CTIA supports a public notice by the FCC Wireless Bureau Thursday seeking comment on how to make unassigned licenses in the agency's inventory available for use absent general auction authority (see 2403070062). CTIA appreciates Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel’s “focus on spectrum auctions as an ‘indispensable’ tool for promoting economic growth and national security,” emailed Scott Bergmann, senior vice president-regulatory affairs. The notice “only underscores the importance of Congress moving rapidly to restore the FCC’s auction authority and create a pipeline of licensed spectrum to ensure our wireless leadership.”

Competitive Carriers Association President Tim Donovan Friday called on Congress to restore FCC auction authority. The lapse “creates challenges for the wireless industry and frustrates America’s goals to remain the global wireless leader,” he said. “Competitive carriers must have access to spectrum to meet our nation’s insatiable demand for wireless connectivity, especially as carriers deploy 5G and prepare for 6G services.” Auction authority lapsed a year ago.

Former FCC Commissioner Mike O’Rielly raised security concerns this week about wireless routers from Chinese companies. “Bad actors can misuse wireless routers to infect millions of home networks to obtain consumer information and documents, proliferate misinformation, disrupt functionality, or cause other harm,” O’Rielly wrote in a Hudson Institute blog post. “While the underlying internet infrastructure is protected by layers of encryption and other security features in its embedded standards, routers can give malicious actors entry to these systems, potentially affecting service providers, wider networks, and the global internet.” O’Rielly said policymakers should look at whether wireless routers could give China-sponsored hackers their “next entry point into U.S. networks.”

Representatives of the Open Technology Institute at New America and Public Knowledge spoke with an aide to FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel in favor of handset unlocking requirements as a condition of T-Mobile’s proposed buy of Mint Mobile (see 2402220032). “The process for unlocking phones can be cumbersome and stifle consumer choice and hence, competition,” said a filing posted Thursday in docket 23-319.

T-Mobile and SpaceX met with aides to FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel and Commissioners Geoffrey Starks and Anna Gomez on their pursuit of tweaking the supplemental coverage from space (SCS) service order on the FCC’s March 14 agenda (see 2403060055). AT&T, meanwhile, discussed its concerns (see 2402210067) with an aide to Commissioner Nathan Simington. Filings were posted on Thursday in docket 23-65.

CTIA sought a tweak to the FCC’s proposed cyber mark order, set for a vote March 14 (see 2402220059). In a filing posted Thursday in docket 23-239, CTIA asked the regulator to clarify that “general purpose computing and networking equipment -- including routers,” is excluded from the order. Clarifying the scope of covered devices will “promote consistency with [the National Institute of Standards and Technology’s] efforts more broadly and ensure the FCC’s program conforms to the intended scope,” said the filing. “The clarification on the scope of ‘IoT device’ is useful not just to ensure definitional consistency, but also to promote broader consistency between two parallel workstreams by the FCC and NIST,” CTIA said. NCTA also sought clarity in meetings with Public Safety Bureau and commissioner staff. Clarifications will “make the program more successful in driving security improvements by making it more appealing for manufacturers to join,” NCTA said. Cablers asked for additional clarity on the definition of “IoT product” and “IoT product components.” The FCC should make clear that “decisions related to the certification and renewal requirements and processes should be based on NIST’s standards and guidance,” the group said. NCTA urged the launch of a “centralized registry that can be easily accessed by consumers to inform their purchasing decisions.” A searchable, “one-stop-shop” will “allow consumers to more readily research and compare products that bear the Mark, and it would support the efforts of network operators, security researchers, and other entities to enhance security across the IoT ecosystem.”

The FCC opened a docket Thursday asking how it can make available unassigned licenses in its inventory absent general auction authority. Comments are due April 8, replies April 22, in docket 24-72. The notice comes on the one-year anniversary of the expiration of FCC auction authority. “We are now compelled to ask what we can do with our current unassigned spectrum in order to keep innovation moving ahead in a global market for wireless that is not slowing down,” said Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel: “I remain hopeful that the FCC’s auction authority will be restored quickly. … The agency stands ready to work with lawmakers to ensure we don’t find ourselves in the same place next year.” Rosenworcel said last year the FCC would consider a remnants auction of returned and unsold spectrum licenses if its auction authority is restored (see 2307280046). The FCC has most often made contested spectrum available through auctions, said the notice by the Wireless Bureau. “The Commission now faces a unique and historic challenge of how to facilitate the deployment of advanced wireless services across the country without using auctions to resolve mutually exclusive applications,” the bureau said. The bureau said it’s “compelled to explore how its existing regulatory tools could be used to provide the public with access to spectrum that would otherwise lie fallow.” The notice asks specifically about three alternatives for providing access: dynamic spectrum sharing techniques, nonexclusive site-based licensing and leasing inventory licenses. “We seek comment on each approach, as well as combinations of approaches … and any other methods that could be used to make Inventory Spectrum available to the public,” said the bureau.

The FCC Public Safety Bureau approved a waiver allowing Quincy, Massachusetts, to use nonpublic safety frequencies 470.3 and 473.3 MHz in its public safety radio system. “The requested frequencies are considered interleaved because they are situated in between part 22 and part 90-designated spectrum bands, but they are not assignable to users under either part,” the bureau said. Quincy says there has been a significant increase in new buildings in the city and the additional channels will give it “added channel capacity for use as a fireground channel to address emergencies in the new buildings, or for use as an operations channel to coordinate evacuation of residents, or as a rapid intervention team channel to deal with a firefighter ‘MAYDAY,’” said the Wednesday order.

The FCC Wireline Bureau Wednesday approved AirVoice Wireless' revised compliance plan to continue providing Lifeline service, said a notice Wednesday in docket 11-42. AirVoice submitted a modification reflecting "an internal reorganization” and its acquisition out of bankruptcy of TAG Mobile, the bureau said.

CTIA withdrew a 2015 petition seeking reconsideration of two “discrete” aspects of updated Lifeline program rules approved that year (see 1508130048). CTIA cited “the passage of time since the Petition was filed,” said a filing posted Wednesday in docket 11-42. The organization had asked the FCC to reconsider declarations that Section 222(a) of the Communications Act “imposes a duty of confidentiality upon carriers, other than with respect to Customer Proprietary Network Information” and that Section 201(b) “imposes a duty upon carriers to implement data security measures.”