T-Mobile officials pressed the FCC for transparency and certainty in the upcoming 37, 39 and 47 GHz auction that starts Dec. 10. It met with Wireless Bureau Chief Donald Stockdale, Office of Economics and Analytics Chief Giulia McHenry and others, said a filing posted Thursday in docket 14-177. “We urged the Commission to provide incumbent 39 GHz licensees with information during bidding about their incentive payment credits and to provide data file format specifications and sample data files at least 30 days before bidding commences,” the carrier said. “To reduce complexity during the auction, we suggested that bidders be presented only with feasible options during the assignment phase.”

Southern Co. supports Dynetics’ request the FCC lift or waive the temporary freeze on nonfederal applications for new or expanded Part 90 operations in the 3100-3550 MHz band. Two other commenters opposed a waiver (see 1906130001). “Several years ago Southern identified ground-based radar as a viable solution to enhancing physical security at its critical facilities,” the company said, posted Thursday in docket 19-39. “This technology proved to be effective in providing early detection, operator awareness, event logging and comprehensive defense against potential intruders. Georgia Power and Alabama Power spent over one year identifying and evaluating different radar systems that could be used at critical facilities before selecting the GroundAware technology developed by Dynetics.” Southern said it has a lot of territory to secure since a single generating plant can cover more than 350 acres.

Google filed a report card on lab certification testing done on its citizens broadband radio service spectrum access system by the Commerce Department’s Institute for Telecommunications Sciences. The filing posted Thursday in FCC docket 15-319 asked that all the data be treated as confidential. It "constitutes highly sensitive commercial information that falls within Exemption 4 of the Freedom of Information Act," Google said: "Certain portions of the confidential information also implicate operational security concerns for the U.S. Navy."

Diverse players in the educational broadband service arena met with an aide to FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr on EBS licensing. “We discussed our joint support for rationalizing the current circular Geographic Service Areas (GSAs) to county-based geographic boundaries,” said a filing posted Friday in docket 18-120. “These stakeholders agree rationalization is a key step to modernizing the 2.5 GHz band and promoting intensive use of both currently licensed EBS spectrum and new EBS spectrum licenses.” Sprint, Midco, the Wireless ISP Association, Wireless Communications Association, Catholic Technology Network, National EBS Association, Voqal, North American Catholic Educational Programming Foundation and Mobile Beacon attended. Their recommendations included that the FCC “rationalize the outdated circular GSAs to the county boundary, where an existing licensee’s GSA covers a minimum threshold of 25 percent of the geography of a county” and that “rationalization should take place automatically” and “equally to all current GSAs and license holders that satisfy the 25 percent threshold.” Participants agree “no current licensed GSA should be reduced in size,” the filing said. Chairman Ajit Pai is expected to propose new 2.5 GHz rules at the July 10 commissioners’ meeting (see 1906120043).

Three groups filed an informal FCC complaint against the nation’s four largest wireless carriers for selling customers’ data to aggregators. The Georgetown Law Center on Privacy & Technology, New America Open Technology Institute and Free Press asked for an investigation and potentially enforcement actions. The Communications Act requires providers “to observe heightened privacy obligations for location information,” said the complaint in docket 16-106. AT&T, Verizon, T-Mobile and Sprint "broadly violated those obligations and their customers’ privacy expectations. The Carriers have disclosed customer location information to location aggregators, other location-based services companies, and unauthorized individuals without customer approval. That location information has in some circumstances found its way into the hands of bounty hunters and stalkers.” In May, Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel sent letters to CEOs of the carriers asking what they're doing to make sure real-time location information they collect isn’t being sold to data aggregators (see 1905010167). Commissioner Geoffrey Starks also complained about the practice (see 1902080056). The four companies didn't comment Friday.

FirstNet's board and committees meet June 26 10 a.m.-12:30 p.m., says a notice for Friday's Federal Register. The meeting is at the JW Marriott in Indianapolis.

More than 20 billion Wi-Fi devices are expected to ship globally between now and 2024, with “continued growth in traditional markets” the main driver, reported ABI Research Thursday. A secondary source of growth will be in mesh networking systems, smart home, automotive and IoT applications, it said. This year marks the 20th anniversary of Wi-Fi, and the technology “shows no signs of slowing down,” said ABI. “Wi-Fi 6 is quickly gaining momentum in networking devices, while client devices are already arriving into the market and are anticipated to ramp up considerably over the next 12-18 months.”

Echodyne got an FCC waiver of rules to allow ground-based radiolocation use of its EchoGuard radar (see 1810110029), pending the outcome of the company's rulemaking petition for rules for such secondary use of the 24.45-24.65 GHz band, said a Wireless Bureau order in Thursday's Daily Digest and on docket 17-352. The product could detect drones at prisons and stadiums, or surveil borders. The company agreed to AT&T-proposed conditions to follow the Part 87 regulatory framework and have only fixed deployments at specific locations, the bureau said. "U.S. Border Patrol and In-Q-Tel support Echodyne’s request, on the grounds that grant of a waiver would enhance security as unmanned aircraft proliferate in U.S. airspace." Such drone detection "is an important public safety function" and "facilitating the deployment of new, more effective technology to protect critical infrastructure and other sensitive areas furthers the public interest," the bureau ruled. It said FAA and the company came up with the conditions in this order. The waiver lasts five years, during which the manufacturer can sell up to 15,000 units to nonfederal users. The FAA and Echodyne didn't comment. AT&T declined to comment.

Huawei told the FCC banning any network equipment vendor for national security reasons (see 1905150066) will do nothing to make 5G safer. “Not only would a policy of targeting specific vendors be insufficient to address supply chain concerns, it may also cause the United States to violate its international trade obligations,” the Chinese telecom gearmaker said, posted Thursday in docket 18-89. “Huawei cannot and will not sabotage its customer networks. But recent actions by the United States Government are only one step away from doing so.”

Verizon asked the FCC not to impose restrictions NTIA seeks on the carrier's ability to lock handsets (see 1906070032). “Although NTIA supports Verizon’s petition for a partial waiver of the handset locking rule to combat this type of fraud, it suggests that the Commission should ‘narrow the scope of a partial waiver in order to maximize continuing benefits to consumers,’” Verizon said, posted Thursday in docket 06-150. The company's proposed temporary waiver “was crafted to be as targeted as reasonably possible while still being effective and already strikes the appropriate balance. The additional limitations that NTIA asks the Commission to consider fail to appreciate that as soon as a device is unlocked, there is no mechanism to relock that device,” the carrier said: “It is therefore critical for Verizon to combat fraud on the front end.” The commission took comment on the waiver in April (see 1903050057).