T-Mobile and Lycamobile USA exchanged shots in the docket concerning T-Mobile’s proposed buy of Mint Mobile (see 2303150032), a low-cost prepaid wireless brand, and other assets from Ka’ena. Lyca described itself as a mobile virtual network operator with a small footprint in the U.S. “Lyca has struggled over the past several years to obtain basic functionalities from T-Mobile, such as eSIM and access to T-Mobile’s 5G standalone architecture, and to get T-Mobile to fairly observe the terms of its MVNO agreement,” said a filing in docket 23-171: “Lyca is concerned that T-Mobile has been advantaging Ultra and Mint because of their intended acquisition of the companies while systematically disadvantaging Lyca, a close independent competitor.” T-Mobile responded in a filing posted Thursday. “Lyca’s Pleading is entirely without merit and improperly seeks to interject an irrelevant private contractual dispute … into the Commission’s public interest review of the Transaction,” T-Mobile said. More than a year ago, T-Mobile filed a complaint seeking recovery of payment from Lyca for services the carrier provided under a wholesale services agreement, the filing said.

The wireless industry has enthusiastically worked with the FCC and others on all stages of 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline implementation, and anticipates continuing to coordinate with stakeholders regarding georouting of 988 calls, CTIA representatives said. In meetings with aides to the five commissioners, recapped Thursday in docket 18-336, CTIA said along with coordination, it wants to ensure "flexibility and sufficient implementation time for the diverse range of wireless providers."

Representatives of the Wireless ISP Association said they spoke with aides to FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel and Commissioner Brendan Carr on concerns the group is raising on the draft net neutrality order (see 2404160068) set for a vote next week. WISPA is asking the commission to seek additional comment before imposing net neutrality rules on broadband providers with fewer than 250,000 subscribers. The FCC should use a Further NPRM “to fully explore the issues related to whether the Commission should permanently exempt … providers with 250,000 or fewer subscribers from the rules proposed in the draft item,” said a filing posted Thursday in docket 23-320.

Barbara van Schewick, director of Stanford Law School’s Center for Internet and Society, spoke with aides to FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel and Commissioner Geoffrey Starks to expand on concerns she raised last week on draft net neutrality order’s approach to 5G network slicing (see 2404120045). “The draft order turns the brightline no-throttling rule into a new, vague case-by-case standard,” said her filing posted Thursday in docket 23-320. “This opens the door to ISPs’ creating fast lanes for select apps or kinds of apps, as long as the application provider does not charge for it,” van Schewick said. “There is no way to predict which kinds of fast lanes the FCC might ultimately find to violate the no-throttling rule.”

The Coalition for Emergency Response and Critical Infrastructure (CERCI) told the FCC in a filing it lacks legal authority to award control of the 4.9 GHz band to the FirstNet Authority (FNA). New Street’s Blair Levin highlighted the filing Wednesday in a note to investors. “The Commission lacks statutory authority under the Middle Class Tax Relief and Job Creation Act of 2012 to award the FNA a license beyond the 700 MHz band addressed by that Act, and no other statute authorizes such a transfer,” CERCI said in a filing in docket 07-100: “Even if the FCC were authorized to make this grant, the FNA is not statutorily authorized to receive it” and “attempting to undertake this grant based on existing statutory authorities would, in any case, violate the major questions doctrine and raise nondelegation issues.” If lawyers at the FCC “agree with the argument, it moots the policy arguments about the relative benefits of national versus local control of spectrum and prevents the reallocation of the 50 megahertz of 4.9GHz spectrum licenses at issue,” which would be a “win” for Verizon and T-Mobile, Levin said. The arguments “are designed to have appeal to both Democrats and Republicans, who, in particular, are more sympathetic to arguments based on the major questions doctrine and the nondelegation doctrine,” he said. CERCI was formed last year by some public safety groups, the Edison Electric Institute, T-Mobile, UScellular, Verizon and the Competitive Carriers Association (see 2311160052). AT&T declined comment Thursday.

The Alarm Industry Communications Committee (AICC) asked the FCC to correct the draft net neutrality order to reflect that the group opposes and doesn’t support forbearance for Section 275 of the Communications Act. The section “generally requires nondiscriminatory conduct and the avoidance of other unfair conduct, between certain carriers and alarm security operations,” AICC said. The draft order “basically flipped the meaning of AICC’s comments,” said a filing posted Wednesday in docket 23-320: “AICC did not argue that excluding section 275 from forbearance would ‘actively strip’ the Alarm Industry of protections, but rather that failure to exclude section 275 from forbearance would strip those same protections.”

Axon Enterprise representatives spoke with FCC Office of Engineering and Technology staff, including Chief Ron Repasi, to answer questions on the company’s request for a waiver allowing it to market three investigation and surveillance devices to law enforcement agencies. These devices would operate at higher power levels than allowed under FCC rules in heavily used 5 GHz spectrum and proved controversial when the FCC took comments (see 2403080044). The representatives “answered questions about additional conditions that could be imposed on the grant of a waiver,” said a filing posted Wednesday in docket 24-40.

Ericsson and Nex-Tech Wireless will collaborate on a five-year network modernization initiative in Kansas, the companies said Wednesday. The companies will implement "state-of-the art" cloud native technology using Ericsson’s dual-mode 5G Core and advanced radio access network technologies. “Utilizing Ericsson’s trusted solutions and Nex-Tech Wireless’s industry leading technical team, we are bringing the next evolution of technology to rural America,” said Nex-Tech CEO Jon Lightle.

CTIA discussed concerns about how non-broadband internet access services are treated under the draft net neutrality order circulated by Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel. In meetings with staff for all five commissioners, CTIA asked the FCC to remove warnings not present in the 2015 order. Non-BIAS services, and network slicing, have emerged as major issues (see 2404160055). The draft “favorably references non-BIAS use cases that ‘cannot be met over the Open Internet,’ but any suggestion that an offering that can function to some extent over BIAS must be offered over BIAS would be a dramatic shift from the 2015 framework,” said a filing posted Wednesday in docket 23-320. The draft also says the commission “will closely monitor any services that have a negative effect on the performance of BIAS in any given moment or the capacity available for BIAS over time” and that the commission “will be watchful of services that do not require isolated capacity,” CTIA said. “The 2015 Order did not set forth any of these rigid warnings, and for good reason,” the group said: “The net effect of such guidance could restrict the offering of non-BIAS services. Customers would lose out on choice and innovation, and networks would operate less efficiently.”

AT&T urged the FCC to establish requirements for how interference is addressed in the 6 GHz band as automated frequency coordination systems open (see 2404050012). “The interference reporting and resolution system should not impose barriers or difficult validation requirements for incumbents to report interference” and “should be regularly publicized” by AFC systems to incumbents, said a filing Tuesday in docket 21-352. The reporting system should be available at all times, AT&T said: “In cases where interference cannot be narrowed to a specific AFC, AFC systems should be prepared to serially and sequentially increase the protection for the victim link in order to isolate coordination problems.”