The International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP) is the latest public safety group urging that the FCC consider giving FirstNet control of the 4.9 GHz band (see 2402140037). The FirstNet network “has brought an entirely new nationwide approach to public safety communications where state and local agencies no longer have to finance, maintain, and synchronize thousands of disparate networks,” said a filing Wednesday in docket 07-100. Because of FirstNet, “public safety is provided priority, preemption, and local control accessed through a portal providing command and control on an incident basis,” IACP said.

Representatives of i-wireless and other small carriers spoke with staff for FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel asking for action on the request expanding eligible telecom carrier designations granted in 2012, especially given the freeze in affordable connectivity program enrollments. Without Wireline Bureau approval, “i-wireless is unable to offer Lifeline to eligible low-income Americans in significant portions of Florida, North Carolina and other states where its ETC designation has been granted by the Commission,” said a filing posted Thursday in docket 21-450: With affordable connectivity program “enrollments frozen and consumers needing to find affordable alternatives during the ACP wind-down period, we respectfully urged the Office of the Chairwoman to direct the Bureau to expeditiously complete its review.” Assist Wireless also spoke with Rosenworcel aides on the ETC petition. The Wireline Bureau “has restricted provider participation and impeded competition in the Lifeline program for a dozen years by failing to act on Assist Wireless’s Lifeline compliance plan and federal ETC petition,” Assist said. American Broadband reported a similar meeting. The bureau “has restricted provider participation and impeded competition in the Lifeline program for a dozen years by failing to act on American Broadband’s federal ETC petition (among others),” the provider said. Boomerang Wireless also reported on an ETC call with aides to the chairwoman.

Tribal broadband advocates discussed the potential significance of a proposal giving tribes access to lower 12 GHz spectrum in a call with FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr. Dish Network made the proposal (see 2309110061). The advocates noted the importance of conveying the licenses to tribal governments. “Because Tribal lands are held in trust, they cannot serve as collateral for loans,” said a filing posted Wednesday in docket 20-443. FCC licenses “are accepted by banks and other lending institutions as collateral,” the groups said: “Holding a license, not merely permission to use spectrum, is therefore not merely a matter of semantics or even a matter of Tribal sovereignty. Holding a license opens doors to needed capital to build the network.” Among those on the call were Public Knowledge, Tribal Broadband and the Open Technology Institute.

The Shortwave Modernization Coalition (SMC) filed a Roberson and Associates technical analysis at the FCC discussing the coalition’s proposal for amending the commission’s eligibility and technical rules for industrial/business pool licensees to authorize licensed use of frequencies above 2 MHz and below 25 MHz for fixed, long-distance, non-voice communications (see 2305010053). The proposal is controversial, especially among amateur operators (see 2308180033). The analysis shows the proposed use of this band “can be implemented without interfering with other users, and we look forward to engaging with federal stakeholders, other interested parties, and FCC staff to address any issues and move this matter forward,” said a filing posted Wednesday in RM-11953.

OMB approved various information collection requirements that are part of the FCC’s enhanced competition incentive program. Commissioners approved the program 4-0 in 2022 (see 2207140055). The requirements are now in effect, said a notice for Thursday’s Federal Register. Other parts of the rules took effect in October 2022 (see 2209190008).

The Metropolitan Fire Chiefs Association urged the FCC to preserve the 4.9 GHz band for public safety, in a filing posted Wednesday in docket 07-100. The filing includes language similar to that in a recent Fraternal Order of Police filing (see 2402120028). “A fragmented, inconsistent approach, allowing varied uses based on location or licensee, has proven ineffective,” the fire chiefs' filing said: “For two decades, this has led to the band's chronic underutilization due to the absence of a unified strategy and economies of scale, stifling both usage and innovation.”

Nokia CEO Pekka Lundmark met with FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel about proposed net neutrality rules and their potential effect on network slicing. The proposed rules “create friction for innovation, specifically related to network slicing,” said a filing posted Tuesday in docket 23-320: “Nokia described the market for slicing, why it is essential at this point in the 5G cycle where returns on investment have lagged, and its critical importance to the business case for 6G.” Slicing will be important to “enabling enterprise cases and providing network solutions for many use cases for which a stand-alone purpose-built network is not feasible,” Nokia said. The Open Technology Institute at New America earlier complained that network slicing shouldn’t be used as an excuse to exempt from the rules any specialized application or service that a mobile carrier delivers (see 2401310046).

The Arizona GMRS Repeater Club opposed Garmin International’s pursuit of a waiver of FCC rules to allow certification of hand-held general mobile radio service (GMRS) devices (see 2310060031). Midland Radio supported the waiver request (see 2402120059). “There are simply not enough [GMRS] frequencies available for the necessary separation between analog and digital transmissions,” the Arizona group said in a filing Monday in docket 24-7: “Our organization has suffered from interference to our GMRS repeater from commercial repeaters transmitting with [time-division multiple access] TDMA digital emissions. Digital transmissions can and do cause co-channel and adjacent channel interference to analog communications.” Other opposition came from a few amateur radio operators. “Digital data sounds are difficult to listen to and would be considered interference to the regular FM users,” amateur operator Jim Logue said. Noting “GMRS has very limited spectrum which is probably well utilized across the country,” he said he's "not sure there is room to introduce digital data.”

The FCC sought comment Tuesday on long-form applications from Quick Current to buy 2.5 GHz licenses in Iowa and Nebraska. Petitions to deny the applications are due no later than Feb. 23, oppositions March 1 and replies to oppositions March 8, said a notice from the Wireless Bureau and Office of Economics and Analytics. Under the 5G Spectrum Authority Licensing Enforcement Act, enacted in December, the FCC can issue licenses won in the 2022 auction despite the expiration in March of its general spectrum auction authority (see 2312200061).

The FirstNet Authority and AT&T announced a commitment Tuesday for strategic investments of more than $8 billion over 10 years in the public safety network. AT&T also said it's launching a stand-alone 5G core that will improve 5G functionality “with specific public safety features” and will transition FirstNet’s Band 14 spectrum from 4G to 5G. The authority and AT&T made the announcement at a fire station in Fairfax County, Virginia. They also announced that starting in March, first responders will have “always-on priority and preemption” across all of AT&T’s spectrum and that the network will add 1,000 sites within the next two years. FirstNet said it will expand mission-critical services to include voice, video, data, and location “to complement public safety’s localized, voice-only radio systems with reliable, wireless connectivity.” FirstNet is also upgrading its fleet of deployables with 5G connectivity. FirstNet now covers more first responders than any network and is involved in every major disaster and event in the U.S., said Jim Bugel, AT&T president-FirstNet. “Delivering a stand-alone 5G core will be a game changer,” he said. After 9/11, it took days to establish communications between different agencies at the Pentagon crash site, said William Johnson, now police chief at Joint Base Myer-Henderson Hall and Arlington National Cemetery. Johnson was a first responder at the Pentagon on 9/11. “Because of the events that day, when I became a police chief … I knew I had to establish communications as our number one priority,” he said. FirstNet “plays a pivotal role” by “providing a secure, reliable, prioritized communications platform,” he said. It is “the nation’s only, and I’m going to repeat, only, public safety broadband network,” said FirstNet Authority Board Chair Richard Carrizzo during the event. “We’re here to launch the next phase of our network,” he added. “Today is a big day -- we’re leaning into the future,” said FirstNet board Vice Chair Renee Gordon. The need for first responders to have “situational awareness comes up daily” at every firehouse, said Fairfax County Fire Chief John Butler. AT&T last month said FirstNet connections hit more than 5.5 million across some 27,500 agencies (see 2401240067).