Nokia representatives told FCC Commissioner Mike O’Rielly they agree with his support for “innovative business models” for offering broadband, including permitting paid prioritization. It's an "option for consumers to best control their broadband experience and for third party content providers to potentially reach new users,” Nokia said Tuesday in docket 17-183. “Paid prioritization business models also promise to restore balance in monetization of innovation across the entire value chain, to fuel robust broadband network deployment to all communities.” The Nokia reps underscored the importance of midband spectrum for 5G, especially the 3.45-3.55 and 3.7 GHz bands.
The FCC should preserve the educational broadcast service band and retain a preference for educational institutions and tribal nations for new EBS licenses, said the Schools, Health & Libraries Broadband Coalition in meetings last week with Chairman Ajit Pai, aides to the other four commissioners and the Wireless Bureau, recounted a filing posted Tuesday in docket 18-120. Letting such entities get the licenses would complement auctions in other bands, and public-private partnerships could allow them to pair with commercial providers to deploy rural service, SHLB said. The large commercial carriers that would likely win EBS licenses in an auction would be unlikely to deploy to rural areas, it said.
T-Mobile slammed arguments by the 4Competition Coalition (4CC) that U.S. mobile broadband prices are some of the highest in the industrialized world and that an example from Europe demonstrates T-Mobile's buying Sprint would result in even higher prices. 4CC cited the four-to-three combination of T-Mobile Nederland and Orange. That “resulted in price increases of between 10 percent and 17 percent compared to control countries,” 4CC said. The group cited a similar example from Austria. The claims “are false, as actual data before and after mergers in the European Union demonstrates,” T-Mobile said in FCC docket 18-197, posted Tuesday. “Against this data, the opponents present only one, cherry-picked study from a pay-to-play operator that uses a bogus and results-driven methodology.”
The Utilities Technology Council is making a “concerted effort” to raise the importance of spectrum for monitoring and control of utility networks at the upcoming World Radio Communication conference, UTC reported Tuesday on why 5G is important for utilities. There's "hype around all things ‘5G’" that "dominates the global telecommunications landscape,” said President Joy Ditto. “In spite of all we hear about the ‘Race to 5G,’" and "while the impact of 5G wireless service could be profound, it is years away from being widely deployed.” Fifth-generation could help with the ultra-reliable low latency communications important to utilities, but questions remain, UTC said. “Even if the 5G network were optimized for this particular application by deployment of infrastructure closer to the end points, the costs of this additional equipment would be prohibitive if only required for this specialist application.” New 5G networks with millimeter-wave technology “will require much denser infrastructure -- dense networks of small cells, an order of magnitude greater than currently,” UTC said. “This presents enormous challenges in finding sites, powering the base stations and backhauling the data.”
Huawei reminded the FCC of tweets by President Donald Trump last month on the importance of 5G and the U.S. winning the race to the next generation of wireless through competition (see 1902210057). The FCC is considering actions it might take to counter the threat from companies that pose a security threat to U.S. communications networks or the communications supply chain (see 1812210032). “If the best equipment for a particular network function is manufactured by a foreign company, Americans will still benefit from use of that equipment in U.S. wireless networks,” Huawei said in docket 18-89. “If American companies want to supply this equipment, then as President Trump said, they should win that business through competition, not by blocking out foreign competitors.” Huawei is ready to compete in the U.S., “through real competition,” the company said. Supply chain security is a legitimate concern, but “all equipment used by U.S. telecommunications carriers is potentially vulnerable to threats from multiple vectors,” Huawei said.
The Commerce Department got until May 29 to file a brief on VTDigger’s appeal of the local news organization's Freedom of Information Act case against FirstNet, the 2nd U.S. Court of Appeals ordered (in Pacer) Monday. Commerce requested that deadline (see 1903070016).
Qualcomm met FCC staffers about “5G New Radio” technology in unlicensed and shared spectrum. “5G NR deployed in unlicensed and shared spectrum, which is being standardized in [3rd Generation Partnership Project], can support demanding, compelling Industrial IoT and other applications that require ultra-low latency, ultra-reliable connectivity through using time synchronization and Coordinated Multi-Point sharing techniques,” Qualcomm said. “Many factories, hospitals, and other venues rely upon wired technology for these applications and using 5G NR instead will deliver tremendous gains in efficiency, productivity, and other benefits to the public.” Qualcomm officials met Julius Knapp, chief of the Office of Engineering and Technology, and others from OET and the Wireless Bureau, said a filing, posted Monday in docket 18-295.
Cisco got special temporary authority from the FCC Office of Engineering and Technology to run tests in the 5.9 GHz band, which is being looked at for Wi-Fi (see 1811140061). Most of the tests will be in the lab, Cisco said: “All necessary coordination will be done prior to any operation outside of our test chambers.”
The FCC said the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit should find the agency did nothing wrong in rejecting a complaint by Flat Wireless of roaming rates it must pay Verizon. “Flat Wireless offered no evidence demonstrating that Verizon’s rates are unreasonable under current market conditions,” the FCC said Friday in D.C. Circuit docket 18-1271. “Based on the record before it, the Commission reasonably concluded that ‘Verizon’s offered data rates are commercially reasonable in view of existing agreements with other providers.’”
Google affiliate Loon received an FCC Office of Engineering and Technology experimental license for continued testing of parts of LTE bands 20 and 28 using balloon-mounted directional antennas to relay communications between mobile handsets and fixed ground terminals. Approval came Monday. Loon said the test area would remain within an 11 kilometer radius in Nevada.