Viaero Wireless asked the FCC to extend the deadline for removing and replacing Huawei equipment in its network from April 6 to Oct. 6. It noted that the FCC still isn’t making available additional funding for its Secure and Trusted Communications Networks Reimbursement Program approved by Congress in December (see 2412240036). “Viaero has exhausted substantial company resources to fund as much of the project as possible on its own, when only 39.5% of the funds were made available by Congress,” said a filing posted Friday in docket 18-89. Viaero’s vendor “was forced to reduce the number of tower crews available to work on this project, hampering progress,” it said. A lack of funding “also forced Viaero to cancel purchase orders for a substantial amount of equipment. Now that full funding is available, Viaero is working to place equipment orders, which may not be delivered until mid to late 2025.”
Policymakers and the FCC, once focused on universal coverage, now must make spectrum decisions around consumers' and industry's capacity and performance needs, CableLabs Vice President-Technology Policy Mark Walker wrote last week. The nation's "overwhelming reliance" on Wi-Fi for carrying consumer data traffic is expected to continue for the foreseeable future, he said. The wider-bandwidth Wi-Fi channels that are coming to support new applications need more contiguous unlicensed spectrum bands, he said. "Without more unlicensed spectrum, Wi-Fi performance will degrade as more devices, applications and users come online." He added that diminished performance will start in dense commercial and residential areas where there are high concentrations of devices and users.
The FCC demanded a response from Luminys within 10 days to its determination that the company was selling equipment from Dahua, which is on the FCC’s “covered list” of providers of unsecure gear. Luminys faces revocation of equipment authorizations the FCC previously approved. Luminys Systems describes itself as the U.S.-based subsidiary of Foxlink, a Taiwan-based company, the agency said Thursday. Foxlink announced its acquisition of Dahua Technology USA last month from a Chinese company, Zhejiang Dahua Technology, the notice said. “By Luminys’s own public statements, Luminys is marketing products that were produced by Dahua, does not expect that these products will be manufactured through Foxlink’s own supply chains until March 2025, and does not expect to stop selling Dahua-manufactured products entirely until December 2025,” the FCC said: “That Luminys had not sought equipment authorization from the Commission prior to Foxlink’s acquisition of Dahua Technology USA also supports the tentative conclusion that the ultimate source of the equipment is Dahua Technology Company, an entity identified on the Covered List.” The “show cause” order, by the acting chiefs of the Public Safety Bureau and Office of Engineering and Technology, was posted in Friday’s Daily Digest.
General radio operators asked the FCC to change its rules to allow internet linking of general mobile radio service repeaters (see 2502120027).
The Alaska Remote Carrier Coalition told the FCC that offering flexibility and allowing companies to take individualized approaches are critical to wireless service in the state, the subject of a Further NPRM on the Alaska Connect Fund that FCC commissioners approved in November (see 2411050002). Key factors that distinguish Alaska from the Lower 48 states and affect wireless deployment "include the middle mile economic challenges, logistical challenges not faced anywhere else in the country, and the vast geographies that must be traversed to touch where people live, work and play,” the coalition said in a filing posted Thursday in docket 23-328.
The wireless industry must move quickly to address post-quantum computing security, 5G Americas stressed in a paper posted Thursday. “A cryptographically relevant quantum computer (CRQC) has the potential to break traditional public key cryptography, a cornerstone of internet and mobile network security,” it said. Industry should start planning now for migration to a post-quantum world, the paper said: “As a first step, start by educating key executives and stakeholders on the urgency and risks. Develop a migration plan, conducting a cryptographic inventory, including security protocols and versions, and a quantum risk assessment to migrate by priority.”
The FCC said Thursday that Andrew, Federated Wireless, Google and Sony have been approved for additional five-year terms as spectrum access system administrators in the citizens broadband radio service band. Andrew, the newest name, is an entity owned by Amphenol, which recently purchased assets from CommScope, including its CBRS operations (see 2502040037). Federated, Google and Sony were the first to be approved as administrators, and their initial five-year terms expired in January (see 2501100025).
General radio operators have asked the FCC to change its rules to allow internet linking of general mobile radio service repeaters. The FCC imposed a prohibition in 2017 but rarely enforced the rule until last year, said a petition posted Wednesday in docket 15-178. “This enforcement has significantly impacted the GMRS community, disrupting emergency communication networks, community nets, and disaster response efforts that had been successfully operating for nearly a decade,” it said.
The FCC provided guidance for intelligent transportation system licensees seeking to move from dedicated short-range communications (DSRC) operations to cellular-vehicle-to-everything-based technology in the upper 30 MHz of the 5.9 GHz band. New C-V2X-based rules went into effect Tuesday, said a notice that day in docket 19-138. The FCC fundamentally changed the rules for the band in October 2020, reallocating the 5.9 GHz band to sharing between Wi-Fi and C-V2X, with no set-aside for DSRC, the historical allocation for the spectrum. The Wireless and Public Safety bureaus said they have reinstated roadside unit (RSU) licenses that were terminated in 2022 due to a failure to notify the commission they had ceased intelligent transportation system (ITS) operations in the lower 45 MHz of the band. Licensees now have an additional 90 days to provide the required certification, the notice said. All Part 90 ITS licensees currently authorized to operate DSRC-based technology in the upper 30-MHz portion are eligible to modify their RSUs for C-V2X deployment in compliance with the new rules, the notice said: “Similarly, any entities that aspire to operate ITS systems may apply for ITS licenses … but only for the purpose of registering and operating C-V2X-based RSUs in their proposed geographic area of operation.”
The Resilient Navigation and Timing Foundation filed a paper Wednesday at the FCC on positioning, navigation and timing (PNT) options other than NextNav’s proposal to use 900 MHz spectrum as an alternative to GPS (see 2404160043). The U.S. “must develop alternatives to GPS and strengthen its PNT capabilities,” the paper says. But “granting the NextNav petition is costly in terms of spectrum, not necessary to achieve this goal and likely would not even deliver a real-world improvement in the country’s PNT capabilities.” The paper, filed in docket 24-240, notes China and Russia have terrestrial PNT systems “that make them much more resilient to interference with their satellite navigation systems.” Other vendors and technologies -- including Locata, PhasorLab, the Broadcast Positioning System and enhanced long-range navigation (eLoran) -- also offer alternatives to GPS, the foundation said. “These companies have not asked the FCC for additional spectrum to implement their solutions.”