The FirstNet Authority and AT&T announced a commitment Tuesday for strategic investments of more than $8 billion over 10 years in the public safety network. AT&T also said it's launching a stand-alone 5G core that will improve 5G functionality “with specific public safety features” and will transition FirstNet’s Band 14 spectrum from 4G to 5G. The authority and AT&T made the announcement at a fire station in Fairfax County, Virginia. They also announced that starting in March, first responders will have “always-on priority and preemption” across all of AT&T’s spectrum and that the network will add 1,000 sites within the next two years. FirstNet said it will expand mission-critical services to include voice, video, data, and location “to complement public safety’s localized, voice-only radio systems with reliable, wireless connectivity.” FirstNet is also upgrading its fleet of deployables with 5G connectivity. FirstNet now covers more first responders than any network and is involved in every major disaster and event in the U.S., said Jim Bugel, AT&T president-FirstNet. “Delivering a stand-alone 5G core will be a game changer,” he said. After 9/11, it took days to establish communications between different agencies at the Pentagon crash site, said William Johnson, now police chief at Joint Base Myer-Henderson Hall and Arlington National Cemetery. Johnson was a first responder at the Pentagon on 9/11. “Because of the events that day, when I became a police chief … I knew I had to establish communications as our number one priority,” he said. FirstNet “plays a pivotal role” by “providing a secure, reliable, prioritized communications platform,” he said. It is “the nation’s only, and I’m going to repeat, only, public safety broadband network,” said FirstNet Authority Board Chair Richard Carrizzo during the event. “We’re here to launch the next phase of our network,” he added. “Today is a big day -- we’re leaning into the future,” said FirstNet board Vice Chair Renee Gordon. The need for first responders to have “situational awareness comes up daily” at every firehouse, said Fairfax County Fire Chief John Butler. AT&T last month said FirstNet connections hit more than 5.5 million across some 27,500 agencies (see 2401240067).

The recipient of a similar waiver in July, Midland supported Garmin International’s request for a waiver of FCC rules to allow certification of hand-held general mobile radio service (GMRS) devices (see 2310060031). Midland said its GMRS customers include off-roading and outdoors enthusiasts “who often rely on GMRS radios for communications in remote areas.” Relaxing the restriction on digital data transmissions "enhances the ability of these users to connect with each other and track their respective locations, leading to a better outdoors or off-roads experience,” Midland said in a filing posted Monday in docket 24-7. Allowing more frequent data transmissions also “increases the public safety benefits of GMRS,” the company said.

The Fraternal Order of Police supported a proposal assigning the 4.9 GHz band to FirstNet (see 2401190067). “In recent months, there has been a concerted effort by organizations -- many of which are not public safety -- to sow doubt about public safety’s vision for how to reform the 4.9 GHz band,” the group said in a Friday letter to FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel. These groups “shrouded their mission under the false banner of ‘local control’ and falsely claim incumbent licensees would lose access to the band if it is operationalized for nationwide 5G,” the letter said: Under their plan, a “fractured, decentralized approach would continue -- thus limiting the utilization of the band for the benefit of public safety.” Some of the strongest opposition has come from the recently formed Coalition for Emergency Response and Critical Infrastructure (see 2402060078). Members include the Major Cities Chiefs Association, the National Sheriffs’ Association, the Edison Electric Institute, T-Mobile, UScellular, Verizon and the Competitive Carriers Association.

CTA representatives met with FCC Public Safety Bureau staff about the proposed launch of a voluntary cyber-trust mark for consumer devices. CTA discussed “outstanding questions” and its draft approach that would enable evaluation of “a third-party Cybersecurity Label Scheme or manufacturer’s self-attestation process” in keeping with NISTIR 8425, the National Institute for Standards and Technology’s IoT core baseline. “The Draft Framework defines assessment outcomes, scheme requirements for assessment and manufacturer evidence, and component model implications for each of the technical requirements as well as manufacturer evidence needed for each of the non-technical requirements in NISTIR 8425,” said a filing last week in docket 23-239.

The U.S. has slowed down on providing licensed spectrum for 5G, and on some levels “stopped entirely,” said Umair Javed, CTIA senior vice president-spectrum at the State of the Net conference Monday. Some say “all the low-hanging fruit has been plucked” and “we have to accept tighter times ahead,” Javed said, but he disagrees. He noted that since 2018, U.S. carriers have invested $160 billion in their networks, “the largest investment in our nation’s technology base in history.” Making the lower 3 GHz and 7/8 GHz bands available for licensed use would reverse a negative trend, Javed said. U.S. policymakers should look at ways to “segment” the lower 3 GHz and create “a full-power, licensed opportunity in the 3.3-3.45 GHz range,” he said. The 7/8 GHz band offers “an opportunity for the U.S. to plan ahead and lead in the development of a new global 5G band,” he said. That band has been identified by the ITU “as a future harmonization target” and would let the U.S. “match global deployments planned in the 6 GHz band, meaning we will realize economies of scale and be able to participate in a broader equipment market,” he said.

Verizon is collaborating with Vonage on making network application programming interfaces (APIs) available to developers through Vonage’s platform. “Verizon has been offering APIs for several years, with a broad roadmap for the development of additional APIs and advanced network services ahead,” a Thursday news release from Verizon said. The arrangement “will offer seamless integrations with business applications and productivity tools” and “make some of the most creative and versatile of those network APIs available to the wider developer community,” Verizon said.

Echodyne asked the FCC for a five-year extension of its waiver of rules allowing ground-based use of its EchoGuard radar. The radar detects objects on the ground and in the air. The Wireless Bureau approved a waiver in 2019, which expires June 12 (see 1906130051). Since the waiver was granted, the radar “has been successfully deployed by many Federal and non-Federal users without any complaints of interference,” said a filing posted Friday in docket 12-352: “With the product still in high demand, Echodyne seeks a 5-year extension under the same terms and conditions as the original grant.” The radar operates in the 24 GHz band.

The Schools, Health & Libraries Broadband Coalition filed at the FCC a letter signed by groups that support the agency’s November proposal allowing schools and libraries to use E-rate support for off-premises Wi-Fi hot spots and wireless internet services (see 2311090028). Comments to the FCC were divided on the proposal (see 2401300063). “While the COVID-19 pandemic propelled a nationwide surge of off-campus connectivity, online learning and remote schoolwork have become common practice for many students and library patrons throughout their daily journeys -- even after the end of the pandemic,” said a filing posted Friday in docket 21-31: Today, “learning simply does not stop after school or library operating hours or the moment a student or patron steps off the premises.” Signers included the American Library Association and other library and education groups, Common Sense, the Open Technology Institute at New America and Public Knowledge.

5G Automotive Association representatives met with an aide to FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel on a June 2021 petition (see 2106030075) asking the agency to reduce by 20 dB the permitted level of unwanted emissions from the unlicensed services that share the 5.9 GHz band. Representatives discussed “the importance of granting the 5GAA Petition to ensure that the safety-critical benefits of C-V2X are not compromised by the risk of interference,” said a filing posted Friday in docket 19-138: “5GAA provided examples of how such interference would reduce the effectiveness of C-V2X by, for instance, delaying the receipt of safety messages, reducing the available driver reaction time to those messages.”

A Better Business Bureau National Advertising Review Board panel recommended Thursday that Mint Mobile change some of its ads and promotions in response to a Verizon complaint. In ads for Mint’s $15 monthly promotional plan for unlimited service, “it failed to consistently, clearly and conspicuously disclose that consumers are required to prepay the entire $45 for three months of service,” the panel found. Moreover, Mint should discontinue a claim “that it ‘cut out the cost of retail service and passed those sweet savings directly to you’ because it did not provide evidence demonstrating that it ‘passes along’ any cost savings to consumers,” the panel said. It found fault with some of Mint’s claims on social media against Verizon. Mint said it would comply with the panel’s recommendations, "although it disagrees with the panel’s recommendation regarding certain social media ... claims," the release said.