SoftBank Chairman Masayoshi Son’s pessimistic view of U.S. wireless competition doesn’t align with reality (CD March 12 p1), said Stephen Pociask, president of the American Consumer Institute, in a statement. “The reality is that consumers are benefiting from competition in the industry and the United States is the clear leader in the world in deployment and adoption of advanced 4G networks,” he said. “Consumers will continue to reap these benefits and more if the industry is allowed to innovate and isn’t saddled with unnecessary regulations in the name of protecting -- or propping up -- competitors. … Regulators must keep that in mind and not overreact to any one company’s rhetoric -- especially the FCC as it plans the incentive auction."

T-Mobile urged the FCC to adopt parties-in-interest disclosure requirements as part of process reform. In a filing at the agency Wednesday, T-Mobile said the “common sense, narrowly-defined” rules previously proposed by T-Mobile “are in keeping with the disclosure rules used for both corporate parties and amici curiae appearing in the Supreme Court of the United States and in the federal courts of appeal, and adopting such rules would promote transparency, encourage public confidence, and enhance agency decision-making” (http://bit.ly/1esCVL8). T-Mobile said its proposal would require only: “(1) disclosure of contributors that fund advocacy or support a significant portion of the filer’s budget, as well as any single entity or group of entities that accounts for more than 1/3 of the filer’s annual U.S. sales; (2) disclosure of contributors to third parties who author filed work product; and (3) disclosure of the filer’s association members and/or management team.”

Support is broad for unlicensed spectrum in the TV band, said a coalition of public interest groups including the Consumer Federation of America, New America Foundation and Public Knowledge. The Public Interest Spectrum Coalition continues (CD March 11 p10) to want rules for the incentive TV auction to guarantee at least 24 MHz of spectrum for unlicensed use nationwide, PISC reiterated during a meeting with FCC Office of Engineering and Technology Chief Julius Knapp. “Broadcom, Google, Microsoft and other industry players maintain that if the band plan and repacking policies do not ensure at least four channels of 6 megahertz of unlicensed access in every market, including the most populated metro markets, the Commission will be killing off many emerging unlicensed use cases and the economic and social benefits that rely on low-band spectrum,” said a PISC ex parte filing on the Thursday meeting (http://bit.ly/1lT429S). “A diverse ecosystem of both low-band and high-band spectrum will be necessary to extend the benefits of unlicensed spectrum."

Representatives of the Wireless Internet Service Providers Association discussed the importance of the Connect America Fund, the rural broadband experiment program and the Remote Areas Fund to WISPs during a meeting with FCC Commissioner Mike O'Rielly. “They emphasized the need for Commission rules to be adopted and applied in a technology-neutral manner that affords providers of fixed wireless broadband services a fair opportunity to participate in the rural broadband experiment program and the Remote Areas Fund,” said a filing on the meeting (http://bit.ly/1gioNIp).

The FCC Enforcement Bureau proposed a fine of $25,000 against Winchester Wireless, a Virginia wireless ISP, for allegedly intentionally operating radiators that don’t comply with FCC rules. In May 2011, the bureau first found that the WISP had attached two RF Linx 900 MHz amplifiers to a Motorola Canopy transmitter even though the Motorola system “is not certified for use with external amplifiers” (http://bit.ly/1ixvrOh). In May 2013, “in response to two additional complaints,” an FCC field agent inspected two transmitter sites operated by Winchester Wireless and found the same Motorola Canopy system and RF Linx equipment observed during the 2011 inspection. “Because Winchester Wireless operated its Motorola Canopy system with unauthorized amplifiers at two separate locations, we propose a $10,000 forfeiture for operation without an instrument of authorization at each location,” the bureau said. “In addition, Winchester Wireless had the same type of violation less than two years earlier. ... Winchester Wireless’s actions demonstrate a deliberate disregard for the Commission’s requirements and we therefore find a $5,000 upward adjustment in the forfeiture is warranted.” “We are currently investigating this matter with a law firm that our industry uses for FCC correspondence of this nature,” said David Williamson, owner of Winchester Wireless. “We have nothing further to report at this time until we have done our due diligence on this matter.”

Verizon sharply criticized a Sprint proposal for a weighted spectrum screen for the FCC to use in weighing deals that include the acquisition of spectrum. “On the eve of the FCC adopting rules that will govern two spectrum auctions, Sprint has proposed a new, allegedly ‘easy to implement,’ spectrum screen that continues to ignore the biggest defect in the Commission’s application of the spectrum screen: the exclusion of 138 MHz of 2.5 GHz spectrum,” Verizon said in a filing (http://bit.ly/1lvSMx4). “Sprint proposes to apply complicated calculations to various spectrum bands on an urban, suburban, and rural basis to create a ‘weighted’ spectrum screen that, unsurprisingly, decreases the weight of Sprint’s 147 MHz of 2.5 GHz spectrum holdings to 11.1 MHz, at most.” Sprint made its proposal last month (http://bit.ly/1ep8aXt). “Sprint’s proposal would weight spectrum based on the cost to deploy and operate using that band, recognizing the reality that low-band spectrum is typically significantly more cost-effective to deploy than higher-frequency spectrum,” Sprint said at the time. The FCC is expected to take up spectrum aggregation rules at its May meeting (CD March 10 p1).

The FCC Wireless Bureau sought comment on a request by Globe Wireless Radio Services for a waiver of the commission’s rules to allow the use of high frequency (HF) transmissions above 5 MHz for communications between public coast stations. Section 80.453 of agency rules allow public coast stations to provide radiotelephone and radiotelegraph service to ships and shore stations only on frequencies between .415 MHz and 5 MHz, the bureau noted. “GWRS states that in the past a large number of domestic and international coast stations provided adequate capacity for inter-station communications, but factors such as a decline in licensed public coast stations, the distance between stations, and HF propagation characteristics that are disrupted by sunspot cycles, atmospheric and seasonal conditions make it necessary to access all licensed HF frequencies to provide reliable communications between public coast stations,” the bureau said (http://bit.ly/1qpUfsy). “GWRS requests a waiver to permit it to communicate between public coast stations on authorized frequencies above 5 MHz.” Comments are due April 9, replies April 24.

"The public interest is best served” by providing 24 MHz of spectrum for unlicensed use in the 600 MHz band plan following the TV incentive auction, said the Public Interest Spectrum Coalition in an FCC filing. The coalition, which also has included Public Knowledge, reported on a meeting between Michael Calabrese, director of the New America Foundation’s Wireless Future Project, and FCC Special Counsel Diane Cornell (http://bit.ly/1g0XeyM). While the spectrum law “imposed certain statutory guideposts,” the FCC “has the authority to allow shared unlicensed use of the guard bands, of Channel 37 and of any channels reserved for wireless microphones, all which is likely to be necessary to promote and sustain markets of national scope and scale for unlicensed chips, devices and services,” Calabrese said.

Cisco supports NCTA’s proposal to allow use of the unlicensed national information infrastructure band at up to 1 watt equivalent isotropic radiated power with an antenna gain of up to 6 dBi, said the company in an ex parte filing in docket 13-49 (http://bit.ly/1gfhpxw). This use is acceptable provided that any outdoor base station uses an antenna “that restricts emissions more than 30 degrees above the horizontal plane, that the device is used indoors, or that the device is used for a point-to-point link,” it said. There are ongoing efforts between Wi-Fi interests and the dedicated short-range communications community “to explore ways in which unlicensed uses and DSRC can share the U-NII-4 band without subjecting DSRC to harmful interference,” it said. The filing recounts a meeting last week with staff from the offices of FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler and Commissioners Mignon Clyburn, Ajit Pai and Mike O'Rielly. Globalstar reiterated its support for NCTA’s latest proposal with some minor refinements and a backstop requiring the FCC “to take immediate steps to mitigate any harmful interference to Globalstar’s MSS network and customers,” it said in an ex parte filing (http://bit.ly/1isslGN). The filing recounts teleconferences with Wheeler staff and Julius Knapp, chief of the Office of Engineering & Technology. The FCC March 31 open meeting will include a vote on an order about spectrum that’s been the subject of conflicts between Globalstar and NCTA and their allies (CD March 3 p1) OR (WID March 3 p9).

GE Healthcare (GEHC) disagreed strongly with Broadcom arguments that unlicensed devices can safely share TV Channel 37 with wireless medical telemetry service (WMTS) devices without posing interference issues. Broadcom made its case in a January filing (http://bit.ly/1kHsKtz). “While medical telemetry services deserve to be protected from interference, giving undue weight to claims that are not fully substantiated could undermine the Commission’s goals in this proceeding,” Broadcom said. It disagreed with a number of GEHC’s technical claims, submitted an alternative technical analysis and suggested that unlicensed technologies can operate co-channel with, and in close spectral proximity to, Channel 37 WMTS devices without causing harmful interference, GEHC responded (http://bit.ly/1ncQFmt). “Broadcom’s analysis includes flawed assumptions about a number of key points and, as a result, should be discounted by the Commission in resolving the issues pertaining to Channel 37 in this proceeding.” Among the issues debated are GEHC’s assumptions about free-space propagation, which Broadcom said are “overly conservative in this context in light of attenuation that will necessarily occur in urban environments.” GEHC countered that argument. “The possibility of free space propagation occurring between an uncoordinated portable device and hospital receiver is undeniable,” GEHC said. “Although higher attenuation in cluttered environments may occur, it is by no means guaranteed-especially at the shorter separation distances that Broadcom suggests. In fact, with potentially millions of unlicensed devices operating, free space propagation can be expected to be a very common occurrence."