The U.S. National Grid Institute urged the FCC to direct wireless carriers to change how they report the location of wireless calls to 911. They should “replace all references to civic (street) addresses and to latitude and longitude in reporting the horizontal component of incident locations with the term ‘U.S. National Grid geoaddress,’” said a filing posted Wednesday in docket 07-114. Such geoaddresses “provide an unambiguous way to describe locations in areas away from established road networks, or those involving a natural disaster where road signs have been destroyed,” the group said.
Former FCC Chairman Ajit Pai, now president of CTIA, met this week with his former aide, current Chairman Brendan Carr. Carr rose to general counsel and then commissioner under Pai. “Terrific meeting with @BrendanCarrFCC,” Pai said Tuesday night on X. “He’s been a leader on wireless issues since his earliest days as a Commissioner and has charted an ambitious course upon taking the reins as @FCC Chairman earlier this year. Excited to work with him and his team on extending U.S. leadership!”
The FCC sent letters to Verizon, AT&T, EchoStar, Charter, Comcast, Altice, Cox and Mediacom asking for internal data as the agency finalizes an order on T-Mobile’s proposed buy of wireless assets, including spectrum, from UScellular. The FCC has in the past sought such data to get a broader view of the market as it considers a transaction. The letters, which came from the Wireless Bureau and Office of Economics and Analytics, were posted in Wednesday’s Daily Digest and in docket 24-286.
SI Wireless, a small wireless broadband provider, sued the FCC in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit after the FCC blocked payments under its Secure and Trusted Communications Networks Reimbursement Program. SI accused the FCC of retaliation. The program pays for the removal of unsecure Chinese gear, mostly from wireless networks. SI serves rural southern Illinois and parts of Tennessee and Kentucky.
The Society for American Archeology opposed a CTIA petition asking the FCC to launch a rulemaking (see 2503270059) to update its rules implementing the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA). “The goal of the CTIA’s petition is for the FCC to structure its regulations in such a way that wireless geographic licenses would not be considered Major Federal Actions under” NEPA, said a filing posted Tuesday in RM-12003.
Balboa Geolocation urged the FCC to take a close look at its Pointer technology as an alternative to GPS for positioning, navigation and timing (PNT). FCC commissioners unanimously approved a notice of inquiry last month on alternatives to GPS (see 2503270042). Balboa's technology was developed at the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory with federal funding, said a filing Tuesday in docket 25-110.
T-Mobile, which will report earnings Thursday, announced new pricing plans Tuesday. The Experience More plan “includes all the benefits” of the carrier’s Go5G Plus plan “and adds more hotspot data plus T-Satellite with Starlink included through end of year,” the company said, and “Experience Beyond includes all the benefits of Go5G Next in addition to more data and T-Satellite included, providing over $200 in added value for each line, every month.” The carrier also offered four new Metro by T-Mobile plans. All the new offerings come with a five-year price guarantee. Choosing a wireless plan has become “almost as complicated as a mortgage,” T-Mobile said. “People need easy-to-understand plans, the ability to compare options across providers and the chance to switch providers when they want, rather than being locked into long-term device contracts.”
SpaceX urged the FCC to tweak a draft order on the 37 GHz band to make clear that the coordination mechanism proposed for sharing the spectrum is based on the Part 101 rules for the 70/80/90 GHz band. Others also weighed in just ahead of the FCC’s sunshine notice Monday, cutting off further lobbying. Commissioners are to vote on the order Monday (see 2504070054).
Consumer and public interest groups raised concerns on the Edison Electric Institute's petition asking the FCC to clarify that utilities have “prior express consent” under the Telephone Consumer Protection Act to send “demand response calls and texts” to their customers (see 2503100047). Led by the National Consumer Law Center, the groups met with Consumer and Government Affairs Bureau staff, said a filing Friday in docket 02-278.
The FCC on Monday dismissed “as unnecessary” the remaining cellular-vehicle-to-everything (C-V2X) early transition waivers and confirmed that all applicants “may now seek a C-V2X authorization under the new rules.” The agency adopted long-anticipated final rules for the band in November after years of issuing waivers (see 2411210054). The acting chiefs of the Public Safety and Wireless bureaus and the Office of Engineering and Technology handed down the new order.