Continental Automotive Systems opposes Wi-Fi in the 5.9 GHz band but said that if the FCC acts on proposed changes vehicle-to-everything technology should still be allowed to use the band's 45 MHz. Continental spoke with Chief Technology Officer Monisha Ghosh and other staff, said a filing posted Wednesday in docket 19-138. Commissioners agreed 5-0 in December to examine revised rules, reallocating 45 MHz for Wi-Fi, with 20 MHz reserved for cellular V-2X and possibly 10 MHz for dedicated short-range communications. Commissioner Mike O’Rielly expects the agency to address the band this summer (see 2006090060).
ABB agreed to pay a $250,000 fine and implement a compliance plan to end an investigation of whether it violated FCC rules on transfer of control and assignment and unauthorized operation of a wireless license, the Enforcement Bureau said Tuesday. “ABB admits that it failed to obtain the Commission’s approval prior to the transfer of licenses associated with its acquisition of four business entities, operated a wireless station after its license expired, and submitted inaccurate licensee qualification information.” The Switzerland-based company didn't comment.
The 800 MHz Transition Administrator said rebanding is all but complete. All 127 frequency relocation agreements anticipated for Mexican border licensees have been negotiated and submitted, the administrator reported, posted Tuesday in FCC docket 02-55. “One U.S. licensee, which is located in Texas, was blocked from reconfiguring its infrastructure and moving to its post-reconfiguration frequencies due to unexpected operations in Mexico.”
Alliance for Automotive Innovation President John Bozzella spoke with FCC Chairman Ajit Pai on preserving the 5.9 GHz band for safety. Bozzella also updated the chairman on the merger of the Auto Alliance and the Association of Global Automakers to form the new group, said a filing posted Friday in docket 19-138. Continental Automotive Systems told the FCC auto safety applications require at least 40-60 MHz to curb deaths and serious accidents.
Reject Eutelsat’s request for a waiver of the deadline to file its C-band transition plan, CTIA asked. The FCC “created an aggressive timeline to repurpose 280 megahertz,” CTIA said in a filing posted Monday in docket 18-122. “A successful auction and the deployment of new 5G networks in the band hinge on the timely planning and transition of satellite operations out of the band.”
T-Mobile “has a clear spectral advantage in the race to 5G given its head start to plug and play mid-band spectrum” after gaining 2.5 GHz spectrum from Sprint, said Wells Fargo analyst Jennifer Fritzsche in a note to investors Friday. “We expect this advantage will incentivize” AT&T and Verizon “to be aggressive in the upcoming mid-band spectrum auctions,” she said. Fritzsche cited data by Allnet Insight that AT&T has 175 MHz and Verizon 115 MHz of sub-6 GHz spectrum, versus 324 for T-Mobile.
Comments are due July 7, replies Aug. 6, on an FCC adjustment factor to be used as part of an eventual 5G Fund. “To account for the relative costs of serving areas that vary in terrain characteristics and potential business cases, the Commission proposed to apply an adjustment factor to make the most difficult areas to serve more attractive at auction in order to encourage more bidding for these areas,” a notice said Friday: The factor also would be used to transition legacy high-cost support to 5G Fund support. The Office of Economics and Analytics and Wireline Bureau seek comment in docket 20-32.
FCC General Counsel Thomas Johnson warned against “alarmism” on RF safety and 5G, in a Washington Post opinion piece Thursday evening. The U.S. hasn't faced physical attacks on wireless infrastructure by activists who believe without evidence that 5G helped spread COVID-19 (see 2005150022), but Johnson said RF fears slowed 5G spread in some areas. “Conjectures about 5G’s effect on human health are long on panic and short on science,” he said: “Paradoxically, such fears are likely to exacerbate suffering during the covid-19 crisis, because the dislocation caused by the coronavirus pandemic requires strong Internet connectivity to facilitate telework, remote learning, as well as staying in touch with friends and family.” The FCC is apparently “sufficiently threatened by widespread opposition to 5G as well as pending lawsuits involving the FCC, the CTIA, or Apple, … to publish an op-ed,” emailed Joel Moskowitz, director of the Center for Family and Community Health at the University of California, Berkeley, Friday. “Will the Post give equal time to wireless safety organizations trying to protect the public's health and safety from exposure to radio frequency radiation?”
A potential NPRM on rules for the wireless priority service should ask about “advantages of maintaining the current contractual process in light of its success,” AT&T told the FCC Public Safety Bureau staff, in a filing posted Thursday in docket 96-86. NTIA sought the NPRM (see 1907170042) last year. The FCC should avoid “overly prescriptive rules,” AT&T said. WPS gives priority to calls by public officials over other callers during times of network overload.
The FirstNet board and committees meet 11 a.m.-1 p.m. EDT June 17 virtually, says Friday's Federal Register.