FCC Chairman Brendan Carr welcomed his appointment by President Donald Trump to the new White House task force on the 2028 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles. “The FCC will bring our expertise to bear to meet the spectrum needs and other operational requirements of this historic event,” Carr said Tuesday. “Thousands of wireless devices will be operating simultaneously within the RF spectrum” during the Olympic and Paralympic games, the FCC said. “This includes critical applications such as timing apparatus for events, radio communications for event coordination and security, and broadcast operations that are vital to seamless, world-wide, coverage and the overall success of the Games,” the agency said. “The FCC will work alongside our Federal, state, and local partners, as well as the LA28 Olympic Committee and other stakeholders to help ensure robust, reliable communications.”
Anterix representatives met with FCC Wireless Bureau staff about the agency's 2018 900 MHz freeze and other issues, said a filing posted Tuesday in docket 24-99. The representatives “noted that while the FCC has historically frozen bands during a technology transition to preserve a stable landscape and prevent speculative entrants, they understand certain incumbents could have a legitimate, limited need to expand capacity or coverage,” the filing said. “Anterix encourages such entities to contact it and has been able to assist in meeting requirements in those instances.”
AT&T, working with Ericsson and Fujitsu’s 1Finity, said it achieved “a major milestone” by completing the first open radio access network call using third-party radios at the AT&T Labs. “The collaboration between these companies demonstrates the potential of Open RAN specifications as enablers,” AT&T said Tuesday. “By using open interfaces, the successful data call has shown how increased interoperability and flexibility can be realized within network infrastructures.” The call was made using an Ericsson high-capacity RAN processor and 1Finity radios.
President Patrick Halley and others from the Wireless Infrastructure Association discussed the FCC’s moves to streamline wireless siting in a meeting with Commissioner Olivia Trusty, said a filing posted Tuesday in docket 19-250. WIA “highlighted the many positive effects that the FCC’s wireless infrastructure reforms have had on wireless deployment and the critical importance of maintaining and strengthening the FCC’s wireless siting rules.”
CTIA called on the FCC to update its rules to spur the deployment of unmanned aircraft systems (UAS). “Decades-old restrictions on airborne spectrum use in certain bands, which were put in place when only traditional aircraft existed, limit the ability to use modern communications networks to support UAS operations,” CTIA said in a filing posted Tuesday in docket 25-133. Current spectrum regulations “prohibit airborne operations in some bands due to restrictions in either the federal rules themselves or the Table of Frequency Allocations.” But these restrictions didn’t “contemplate the interference-mitigation capabilities of modern wireless network design, nor development of low-altitude air vehicles like drones. Such airborne use restrictions on flexible-use commercial wireless spectrum are outdated, burdensome, and impede innovation, making them ripe for Commission review.”
The Rural Wireless Association fired back at Verizon and UScellular arguments that the FCC should approve their proposed spectrum deal (see 2507230030). Replies were due Friday in docket 25-192. Last week, RWA and other groups filed a challenge to an FCC Wireless Bureau order approving T-Mobile’s buy of wireless assets from UScellular, which is exiting the business (see 2507110045).
Operators of tolling systems won't be affected by NextNav's proposal to reconfigure the 902-928 MHz band to allow a “terrestrial complement” to GPS for positioning, navigation and timing services, according to a study that the company filed at the FCC. It supplements a Brattle Group report that NextNav filed previously (see 2507180034).
The Wireless Innovation Forum released last week “Developments Towards a More Robust and Dynamic Spectrum Sharing Network,” a member-approved document that calls for improvements in sharing systems, including in the citizens broadband radio service (CBRS) and for 6 GHz automated frequency coordination (AFC). The document was written by a working group that WInnForum launched a year ago (see 2408220049).
The FCC Wireless Bureau on Friday approved a waiver of Section 96.39(g) of commission rules that allows the University of Utah to operate a research tool using an experimental license over a small area in Salt Lake City. The rule section covers security requirements for citizens broadband radio service devices. In 2022, commenters raised concerns about the proposed waiver (see 2207190047), needed for wireless research using the university’s platform for open wireless data-driven experimental research (POWDER).
Edison Electric Institute, which represents electric utilities, and financial associations met with an aide to Commissioner Anna Gomez about their request for changes to robotext rules approved by commissioners last year (see 2402160048), said a filing Friday in docket 02-278. “The Order requires a business that receives a text from a consumer (i.e., ‘stop’) in response to one type of message to stop receiving all future communications from that business by phone or text on unrelated matters -- even if that was not the consumer’s intent,” the filing said.