The Public Safety and Wireless bureaus reminded building owners and other non-licensee operators of Part 90 private land mobile radio signal boosters that they can't operate them until they “obtain the express written consent of the licensee(s) whose signals they would re-transmit” and “register Class B signal boosters” with the FCC. “Failure to do so risks harmful interference to first responders and others and may subject you to enforcement action,” said a notice in Wednesday's Daily Digest on docket 10-4.

Smart speakers will be key to future IP-based voice services, said Juniper Research Wednesday. Voice over LTE users will approach 5 billion by 2024, vs. 2 billion this year, said the researcher, forecasting more than 220 million smart speakers will be used to make calls to landlines or cellphone numbers during the span: Smart speaker voice minutes to phone numbers will grow 1,000 percent to 230 billion minutes. Communications-platform-as-a-service is key to such distribution, the firm said. It predicts operators’ revenue from voice services will drop from $380 billion this year to $210 billion in 2024, due to increased use of over-the-top apps such as WhatsApp and Viber.

The FCC’s auction of licenses in the 37, 39 and 47 GHz bands had $953.8 million in gross proceeds after the first five rounds, up from $715.3 million at the end of day one Tuesday (see 1912100058). Bidding continues Thursday with three rounds.

Michael Calabrese, director of the Wireless Future Program at New America, expressed general support for an FCC auction of the C band, in a meeting with FCC Commissioner Mike O’Rielly. The FCC “has no legal authority to specify or require any incentive or premium payments to C-band incumbents that extend beyond actual and reasonable relocation costs,” Calabrese said in docket 18-122, posted Wednesday. “Congress has twice passed legislation ensuring that when the TV bands at 700 MHz and 600 MHz were consolidated for auction to mobile carriers, local broadcast stations would either receive no windfall … or receive at most incentive payments limited by a competitive reverse auction,” he said: “Section 309(j) is explicit that every dollar bid in a public auction must be paid to the U.S. Treasury except to the extent that eligible incentive auction payments are made subject to the requirements of Section 309(j)(8)(G), which requires a competitive reverse auction.”

The FCC approved the long-form applications Wednesday for more than 5,500 high-band licenses purchased in the 24 and 28 GHz auctions. AT&T, Verizon, T-Mobile, Starry and U.S. Cellular were among the companies with licenses OK'd (see here and here). The 28 GHz auction ended Jan. 31 with a total of $700 million in net bids for 2,965 licenses. The 24 GHz auction ended May 28, raising $2 billion in net bids with 29 bidders winning 2,904 licenses. Another auction is ongoing (see 1912110076).

The Wi-Fi Alliance said the FCC “should move quickly” on rules allowing unlicensed use of the 6 GHz band. The alliance and others “have demonstrated that there is both an urgent need for spectrum to support Wi-Fi and that low power indoor or very low power devices do not pose a risk of harmful interference while standard-power transmissions can be controlled by an automatic frequency coordination system,” the alliance said in docket 18-295, posted Wednesday. The group downplayed AT&T concerns. “AT&T continues to challenge the public-interest benefit the Commission's proposals will produce, while ignoring the overwhelming evidence in this proceeding, distorting facts, contravening basic economic principles and making unfounded technical assumptions,” the alliance said. AT&T didn't comment. Gregory Bryant, general manager of Intel’s Client Computing Group, backed action on 6 GHz, in a call with FCC Chairman Ajit Pai. Bryant “stressed the importance, for the continued success of Wi-Fi, that the Commission expeditiously open the full 6 GHz band including spectrum for low power indoor use,” said a filing.

Midco cited the company’s “successful” fixed wireless tests using an experimental C-band license, with an aide to FCC Chairman Ajit Pai. “Midco commended the Commission for the recent proposal to use a public auction for the lower 280 MHz of the C-Band and discussed mechanisms through which the Commission could ensure a variety of technology companies are able to participate in an auction, including: using county-sized licenses, at least in rural areas; auctioning spectrum in 20 MHz, 40 MHz, or similarly-sized licenses; and instituting reasonable aggregation limits,” it said in docket 18-122, posted Monday.

The FCC Wireless Bureau approved Weatherdock's waiver request for its easyOne maritime survivor locating device (MSLD), which uses open loop alerting in compliance with the current Radio Technical Commission for Maritime Services standard. The bureau sought comment in October (see 1910030053). “Weatherdock’s proposed MSLD offers improved identification and location of persons in distress,” the bureau said Tuesday in docket 19-281. “We agree with Weatherdock that application of the rules in this instance would frustrate their underlying purpose -- promoting public safety.”

The FCC should “more explicitly invite comment” on relocating cellular vehicle-to-everything safety applications in its pending NPRM on 5.9 GHz, the Open Technology Institute at New America told an aide to Chairman Ajit Pai. The NPRM should also look at “authorization of contiguous, very wide-channel unlicensed access across the entire UNII-3, U-NII-4 and U-NII-5 bands,” the group said in docket 19-138, posted Tuesday. “This longer-term solution would be a win-win for consumers who will benefit immediately from fast and affordable Wi-Fi 6 connectivity and down the road from more secure auto safety communications.” Commissioners vote Thursday (see 1911210049).

Banks asked the FCC to grant Capital One a declaratory ruling that financial institutions getting an "opt-out" request from the recipient of an autodialed text message can follow up asking whether the request applies to all informational texts or a particular type. Comments posted through Tuesday in docket 18-152. The American Bankers Association said "banks often confront ambiguous expressions of intent to revoke consent," and customers could "face real harm" if they don't receive fraud alerts or data breach notifications. Consumers may partially revoke consent, the National Consumer Law Center said. The National Association of Federally-Insured Credit Unions supports "a reasonable, uniform opt-out method." Clarify the opt-out confirmation issue for all legitimate businesses, said the Association of Credit and Collection Professionals.