The FCC Wireless Bureau sought comment on an April 1 request by AT&T for permission to use Power Spectral Density (PSD) measurements in complying with the commission’s radiated power limits for 800 MHz cellular operations in parts of Missouri. “AT&T specifically proposes a PSD limit of 250 watts/MHz in non-rural areas and 500 watts/MHz in rural areas, and includes a study that purports to show that implementing PSD-based power limits in the Cellular Service would not cause harmful interference to public safety deployments,” the bureau said. The bureau asked for comment “particularly with respect to any potential adverse impact on public safety operations in the adjacent bands and neighboring Cellular licensees.” Comments are due April 30, replies May 11. The FCC asked similar questions in a November further NPRM focused on further streamlining cellular service rules.

The FCC released the agenda for its workshop with NTIA on a model city program on spectrum sharing technologies. The workshop kicks off Wednesday at 1 p.m. at FCC headquarters. It continues the next day with remarks scheduled by FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler. The workshop will “explore different aspects of the Model City including the concept, scope, governance, process, technical considerations and funding alternatives,” the FCC said Monday. The program was recommended in a report by the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (see 1404070044) and would pick one or more cities that agree to streamline regulations to allow for more ready testing of innovative uses of spectrum. City officials in Chicago and Washington, D.C., told the FCC last year they would be interested in taking part in the program (see 1409030034).

The FCC Public Safety Bureau released a public notice offering what it said was further clarity on the process by which it will accept applications for expanded coverage or additional channels from public safety licensees that decide to remain in the 800 MHz Expansion Band, at 815-816/860-861 MHz. The applications will be “subject to pre-coordination” and will be accepted only on or after a filing date established by the Public Safety Bureau and the Wireless Bureau, upon completion of band reconfiguration in each National Public Safety Planning Advisory Committee region, the bureau said.

The American Gas Association and Edison Electric Institute’s Feb. 12 petition for expedited declaratory relief from the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) is “overly broad,” said NARUC in comments posted Monday in docket 02-278. AGA and EEI’s petition asks the agency to confirm that when a customer provides a telephone number to an energy utility, it constitutes “’prior express consent’” to receive autodialed or recorded nontelemarketing informational calls. NARUC agreed utilities should be allowed to send notifications about outages and restoration of service, and with “summer storms on the horizon,” the agency should immediately declare that those calls are exempted from TCPA as calls made for emergency purposes. But an exemption should be limited to those calls, the filing said. Wireless customers "should not have to pay for other communications from utilities that they may not wish to receive," according to NARUC.

The FCC Wireless Bureau posed questions Monday to both Cellular Network Partnership (CNP) and KanOkla Telephone Association, which have asked for the FCC's blessing on a deal in which KanOkla would sell three lower 700 MHz C block licenses in Oklahoma to CNP. The letter to CNP asks for details on the company’s plans, “including the timeline, to provide fixed broadband or any other service using the spectrum that it would acquire under the Proposed Transaction.” The CNP letter notes that in two of the license areas CNP already has 47-59 MHz of below-1-GHz spectrum and the deal would increase its concentration to 51-71 MHz. “Provide a detailed explanation of why this additional concentration of below-1-GHz spectrum, specifically, would not preclude rival service providers and potential new entrants from expanding or entering into these two markets, and how its acquisition is necessary to enhance or expand services to the Company’s customers,” the letter said.

Local governments don't generally do a good job regulating small cells and distributed antenna systems (DAS), said Jonathan Kramer, principal attorney-Telecom Law Firm, Monday during a webinar hosted by NATOA. “We don't regulate buzzwords and we don't regulate technology,” he said. "We're not allowed to regulate technologies under federal law, but we are, and should, be regulating community asthetics." As wireless companies move away from using cell towers, they will need to install tens of thousands of small cells and DAS in communities to continue to have good coverage, which gives those companies and municipalities a chance to work together, said Gabriel Garcia, director and senior counsel-CPS Energy. The carriers will need citywide installation sites, access to poles, electricity connections, fiber backhaul, predictable city procedures and right-of-way permitting, he said. Wireless carriers will want cities to have rights of way throughout the city, their own traffic light poles, fiber lines along rights of way and control of rights of way outside the zoning process, Garcia said. A license agreement needs to benefit both parties, he said. “The general bargain is that the local government would grant a master license for the provider to install small cells or DAS anywhere in the city,” Garcia said.

The FCC Wireless Bureau Monday denied a request for a waiver by Spectrum Networks Group (SNG) so subsidiary M2M Spectrum Networks can offer a third-party service providing machine-to-machine communications using 900 MHz Business/Industrial/Land Transportation channels. When the bureau sought comment last summer, the Enterprise Wireless Alliance (EWA), Motorola Solutions and the Utilities Telecom Council raised concerns, (see 1408130033). SNG responded, arguing that “the record provides clear evidence that M2M is able and ready to deploy its network with dispatch.” SNG’s applications request a total of more than 2,000 channels in approximately 150 of the 186 basic economic areas, "including the last remaining 900 MHz B/ILT channels in most of the top-ten markets where channels are still available," the bureau said. "It also intends to seek additional 900 MHz B/ILT channels after it satisfies the loading requirements on its initial channels. Grant of the waiver request could thus have a significant effect on the nature of the 900 MHz B/ILT band. We are reluctant to grant waiver requests that effectively circumvent the Commission’s rulemaking function."

The FCC should rule that nonemergency, service-related phone calls and text messages to customers who have provided a phone number don't violate the Telephone Consumer Protection Act, said the Alarm Industry Communications Committee in comments posted Friday in docket 02-278. AICC supported a petition for expedited declaratory ruling sought by Edison Electric Institute and the American Gas Association (see 1503270020). Calling the proposed exemption a “common sense approach to customer relations,” AICC acknowledged TCPA exempts communications made for emergency purposes, but “alarm companies may also benefit by being able to use the contact number provided by their customer … to contact that customer about their account and alarm system status and to verify installation/maintenance appointments.” Other notifications “can best be quickly distributed to alarm subscribers by auto-dialer and/or text message," the group said, citing alerts about the need for an equipment upgrade, an equipment recall, alerts regarding a system security risk, suspicious activity like someone is knocking on doors, or about home invasions in the area. Customers who give a vendor or creditor a phone number expect “to be contacted on that number in connection with its relationship with that vendor,” AICC said.

The FCC will take up a public notice seeking additional comment on designated entity (DE) rules at its meeting Friday, the commission said Friday in an announcement. Chairman Tom Wheeler circulated the draft notice last month (see 1503240055) after promising he would do so during an appearance before the House Appropriations Financial Services Subcommittee. Commissioners Mike O’Rielly and Ajit Pai earlier urged the FCC to revisit the rules in the wake of the AWS-3 auction, where Dish Network used two DEs to indirectly buy $13.3 billion worth of licenses for $10 billion (see 1504090053). The notice will look at “how to ensure that small businesses, rural telephone companies, and businesses owned by members of minority groups and women have an opportunity to participate in the provision of spectrum-based services, while ensuring that there are adequate safeguards to protect against unjust enrichment to ineligible entities,” the FCC said. The agency is also taking up rules for the 3.5 GHz band, as was expected (see 1503270052).

The FCC released a Small Entity Compliance Guide to help small businesses, small organizations and small governmental jurisdictions comply with the FCC’s revised wireless E-911 location requirements. The guide is no substitute for the rules, released in February, the document noted. “In any civil or administrative action against a small entity for a violation of rules, the content of the Small Entity Compliance Guide may be considered as evidence of the reasonableness or appropriateness of proposed fines, penalties or damages.”