The FAA “missed the opportunity to adopt a flexible, technology-neutral approach” as it sought comment on remote ID rules for drones (see 2010070059), said the Small UAV Coalition. “Instead, the FAA is imposing a requirement only to use broadcast technology, which runs counter to an industry synonymous with innovation and progress,” the group said Monday in a news release. “The FAA itself acknowledges the limits of the rule, including that progress on establishing an unmanned traffic management system.” The FAA’s final rule on operating small unmanned aircraft systems over people “rightly authorizes operations at night, subject to equipage and training requirements,” but the risk methodology in the final rule “remains unduly restrictive,” the coalition said.

U.S. railroads have installed positive train control (PTC) technology on all 57,536 required freight and passenger route miles, the Federal Railroad Administration said Tuesday. Congress had set a Thursday deadline. Railroads report “interoperability has been achieved between each applicable host and tenant railroad that operates on PTC-governed main lines,” the agency said. “Achieving 100 percent PTC implementation is a tremendous accomplishment and reflects the Department’s top priorities -- safety, innovation, and infrastructure,” said Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao.

The FCC Enforcement Bureau issued citations Tuesday against Grainger, Pryme Radio and Speco Technologies for allegedly marketing unauthorized RF devices. Each was warned that they face “significant fines up to $20,489 per day for each unauthorized model marketed, as well as other sanctions” if they don’t comply. The companies didn't comment.

Vista Outdoor agreed to pay $55,000 and implement a compliance plan for marketing wireless hunting decoys under the Primos Hunting brand without the required FCC equipment authorization, the Enforcement Bureau said Monday. A “routine audit” by a telecommunication certification body last year noted the noncompliant decoy, the bureau said. Vista identified other models the FCC hadn't cleared and recalled all the decoys.

CTIA warned the FCC that assessing application processing fees on a "per-call sign basis" could result in fees “disproportionate to the Commission’s processing costs and may lead to unfair or inappropriate results in many cases.” CTIA representatives spoke with aides to all the commissioners except Nathan Simington, said a filing posted Thursday in docket 20-270. “The cost of processing a rule waiver request in an application does not significantly vary based on the number of call signs included in the application, and a per-application fee would be more appropriate,” CTIA said.

CEO Ganesh Pattabiraman and others from NextNav spoke with FCC Commissioner Nathan Simington and an aide to Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel on the company’s “continued progress” in building a vertical location network. “NextNav’s infrastructure has already been constructed and is active in 90 of the 105 cellular market areas that NextNav identified for its initial buildout effort,” said a filing posted Wednesday in docket 07-114.

Some 4.1 billion people, more than half the global population, will have access to 5G technology by 2025, said Bankr Tuesday. About 15% now have 5G coverage, rising to 25%, or 1.95 billion people, next year, it said. 5G’s peak download speeds of 20 Gbps can handle a wide range of IoT applications in healthcare, energy, education and transportation, Bankr noted. Coverage is being driven by select regions in Asia, the U.S. and Europe, while other regions are still building out 5G infrastructure. Asia leads in 5G after undergoing a "rapid migration" in mobile broadband networks and smartphones, Bankr said.

The FCC Consumer and Governmental Affairs Bureau granted UScellular a retroactive extension of a previous waiver for traditional text technology (TTY) accessibility support requirements. "We find good cause to grant US Cellular a retroactive extension of its TTY-support waiver through October 26, 2020, the date of US Cellular’s 'consumer launch' of its [real-time text] service," the Wednesday order said: "Its petition and reply comments demonstrate that US Cellular faced major, unexpected difficulties that prevented the timely completion of its deployment of an RTT solution in its network."

AT&T extended two union contracts covering 24,000 AT&T Mobility technicians and call center and retail workers in 45 states, D.C., and the U.S. Virgin Islands. The carrier and Communications Workers of America extended by one year a contract set to expire Feb. 11 and another that would have ended Feb. 10, 2022, CWA said Tuesday. The extension includes a 2.5% wage increase. AT&T and CWA also agreed to let call center workers continue to work from home through June. The extended contracts provide certainty to employees while allowing the carrier to continue providing jobs "with competitive wages and benefits, while maintaining the flexibility the company needs to operate in an extremely competitive industry," an AT&T spokesperson emailed Wednesday.

The FCC Consumer and Governmental Affairs Bureau sent letters to seven wireless carriers Monday asking about their request to waive the June 30 deadline to offer real-time text (RTT) instead of traditional text technology (TTY). Commissioners approved an order on a common standard for the transition in December 2016 (see 1612150048). The Competitive Carriers Association in June sought additional time on behalf of six of the companies (see 2006170039). The letters to Appalachian Wireless, Viaero Wireless, Inland Cellular, Southern Linc, GCI, Nex-Tech Wireless and Cellcom were posted Tuesday in docket 16-145. “Have any customers contacted the Company, complained to the Company, or both, regarding their ability to use a TTY with the Company’s service since it began offering IP-based voice calling services, and if so, when did each of these customers contact the Company and how did it respond?” the letters ask: “Have any customers contacted the Company, complained to the Company, or both, regarding the availability of RTT since it began offering IP-based voice calling services, and, if so, when did each of these customers contact the Company and how did it respond?”