The Better Business Bureau's National Advertising Division sided with Verizon against T-Mobile's challenge of advertising claims that Verizon made about its Frontline program for first responders. T-Mobile challenged two Verizon commercials, “asserting they misleadingly suggest Verizon is the only network that prioritizes first responders” and “argued that all three major carriers provide such services, including their own, which features advanced technology,” NAD said Tuesday. The decision found that Verizon’s claim that it offers a network “that truly prioritizes first responders” doesn’t “reasonably convey a message that Verizon Frontline is the exclusive network that prioritizes first responders while other networks do not.”

In a shake-up at Crown Castle, the tower company announced that Steven Moskowitz “has been terminated” as president and CEO with CFO Dan Schlanger replacing him on an interim basis. Moskowitz was named to the post last April. Crown Castle announced last week agreements to sell its fiber unit to Zayo and its small-cell business to EQT for a total of $8.5 billion (see 2503140021).

EchoStar disagreed sharply with a recent NCTA study that raised concerns about proposals to relax in-band emissions limits in the citizens broadband radio service band (see 2503060016). Other technical studies “disprove NCTA’s arguments that there is a binary choice between high power use and protecting [general authorized access users], sharing, and incumbents,” said a filing posted Tuesday in docket 17-258. EchoStar’s studies show that power levels and “updating the in-band and out-of-band emission limits will increase spectrum utility without harming federal or commercial incumbents,” EchoStar said, recapping its meeting with an aide to FCC Commissioner Geoffrey Starks.

Zebra representatives discussed the importance of RAIN RFID in the 900 MHz band during meetings with staff of the four FCC commissioners, the Wireless Bureau and the Office of Engineering and Technology. RAIN refers to "a specific subset of RFID technology that operates in the ultra-high frequency (UHF) range," said a filing posted Monday in docket 24-240. The company opposed NextNav’s proposal to use part of the band for an alternative to GPS, it said. “Zebra emphasized the explosive growth in RAIN RFID systems in recent years and the continued reliance” on the technology “as the backbone of inventory management, asset tracking, supply chain logistics, access control, animal tracking, and loss prevention.”

Leaders of the National Association of State 911 Administrators and National Emergency Number Association are urging Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy to preserve “a strong role” for the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s National 911 Program amid the Trump administration’s government-wide workforce cuts. The program “has been crucial in coordinating state and local 9-1-1 systems -- an area that no other federal entity addresses,” said NASNA Executive Director Harriet Rennie-Brown and NENA CEO Brian Fontes in a letter to Duffy. “This coordination is more essential than ever as over 5,000 local 9-1-1 centers transition to” next-generation 911 technology. “Without support from the National 9-1-1 Program Office, local jurisdictions will struggle with interoperability between and among agencies and jurisdictions -- a key public safety component,” they said. “This is particularly true on our nation’s highways, where an estimated one-third of all 9-1-1 calls originate and where effective coordination and interoperability can save lives.”

In adopting its medical body area network (MBAN) rules, the FCC wasn't thinking about possible secondary users of the 2360-2400 MHz band and definitely wasn't looking to protect commercial space launch operations in the 2360-2395 MHz band, GE HealthCare Technologies said. In a docket 13-115 filing Monday, GE said there was no mention of space launch operations in the MBAN orders. Numerous health care facilities rely on GE's telemetry within 200 miles of a SpaceX launch site, and many of those facilities will transition to MBANs in the near future, the company said. It said it's "committed to cooperating" with other users of 2360-2400 MHz, but the FCC should ensure that MBAN operations are protected from newly introduced space launch operations.

The Ultra Wide Band (UWB) Alliance supported a Tesla request for a waiver of FCC rules to allow authorization for a UWB positioning system operating in the 7.5-8.5 GHz frequency range to be used for wireless charging of electric vehicles. The FCC Office of Engineering and Technology sought comment last month, due Monday in docket 25-101 (see 2502250037). Tesla’s proposed use of UWB for peer-to-peer communication and ranging “leverages the unique capabilities of UWB to precisely position the vehicle," the filing said: “UWB is optimal technology for this use, with superior performance, at a very small fraction of the transmit power and thus potential for disruptive interference, compared to other available technologies.”

Opponents of T-Mobile’s proposed buy of wireless assets from UScellular met with FCC staff to explain their concerns. The groups at the meeting were the Rural Wireless Association, EchoStar, Communications Workers of America, Public Knowledge, New America’s Open Technology Institute, the Benton Institute for Broadband & Society and the Computer & Communications Industry Association. They met with staff from the Wireless Bureau and the offices of Economics and Analytics and General Counsel, according to a filing posted Friday in docket 24-286.

T-Mobile subsidiary Nextel West said it plans to transition 13 2.5 GHz licenses it bought from Central Texas Communications (CTC), which were still being used for video operations, to the wireless broadband use allowed by the FCC starting in 2004. “Transition to the new band plan will allow for deployment of innovative and efficient communications technologies and services in the 2.5 GHz band,” said a filing posted Friday in docket 06-136. Before consummating the assignment, “CTC will discontinue the video operations that used the old channels under the terms” of an “opt-out waiver,” the filing said: “CTC was the only licensee in the area still licensed on the ‘old’ band plan.”

Any leasing of AWS-4 spectrum terrestrial rights by EchoStar, as it reportedly is pursuing (see 2503130034), needs to be done with the proviso that those terrestrial rights are secondary to 2 GHz mobile satellite systems in the band, SpaceX said. In a docket 22-212 filing Friday, SpaceX said EchoStar also needs to make clear to any prospective lessee that those terrestrial rights are subject to the outcome of the pending petition to change the sharing rules of the band. SpaceX is the petitioner (see 2402230027).