Seventeen cable companies and other Wi-Fi advocates, spectrum sharing advocates, and defense and aeronautics companies Monday released a letter sent to NTIA about implementation of the national spectrum strategy. It warned against “anti-competitive efforts, modeled after China’s goals, to clear the 3 GHz and 7 GHz bands for exclusive licensing to a small handful of legacy carriers.” NTIA is set to release the plan March 14 (see 2402090059). “The decisions made … will directly affect the nation’s ability to maintain and promote our global competitiveness, national security, and national security technology leadership with our allies,” the letter said: “We urge the NTIA to adopt an Implementation Plan that is aggressive in expanding the pie for a wide variety of public, commercial, and national security uses.” The plan should focus on “accelerating the development and adoption” of spectrum sharing technologies and coexistence frameworks, the letter said. It noted the success of sharing in the 6 GHz band and the citizens broadband radio service band. Signers included the American Library Association, Charter Communications, Comcast, Cox Communications, the Dynamic Spectrum Alliance, Federated Wireless, Deere & Company, Lockheed Martin, NCTA, the Open Technology Institute, Public Knowledge, Midcontinent Communications, the Schools, Health & Libraries Broadband Coalition, Spectrum for the Future, WifiForward and the Wireless ISP Association.

Electronic Privacy Information Center representatives spoke with aides to FCC Commissioner Geoffrey Starks on the group’s concerns about the cyber mark program, teed up for a March 14 commissioner vote (see 2402220059). EPIC discussed “potential standards for the Trust Mark that could improve security and privacy protections for consumers,” said a filing posted Friday in docket 23-239. Representatives of the ioXt Alliance, which is focused on IoT security and privacy, met with an aide to Commissioner Anna Gomez. They discussed “the Program’s scope, potential pathways for third-party certification and self-attestation, development of the IoT registry, and the need for robust consumer education and awareness building to promote use of the Mark.”

The FCC approved six-month extensions of a mandate to rip and replace Huawei and ZTE equipment from telecom networks under the Secure and Trusted Communications Networks Reimbursement Program for various carriers, in a notice in Friday’s Daily Digest. The Wireline Bureau has been handling extension requests on a carrier-by-carrier basis. Advantage Cellular’s deadline to remove, replace and dispose of covered equipment and services was extended from March 10 to Sept. 10. NE Colorado Cellular got two different dates for parts of its network -- March 9 to Sept. 9 and from April 6 to Oct. 6. Other extensions granted include: Panhandle, from April 18 to Oct. 1; Stealth Communications, from March 29 to Sept. 29; and United Wireless, April 21 to Oct. 21. “The Bureau strongly encourages recipients that intend to file a petition for an extension to do so as promptly as possible after determining that their circumstances meet the standard for an extension established in the statute and the Commission’s implementing rules, and well in advance of the recipient’s deadline, so the Bureau is able to fully consider and grant or deny the petition before the recipient’s term expires,” the notice said.

CTIA countered recent arguments by Spectrum for the Future that wireless carriers don’t face the spectrum shortage they claim and don’t necessarily need the lower 3 GHz band to be allocated for full-power, licensed use (see 402260069). CTIA emphasized cable operators' support for the group. “Cable’s reaction to significant loss in market share is to cut off access to the raw material that would supercharge competition -- dedicated licensed spectrum,” CTIA said in a blog post. Cable operators were shielded from competition for decades, “but today, often for the first time, they face a real competitive threat in the form of 5G home broadband,” CTIA said. A study last year found that carriers need 400 MHz of licensed spectrum in the next three years and nearly 1,500 by 2032 “to meet that demand, fully taking into account 5G efficiencies, additional infrastructure and offload,” CTIA noted. The U.S. has allocated just 450 MHz of mid-band for licensed 5G use “with no plans for more,” the group said. A Spectrum for the Future a spokesperson emailed, "Innovative 5G technologies are being driven by a broad range of commercial users, anchor institutions, and technology companies, not the Big Three legacy carriers." Mobile phones lean more heavily on Wi-Fi connection than traditional carrier networks, the spokesperson said. “America must prioritize diversity in spectrum ownership and use cases -- not rely on exclusive licensing models rooted in the technology of the 1990s." CTIA’s "attacks" are "unsurprising given the cable industry’s recent success in bringing new competition and offering substantial consumer savings to nearly 15 million mobile wireless customers,” an NCTA spokesperson emailed. “Casting aspersions at competitors can grab headlines, but cherry-picked facts and misleading assertions do not form the basis of sound policy.”

T-Mobile began offering fixed wireless 5G Home Internet service to customers in Puerto Rico, the carrier said Thursday. “T-Mobile customers in Puerto Rico with an eligible address and a qualifying voice line can now sign up for 5G Home Internet for just $50 a month with AutoPay through their local retail store,” T-Mobile said. The company on Wednesday said its Scam Shield identified or blocked 19.8 billion calls last year, 628 spam calls every second. T-Mobile customers saw a 51% decrease in scam calls from 2022, the carrier said.

The 5G Automotive Association is getting support for a June 2021 petition (see 2106030075) that asks the FCC to reduce by 20 dB the permitted level of unwanted emissions from the unlicensed services that share the 5.9 GHz band. The 5GAA has been at the FCC in recent months urging action on the petition to protect cellular vehicle-to-everything operations (see 2402090049). “Granting the Petition would provide the necessary protection for critical safety services while still providing for robust indoor unlicensed operations,” the University of Michigan Transportation Research Institute said in a filing posted Thursday in docket 19-138. “Failure to grant the Petition, by contrast, would impact C-V2X safety communications,” the institute said. “As 5GAA’s Petition highlights, the unwanted emissions levels that the FCC adopted for unlicensed services that neighbor C-V2X in the 5.9 GHz spectrum band place C-V2X’s benefits at risk by subjecting the technology to harmful interference,” said the Wyoming Department of Transportation's filing said. “We support the 5GAA Petition and ask that the FCC promptly grant it,” said Spoke Safety, which is dedicated to protecting bicyclists using C-V2X.

The Wireless ISP Association petitioned the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit for review of the FCC’s Nov. 20 digital discrimination order on grounds that it’s contrary to law, an abuse of discretion and violates the Administrative Procedure Act, said the petition Wednesday (docket 24-1047). It becomes the 15th such petition consolidated in the 8th Circuit once it’s transferred there under the Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation's Feb. 9 order (see 2402120077). The order “undermines” congressional intent “by diverting limited human resources and investment from deployment to compliance with burdensome and overbroad regulations,” said the petition. It imposes a novel disparate-impact test that allows the FCC “to micromanage a host of legitimate business practices, including network buildout decisions, pricing, promotions, advertising, contract renewal, and customer service,” it said. If the order is allowed to stand, the FCC could enforce it “with its full range of tools, including civil penalties,” it said. The order “will deter innovation and investment in broadband,” including among WISPA’s small and rural members who may lack adequate resources to “absorb” the order’s compliance and potential enforcement costs, it said.

NTIA asked the FCC to harmonize rules for the 24 GHz band with decisions made at the World Radiocommunication Conference in 2019. The FCC approved an NPRM 3-2 in December examining changes to the rules, over dissents by Commissioners Brendan Carr and Nathan Simington (see 2312260043). Reactions have been mixed (see 2402280037). NTIA filed joint comments, posted Thursday in docket 21-186, with NOAA and NASA. The NPRM proposes “an important step to honor our country’s international commitments,” they said. The NPRM “astutely explains” that passive satellite sensors operated by the federal government on frequencies allocated to the earth exploration satellite service “are particularly vulnerable to harmful interference,” the filing said. These passive sensors “are designed to look downward toward Earth and measure the power level of naturally occurring radio emissions from molecules in the atmosphere that occur at specific frequencies. Very sensitive instrumentation is necessary to measure such weak, natural signals.” NTIA said NOAA wants the FCC to apply the Resolution 750 limits to fixed services in the band and not just to international mobile telecommunications, “noting it is unaware of any technical justification for applying different emission limits to fixed systems.” That latter point was opposed by industry. The limits should apply to only mobile base stations and handsets and not other operations the rules allow, including point-to-point operations, point-to-multipoint operations and transportable devices like fixed wireless access customer premises equipment, Qualcomm said. “The Commission distinguishes these types of operations in its Part 30 rules, particularly when it comes to emissions limits,” Qualcomm said: “NTIA’s request to apply Resolution 750 to fixed operations is outside the scope of and inconsistent with the FCC’s longstanding regulatory framework.” Ericsson supported the WRC-19 limits but urged an exemption for indoor small cells “given the interference protection factors inherent in indoor operations and the unnecessary costs the limits would impose on the development and deployment of those systems.” CTIA said the FCC should adopt the WRC-19 recommendations but go no further. The group noted that companies invested $2 billion to buy licenses in the 24 GHz auction. “Beyond the FCC’s already balanced approach, the emission limits adopted by WRC-19 go above and beyond what is necessary to protect passive satellite operations,” CTIA said. “Any suggestions to expand emission limits beyond the WRC-19 agreement would be unnecessary and cause substantial harm to 24 GHz licensees,” the group said. “To avoid undermining licensees’ investment-backed expectations in acquiring 24 GHz band licenses, the Commission should reject proposals that would go beyond implementing the consensus-based decisions made at WRC-19,” T-Mobile agreed.

The Enterprise Wireless Alliance refiled a 2022 petition for rulemaking at the FCC that seeks to modify Part 90 rules to eliminate the assignment of frequencies within the 809-816/854-861 MHz portion of the band to specific pools of eligible entities (see 2210260079). EWA said it resubmitted the petition at the Wireless Bureau's request, and it now includes “proposed rules consistent with the rule changes requested.” Because “all 800 MHz frequencies in this range are subject to identical technical and operational rules, EWA urges that they be classified as General Category and made available to all qualified Subpart S applicants,” says the undocketed filing.

Air Voice Wireless agreed to pay a $150,000 fine and implement enhanced compliance measures to settle an FCC investigation of whether the company failed to provide Lifeline services to all qualifying low-income consumers in keeping with agency rules. “This action will help further the Commission’s goal of providing qualified consumers opportunities and security that essential communications service brings, including being able to connect to jobs, family members, and emergency services,” the Enforcement Bureau said Wednesday.