Public interest groups filed in support of the FCC’s 3-2 April decision (see 2404290044) fining T-Mobile $80 million for allegedly failing to safeguard data related to customers' real-time locations. T-Mobile was also fined $12.2 million for violations by Sprint, which it later acquired. In the Telecom Act, “Congress entrusted [the FCC] with the responsibility of holding the nation’s largest telecommunications providers accountable when those carriers violate the privacy of their subscribers,” the groups said in an amicus brief. Congress intended that Section 222 "ensure that telecommunications providers would protect personal data collected from their customers, and intentionally included broad definitions and gave the Commission clear authority to interpret them as technologies evolved,” they added: “Decades later, it has become clear that one of the most sensitive categories of data that telecommunications providers collect about their customers is mobile location data.” The Electronic Privacy Information Center, the Center for Democracy & Technology, the Electronic Frontier Foundation, Privacy Rights Clearinghouse and Public Knowledge filed the brief. They urged the D.C. Circuit to "reject T-Mobile’s arguments and hold that the text and purpose of Section 222 clearly authorize the FCC orders under review.” If carriers prevail, “they will have successfully evaded virtually all means of legal accountability for violating their customers’ privacy, including data sold to bounty hunters.” Letting carriers avoid FCC authority “will mean that there is essentially no backstop to enforcing the privacy rights Congress guaranteed consumers under the Communications Act.”
NTIA on Friday awarded more than $19 million in the final batch of grants from the Public Wireless Supply Chain Innovation Fund’s second notice of funding opportunity. Nearly $10 million went to DeepSig for a project enabling open radio unit and chipset vendors “to implement advanced AI functions to engender a healthy and cost competitive massive multiple input, multiple output Open Radio Unit ecosystem,” the announcement said. Another $9.5 million went to Recon RF, which is developing “Ultra-Efficient Front-End-Modules” for 5G and 6G open radio units, NTIA said.
Georouting of texts to the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline -- like calls to the hotline -- won't use a caller's exact physical location but be based on broader geographic data, preserving privacy, according to Lifeline administrator Vibrant Emotional Health. In a filing posted Friday (docket 18-336), Vibrant said georouting of texts would likely use identical or similar boundaries to those developed during proof of concept for voice calls, minimizing user-specific data.
Velocity Communications asked the FCC to extend by six months the deadline to remove Chinese components from its networks to comply with the agency's rip-and-replace program. The company warned that its future is at stake and it needs more funding to proceed. Congress recently allocated an additional $3.08 billion to close the funding shortfall in the FCC’s Secure and Trusted Communications Networks Reimbursement Program (see 2412240036). “What started as a 1-year project timeline to complete the network overhaul has turned into a multi-year effort to save the business from becoming insolvent,” a filing posted Friday in docket 18-89 said.
Axon Networks told the FCC that because it agreed to use the common testing portal, the Office of Engineering and Technology was justified in allowing the company to conduct a 20-day public test of its 6 GHz automated frequency coordination (AFC) system. Axon responded to the Fixed Wireless Communications Coalition, which said the usual 45-day period should have been required (see 2501140078). Axon noted that OET also allowed a 20-day period for tests by C3Spectra last year and no one objected. “Lack of prior objections notwithstanding, OET’s decision to give the affected applicants the option of a shortened public testing period where a common testing portal would be leveraged was both ‘reasonable and reasonably explained,’” said a filing posted Friday in docket 21-352. In the 2023 testing procedures public notice, “OET highlighted the expected benefits of a single point of entry for testing all AFCs, and it gave applicants the option of using a common Internet-based test portal with other AFC systems in lieu of setting up their own public trial test portal,” Axon said.
Former Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms resigned as chair of the FirstNet Authority board, NTIA said Friday, noting that will allow the next Commerce secretary to designate her successor. Bottoms became chair in October. Vice Chair Renee Gordon will temporarily lead the board, NTIA said.
FCC commissioners unanimously adopted an NPRM seeking comment on rules designed to provide more spectrum for uncrewed aircraft systems. Commissioner Anna Gomez recused herself from voting on the 450 MHz portion of the notice. The NPRM proposes changes in service rules for 650 kHz in the 450 MHz band. “In their current form, these site-based rules confine air-ground communications in the band to voice communications with aircraft traveling at high altitudes,” the NPRM said: “We propose to replace the current rigid framework with rules that embrace more flexible use of the band while minimizing the possibility for harmful interference by creating a single nationwide license.”
T-Mobile filed a fully redacted “response” at the FCC on Thursday in docket 24-286, examining its proposed buy of wireless assets from UScellular. The filing came the day before responses were due to a series of questions on the deal that the FCC Wireless Bureau and Office of Economics and Analytics posed (see 2412270031). T-Mobile didn't comment Thursday. UScellular representatives, meanwhile, met with FCC staff about the information request it received the same day as T-Mobile. “UScellular discussed its ongoing work to respond to the Information Request along with the relevant UScellular custodian(s) for each request,” said a filing on the meeting: “Commission staff also answered questions related to the Information Request’s instructions and definitions, as well as certain of the requests themselves.”
The FCC Office of Engineering and Technology approved Liberty Defense's waiver requests that will allow equipment certification for upgrades of its full-body security screening scanners deployed at U.S. airports. NTIA endorsed the waiver in June, saying that members of the Interdepartment Radio Advisory Committee had reviewed it and didn’t object (see 2406040063). OET sought comment in 2023 (see 2307200030). “Liberty’s new High-Definition Advanced Imaging Technology will be deployed via upgrade kits to Legacy Systems and will permit them to transmit across spectrum bands ranging from 10-40 GHz,” OET said Thursday in docket 23-245: “Liberty states that the new system will improve transportation security by enhancing threat detection capability and speeding up airline passenger screening.” While Liberty’s scanner “sweeps over a larger frequency band than the Legacy System, it employs a higher sweep rate, which reduces the potential for causing harmful interference,” OET said. “We agree that adding the upgrade kit to the Legacy System not only corresponds to a lower duty cycle seen by the victim receiver but also reduces the interference potential of these devices.”
The FCC Office of Engineering and Technology on Thursday approved a waiver sought by Norway's Kontur of rules for ultra-wideband (UWB) devices for a new ground-penetrating radar (GPR) device expected to be deployed in several industries. The UWB Alliance and the GPS Innovation Alliance supported the waiver last summer (see 2408150014) after OET sought comment (see 2407100057). The device is “a stepped frequency, continuous wave modulated GPR transmitter that closely resembles its previously approved GPR device,” OET said in docket 24-209: “Providing trained professionals with improved tools to detect potential flaws and safety risks, and providing increased information that lets the device operator focus on the job of locating subsurface problems and recommending solutions clearly benefits the public.” OET imposed technical restrictions similar to those imposed on other GPR UWB devices. The restrictions cover the operating frequency range, modulation type, dwell time on each frequency and measurement procedures.