Representatives of groups concerned with NextNav’s proposal for the FCC to reconfigure the 902-928 MHz band to enable a “terrestrial complement” to GPS for positioning, navigation and timing (PNT) services met with Wireless Bureau and Office of Engineering and Technology staff. The filing was by the RAIN Alliance, LoRa Alliance, Wi-Fi Alliance, Wi-SUN Alliance and Z-Wave Alliance, which earlier questioned a NextNav study on potential interference (see 2504280045).
Q Link Wireless CEO Issa Asad was sentenced to 60 months in prison Friday after pleading guilty to fraud tied to the FCC’s Lifeline program (see 2410160029). Asad and Q Link also pleaded guilty to money laundering through the COVID-19-era Paycheck Protection Program. Q Link agreed to pay a fine of more than $109 million, and Asad and Q Link jointly will pay a separate $109 million in restitution to the FCC.
UScellular announced that the company will change its name to Array Digital Infrastructure following the close of the sale of spectrum and other wireless assets to T-Mobile, expected this week. The carrier also announced Thursday that current UScellular CFO Doug Chambers will become interim CEO and president, replacing Laurent Therivel. Parent TDS and the newly renamed company will release Q2 results on Aug. 11, TDS said Friday.
Representatives of the International Bridge, Tunnel & Turnpike Association met with aides to FCC Commissioner Olivia Trusty on the group’s concerns about NextNav’s proposal to reconfigure the 902-928 MHz band to allow a “terrestrial complement” to GPS for positioning, navigation and timing services (see 2507170036). “NextNav wishes to subsidize a new PNT solution by converting more than 95% of its current … spectrum to a new, far-higher-power commercial wireless network -- reducing the total amount of spectrum available for tolling licensees from 14 megahertz to 11 megahertz and confining tolling operations to the duplex gap,” said a filing posted Friday in docket 25-110.
The FCC’s final order addressing rules for the AWS-3 reauction, approved 3-0 by commissioners Thursday adds several sentences on tribal sovereignty to a section denying a tribal priority window for the auction. Commissioner Anna Gomez said Thursday she had asked for the language (see 2507240055). Gomez voted to approve the order with a partial concurrence. The order was posted Friday.
The FCC Wireless Bureau on Thursday reminded operators of autonomous vessels (AVs) to obtain a maritime mobile service identity, a nine-digit number that identifies radio stations in the maritime mobile service. The notice cited the “proliferation in recent years” of AVs. The vessels can make use of automatic identification system technology but to do so need to register for the nine-digit identity number, the bureau said.
GCI filed additional data at the FCC on its request for modification or waiver of the Alaska population-distribution model (see 2504140020). Much of the data was redacted from the filing, posted Thursday in docket 16-271. “The Commission has good cause to grant the Waiver Petition,” GCI said. “The availability of the Fabric -- which can improve estimates of the location of eligible population -- is a special circumstance that warrants deviation from the Model as initially adopted.”
FCC Chairman Brendan Carr told reporters Thursday he wasn’t surprised by DOJ's analysis of T-Mobile’s buy of UScellular wireless assets (see 2507110045). Gail Slater, Antitrust Division chief, raised concerns about the loss of UScellular as a competitor and the overall competitiveness of the U.S. wireless sector. “The stark facts of today merit our immediate attention: together, the Big 3 account for more than 90 percent of the roughly 335 million mobile subscriptions in the United States,” Slater said.
The FCC on Wednesday sought comment on a New York City Metropolitan Transit Authority (MTA) proposal to use the 4.9 GHz band for train safety communications. Comments are due Aug. 22, replies Sept. 8, in universal licensing system file number 0011366120. MTA seeks to license “wayside” transmitters as temporary fixed stations but requests a waiver of certain technical rules to operate them at permanent locations,” said a notice by the Public Safety and Wireless bureaus. MTA also seeks “a waiver of the 4.9 GHz application freeze on new deployments so it can continue expanding its operations in the future,” the notice said.
T-Mobile once again led the U.S. wireless industry in subscriber growth in Q2, with 830,000 postpaid phone net customer adds, for its “best-ever Q2,” T-Mobile said after the close of financial markets Wednesday. T-Mobile also added 454,000 5G broadband net customers, up 12% year-over-year, for a total of 7.3 million. Postpaid phone churn was .90%, compared with .80% last year. T-Mobile also reported service revenue of $17.4 billion, up 6% year-over-year, and postpaid service revenue of $14.1 billion, up 9%. Net income was $3.2 billion.