The Land Mobile Communications Council and the Association of American Railroads opposed in replies posted Wednesday in FCC docket 21-230 use of the 160.900 MHz band by maritime devices that mark fishing equipment, saying railroads use the spectrum. A June NPRM asked to what extent the 1900-2000 KHz band is used “to support fishing operations, and what obstacles prevent heavier spectrum usage.” NTIA earlier raised more general concerns (see 2108060056). “The record establishes that the introduction of transmitting maritime devices in the 160.900 MHz band would cause harmful interference to receiving railroad devices in the band,” said LMCC. Commenters from the fishing industry “have yet to show any real interest in or enthusiasm for operating in the … band -- no commenter representing the fishing industry has sought to have these devices authorized in the 160.900 MHz band,” AAR said. Atlantic Red Crab said the use of automatic identification system (AIS) beacons for fishing gear “would enhance safety by expanding maritime situational awareness, allowing operators of vessels when approaching or traveling through fishing grounds to identify the location and type of fishing gear present with greater confidence and accuracy and to react in a timelier fashion to avoid potentially hazardous entanglement in vertical lines.” The company said 160.900 MHz may be a “viable alternative” to other channels. “It is important to the safety of deck hands and all mariners to allow fisherman using pot gear the ability to deploy AIS beacons to mark their gear,” the Sablefish and Halibut Pot Association said: “Solutions are available that will allow the use of the AIS system to mark fishing equipment without confusing or swamping the existing system.”

The U.S. is moving faster to 5G than many other American Tower markets, CEO Tom Bartlett said during a New England Council webinar Wednesday. “We still have many markets outside the United States that are still back in the 3G world.” The company is using what it learns in the U.S. in international markets, he said. “We’re still in the early innings” on 5G, but American Tower customers will spend as much as $35 billion this year deploying the new generation of wireless, he said. 5G depends on moving computing capabilities closer to the customer and the network's “edge,” Bartlett said. “When we take a look at our 220,000 sites that we currently have today, they’re pretty much out at the edge.” Consumers are using their wireless devices as much as five times more than they did a few years ago and usage will continue to accelerate, he said. The COVID-19 pandemic has been the top issue he has dealt with since he took over in March 2020, Bartlett said. His focus has been keeping workers safe and “engaged,” he said. “As people are more and more isolated, you can get less engaged from the core of what we’re trying to do.” He has been thinking through “once we are through the pandemic, what does the world look like and what do our offices look like, what are our people expecting.” Every business is asking those questions, he said.

CTIA countered concerns raised by the aviation and aerospace industries on interference risks to low-range radar altimeters posed by mobile C-band use (see 2108160029), in a report filed at the FCC. Aviation interests contend 5G “will cause interference to radio altimeters that operate 220 MHz or more away -- but they ignore that real-world deployments in the C-Band and other nearby bands, both in the U.S. and abroad, operate today without any evidence of harmful interference to altimeters,” said a filing posted Tuesday in docket 18-122. The groups haven’t made available “underlying data that would allow all stakeholders to fully evaluate those assertions,” CTIA said: “With no transparency into test results and indefensible testing parameters, the Organizations’ calls to upend 5G deployments in the C-Band must be rejected.”

Google asked for an emergency waiver of its commitment to be an environmental sensing capability administrator in the citizens broadband radio service, after its monitoring systems went down during Hurricane Ida. The sensor sites affected are in Plaquemines Parish, Louisiana, said a filing posted Tuesday, in docket 15-319. CommScope and Federated Wireless sought similar waivers last week.

The FCC’s 3.45 GHz auction could hit bids as high as $37 billion, or fail entirely if two of the three national carriers drop out, New Street’s Jonathan Chaplin told investors in a weekend report. Chaplin said providers are positioned to spend at least $34 billion, with AT&T likely getting 40 MHz of spectrum, T-Mobile 31 and Dish Network 19, while Verizon likely takes a pass, he said. “The number of bidders is the biggest variable” and if Verizon does make a play that would drive up totals, he said. Balance sheets are “stretched,” but AT&T has “built resources following the media divestiture and dividend cut” and other providers have also added to resources since the C-band auction, he said.

Deutsche Telekom agreed to a $7 billion share-swap with SoftBank Group, former owner of Sprint, which gives the German company a near controlling interest in T-Mobile U.S. DT also sold its Dutch unit to private equity houses Warburg Pincus and Apax for $6.1 billion, as it deepens its focus on the U.S. With the share swap, DT raises its stake in T-Mobile U.S. by 5.3% to 48.4%. SoftBank becomes a 4.5% shareholder in DT and retains a 3.3% stake in T-Mobile, which could increase to 6.9% through true-up shares, SoftBank said. The deal is a “win-win” for both companies, said Marcelo Claure, former Sprint CEO, now CEO of SoftBank Group International. “It allows the SoftBank portfolio companies access to a new market, to the European market,” he said on CNBC Tuesday: DT is “undervalued and has a lot of potential in the future.” SoftBank is now the largest shareholder in DT after the German government, he said. “We’re in for the long run,” he said. DT CEO Tim Hottges said earlier this year DT is committed to taking a majority stock interest in T-Mobile (see 2105200064).

China regards 5G as a “frontier technology” that will “profoundly change the way people work and live and usher in an era where all is interconnected,” said a Foreign Affairs Ministry spokesperson Thursday after a government-sponsored World 5G Convention in Beijing. Since 5G came into commercial use in China, 993,000 5G base stations have been built and more than 392 million households “have been connected to 5G terminals,” he said. China is committed here to “openness and win-win results” with other global partners, said the spokesperson. “Businesses from all countries are welcome to take part in China's 5G rollout.” China hopes that “all sides will oppose acts that abuse the national security concept and disrupt and undermine global 5G cooperation,” said the spokesperson.

A quarter of all problems that new-vehicle buyers experience in their first 90 days of ownership involve the infotainment category, and six of the top 10 problems across the industry are infotainment-related, reported J.D. Power Tuesday. Voice recognition, for the first time in a decade, isn't the top problem among new-vehicle owners. Smartphone connectivity via Android Auto or Apple CarPlay is the top headache, and is worsening “significantly,” said the company: “This is a particular problem when these systems are operated wirelessly, which is increasingly common.”

The FCC needs to “diligently move forward” on RF exposure rules “specific” to wireless power transfer devices, or the U.S. risks “losing its leadership role in the WPT industry,” said an Energous filing posted Monday in docket 19-226. “Commission action is needed to enable U.S. companies and consumers to realize the substantial benefits that can be derived in the near term from the further deployment of WPT technologies.” Energous electronics manufacturer customers are “clamoring for access to its technology for deployment in the U.S. market” for enabling wireless charging of devices over distances of more than 1 meter (39 inches), it said. But until the FCC acts on the WPT issues raised in its 2019 RF NPRM, U.S. WPT developers such as Energous “will be unable to satisfy the needs of the U.S. electronics industry,” it said.

Global smartphone shipments rose in recent quarters though “the supply chain situation hasn't drastically improved,” reported IDC. It forecast 7.4% growth to 1.37 billion in 2021 and 3.4% growth in 2022. Those were slight downgrades from a May 26 forecast. Monday, IDC attributed this year’s anticipated increase to “healthy 13.8% growth from iOS devices combined with 6.2% growth from Android.” U.S importers sourced 89.23 million smartphones from all countries in 2021's first half, up 17% from the 2020 period and down 9.7% from 2019's first six months, per Census Bureau data we accessed through the International Trade Commission.