T-Mobile filed at the FCC its list of licenses it believes should be offered during the upcoming 2.5 GHz auction, in response to the recent revised list from the FCC (see 2204150048). T-Mobile “appreciates the work that the Commission’s staff has invested in preparing for this important auction, including by refining the list of products that will be available and making available a mapping tool,” said a filing posted Wednesday in docket 18-120. The FCC will offer some 8,000 licenses in the auction, which starts July 29.

Top officials from the National Sheriffs' Association spoke with FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel about the future of 4.9 GHz band, the subject of a comment cycle that wrapped in January (see 2201120049). “NSA discussed the importance of preserving 4.9 GHz for public safety use and the importance of nationwide public safety,” said a filing Wednesday in docket 00-32.

Google representatives urged the FCC to adopt revised rules for short-range field disturbance sensor radars in the 60 GHz band (see 2110180062), in a meeting with Office of Engineering and Technology staff. “Modifications to the rules are necessary to realize the full potential of the 60 GHz band” and “updated rules should seek to maximize reasonable coexistence and technological neutrality among unlicensed technologies,” said a filing posted Tuesday in docket 21-264. “Coexistence is possible across a full panoply of technologies, including the several varieties of low-power radars that can operate in the band,” Google said.

NTIA’s Institute for Telecommunication Sciences (ITS) selected Rakuten Mobile USA to provide distributed and central units for interoperability testing by 5G Challenge host lab CableLabs, said a Tuesday release. The institute is hosting the challenge, in collaboration with DOD, “to accelerate the adoption of open interfaces, interoperable components, and multi-vendor solutions,” NTIA said. In the first-year event, NTIA and ITS will award up to $3 million “to contestants who submit hardware and/or software solutions for one or more … 5G network subsystems.” Interested contestants can still submit white papers to Challenge.gov by 7 p.m. EDT May 5 to take part in the challenge, NTIA said.

Increased spectrum congestion shows the need for the FCC to put more emphasis on the use of probabilistic interference assessments, said Jeffrey Westling, American Action Forum technology and innovation policy director, in a report. Traditional spectrum management decisions “were based on impact estimates using deterministic, single-value calculations that employ worst-case scenarios,” he said Monday: “This approach results in an overly conservative management regime that often prevents the deployment of new services even if the likelihood of harmful interference, and the potential impact if harmful interference did occur, remained relatively insignificant.” Probabilistic interference assessments “better account for the actual operating parameters in the field, as well as the actual impact the interference will have on operations,” he said. They “provide regulators with a more complete picture of the radio environment when determining whether new services can be deployed and operate, allowing for increased spectrum efficiency in the United States.”

Consultants the Besen Group estimated the U.S. market for private 5G networks market will reach $3.2 billion by 2026, in a report Monday. The market segments are warehouse/storage, office space, service, mercantile, public assembly, religious worship, education, food service, hospitality, healthcare, food sales and public order/safety, Besen said.

This will be “a breakout year for fixed wireless access,” but only if the government gets policy right, Free State Foundation Director-Policy Studies Seth Cooper blogged Monday. Cooper warned against restoring net neutrality rules, last revised under former FCC Chairman Ajit Pai, saying “to keep investment in broadband networks strong, there should be no going back to Title II.” Infrastructure siting rules are important, he said. FWA should also be eligible for more than $48 billion in connectivity money that will be awarded through the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, he said. “There has been concern that only services offering fiber connections will be eligible for grants,” he said. “But 5G-enabled FWA may be the best technology solution for connecting certain hard-to-reach geographic areas.”

Counsel for Liberty Mobile Puerto Rico and Liberty Mobile USVI urged FCC Wireline Bureau staff to approve their request for a ruling that AT&T should port to Liberty 24,000 wireless numbers assigned to 16,000 customers acquired as part of Liberty’s buy of AT&T’s wireless business in Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands (see 2203020066). “Liberty’s requested relief is technically feasible,” said a filing posted Monday in docket 22-68: No one “cited any Commission rule or ruling, any court decision, or indeed any other material, that questioned or undermined Liberty’s explanation of how the Commission’s existing number portability rules apply to Liberty’s (unique) situation” and “the Commission has never imposed any geographic or location-based limitations on wireless-to-wireless ports or the numbers that may be ported between wireless carriers.”

The FirstNet Authority Board and its committees will meet 11 am. EDT May 4, said a Monday Federal Register notice. The meeting is at the University of New Hampshire-Durham, but the public can watch only online “due to restrictions on the number of people who can be present.” FirstNet gained 300,000 subscribers Q1, to hit more than 3.3 million connections, AT&T officials said during an earnings call last week.

The FCC exempted from ex parte filing requirements oral or written communications with agency staff as part of the National Spectrum Consortium’s Partnering to Advance Trusted and Holistic Spectrum Solutions (PATHSS) Task Group’s work on the 3.1-3.45 GHz band (see 2110270050). There's “little substantive overlap” between the work of PATHSS and FCC proceedings on the band, the Wireless Bureau said in a Monday notice. If the commission relies on any presentations made to the group as part of its work on pending proceedings it will “place such information in the record and provide the public an opportunity to comment,” the FCC said.