T-Mobile CEO Mike Sievert is looking to exit the company, which he has led since 2020, German newspaper Handelsblatt reported Monday. T-Mobile U.S. is partially owned by Germany’s Deutsche Telekom.
Public Knowledge and the Electronic Privacy Information Center urged the FCC to take privacy into consideration as the agency looks at wireless location accuracy for 911 calls (see 2506090022). Comments were posted this week in docket 07-114. “The Commission has presented acceptable proposals to make [enhanced 911] better, but has failed to properly consider in its proposals the importance of consumer privacy,” the groups said. Before adopting new E911 rules, the FCC should “seek further comment on how to protect subscriber information, including Customer Proprietary Network Information, as demands for sensitive location data increase.”
AT&T has the spectrum it needs for its wireless network for now but must be open-minded when any bands become available, AT&T CFO Pascal Desroches said Tuesday at the Mizuho Technology Conference. Desroches also predicted that by the end of the current decade, nearly all economically viable locations will be reached with fiber, which is why the carrier is pushing hard on fiber today.
Federated Wireless representatives urged the FCC to protect citizens broadband radio service operations from harmful interference in a meeting with an aide to Chairman Brendan Carr. There are “practical, near-term improvements” to CBRS operations that “can be readily implemented,” said a filing posted Monday in docket 17-258. They include “more realistic incumbent protections, higher base station power and harmonized out-of-band emissions.”
The FCC released Monday a small-entity compliance guide on recent changes to wireless emergency alert rules (see 2502270042). “Participating wireless providers must support an alert originator’s selection of whether a WEA message will be presented silently, i.e., without triggering the common audio attention, the common vibration cadence, or both, in the mobile device presenting the WEA Alert Message,” the guide says. “If the alert originator indicates that a specific alert should not play the attention signal and should not cause the device to vibrate, then participating wireless providers should send those instructions to the device in an appropriate manner resulting in the device executing the instructions.”
A Trump administration cybersecurity executive order released Friday is a positive step in efforts to roll out the voluntary cyber trust mark program, the Consumer Technology Association said Monday. The order mandates that by Jan. 4, 2027, all IoT devices sold to the government must carry the cyber trust mark. “This is an important step in making many years of work by CTA, industry, and government to raise the bar on cybersecurity of connected devices a reality,” David Grossman, vice president of policy and regulatory affairs, said in an email. The program was approved 5-0 by FCC commissioners last year (see 2403140034).
The FCC should “refrain” from changing citizens broadband radio service power levels and out-of-band emissions limits in areas outside the contiguous U.S. (CONUS), GCI representatives said in a meeting with FCC Wireless Bureau and Office of Engineering and Technology staff. The Alaskan carrier continues to offer critical fixed satellite services over the C band in areas outside CONUS, “such as Alaska, which require protection from harmful interference,” said a filing posted Friday in docket 17-258. “Such services include long distance services to remote villages, special access services, connectivity to support FAA air travel safety systems and weather cameras, middle-mile capacity, the delivery of telehealth services, and mobile wireless coverage via 2G and LTE-over-Satellite wireless services, among other important services.”
The FCC sought comment Friday on Verizon's request that the commission zero out the unlocking commitment it stipulated as a condition of approving the company’s purchase of Tracfone (see 2505200051). Comments are due July 7, replies July 21, and must reference dockets 06-150, 24-186 and 21-112, said a Wireless Bureau notice.
The FCC Wireless Bureau on Friday established a pleading cycle on Verizon’s proposed $1 billion buy of wireless licenses from UScellular. The companies announced a deal in October (see 2410180004). Verizon would get 39 licenses from the smaller carrier, in the cellular, AWS-1, AWS-3 and PCS bands. Petitions to deny are due July 7, oppositions July 22 and replies Aug. 1 in docket 25-192, the bureau said. The licenses cover 618 counties across 19 states, or about 8% of the U.S. population, it said. “Post-transaction, according to the Applicants, Verizon Wireless would be attributed with a maximum of 372 megahertz of spectrum, including up to 72 megahertz of below-1-GHz spectrum.”
The Association of Public-Safety Communications Officials on Friday urged the FCC to address “dispatchable location” information as it reconsiders rules for wireless calls to 911. APCO filed in response to a March Further NPRM on wireless location accuracy, approved in a 4-0 vote by commissioners. Comments were due Friday in docket 07-114.