Verizon laid out its top concerns as the FCC follows up on a network resilience NPRM commissioners approved 4-0 in September, amid hints regulation could follow (see 2109300069). “Adopt a general reasonableness standard for allowing roaming at the request of another provider,” Verizon said in a call with staff from the Public Safety Bureau: “Enumerate a non-exhaustive list of relevant factors for determining reasonableness in response to service provider complaints.” A fixed deadline for activating roaming “in response to a request is unworkable; every disaster event is unique, and affects different service providers differently,” said a filing posted Wednesday in docket 21-346.

Acconeer CEO Lars Lindell and others from the company discussed potential technical complications with FCC Office of Engineering and Technology staff as the agency considers revised rules for short-range radars in the 60 GHz band, the topic of a July NPRM (see 2107130066). “Technical rules based on channelization would not work for pulse radar, which does not have abrupt edges as short pulses are spread over a wide bandwidth to achieve the needed resolution,” Acconeer said. “If the Commission adopts rules for radar different from what has been proposed in the NPRM, it may be necessary to set out certain technical requirements for radar systems that transmit in durations measured in nanoseconds and different requirements for systems that transmit in durations measured in milliseconds,” said a filing posted Wednesday in docket 21-48: “A unified framework could be based on these two different scales.”

FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel backed making more spectrum available for 5G but didn’t discuss any additional target bands during remarks to a CTIA conference that were posted in Wednesday’s Daily Digest. “We need to replenish the spectrum pipeline for new commercial innovation if we want to continue to lead the world in Wireless,” Rosenworcel said: “We also need to be creative. I think that creativity is in our national DNA. Let’s speculate that’s what Marconi saw here, too. Because remember that spectrum auctions, incentive auctions, unlicensed authorization, and dynamic spectrum access systems all got their start in the United States. We’ve turned spectrum scarcity into abundance before. We can do it again.” Rosenworcel also noted the importance of open radio access networks: “Open and interoperable equipment is the future, and we are working to ensure that Open RAN technology is being built here and now.”

T-Mobile asked the FCC to allow it to use stage 2 mobile support through a program providing emergency relief to Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands to pay for the deployment of distributed antenna systems, but without the requirements sought by the Telecommunications Bureau of Puerto Rico (see 2205020057). “Adding additional requirements as suggested by the Bureau at this late stage could unnecessarily delay deployment,” said a filing posted Tuesday in docket 18-143: “Time is of the essence as T-Mobile enters its final year of Stage 2 funding, and adding more oversight likely would delay and ultimately might prevent T-Mobile from timely completing deployments before Stage 2 funding ends.” The rules for the fund don’t contemplate bureau review, and there's no basis to add new burdensome obligations in response to a petition for declaratory ruling clarifying the scope of the rules, T-Mobile said.

National Institute of Standards and Technology researchers determined performance is consistent across various millimeter-wave bands that have been targeted for 5G. Researchers used a new method to measure frequency effects across 26.5-40 GHz. “After extensive study in the laboratory and two real-world environments, NIST results confirmed that the main signal path -- over a clear ‘line of sight’ between transmitter and receiver -- does not vary by frequency, a generally accepted thesis for traditional wireless systems but until now not proven for the mmWave spectrum,” said the agency Tuesday. Researchers found signal losses in secondary paths “where transmissions are reflected, bent or diffused into clusters of reflections … can vary somewhat by frequency, depending on the type of path,” NIST said: “Reflective paths, which are the second strongest and critical for maintaining connectivity, lost only a little signal strength at higher frequencies.”

AT&T said Tuesday it's the first carrier to launch location-based routing to automatically transmit wireless 911 calls to the appropriate public safety answering point, using technology from Intrado. “AT&T can quickly and more accurately identify where a wireless 9-1-1 call is coming from using device GPS and hybrid information to route the call to the correct 9-1-1 call center,” the company said: “With location-based routing, a device can be located and routed within 50 meters of the device location. Prior to this launch, wireless 9-1-1 calls were routed based on the location of cell towers, which can cover up to a 10-mile radius.” The carrier rolled out the service to 16 states and Guam, with full nationwide coverage expected to be completed by the end of next month, it said.

Wireless telecom “has escaped the worst effects” of the global semiconductor shortage, and chips for cellular infrastructure equipment “will continue to dodge significant shortages going forward,” reported Strategy Analytics Monday. SA expects availability of chips for Wi-Fi access points and smartphones “will continue to improve through next year,” it said. “Tight supplies of semiconductors will gradually ease through the remainder of 2022 into 2023 as new foundry capacity comes online,” said SA analyst Christopher Taylor. China increased its production of semiconductors by more than 17% in 2021, “and production expansion in China will accelerate this year, helping to ease the global shortage,” said Taylor. Semiconductor investments in the U.S., EU, South. Korea, India and other countries “have also started to bear fruit, with the most significant capacity expansions due to start in 2023,” he said.

A Chinese Foreign Affairs Ministry spokesperson blasted as “groundless and denigrating” remarks by Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman in Africa that countries that choose Huawei for their 5G deployments risk “giving up their sovereignty” by “turning over their data” to the Chinese government. Chinese companies, including Huawei, “have conducted mutually beneficial cooperation with many countries in Africa and the world beyond,” said the spokesperson Monday: “There is not a single case of cybersecurity accident, surveillance or wiretapping in the course of cooperation.” Countries that do business with Huawei “may find themselves bringing in a surveillance capability they didn’t even know was there,” Sherman told African journalists in a digital media briefing Friday from Libreville, Gabon.

With Dish Network’s "spectrum portfolio" and “our rural roots,” there’s “certainly an opportunity” for the company to play in “fixed wireless in rural America,” said Chairman Charlie Ergen on a Q1 earnings call Friday. “We’re watching closely what T-Mobile and Verizon are doing,” he said. “I think it’s very creative in terms of what they’re doing. I think there’s maybe other ways to do it, depending on where you are and the densities you have.” Dish thinks the 12 GHz band, flexible use of which is being considered in an FCC rulemaking, is “the ideal frequency” for fixed wireless, said Ergen. “We’re hopeful the FCC will make some rulings on that,” he said. "In a funny sort of way," there may be more "upside" to fixed wireless than "the belief you have in linear TV," he said. Dish lost about 228,000 satellite TV subscribers in Q1, said CEO Erik Carlson on the call. "We still remain focused on acquiring and maintaining long-term, profitable customers, and we continue to play where we're strongest, in rural America, with higher-credit-quality subscribers," he said. Dish has an Analyst Day event scheduled for Tuesday in Las Vegas, its first 5G commercial deployment (see 2205040057).

APCO urged the FCC to proceed cautiously in granting requests for special temporary authority for experimental operations in the 6 GHz band, in a call with FCC Public Safety Bureau staff. “Given the risk of interference from unlicensed devices operating on the same channels licensed for public safety microwave links, these applications must be carefully evaluated,” said a filing posted Friday in docket 18-295. “While real-world testing was not conducted prior to adoption of the 6 GHz Order, subsequent testing has confirmed the potential for interference and demonstrated that fundamental assumptions in the Order were incorrect,” APCO said. How and where devices are used “is important for evaluating the risk of interference and should therefore be noted in the applications,” APCO said: “The types, numbers, and locations of user devices should also be specified.”