The United Keetoowah Band of Cherokee Indians, other tribes and supporters detailed objections to a March FCC wireless infrastructure order, at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit (see 1808310038), in United Keetoowah Band v. FCC, No. 18-1129. “For decades, Tribes, carriers and other parties worked cooperatively to ensure that construction of cell phone infrastructure did not desecrate sacred or historic locations,” said the lead pleading. The Order exempted tens of thousands of expected antenna facilities” from environmental and historic reviews, the filing said. Tribes are no longer notified of small-cell deployments, the tribes said. “The FCC shortened the timeline for Tribal review, hindering Tribal ability to meaningfully participate in the review process. It reversed policy on Tribal fees, contrary to guidance by the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation, by providing carriers need not pay upfront fees to support the cost of Tribal review.” A brief led by the Blackfeet tribe also asked the court to overturn the March order. Plaintiffs “challenge FCC’s attempts to excuse itself from its most basic federal legal obligations to consult with Indian tribes on a government-to-government basis, as both the National Environmental Protection Act (NEPA) and the National Historic Preservation Act (NHPA), and their corresponding regulations plainly require.”

Mobile shopping activity grew six percentage points in two years, with 45 percent of smartphone users saying they do it, NPD reported Monday, through Aug 31. Larger smartphone screens are partly responsible. Some 100 million consumers shop online via smartphone, said analyst John Buffone. “Consumers are leveraging their smartphones to purchase ‘grab and go’ items, as these purchases can be made conveniently, without investing the time to examine product reviews or visit multiple sites for price comparisons,” analyst Stephen Baker said.

Executives from Midcontinent Communications gave FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr a tour Thursday of the company’s facilities in North Dakota and spoke with him about the citizens broadband radio service band and other issues. “Midco shared its views on the 2.5 GHz and 3.5 GHz bands, next generation or 5G fixed wireless technology, and Midco’s preference for county-sized spectrum licenses,” said a filing Sunday in docket 18-120. “Midco also discussed its desire for the rural bidding credits for the priority access license auction in the 3.5 GHz band.” Midco said in written testimony at a Senate hearing last week (see 1810120051) it's testing residential fixed wireless speeds of 100 Mbps download and 20 Mbps upload using 3.65 GHz and CBRS spectrum.

The Wi-Fi Alliance urged the FCC to propose low-power, indoor use of the 6 GHz band without automatic frequency coordination (AFC). “There are many reasons that low power unlicensed devices restricted to indoor-only use are unlikely to cause harmful interference to fixed service stations,” the coalition said. “Those unlicensed devices are most likely to be operated at or near ground level -- removed from the main beam of microwave transmissions, or in high-rise structures where structural steel, concrete and treated windows absorb most of radiofrequency energy outside.” The alliance said Friday in docket 18-295 it met with aides to the four commissioners and Julius Knapp, chief of the Office of Engineering and Technology. Commissioners will consider proposed rules at their meeting on allowing Wi-Fi in the 6 GHz band (see 1810010027). Add additional questions to the NPRM “and provide more specific guidance about the types of evidence that would be most useful to the Commission in assessing the feasibility of these operations in each 6 GHz sub-band,” tech players said in FCC meetings with Mike O’Rielly and aides to the other commissioners. “Consider additional questions about the use of portable access points in the 6 GHz band, which have proven to be a key use case in the 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz unlicensed bands." They sought a comment request "on how technical rules governing transmitters can promote rural broadband deployment in the 6 GHz band.” The filing was signed by Apple, Broadcom, Cisco, Facebook, Google, Hewlett Packard Enterprise, Intel, Marvell Technology Group, Microsoft, Qualcomm and Ruckus Networks.

T-Mobile and Sprint executives met FCC staff reviewing their proposed deal on the network model the companies offered in response to Wireless Bureau questions. Mark McDiarmid, T-Mobile senior vice president-radio network engineering and development, led the meeting, said a filing posted Monday in docket 18-197. “Applicants showed how the network model is utilized to determine if there may be network congestion for the LTE and 5G networks for standalone T-Mobile, standalone Sprint, and New T-Mobile,” it said. Free Conferencing met staff to complain about T-Mobile business practices. “Free Conference provided FCC staff with information concerning T- Mobile’s deceptive and ongoing call blocking scheme, referred to as the One-Cent Policy,” the company said Friday. “T-Mobile designed the policy solely to reduce its own customers’ calls to Free Conferencing and others that tend to have longer duration calls.” T-Mobile didn't comment.

The FCC Enforcement Bureau said Adaptive Micro Systems agreed to adopt a compliance plan and pay a $50,000 penalty for marketing LED signs used in digital billboards and other applications without equipment authorization, labeling and user manual disclosures. In a consent decree, the company admitted it violated the rules. It didn't comment Friday.

The FCC Office of Engineering and Technology gave AT&T special temporary authority to operate a 5G new radio (NR) system using 28 GHz spectrum in a collaborative trial at the University of Southern California, Los Angeles. “The 5G air links … will be used to test and verify the performance of various applications that require very high speeds and very low latencies, to confirm the benefits of 5G NR for such applications,” AT&T said. “The results will provide valuable information to users whose feedback could be used to enable product development and system optimization, as well as to improve future system standards and the deployment processes.”

A Phoenix Center study Friday proposed a two-stage economic model for market-based repurposing of spectrum, using an expiring “transaction window.” Licensees would get a fixed period to sell, acquire or repurpose their licenses. “This transaction window expires at a known, fixed date, at which time licenses held by incumbents that are not participating in or eligible for providing the ‘new’ service receive a compensation level established by the Commission, such as relocation to new spectrum bands where a functionally equivalent flow of services may be obtained,” the center said. “The motivation to act fairly and quickly during the transaction window depends on the Commission’s chosen level of compensation when the window expires.” Senior Fellow Randolph Beard and Chief Economist George Ford did the study. “Economic theory and empirical evidence suggests an expiring transaction window will expedite market transactions for spectrum licenses,” Ford said.

Verizon disputed complaints by competitive carrier Smith Bagley, which asked the FCC to investigate (see 1810110032) data Verizon submitted to determine which parts of the U.S. are eligible for support under the Mobility Fund II program. Verizon maps “follow the parameters set forth by the Commission,” a spokesperson emailed. “The FCC recognized that the coverage maps are predictive and will not necessarily reflect actual customer experience in every location all the time. The maps are designed to identify those areas (outside the maps) that are presumed eligible for support, so that limited funding can be targeted to the areas of highest need. The maps are only a first step in the Mobility Fund II process. The challenge process allows the Commission to expand the areas eligible for support upon evidence that coverage does not exist.”

Representatives of the Ultra Wide Band Alliance raised concerns about proposals in the FCC’s draft 6 GHz NPRM. Deployment “at the requested power levels, would effectively render many UWB products, services and applications useless,” said a filing posted Friday in docket 17-183. The alliance “holds grave concerns that the NPRM’s proposed power levels and use of the entire 6 GHz band will halt all innovation other than another variation of the current Wi-Fi techniques.” The FCC should consider ways to mitigate the risks for UWB, the alliance said. Members met with Chief Julius Knapp and others from the Office of Engineering and Technology. The FCC will consider proposed rules at the Oct. 23 commissioners' meeting allowing Wi-Fi in the 6 GHz band (see 1810010027).