The Multicultural Media, Telecom and Internet Council urged FCC OK of Verizon buying Tracfone, in a letter posted Monday in docket 21-112. MMTC noted it normally doesn’t weigh in on such transactions, but “the need to maintain competition and customer choices in this market to benefit the communities we serve convinces us of the need to take a stance.” Giving Tracfone access to the Verizon network “will enhance the quality of service, service plans, and product availability for low income customers,” the group said. Tracfone, meanwhile, cited T-Mobile’s recent move to offer Metro, its prepaid brand, at 2,300 Walmarts (see 2109130009). “Standalone TracFone is constrained in its ability to respond to our main competitors in the prepaid space at the same pace and with the same efficiencies,” the company said. “As a pure reseller, TracFone cannot pivot or adjust its offerings with the speed or agility necessary to compete with the offers of competitors like Metro, Cricket, and Boost that have the backing of a network operator.”

Open Radio Access Network Policy Coalition representatives spoke with Wireless and Wireline bureau staff about steps the FCC can take to promote ORAN, said a filing posted Friday in docket 18-89. “We discussed ways in which the FCC can ‘leverage the [Supply Chain Reimbursement Program] process and related funding to inform testbeds, demonstration projects and pilots, which in turn can accelerate and enhance network upgrades,’ including the possibility of the FCC convening additional events or record-building inquiries."

The 4.9 GHz order and Further NPRM, released Friday, is substantially the same as the draft, as indicated Thursday (see 2109300053). One change is the FCC now directs the Wireless and Public Safety bureaus to lift a freeze in place since September 2020 within 30 days. The draft left timing to the bureaus' discretion. The lifting of the freeze is only for “incumbents wishing to modify their existing licenses or license new permanent fixed sites.” The FCC imposed the freeze prior to last year’s order on the band (see 2009090048), overturned by the Thursday order.

The Wireless ISP Association said Thursday it’s developing a certification program “designed to protect vulnerable internet and cloud access from climate-related events.” WISPA tapped David Theodore, chief technology officer of Climate Resilient Internet, to chair a working group developing best practices here.

The FCC Office of Engineering and Technology extended through March 31 a waiver of the push notification requirement for fixed and mode II personal/portable TV white space devices, set to have expired Thursday. The original waiver was approved in a 2015 order on Part 15 rules. “This action will ensure that manufacturers may continue to market previously approved white space devices, and that users may continue to operate them,” said a Thursday notice: “The ability of all approved white space devices to satisfy the at-least-once-daily database re-check requirement will ensure that wireless microphones will continue to receive interference protection from white space devices.”

The 3.45 GHz auction, which starts Tuesday, could hit $30 billion in proceeds, LightShed’s Walter Piecyk told investors Thursday. The analyst bases that estimate on an average price of $1.00 MHz/POP, which is less than the $1.10 paid for C-band spectrum or the $1.82 bid in the recent Canadian auction of 3.5 GHz spectrum. AT&T and Verizon are likely to “both acquire the maximum allowable 40 MHz of spectrum for $12 billion each,” he said. The band has better propagation characteristics than C-band and was included in new iPhones starting last year, he said. “Operators will likely be able to deploy the new spectrum sooner than most of the C-Band, due to the multi-year clearing process of satellite operators.” Piecyk sees T-Mobile’s spectrum advantage narrowing. “T-Mobile’s 127 MHz spectrum depth lead over its closest competitor shrunk to 45 MHz following two FCC spectrum auctions,” he said: “Verizon can effectively eliminate this spectrum deficit altogether by integrating up to 80 MHz of General Access [citizens broadband radio service] spectrum into its network.”

The FCC let spectrum access system administrator Amdocs use Key Bridge’s environmental sensing capability to protect federal incumbents in the citizens broadband radio service band. “Amdocs has demonstrated that its SAS can properly interoperate with Key Bridge’s ESC and that it will comply with all relevant provisions of the Commission’s part 96 rules,” said a Wednesday notice by the Wireless Bureau and Office of Engineering and Technology.

Greenmail payments to parties challenging certification of an accelerated Phase I C-band clearing, so the content is dropped and there's no incremental reduction in clearing relocation payment, are barred, said an FCC Wireless Bureau public notice Wednesday laying out its Phase I accelerated relocation payment reduction. The PN said certifications without subsequent changes such as amendments won't face incremental decrease if cert was filed before the Phase I deadline and was ultimately validated. Certs filed after the deadline and later validated without amendment will face the incremental reduction schedule in the 3.7 GHz order, with the certification filing date being the "date of completion" for determining the applicable percentage reduction, it said.

The Rural Wireless Association and other commenters want changes to the challenge process for mobile coverage maps, including verification of data before it’s published. “The FCC’s process for determining mobile broadband coverage maps will continue the status quo of allowing the major wireless carriers to be untruthful about their coverage and requiring consumers to bear the cost of challenging overstated coverage maps,” RWA said: More granularly, the FCC could strengthen its proposal by ensuring “challengers in rural areas can submit low hex resolution challenges“ and requiring the commission to verify maps. Replies were due Monday in docket 19-195. The Competitive Carriers Association also wants an FCC-led verification process. That "will ensure that the burden of submitting accurate information rests in the first instance with the wireless operators that claim to serve the areas that appear in the maps they submit,” CCA said. CTIA agreed FCC verification is critical, especially for initial collection. CTIA stressed the importance of “robust” speed test app: “adopting an approach that helps enable apples-to-apples comparisons of challenge data to a provider’s map is important for ensuring that the challenge process can help improve the accuracy of coverage maps.” AT&T sought tweaks, saying that “the challenge process should be based on a more granular hexagonal resolution to better match provider maps.” Guard against inaccurate challenges and resulting confusion, AT&T said: “For challenges to be reliable they should take into account time-of-day concerns such as environmental issues (humidity, fog, etc.) and cell loading factors (morning rush hour vs. mid-morning) and there should be sufficient negative tests in each temporal range to evidence the lack of coverage.” T-Mobile said most commenters support its calls for using hex-10 cells in challenges. They're “a closer match to the 100-meter bins that providers use in their maps, and using these higher-resolution cells will allow for more granular corrections,” the carrier said. New America’s Open Technology Institute and Public Knowledge urged a “consumer-friendly” challenge process. The record shows “skepticism that the mobile carriers’ data will be sufficiently reliable, signifying a clear need for the Commission to proactively validate availability information rather than outsourcing the task to the public,” they said. “Require providers to make consumers aware of the challenge process and ensure that everyone possible is empowered to act when suspicious that they are not receiving the service mobile providers claim to offer in a particular area.”

The FCC reminded industry of upcoming changes in deployment benchmarks for hearing aid-compatible handsets. The benchmark increases from 66% to 85% for handset manufacturers Monday and for large carriers April 4, said a Tuesday notice. The same increase is effective April 3, 2023, for non-Tier I providers, the Wireless Bureau said: "The Commission adopted a schedule for phased increases after finding that the new benchmarks would significantly benefit consumers by expanding access to hearing aid-compatible handsets."