Hilliary Acquisition told the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit that it wants to continue its case for a writ of mandamus seeking the return of $841,128.25 the company made in down payments for 42 licenses when it was the high bidder during the 2020 citizens broadband radio service auction (see 2412110065). The FCC denied the request in a Jan. 16 order, the company said. “The FCC now argues that with the grant of such Refund Order, mandamus relief is unavailable to Hilliary because an adequate alternative remedy now exists,” Hilliary said in a brief filed Tuesday.
The Fixed Wireless Communications Coalition said the FCC has no choice but to overturn the waiver allowing automated frequency coordination systems in the 6 GHz band to take building entry loss (BEL) into account for “composite” standard- and low-power devices that are restricted to operating indoors. The coalition countered arguments in support of the waiver from the FCC Office of Engineering and Technology (see 2501220030). “The crux of the FWCC’s Application for Review turns on OET’s abject failure to articulate special circumstances justifying the BEL Waiver Order,” said a filing posted Tuesday in docket 23-107. “In light of the failure of the Oppositions, the waiver applicants, or the BEL Waiver Order to articulate a special circumstance, the Commission must reverse” the order, FWCC said.
AT&T and FirstNet “have been on the ground since day 1” of the California wildfires to support first responders, “bringing reliable connectivity to the area,” said Scott Agnew, president-FirstNet Program at AT&T, in a blog this week. “Dozens of agencies are working together, from local departments and federal teams to international first responders providing mutual aid,” Agnew said. So far, public safety agencies have made more than 20 requests for emergency support, “and the FirstNet Response Operations Group has deployable cell sites on the ground, such as Satellite Cell on Light Trucks, dedicated solely for first responder communications,” he said. “The team has also tapped into deployable assets from the AT&T fleet, such as AT&T Super Cell on Wheels, which provide 10x the capacity of a normal antenna. These assets are supporting public safety’s beachfront incident command posts.”
Annual spending on private LTE and 5G networks in the U.S. will surge at a compound annual growth rate of 18% between 2024 and 2027, accounting for more than $3.7 billion in spending by the end of 2027, a ResearchAndMarkets.com report said Monday. “With the availability of new spectrum options and 5G technology, the market is gaining mainstream adoption with deployments of all shapes and sizes," it said. Although initially dominated by LTE, “commercial deployments of private 5G networks are starting to gain significant traction in industrial and enterprise settings.” Major examples cited in the report include deployments at Walmart distribution centers; Tesla's Gigafactory Texas; at various facilities of other automakers such as BMW Group, GM and Toyota; LG Electronics' Clarksville, Tennessee, home appliance manufacturing plant; Delta Air Lines' Atlanta operating hub; Dallas Fort Worth International Airport; and the Port of Virginia's container terminal.
The effective date of the one-to-one robotext consent order was pushed off a year, to Jan. 26, 2026, FCC Consumer and Governmental Affairs Bureau Acting Chief Eduard Bartholme said in an order in Monday's Daily Digest. Issued Friday, the order cited a pending judicial review of the policy. Also on Friday, the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals found for the appellant, Insurance Marketing Coalition, in its suit challenging the order (see 2501240068). The 11th Circuit vacated part of the order and remanded it to the FCC for further proceedings. Decisions from the 11th Circuit "will hurt consumers, small businesses and the American phone system,” Electronic Privacy Information Center lawyer Chris Frascella said in a joint statement Monday with Public Knowledge and the National Consumer Law Center. “This is particularly disheartening because the rule was a very simple but impactful protection: companies could only sell your consent to receive robocalls if you provided an individual record of consent (e.g. a checkbox) for each company you consented to receiving robocalls from," Frascella said.
The Georgia Department of Corrections told the FCC that, during the last quarter of 2024, zero devices were “erroneously disabled” by the contraband interdiction system at the state's correctional facilities, in a filing posted Friday in docket 13-111. The Georgia department has been filing quarterly reports at the FCC on its interdiction efforts.
Todd Schlekeway, president of NATE: The Communications Infrastructure Contractors Association, called for changes in how the wireless industry does business with tower companies. Schlekeway's open letter came as earnings season begins for carriers and NATE members.
EchoStar Chairman Charlie Ergen met with FCC Commissioner Nathan Simington on the need for the FCC to update its citizens broadband radio service rules, the focus of an August NPRM (see 2408160031). “EchoStar reiterated how harmonizing rules for the CBRS band with those of neighboring bands (i.e., the 3.45 GHz and 3.7 GHz bands) will maximize its utility and enable domestic carriers and vendors to participate in global economies of scale,” said a filing posted Friday in docket 17-258. “The majority of commenters in the record support proposals to update rules for the CBRS band,” and the commission “should move forward to enact such changes expeditiously,” EchoStar said.
The global application-to-person (A2P) messaging market will reach $104.5 billion annually by 2033, up from $72.2 billion last year, ResearchAndMarkets.com predicted Thursday. The firm forecast a compound annual growth rate of 4.2% between 2025 and 2033. “Growing global use of smartphones and other mobile devices is responsible for the market's expansion,” the report said. “Transaction notifications, marketing automation, targeted consumer involvement, and the growing use of mobile-based communication across industries are the main factors propelling the A2P messaging market's expansion.”
The National Sheriffs’ Association and the California State Sheriffs’ Association asked that the FCC stay an October order giving the FirstNet Authority -- and, indirectly, AT&T -- use of the 4.9 GHz band (see 2410220027) pending judicial review of the order. The Coalition for Emergency Response and Critical Infrastructure challenged the order, while the Public Safety Spectrum Alliance questioned aspects of it, in petitions for review in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit (see 2412040043). The sheriffs groups said plaintiffs will likely prevail in court. “The Order is arbitrary and capricious because its last minute decision to block public safety entities from modifying existing licenses and applying for new licenses was not the subject of adequate notice,” said a filing posted Thursday in docket 07-100. In addition, the order is “self-contradictory and not based on sound reasoning,” the groups said. It "claims that incumbent licensees will not be adversely affected, when they will immediately be stripped of their geographic license rights and ability to apply for new or modified licenses as needed.” The order also unfairly helps AT&T “better position itself vis-à-vis its commercial wireless service competitors” by giving it “access to free mid-band spectrum in order to ‘maintain parity’ with its competitors, which is not an appropriate use of the 4.9 GHz public safety spectrum.”