Competitive Carriers Association representatives urged a more traditional simultaneous multiple-round auction in the 2.5 GHz band, in a call with an aide to FCC Commissioner Nathan Simington. “The proposed single-round sealed-bid structure lacks a meaningful opportunity for price discovery, which is critical given the unique characteristics and history of this band,” said a filing posted Tuesday in docket 18-120: “An SMR format allows for price discovery and would employ procedures that smaller carriers are comfortable with from prior auctions.” The group made the same argument last week to aides to the other three commissioners.

AT&T and Washington, D.C., area builder JBG Smith signed a letter of intent to work together on “the first 5G Smart City at scale” at the National Landing development, with deployments starting early next year. “5G, with local area compute edges, could make National Landing a prototype for smart cities of the future,” the companies said Tuesday: “The area could also enhance offerings in mobility and self-driving vehicles, immersive retail and entertainment, and building automation and environmental sustainability.”

The Competitive Carriers Association urged the FCC to rethink a decision not to issue a six-month blanket extension of deadlines in the rip and replace program for removing Huawei and ZTE gear from carrier networks. CCA cited NTIA’s recent comment on open radio access networks (see 2107160042). “NTIA noted that a blanket extension ‘would not preference any solution,’ but would ‘ensure operators have sufficient time to consider options, design networks, and carry out deployments,’” said a CCA filing Tuesday in docket 18-89. “A one-year deadline would be challenging for many carriers in the best of circumstances, but it is particularly daunting in the face of potential supply chain and labor shortages and the recovery from a global pandemic,” the group said.

The FCC partnered with 11 federal, state and local agencies to assess the delivery of wireless emergency alerts as part of a planned Aug. 11 test of the emergency alert system (see 2105040068). Acting FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel also sent letters to AT&T, T-Mobile and Verizon asking them to provide performance information after the test, said a Tuesday release. WEAs “are a powerful tool for public safety managers to inform and protect the public during disasters,” Rosenworcel said: “While the FCC has long required … participants to report how nationwide EAS tests fared on their television and radio systems, this is the first time we will gather meaningful data about the performance of a nationwide” WEA test. The letters ask the providers to provide the data within two weeks of the test. “Describe any complications with alert processing or transmission” that may have kept subscribers from receiving an alert, the letters ask. They ask about actions “to address any complications identified.”

The FCC Wireless Bureau sought comment Monday on “proposed drive test parameters and a model for the drive tests required” of some carriers participating in the Alaska Plan. Comment deadlines will be in a Federal Register notice. Participants receiving more than $5 million annually would have to file the data, said a notice in docket 16-271. GCI and Copper Valley Wireless are the only providers that would have to file.

The Phoenix Center supported Northstar Wireless and SNR Wireless in their appeal at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit of the FCC’s denial of AWS-3 auction bidding credits to the designated entities. “That the FCC refused to negotiate with Petitioners in accordance with this Court’s express directions is particularly troubling given that negotiations between regulators and the firms they regulate is a long-standing standard practice at many administrative agencies, and the FCC is no exception,” the center said (in Pacer, docket 18-1209) in a filing posted Monday. The FCC’s conduct in the case “raises significant due process concerns,” it said.

Nokia supports open radio access networks for 5G, President Pekka Lundmark told FCC acting Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel. Nokia also backs “a broader U.S. strategy that extends support to 5G use case and app development acceleration and foundational 6G R&D in addition to Open RAN,” said a filing posted Monday in docket 21-63. Nokia also updated Rosenworcel on the global semiconductor shortage, saying “prioritization for the automotive sector has created additional scarcity for fabrication runs, thereby raising longer term risks for disruption to U.S. 5G plans.”

The FCC posted a letter from the National Science Foundation’s Platforms for Advanced Wireless Research (PAWR) program Monday, providing details on NSF's request to expand the number of wireless innovation zones, set for a commissioner vote Aug. 5 (see 2107150066). The FCC would expand the zone in New York and add zones in Raleigh and Boston. The Raleigh zone focuses on unmanned aerial systems (UAS) and allowing operations beyond the visual line-of-sight (VLOS) between a pilot and the drone, PAWR said. “Cellular networks and advanced wireless technologies will enable beyond-VLOS and autonomous UAS operations, unleashing three-dimensional mobility for UAS,” said a posting in docket 19-257: In this project, researchers will create “a vital national testbed focused on this area.” The Boston zone focuses on the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency's Colosseum wireless network emulator, the filing said: “For the first time, researchers will be able to experience in a single instrument the scale and abstractions of packet-level simulators, the flexibility of software radios, and the fidelity of professional channel emulation.”

U.S. fixed wireless access residential subscriptions are projected to rise at a 16.1% compound annual growth rate the next five years, reaching 5.31 million in 2026, reported GlobalData Friday. The expansion of 5G networks will combine with increasing demand for broadband in the post-COVID-19 era to drive most growth, it said. Fixed wireless access was “gaining traction” pre-pandemic, “thanks to demands for faster broadband with lower latency in unserved and underserved areas, the push for digital inclusion” and growing adoption of digital voice assistants and related smart home devices, said analyst Tammy Parker.

The FCC Wireless Bureau sought comment Friday on technical requirements for mobile challenge, verification and crowd source processes required under the Broadband Data Act. “These requirements include the metrics to be collected for on-the-ground test data and a methodology for determining the threshold for what constitutes a cognizable challenge requiring a provider response,” the notice said: The FCC “seeks comment on the technical requirements for these complex issues to assure that the broadband availability data collected in the challenge and other data verification and crowdsource processes serves the important broadband data verification purposes envisioned in the” act. Comment deadlines are to come in a Federal Register notice.