz service out of band emission levels in the 3.7 GHz band when the device is operating in carrier aggregation mode across both the 3.45 GHz and 3.7 GHz bands,” said a Monday notice by the Wireless Bureau and Office of Engineering and Technology, in docket 22-298.