Comments are due Dec. 2, replies Jan. 3, as the FCC seeks comment on the use of the 70/80/90 GHz bands for high altitude platform stations or other stratospheric-based platform services, in docket 20-133, says a Federal Register notice for Tuesday. The Wireless Bureau recently sought additional comment. CTIA urged the FCC to act “on the well-developed record of support” for using the spectrum for 5G backhaul. “CTIA and other commenters have urged the Commission to act on the issue of improving the fixed service rules even as it further considers pending issues involving these bands,” the group said in a filing posted Monday in docket 20-133: “Enhancing the fixed service rules has near unanimous record support, and such action can and should be taken expeditiously, even as further engineering analyses and examinations are conducted to consider other potential services in these bands."
Wireless investors have big concerns, starting with risk of “more spectrum coming to the market too soon,” New Street’s Blair Levin wrote investors. “The wireless industry will, within a short time, have spent well over $100 billion" in two auctions to buy licenses, he said this weekend: “They now must spend tens of billions more to deploy networks to take advantage of that spectrum. As a practical political matter, they always argue that they need more spectrum. As a practical economic matter, they don’t want any new big auctions for several years, at the earliest.” Another concern is DOD “controlling the spectrum process and keeping spectrum from coming to market for too long (and when it arrives, having the spectrum come through a shared, rather than exclusive, framework)," he said: Investors fear that concerns over C-band interference with altimeters, an issue being raised by the FAA (see 2110290065), “may delay 5G services.”
The National Public Safety Telecommunications Council urged the FCC to move beyond a notice of inquiry (see 2110010046) on future spectrum needs of the IoT to look at the specific needs of public safety agencies. More work is needed “to characterize which public safety IoT uses require dedicated spectrum and which might be accommodated sufficiently on commercial wireless networks, ” the group said in comments posted Monday in docket 21-353: “Then, spectrum estimates will be needed for both categories.” The Institute for the Wireless IoT at Northeastern University said “recent FCC moves in opening new bands for unlicensed use of spectrum should provide sufficient spectrum for the unlicensed IoT devices for the foreseeable future.” The institute noted questions about some of the bands and said its Colosseum network emulator can help (see 2108030052): “A large-scale RF emulation platform that is capable of implementing diverse wireless communication technologies all in one place, and assessing their coexistence performance with repeatable tests, is of undeniable importance for more efficient evaluation of the performance of licensed and unlicensed radios.” The Ultra Wide Band Alliance said the FCC should take note of new impulse radio UWB technology. “It can allow many devices with diverse uses to coexist within a shared bandwidth,” the alliance said: “Its area of influence (potential interference to others) is small due to the exceptionally low transmit power per MHz. Even a slight increase in power of 10 dBm/MHz would still place it at thousands of times less power than most other technologies. This makes it an attractive option for spectrum sharing and noninterfering coexistence with other users.”
The FCC Wireless Bureau approved 20 more licenses for the 2.5 GHz band to serve Alaskan native communities. That brings to 99 the number granted in Alaska, the FCC said Friday. “Too many lack the connectivity needed” for modern activities, said Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel: “Today’s announcement continues our progress in leveraging 2.5 GHz band spectrum” for tribes.
The filing window for the FCC’s secure and trusted communications networks reimbursement program opened Friday, aimed at removing (or ripping and replacing) Huawei and ZTE gear from small carrier wireless networks. “Trust in our communications systems is fundamental, and to preserve that trust we need to identify threats and mitigate risk,” said Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel. “Removing insecure equipment from existing networks after installation is challenging. This program is here to help.” It closes Jan. 14. Carriers should “have the opportunity to use promising and innovative alternatives, like interoperable open radio access network solutions, as we build tomorrow’s networks,” she said.
AT&T criticized the latest comments from the Alarm Industry Communications Committee asking the FCC to reject the carrier's plan to shutter its 3G network starting Feb. 22 (see 2109150041). Granting the petition would “throw a monkey wrench into AT&T’s carefully planned 5G transition,” said a filing posted Friday in docket 21-304. “The Commission lacks statutory authority to delay AT&T’s 3G sunset,” the carrier said: “AICC’s rationales for delaying that sunset remain irreconcilable with the presumptively truthful assurances that its member companies have given investors about the business effects of COVID and the global microchip shortage.” Delay “would threaten AT&T’s network performance,” it said. AICC didn't comment.
Sennheiser said the FCC should act on its petition seeking a vacant channel for mics in every market (see 2101080050), and that an analysis it will soon file shows a channel is available in the 50 largest U.S. markets. “A vacant channel is critically important to wireless microphones and the content creation industry,” said a filing posted Friday in docket 15-146: “Otherwise, wireless microphone users may be less likely to create or adopt new technologies if the specter of a third round of obsolescence continues to loom.” Company representatives spoke with staff from the Office of Engineering and Technology and Media and Wireless bureaus. NAB wants to ensure some vacant channels remain available (see 2107280036). “Sennheiser continues its desperate efforts to concoct a plausible justification for overturning the Commission’s unanimous order closing the long-dormant vacant channel proceeding," an NAB spokesperson emailed: "Sennheiser recycles arguments that have already been soundly rejected while promising new ‘analysis’ that could have been previously presented to the commission and thus has no basis for reconsideration.”
Verizon’s broadcast message center (BMC) performed “as we would have expected, including the duration between the BMC’s receipt of the English and Spanish language versions of the message” from the Federal Emergency Management Agency, during the August wireless emergency alert system test (see 2108260046), the carrier said in a letter to the FCC, posted Thursday in docket 15-91. The time required “reflected the need to map the alert to the large number of sites in Verizon’s nationwide network, to determine the appropriate [mobility management entity] (which directs WEAs to associated cell sites), and to process both the English and Spanish language text versions of the message,” it said: The Public Safety Bureau asked that the information be filed.
The NSA and Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency recommended ways to prevent a malicious 5G cyberattack from compromising an entire network. Three more white papers are to come. “After the initial compromise of a network, attackers commonly pivot laterally by exploiting the availability of internal services, particularly looking for services that are unauthenticated,” Thursday's report said: “An attacker might use an initial position on a compromised virtual machine (VM) or container to access an application programming interface (API) or service endpoint that is not exposed externally. 5G cloud deployments will introduce more opportunities to move laterally.” Networks should assign unique, authenticated identities to all elements that communicate with other elements, the paper urged. Credential management is important, said NSA and CISA, which is part of the Department of Homeland Security. “Analytics for detecting potentially malicious resource access attempts should be deployed and run regularly,” they said: 5G cloud software should be kept “up-to-date and free from known vulnerabilities.”
Samsung Electronics and Ciena agreed to partner on a “combined 5G solution set” for rendering faster, “pre-validated” network deployments, they said Wednesday. The companies will collaborate on hardware and software for network operators “to support the increasing volume of 5G data traffic at the edge and within an increasingly distributed 5G architecture,” they said. It's an “end-to-end solution set” that includes Ciena’s xHaul routing and switching portfolio and its next-generation manage, control and plan domain controller, plus Samsung’s Core and radio access network portfolio, including virtualized RAN solutions, baseband units and radios.