Mobile subscriptions worldwide stood at 8.8 billion at the end of 2024, up from 8.7 billion a year earlier, TeleGeography wrote last week. That's a population penetration of 109%. It also said total mobile subscriptions should reach 9.7 billion by the end of 2030, driven by 5G technology adoption. China and India accounted for more than a third of the world's mobile subscriptions, with 1.8 billion and 1.2 billion, respectively, at the end of 2024. Europe had the highest population penetration at year's end at 140%, followed by the U.S. and Canada at 124%, it said. The wireless carriers dominating the U.S. mobile sector -- T-Mobile, Verizon and AT&T -- had market shares of 35%, 34% and 27%, respectively.
Lumi United Technology asked the FCC on Friday to approve its requested waiver for an ultra-wideband (UWB) door lock system that would operate in the 6-10 GHz frequency range (see 2502250037). “Three parties filed comments in this proceeding, and all three parties support the waiver,” Lumi said in docket 25-102. “The comments confirm that the Lumi UWB Door Locks will pose no risk of harmful interference and that there are significant public interest benefits to granting the waiver request.”
The Competitive Carriers Association supported petitions for reconsideration of the FCC’s August order launching a 5G Fund filed by the Coalition of Rural Wireless Carriers (CWRC) and the Rural Wireless Association (see 2501140056). CCA agrees that “several aspects” of the order “require prompt reconsideration,” said a filing posted Friday in docket 20-32.
The Wireless Infrastructure Association announced Thursday that Youngstown State University in Ohio is launching a pre-apprenticeship program for broadband industry careers. The program is part of WIA’s Telecommunications Industry Registered Apprenticeship Program. “Pre-apprenticeship programs are a proven way to create accessible career paths within high-demand fields such as the broadband industry,” said Lindsey Ekstrand, the school's director-workforce education.
The Ecommerce Innovation Alliance told the FCC that the issues its members face have gotten worse since it filed a petition in March asking for a declaratory ruling finding that people who provide prior express written consent to receive text messages can't claim damages under the Telephone Consumer Protection Act for messages received outside the hours of 8 a.m. to 9 p.m. (see 2503030036). Comments were due on the petition Thursday, replies April 25.
The Committee for the Assessment of Foreign Participation in the U.S. Telecommunications Services Sector notified the FCC on Thursday that T-Mobile and UScellular “provided complete responses” to the committee’s initial questions on T-Mobile’s proposed acquisition of wireless assets from the smaller carrier (see 2405280047). The committee, which is informally known as Team Telecom, “shall complete its initial review of the Applications before the end of the 120-day initial review period, which begins on the date of this letter,” said a filing in docket 24-286. “The Commission will be notified promptly in the event of an extension of the 120-day initial review period or the need arises to conduct a 90-day secondary assessment.”
The Z-Wave Alliance slammed a recent NextNav engineering study that found no interference concerns with the company’s proposal for the FCC to reconfigure the 902-928 MHz band “to enable a high-quality, terrestrial complement” to GPS for positioning, navigation and timing services (see 2503030023). The NextNav proposal is one part of a GPS notice of inquiry approved last month by the FCC (see 2503270042).
The National Weather Service (NWS) warned the FCC that changing wireless emergency alert (WEA) rules to reduce alert fatigue and opt-outs won’t be easy given the nature of WEAs. “The problem is that there is no way to suppress WEA attention getting signals (audible or vibration cadence) when the WEA recipient was already presented with attention getting signals in the original alert or a previous alert update,” the NWA said this week in docket 15-91. “This is a problem for the NWS and will be exacerbated as alert originator capabilities advance.”
The FCC Wireless Bureau said Wednesday that going forward it won’t announce additional licenses in the 900 MHz broadband segment when they're approved. Instead, the grants will be announced in the bureau’s weekly status public notice. The FCC approved an order five years ago reallocating a 6 MHz swath in the band for broadband while maintaining 4 MHz for narrowband operations (see 2005130057).
Aspects of the FCC's 2024 order reallocating the 2360-2395 MHz band on a secondary basis for space launch operations (see 2412310029) need clarification or reconsideration, the Aerospace and Flight Test Radio Coordinating Council said in a petition Tuesday (docket 13-115). AFTRCC applauded the decision to make spectrum available for space launch and reentry activities but said that shouldn't "cause undue constraints on the continued primary use of the shared allocation in the band by Federal and non-Federal flight test operators." It said the agency should make clear that coordination of space launch activity with flight test operations in the upper S band will be collaborative exercises. It should also make clear that per-launch coordination is required for nonfederal flight test operations in 2360-2395 MHz in the same way it's required for primarily federal flight test operations in the band, AFTRCC said. Lastly, the FCC should clarify language in the order suggesting that the availability of the 2360-2395 MHz band for commercial space launch and reentry activity was a minimum required by Congress when the law limits permissible operations to such activity and going beyond those uses would expressly conflict with the language of the statute.