The FCC Wireless Bureau approved a waiver giving the Ione Band of Miwok Indians in California rights to pursue a license under the 2.5 GHz rural tribal window on trust lands. Trust lands would otherwise be excluded. The Ione Band showed “the trust lands in question are held for the specific benefit of the Tribe, and the Tribe’s authority over the lands is adequately demonstrated by the fact that the Tribe is actively planning to develop the land,” said Tuesday's order. “Based upon the showing made by Ione Band, treating this undisputedly rural land as eligible Tribal land under the Tribal Window would be consistent with the Tribal Window’s purpose.” The bureau approved a similar waiver for California’s Yocha Dehe Wintun Nation.

The FCC Consumer and Governmental Affairs Bureau delayed the due date for December queries asking Cellcom, Nex-Tech Wireless, GCI Communication, Southern Linc and Viaero Wireless about their request to waive the June 30 deadline to offer real-time text (see 2012220031). Responses from carriers represented by the Competitive Carriers Association were extended to Feb. 3 from Wednesday, said Tuesday's order in docket 16-145. Appalachian Wireless got the same.

The FCC said it will lift the T-band freeze after President Donald Trump signed into law (see 2012280052) the FY 2021 appropriations and COVID-19 aid omnibus bill, which includes a repeal of the mandate that the FCC auction the spectrum. “Now that the Commission is no longer required to implement the T-Band Mandate, the rationale for the suspensions no longer exists,” said Tuesday's order by the Wireless and Public Safety bureaus. Within 30 days, bureaus will resume processing such applications for license renewals and “process all other pending T-Band applications, but dismiss without prejudice any pending applications that include a request for waiver of the Suspension Notice,” the order said.

The FCC Wireless Bureau OK'd a waiver for Aura Network Systems and A2G Communications to provide additional, non-general aviation air-ground service, including to drones, in the 450 MHz band. “We are very pleased with the FCC’s quick action and this decision will enable AURA to proceed full speed to provide critical command and control information for Beyond Visual Line of Sight drone operation at all altitudes and everywhere in America,” emailed Peter Pitsch, executive vice president-regulatory and government affairs. “We find that it would serve the public interest, convenience, and necessity to grant limited waiver relief,” said the order in Friday's Daily Digest: “AURA currently is operating a nationwide general aviation air-ground service, and its nationwide network effectively gives Petitioners exclusive use of the band. As Petitioners point out, in the last ten years, other parties have not shown interest in operating in the band and have overwhelmingly supported Petitioners’ steps to grow and modernize their existing network.”

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit assigned 10 minutes to each side in oral argument Jan. 25 at 9:30 a.m. about Environmental Health Trust, Consumers for Safe Cell Phones and Children’s Health Defense seeking to force the FCC to reopen examination of RF exposure rules (see 2011200032). Friday's order (in Pacer) denied amicus curiae Natural Resources Defense Council’s motion to participate in the argument before Judges Karen Henderson, Patricia Millett and Robert Wilkins.

The National Academy of Sciences’ Committee on Radio Frequencies asked the FCC to not allow aeronautical use of the 4.9 GHz band. “An aeronautical service transmitting down to Earth is the worst-case scenario in regard to potential interference problems for Radio Astronomy Service observatories,” said a filing posted Friday in docket 07-100. Observations in the band are “extremely useful in studying the brightness distributions of objects such as ionized hydrogen clouds surrounding young stars; remnants of supernovae, which mark the cataclysmic end of stars; and ejecta traveling at nearly the speed of light from black holes in the nuclei of galaxies,” the committee said. Grandfather in existing public safety licensees, asked the New York State Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Services: “Public safety use of the 4.9 GHz band is widespread and crucial in New York state.”

The FCC Wireless Bureau accepted for filing 29 additional tribal applications for licenses to use the 2.5 GHz band, it said Thursday. The tribal window to apply for licenses closed Sept. 2 with more than 400 applications (see 2009030012).

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. expects 2021 global smartphone shipments to increase 10% year on year and 5G handsets to take 35% market share this year, up from 18% in 2020, said CEO C.C. Wei on a Q4 earnings call Thursday. TSMC is a major components supplier to the iPhone 12. The “silicon content” of 5G smartphones will continue to increase compared with their 4G counterparts, said Wei. “We continue to expect faster penetration of 5G smartphones” compared with 4G penetration rates historically, as 5G handsets “benefit from the significant performance” upgrade to drive more artificial intelligence applications and “more cloud services,” he said. TSMC views 5G as a “multiyear megatrend that will enable a world where digital computation is increasingly ubiquitous.” That’s expected, he said, to “fuel the growth” long-term of all four of TSMC’s business “platforms” -- smartphones, high-performance computing (HPC), automotive and IoT. “As we enter the 5G era, a smarter and more intelligent world will require massive increases in computation power and greater need for energy-efficient computing, and therefore, require leading-edge technologies.” TSMC is looking to HPC as an “increasingly important driver” of the company’s “incremental revenue growth,” he said.

The FCC Wireless Bureau rejected a 2019 Verizon petition charging that siting fees in Clark County, Nevada’s small-cell ordinance are unlawful (see 1908270035). CTIA supported Verizon (see 2010150020). The bureau dismissed the petition “without prejudice and, given continued disagreement in the record, we remind the parties that certain of these issues were resolved by the 2018 Small Cell Declaratory Ruling,” said an order Thursday in docket 19-230. Verizon didn't comment.

The FCC’s 2.5 GHz auction procedures notice suggests a single-round, sealed-bid auction design would be quicker to implement than the more traditional simultaneous multiple round (SMR) format. The notice seeks comment on both (see 2101130067). The single round “would remain open long enough to give bidders ample time to submit, review and potentially resubmit, and confirm their bids,” said the docket 20-429 notice posted in Thursday's Daily Digest: “Bids submitted during the round would need to meet the activity rule. After the round closes, the submitted bids would be processed by the bidding system to determine the winning bids.” The number of licenses to be auctioned is “very large,” with about 8,300 up for sale, the FCC says: “An SMR auction could last for months, which would require participating bidders to monitor the auction consistently, a resource commitment that is demanding for all bidders, but particularly for smaller entities, many of which we expect will compete.” A traditional auction also “entails a longer prohibited communications quiet period,” the notice said. A single-round auction could “help overcome some of the inherent advantages of incumbent rights holders in the band and increase overall competition in the auction.”