As is typical when the FCC considers major transactions, the agency said it's gathering data as it considers T-Mobile/Sprint and will put the data in the record, subject to a protective order. The FCC intends to consider data including the biannual numbering resource utilization and forecast reports filed by carriers and carrier-specific local number portability data, the FCC said Thursday in docket 18-197.
As the 3.5 GHz citizens broadband radio service band enters the test phase, the FCC Friday sought proposals for short-term, limited geographic deployment by conditionally approved spectrum access system (SAS) administrators. The Wireless Bureau and Office of Engineering and Technology must assess and test each SAS before final certification, said the notice in docket 15-319. “This is intended to ensure that, through robust, rapid testing in a variety of real-world scenarios, the SAS is operating in compliance with Commission rules.” The real-world tests “will complement the testing done in a controlled laboratory setting by providing a real-world environment to assess certain aspects of compliance with the Commission’s rules that cannot be effectively verified under laboratory testing,” the FCC said. Tweeted Commissioner Mike O’Rielly (see 1807250055): “As I hinted was coming at @HouseCommerce hearing, @FCC announces today another step to making 3.5 GHz band operational for licensed & unlicensed use. I look forward to early commercial SAS markets, hopefully later this year.”
All FirstNet-eligible subscribers may sign up for FirstNet using NPPGov, a government procurement service previously only for agencies but now available for other stakeholders, AT&T said Thursday. NPPGov members now can access FirstNet pricing in their state without a contract.
Huawei is seeking to beat Samsung to market with the world’s first foldable smartphone using displays sourced from Chinese panel maker BOE, Nikkei reported. Huawei and Samsung representatives didn’t comment. Huawei Consumer Business Group CEO Richard Yu is scheduled to keynote IFA Aug. 31 in Berlin. BOE is partnering on a Gen 10.5 LCD display fab in Hefei, China, with Corning, which Wednesday told analysts that display cover materials don’t yet exist for foldable smartphones that would be sufficiently bendable and durable (see 1807250063 or 1807250008).
Verizon still sweeps mobile performance awards at the national level, “including the carrier's tenth straight outright win for overall performance,” RootMetrics reported Thursday. AT&T “remains a strong competitor at the national level” and was tied with Verizon on text performance, RootMetrics said. “Sprint showcases data speed and reliability improvements at the metro level,” the researcher said. “T-Mobile heats up the mobile competition across U.S. metros due to lightning-fast speeds while also increasing its state-level awards.” RootMetrics employees drove 227,689 miles, visited 8,068 indoor locations and did nearly 4 million tests.
The FCC Public Safety Bureau dismissed on procedural grounds a petition by a Wisconsin county to reconsider termination of its microwave license and to extend its construction deadline, also denying the request on substance. Douglas County missed an Oct. 8 construction deadline, so the bureau Nov. 15 put its license in termination-pending status, but the county sought reconsideration and an extension after finishing the tower site Nov. 22. The petition “is procedurally defective because it is neither signed and verified by the applicant nor signed by an attorney of record,” said Thursday's order. Finishing the site “does not demonstrate that the construction was timely, nor does it justify the County’s failure to file a timely extension request or construction notification,” the bureau said. “Douglas County could have and should have filed an extension request before the construction deadline.” The bureau suggested a path forward. “The County may file a new, properly coordinated application for a license if it desires to use its previously licensed frequencies,” it said. If the county needs to operate while that’s pending, “it may file a request for conditional authorization in accordance with Section 101.31(b) of the Commission’s rules.”
The U.S. wireless industry is getting more competitive, the Free State Foundation commented as the FCC prepares its first “Communications Marketplace Report,” required under the FY 2018 omnibus spending bill (see 1803230038). Comments were due Thursday in docket 18-203 (see 1806260056). The biennial report will replace the annual mobile competition report. The final wireless report last year said the wireless industry is effectively competitive, a conclusion the FCC didn’t reach during the Obama administration. “Mean LTE download speeds increased to 23.5 Mbps in the first half of 2017," FSF said. " Those download speeds increased 20.4 percent to 27.33 Mbps between the first half of 2017 and the first half of 2018.”
The Supreme Court’s recent decision rejecting a California disclosure law in National Institute of Family and Life Advocates v. Becerra is a “ringing endorsement” of CTIA's view that the First Amendment “protects the rights of commercial speakers to speak and to remain silent,” the association said Thursday in a brief (in Pacer) at the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. CTIA is challenging an RF disclosure ordinance in Berkeley; the 9th Circuit earlier disagreed with CTIA, but the Supreme Court directed the appeals court to take another look, given NIFLA (see 1807110023). The Supreme Court “held that the State’s asserted goal of enabling pregnant women to make more informed choices about health care services could not justify forcing these facilities to speak when they would prefer to remain silent on those issues,” CTIA said. “NIFLA thus confirms that commercial speech -- including both the right to speak and the right to refrain from speaking -- is entitled to First Amendment protection in its own right and not, as the City contends, based solely on its value to listeners.” Whereas California tried to require crisis pregnancy centers to make “entirely accurate” statements, Berkeley wants carriers to “disseminate a government-drafted, misleading, inflammatory, and controversial opinion about cell phone safety and radiation while evading any serious constitutional scrutiny,” CTIA said. Berkeley’s response is due Aug.16.
Since its launch a year ago, Bluetooth mesh has been qualified in more than 65 products from silicon, stack, component and end product vendors, the Bluetooth Special Interest Group said Wednesday. The wireless protocol enables “many-to-many” device communications, positioning it for large-scale networks, it said. It's scalable across the smart home and elsewhere, said ABI Research analyst Stuart Carlaw in the release.
The FCC Enforcement Bureau proposed a penalty of $18,000 against an amateur radio operator in Lake Charles, Louisiana, for allegedly interfering with other operators in violation of the Communications Act. “The Commission has received numerous complaints alleging that he was causing interference to a local amateur repeater … preventing other amateur licensees from using the repeater,” the bureau said. In June 2017, the FCC received a complaint that Jerry Materne interfered with an attempted emergency net in response to the imminent landfall of Tropical Storm Cindy, the bureau said: “Materne repeatedly transmitted on the repeater’s input frequency, hindering the local Emergency Net’s ability to coordinate weather Warnings and Alerts on behalf of the National Weather Service.” Materne couldn’t be reached for comment.