Lower small-cell attachment and application fees would mean more widespread deployment of 5G, Corning said, posted Thursday in FCC docket 17-79. Corning funded the report by CMA Strategy Consulting. “Reducing small cell attachment and application fees could reduce deployment costs by $2.1 billion over five years, or $7,900 per small cell built,” Corning said. “These cost savings could lead to an additional $2.6 billion in capital expenditure due to additional neighborhoods moving from being economically unviable to becoming economically viable, with 97 percent of this capital expenditure going towards investment in rural and suburban areas.”

T-Mobile notified the FCC it received a subpoena from the New York State attorney general as part a review of the pending T-Mobile/Sprint transaction (see 1808300046). The office asked for numbering resource utilization and forecast reports and carrier-specific local number portability data, T-Mobile said. “This subpoena requires that T-Mobile provide ‘[a]ll Documents . . . received from . . . [FCC] in connection with the . . . FCC’s investigation of the Proposed Transaction,’” T-Mobile said in a filing posted Thursday in docket 18-197. “All materials provided to the NYAG are made available to other state attorneys general that are investigating the transaction and that have signed confidentiality agreements with T-Mobile and Sprint.” Meanwhile, Crown Castle filed a letter at the FCC, posted Thursday, supporting the deal. “The combination of these two smaller nationwide wireless providers will advance the national priority of fast-tracking 5G deployment and create a company with the spectrum and other necessary resources to help the U.S. win the global race for 5G leadership,” the tower company said. “We anticipate that, in addition to consumers and enterprise consumers, Crown Castle and other companies throughout the mobile wireless supply chain can benefit from New T-Mobile’s investment in its next-generation wireless network.”

Union Pacific is making “significant progress” on implementing positive train control, the railroad announced Wednesday. “The company will meet all required deadlines for installing PTC on its network,” the freight railroad said. “As allowed by federal law, Union Pacific will continue to implement, test and refine the complex suite of technologies comprising the system in 2019-20.” The company noted its PTC footprint is the largest in North American, running more than 17,000 route miles or roughly one-third of all U.S. PTC miles.

5G Americas and the Small Cell Forum want streamlined siting rules, saying they are critical to U.S. success on 5G. If challenges of siting small cells aren’t addressed quickly, “many of the benefits which governments, regulators and cities hope to derive from 5G -- such as smart city platforms and the Industrial IoT -- will be severely compromised,” the groups said Wednesday. “Altering regulatory policies at the national, state and city level is imperative to reduce the time and cost of deploying small cells at scale.” They released a paper on the benefits of densified wireless networks. “Municipalities, citizens and operators should be partners, not adversaries, in delivering the future of 5G connectivity,” said 5G Americas President Chris Pearson.

With the Connect America Fund Phase II reverse auction wrapped up (see 1808280035), the policy discussion needs to shift to spectrum policy, especially forthcoming citizens broadband radio service band decisions, the Wireless ISP Association said Tuesday. It said 15 members were among CAF II reverse auction winners. WISPA CEO Claude Aiken tweeted that the auction results are "one more step in closing the #DigitalDivide" and fixed wireless operators accounting for about half of the auction spending is a "Big moment for the industry."

With the FCC in June having denied GLH Communications' petition for reconsideration, its writ of mandamus seeking to compel the agency to act on the petition is moot and dismissed, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit said Monday in a docket 18-1060 order (in Pacer). The agency, in its order, said none of GLH's arguments was new and all previously had been rejected by the agency. GLH petitioned the FCC after losing C Block licenses in 2003 for not making payments.

With FirstNet still getting off the ground, now isn’t the time to tinker with rules for the wireless priority service (WPS), FirstNet partner AT&T commented in FCC docket 96-86. In July, NTIA petitioned the FCC to launch an NPRM to update the rules for the WPS, designed to give priority to calls by public officials over other callers during times of network overload (see 1807100040). Initial comments were due at the FCC Tuesday. “If the Commission proceeds with a rulemaking," AT&T asked, "employ a light touch.” TechFreedom, the only other commenter so far, said the proceeding shouldn’t look at issues of net neutrality and complaints about Verizon slowing Santa Clara County, California, firefighters’ service (see 1808290044). Santa Clara County Fire Prevention District (FPD) has become the “poster child” for Communications Act Title II regulation of the internet, TechFreedom said. “The FPD chose a data plan (4G speeds only for the first 25 GB/month, but ‘unlimited’ data after that) that was manifestly unsuited for their needs (up to 300 GB/month of 4G data), and then apparently misunderstood that Verizon’s generous policy of suspending speed restrictions when government users claimed emergency circumstances did not mean the device would be permanently exempted from such caps.”

FCC rules requiring any nonfederal public safety agency seeking to license mobile and portable units on federal interoperability channels to obtain written concurrence from its statewide interoperability coordinator or a state-appointed official take effect Wednesday. The Office of Management and Budget approved, for three years, the information collection associated with the order, says a Federal Register notice.

The FCC Wireless Bureau will host its annual workshop on the environmental compliance and historic preservation review process required for building wireless towers Oct. 11-12, the bureau said Tuesday. “Training will include information relevant to the construction of all new communications towers and the collocation of communications equipment on existing towers and other structures." The public meeting starts at 9 a.m. each day in the Commission Meeting Room.

The Wireless ISP Association asked the FCC to “modernize” the over-the-air reception devices rule to apply to all fixed wireless transmitters and receivers, “so long as the equipment meets the existing size restrictions for customer-end equipment.” Extending OTARD to all fixed wireless equipment, “while maintaining the existing size limits and exceptions for safety and historical purposes -- regardless of whether it is used for reception, transmission, or both -- would be consistent with the original intent of OTARD, will accelerate the deployment of competitive broadband services in markets across the country, and will empower consumers to help bring competitive wireless broadband to their communities by hosting hub sites,” WISPA said in docket 17-79.