Comments are due, March 23, replies 10 days later on a petition asking the FCC to reconsider a 3-1 decision in December clarifying text messages are a lightly regulated Communications Act Title I service (see 1812120043). The petition was filed by Public Knowledge and other public interest groups. Dates are set by a notice for Friday's Federal Register.
Rules for relicensing 700 MHz spectrum blocks in unserved areas, released by the FCC Wireless Bureau in February, take effect April 7, with publication of the order set for Friday's Federal Register. “For certain spectrum blocks in the 700 MHz band, licensees that fail to meet the Commission’s construction benchmarks keep the areas of the license that they serve, and the remaining unserved areas are returned to the Commission’s inventory for relicensing,” the FCC said. “This approach provides other parties with opportunities to acquire spectrum that is not adequately built out and to serve communities that might otherwise not receive service.”
The Harman Spark aftermarket connected-car device is the first product to get certification in CTIA’s IoT cybersecurity program, said the trade group Thursday. Certification testing took place at Ericsson’s lab in Richardson, Texas, and verified that the Spark met industry cybersecurity “best practices,” said CTIA. Device manufacturers may seek one of three certification levels, “depending on the sophistication of the device and the security characteristics desired or needed for its use,” it said. AT&T exclusively began offering the Spark in the fall at $79.99 under a variety of rate plans (see 1809250047). The Spark works on cars 1996 and newer to deliver emergency crash assistance, roadside assistance manager, geofencing, a Wi-Fi hot spot and other connectivity features.
Local governments opposed the FCC’s motion to hold in abeyance challenges to the agency's September wireless infrastructure order at the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, but supported consolidating the dozen pending cases, as expected (see 1902260037). Holding the cases would bring “significant hardship” to localities and courts, but letting them proceed “would cause minimal hardship to the FCC,” said (in Pacer) one group of localities Thursday including Bowie, Maryland. FCC review of reconsideration petitions won’t affect the matters before the court, they said. Another local group including Huntington Beach, California, agreed (in Pacer) that “hardships are significant.” San Jose and other local intervenors similarly opposed delay in a third filing (in Pacer).
T-Mobile said it has alerted customers to more than 10 billion “scam likely” calls since launching scam protection technology two years ago. The technology works on many Samsung devices. “Scammers aren’t slowing down,” the carrier said Wednesday. “So far in 2019, the Un-carrier has detected and notified customers of 225 million Scam Likely calls per week! And it’s anticipated that by the end of the year, nearly 50 percent of US mobile calls will be scams.”
The FCC Office of Engineering and Technology OK'd AT&T special temporary authority to test “capabilities of certain digital transmissions to and from Federal aircraft” using spectrum in the 347-370 MHz range. In supplemental filings, AT&T asked to keep other information confidential. OET on Wednesday noted AT&T must coordinate with the FAA. The company said the application “contains information that, if disclosed, would raise significant threats to national security.”
Apple landed a two-year FCC experimental license Tuesday to test GPS functionality indoors in California at five locations in its Cupertino headquarters and one in Sunnyvale, Office of Engineering and Technology records show. Apple applied Dec. 6, saying the indoor tests are part of the “continued exploration of utilizing GPS technologies" in consumer devices "to provide innovative applications and continue to provide safe products.” The company will use the know-how it gains in the tests for “further design, development and enhancement of existing GPS applications to provide greater efficiency and more effective means of utilizing GPS derived information,” it said. Apple didn’t comment Wednesday.
That Auction 96 procedures were based on an undisclosed deal between the FCC and Dish Network points to the agency's H-block license decisions being anything but ordinary, appellant NTCH said in a docket 18-1241 reply brief (in Pacer) Wednesday with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. It said Dish's $1.56 billion bidding commitment, and the FCC-granted waivers in response, were "entirely unprecedented" and went against basic tenets of administrative law. It said the agency and Dish argue that reversing the Auction 96 results would strand millions of dollars of investments the satellite-TV company has made, but the MVPD admitted it made little progress in network facility construction. The regulator and counsel for appellee intervenor Dish didn't comment.
The Public Safety Bureau deleted from FCC rules an opt-out process from FirstNet. The bureau acted because “no state or territory elected to opt out within the statutory timeframe” and “there is no continued need for the rules.” The bureau said launching a rulemaking “is unnecessary and contrary to the public interest because the lack of any opt-out election by any state or territory has rendered the opt-out rules moot.” Wednesday's order, in docket 16-269, is signed by bureau Chief Lisa Fowlkes.
CTIA sought tweaks to the FCC draft Further NPRM that proposes carriers be required to identify a vertical location accuracy metric, also known as the z-axis, of plus or minus 3 meters for 80 percent of indoor wireless calls to 911. It's set for a vote by commissioners next week (see 1902220062). CTIA and Verizon, AT&T, T-Mobile and Sprint met Public Safety Bureau Deputy Chief David Furth and bureau staff, said a filing Wednesday in docket 07-114. “Further technology development and testing remains necessary to validate the accuracy of vertical location technology solutions to meet the FCC’s proposed metric … across regions, weather conditions and devices.” The association asked to modify a sentence in the draft requiring compliance with the standards, adding the words “as demonstrated in the test bed.” CTIA asked to seek comment “on ways to ensure that the rules maintain flexibility and technological neutrality so that … providers can adopt any solutions that meet the proposed metric and corresponding Commission rules.” The group noted another round of vertical-accuracy testing is underway in the industry’s location technologies test bed (see 1902260064). “Given the ongoing evolution of vertical location solutions, the participants urged the Commission to encourage all z-axis technology solutions vendors to participate in Stage Za,” the filing said.