The Central Alabama Volunteer Exam Coordinator has been designated as a club station call-sign administrator under FCC rules, the Wireless Bureau announced Thursday. The bureau noted that volunteer organizations have been responsible for processing applications for amateur radio service club and military recreation station licenses since 1998. The Alabama group is one of five organizations that has been so designated.
The FCC is dropping parts of its 2023 robocall and robotext order rejected by the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals (see 2501240067), effective Friday. The 11th Circuit vacated the part of the order that said a consumer can't consent to a telemarketing or advertising robocall unless they consent to calls from only one entity at a time and consent only to calls whose subject matter is “logically and topically associated with the interaction that prompted the consent.” The 11th Circuit remanded the order to the FCC for further proceedings.
T-Mobile on Wednesday launched SuperMobile, which uses 5G slicing to create a network slice for business, combining “intelligent performance, built-in security and seamless satellite coverage.”
The FCC Office of Engineering and Technology sought comment Wednesday on a waiver request by Securaplane Technologies for a range-controlled radar system that operates in 5.8 GHz spectrum but could “radiate non-spurious emissions into the 5.35-5.46 GHz restricted frequency band.” Comments are due Sept. 26, replies Oct. 14, in docket 25-260. The system provides intrusion detection sensors installed in aircraft wheel wells “to detect movement within two to eight feet of the device,” OET said. It’s “part of a security system typically armed moments before the aircraft is parked and vacated and is automatically disabled when airborne.”
The biggest business opportunity for direct-to-device (D2D) service is underserved areas at the edge of terrestrial cellular coverage, often those between semi-urban and rural areas, the Mobile Satellite Services Association said in a white paper Wednesday. MSSA said terrestrial network subscribers in these areas often experience coverage gaps, and D2D service lets mobile network operators (MNOs) and satellite operators capitalize on that demand. A big advantage of using mobile satellite service spectrum for D2D is that it avoids the potential for interference with terrestrial mobile networks, the white paper noted, and it's feasible to reuse MNO spectrum in remote areas where there's no terrestrial usage of the same frequencies. In addition, it said there are ways of addressing interference between satellite and terrestrial reuse of MNO terrestrial spectrum near each other, but that depends on updated regulations and technological advancements.
New Dell’Oro research found signs of life in the 5G stand-alone (SA) market, with revenues from 5G core vendors up 31% in Q2 over the year-earlier quarter. The wireless industry has been “bemoaning the slow uptake of 5G SA networks” by mobile network operators (MNOs), Dell’Oro Research Director Dave Bolan blogged this week. “After all, we are in the sixth year of the 5G SA era, and with over 700 MNOs in the world, it is surprising that more 5G SA networks have not launched.”
AT&T Business and Cisco on Wednesday introduced a AT&T Secure Access Service Edge with Cisco. “Fragmented, multi-vendor solutions create complexity and security gaps,” said a news release. The offering provides a cloud-native architecture “that ensures consistent security, optimized application performance and proactive network management in a single platform.”
Arlington County (Virginia) Emergency Communications filed in support of NextNav’s plan (see 2508250055) to use the lower 900 MHz band for positioning, navigation and timing (PNT). A terrestrial GPS solution that offers accurate PNT “which can penetrate multi-level structures in dense urban environments would need to operate in the Lower 900 MHz Band frequency range that NextNav has petitioned for,” said a filing posted this week in docket 25-110. A terrestrial solution would “improve navigation in urban canyons created by high rise structures ... ensuring the routes are accurate and most expeditious for responders.”
T-Mobile is making a number of changes at the top of its senior leadership team, the carrier said in a filing this week at the SEC. Board member Andre Almeida is leaving that role to become president of growth and emerging businesses, effective Monday. As such, he “will oversee the Company’s broadband, T-Ads, financial services, enterprise and government businesses,” T-Mobile said. Callie Field, president of the business group, is leaving Sept. 30 but will remain as an adviser through March.
Carriers must continue following the FCC’s 2024 data breach rules after a recent U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit decision upholding a fine against T-Mobile, lawyers at Akin said Monday (see 2508150044).