Brett Glass, owner of Wyoming wireless ISP Lariat, warned FCC Commissioner Anna Gomez that reregulating broadband under Title II of the Communications Act will be negative for small WISPs. “I recounted the difficulties that our company had encountered during the Commission’s previous attempt to regulate ISPs under Title II, which all but put us out of business by depriving us of investment, as well as the serious impacts that increased regulatory burdens … had already had upon our small, local business,” said a filing posted Tuesday in docket 23-320. If the FCC moves ahead with revised rules, it should “take into account the limited resources of small and local ISPs and very real danger of driving them out of business via excessive regulation and micromanagement, leaving consumers with fewer choices and no local ones with high quality, personalized service and technical support,” Glass said.

The Wireless ISP Association urged the FCC to seek comment before imposing net neutrality rules on broadband internet access service providers with fewer than 250,000 subscribers. “The draft item does not adequately consider the extent of the burdens being placed on small BIAS providers by these compliance obligations,” said a filing posted Tuesday in docket 23-320. “We noted that, in addition to the rules and restrictions the draft item proposes, BIAS providers are already spending time and resources to comply with a host of other regulatory obligations -- creating broadband labels, submitting Broadband Data Collections and responding to challenges complying with digital discrimination rules, and responding to State [broadband equity, access and deployment program] challenges -- all in the same calendar year.” The group met with aides to FCC Commissioners Nathan Simington and Anna Gomez.

NextNav proposed that the FCC reconfigure the 902-928 MHz band “to enable a high-quality, terrestrial complement” to GPS for positioning, navigation and timing services. NextNav noted it’s the largest licensee in the band. The undocketed petition for rulemaking was filed and posted Tuesday. “Reconfiguring the band plan and adopting rules that enable flexible use will also provide 15 megahertz of low-band spectrum for use by mobile wireless networks, a significant addition to the low-band spectrum pipeline,” the company said. Without GPS, “essential economic and security functions would be significantly impaired or disabled entirely,” NextNav said: “Yet GPS does not work well indoors or in urban canyons, and GPS signals are subject to jamming, spoofing, and other targeting events.”

Competitive Carriers Association representatives laid out the group’s primary concerns about a proposed 5G Fund, now before FCC commissioners (see 2403260052), in a meeting with an aide to Commissioner Anna Gomez. CCA cares about “mapping issues relevant to 5G Fund eligibility, including the need for clarity on which dataset will be used for purposes of 5G Fund eligibility and the need for a meaningful and user-friendly mobile challenge process prior to determining eligible areas,” said a filing posted Tuesday in docket 20-32. CCA also emphasized “eligibility issues” and “the timing of the trigger to shift from legacy support to 5G Fund support to eliminate any potentially harmful funding gaps consistent with Congressional instruction.”

Representatives of the Bluetooth Special Interest Group (SIG) met with various FCC offices on the group’s push to use the 6 GHz band (see 2305260032). Members “discussed the progress the Bluetooth industry is making towards developing methods for Bluetooth sharing with other unlicensed devices in the lower 6 GHz band,” the SIG said in a Monday filing in docket 18-295. They discussed standards development work with the IEEE, European Telecommunications Standards Institute and other standards groups. The group is considering filing a petition for rulemaking, the filing said. The group met with Chief Ron Repasi and others from the Office of Engineering and Technology and aides to Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel and Commissioners Brendan Carr and Anna Gomez.

The Alaska Remote Carrier Coalition (ARCC) offered its perspective to the FCC Wireless Bureau on performance testing for the mobility portion of the Alaska Connect Fund required under FCC rules. ARCC said the filing follows up on a meeting with bureau staff March 14 (see 2403180022). “As the Bureau is aware, the extensive geography and rugged terrain served by ARCC wireless members, including both off-the-road network areas as well as many areas with environmentally sensitive tundra, require creativity and flexibility on the part of the testing carrier,” said a filing posted Tuesday in docket 10-208. “This challenge is complicated by areas with inaccessible federal land holdings that still must be tested under the Commission’s protocols.” ARCC noted that drive testing by Copper Valley under the plan’s rules cost the carrier more than $100,000.

Viya updated the FCC on its work to harden its network in the U.S. Virgin Islands using federal funding (see 2306300024). Work on general hardening is ongoing, though parts were completed last year, said a filing posted Monday in docket 18-143. Some of the data was redacted. “Some of the anticipated work for 2023 was pushed to 2024 so the total spending is less than funds received from July through December 2023,” Viya said: “Spending in 2024 will reflect both the remaining 2023 funds as well as the 2024 funding.”

T-Mobile told customers they have options if, as expected, the affordable connectivity program ends (see 2404020075). “Existing customers using their ACP benefit with Assurance Wireless will keep their service through August 2024 without any changes to their price or plan,” T-Mobile said Monday: After, “they’ll need to qualify for Lifeline, a free federal assistance program -- if they don’t already have it -- or move to another low-cost T-Mobile or Metro by T-Mobile plan.” T-Mobile discussed its other low-cost services, including Metro by T-Mobile, Connect by T-Mobile and prepaid 5G data plans.

North American Subaru sought a waiver allowing it to make early deployments using cellular-vehicle-to-everything technology in the 5.9 GHz band. The automaker said it was willing to abide by rules approved last year as part of a joint waiver to use the band for C-V2X, as modified in July (see 2307050048). “Safety is our top priority and we have been pursuing Subaru’s overarching corporate goal of zero fatal traffic accidents in 2030,” said a Friday filing in docket 19-138. “Safety applications based on C-V2X will play a critical role in achieving this goal and will contribute to improving public safety.”

The Open Technology Institute at New America urged the FCC to approve a rule change allowing fixed wireless use of the lower 12 GHz band, but with conditions. In a meeting with Wireless Bureau staff, OTI urged a tribal set aside. “The license rights to all or at least a substantial portion of the 500 megahertz on Tribal lands should be made freely available for broadband deployment at the request of Tribal authorities,” said a filing posted Monday in docket 20-443. The group also said unused spectrum in the band “should be authorized for opportunistic access on a non-interfering basis for fixed wireless services.”