Wireless Infrastructure Association President Patrick Halley Thursday called for Congress to fund an extension of the affordable connectivity program, which is set to expire. Rural networks are expensive to operate and maintain, Halley said: "Losing this broadband subsidy program will force families to make hard choices and will likely lead to many losing connectivity altogether. ... This is not a good result for our country.”

EchoStar defended its proposals for deploying the lower 12 GHz band for fixed wireless against complaints from DirecTV (see 2401290038). “RKF Engineering has shown that Fixed 5G using the 12.2 GHz band can serve many tens of millions of households while fully protecting existing [satellite] customers,” said a filing posted Thursday in docket 20-443. The band is “the only short-term opportunity on the horizon for new 5G spectrum: there is no easy resolution of the impasse that has prevented Congress from reauthorizing the Commission to conduct auctions, and the NTIA’s national spectrum strategy called for further study but did not identify bands that can be deployed immediately,” EchoStar said.

CTIA representatives raised concerns on parts of an FCC robocall item, teed up for a vote Feb. 15, which codifies some robocall rules while asking about applying protections in the Telephone Consumer Protection Act to robocalls and robotexts from wireless carriers to their own subscribers (see 2401250068). CTIA met with aides to Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel and Commissioners Geoffrey Starks and Anna Gomez, said a filing posted Thursday in docket 02-278. Proposals in the draft Further NPRM could undermine “the Commission’s consumer protection goals by compromising wireless providers’ ability to send valuable, wanted messages pursuant to the plain language of the TCPA” and the commission’s “longstanding recognition that the statute does not reach the communications made by wireless providers to their subscribers at no charge,” CTIA said.

The FCC Wireless Bureau Wednesday rejected a request by the North Shore Emergency Association (see 2401290030) to extend by two months the deadlines to comment on a request from Garmin International (see 2310060031) for a waiver of rules concerning certification of the hand-held general mobile radio service (GMRS) devices it manufactures. Comments remain due Feb. 12, replies Feb. 27 (see 2401120031). The group “has not shown that an extension is warranted,” the bureau said.

T-Mobile is adding perks and T Life, an app for managing them, the carrier said Wednesday as it unveiled “Magenta Status.” Rolling out next week, the perks include discounted movie and show tickets, Hilton hotel deals and the ability to return electric cars to Hertz and gas cars to Dollar without needing to recharge/refill them. “Where T-Mobile Tuesdays was built for thanking customers, Magenta Status was created to give them the next-level treatment they deserve … like the VIPs they are,” T-Mobile said.

The FCC updated a notice on deadlines for responses to a CTIA petition seeking a 12-month extension (see 2401090026) to the FCC's current six-month deadline for carriers to implement rules protecting consumers from SIM swapping and port-out fraud. Intended for Thursday’s Federal Register, the notice adds a date for replies to oppositions -- Feb. 23. Oppositions are due Feb. 13 (see 2401260054).

Google asked the FCC for an emergency waiver of rules requiring environmental sensing capability systems to protect federal incumbent users in the citizens broadband radio service band as storms sweep through parts of California. Operations in one dynamic protection area (DPA) lost commercial power while another “suffered physical damage” due to high winds, Google said. In another DPA, the power provider “is currently unable to provide an estimated time for restoration of commercial power,” said a filing posted Wednesday in docket 15-319.

Dish Network Chairman Charlie Ergen and others from the company met with all FCC commissioners, except Anna Gomez, for discussions focused mostly on spectrum, said a filing posted Wednesday in 20-443 and other dockets. The executives urged that the commission “unleash 500 MHz of spectrum in the 12.2-12.7 GHz band for fixed 5G broadband services,” Dish said: “Substantial evidence in the record shows that fixed 5G services can provide broadband to tens of millions of Americans, while fully protecting existing non-geostationary orbit Fixed-Satellite Service and Direct Broadcast Satellite customers.” In addition, the executives discussed the need for a modernized spectrum screen, a proposed 5G Fund and “the benefits of proposals to maximize the efficiency” of the citizens broadband radio service, among other issues.

Verizon and Ericsson completed a trial of advanced low-latency, low-loss, scalable throughput (L4S) capabilities designed to optimize Verizon’s 5G network “for more robust solutions,” including interactive video, remote control of industrial processes and augmented and virtual reality, Verizon said Tuesday. “While the first wave of 5G saw massive network infrastructure deployments, increased 5G adoption, and rapid ecosystem building, the second wave of the 5G era will be characterized by widespread innovation built on speed, massive capacity, low latency, security and reliability,” said Adam Koeppe, Verizon senior vice president-network and technology planning. The L4S trial was conducted at an Ericsson lab in Santa Clara, California, testing an extended reality (XR) application using an XR virtual reality headset over Ericsson’s 5G stand-alone core and using Verizon’s C-band spectrum, Verizon said.

The FCC Office of Engineering and Technology is seeking comment by March 7 on a request by Axon Enterprise for a waiver of FCC rules to market three investigation and surveillance devices to law enforcement agencies. Replies are due March 22 in docket 24-40. “Axon states that to meet law enforcement’s need for continuous and reliable video feeds, the devices must use analog signal modulation” but need to operate at power levels higher than allowed for the 5725-5850 MHz band, OET said Tuesday. The devices, a drone, a ground vehicle and a pole-mounted camera, “are intended to provide law enforcement with real-time information in dangerous situations and to reduce safety risks,” OET said.