The FCC's World Radiocommunication Conference Advisory Committee held its second meeting Monday as it prepares for the next WRC, in 2027, moving forward on some early items for the conference. Among the proposals considered was agenda item 1.7, which examines studies on sharing and compatibility and the use of international mobile telecommunications in the 4, 7/8 and 15 GHz bands. Informal Working Group (IWG) 2, Mobile and Fixed Services, recommended two views. The first alternative supports the sharing and compatibility studies called for at WRC-23, “with a view to ensure the protection of services to which the frequency bands are allocated on a primary basis, including in adjacent bands, as appropriate.” Alternative 2 has the same findings but “adds additional language referencing employment of coexistence mechanisms to safeguard incumbent operations,” said IWG-2 Chair Daudeleine Meme, Verizon's vice president-federal regulatory and legal. “There were extensive discussions” and “in the end it was agreed to present two alternatives,” she said. IWG-2 member Scott Kotler, director-regulatory engineering at Lockheed Martin, noted item 1.7 is “critical” to the U.S. aerospace and defense industry “to innovate, to meet the needs and demands of existing services, while also exploring innovative opportunities for new wireless services.” Kotler said the alternative view better reflects the national spectrum strategy and administration principles “on what the U.S. would not support at WRC-27 for IMT.” Other speakers supported Kotler’s view. The WAC voted and approved both alternative views.
The FCC Wireline Bureau and Office of Economics and Analytics made available the final incarcerated people's communications services database for 2024. Released Monday, the database was used to develop rate caps and other changes adopted in the commission's recent IPCS order implementing the Martha Wright-Reed Just and Reasonable Communications Act of 2022, a public notice said (see 2407180039). The database includes two datasets IPCS providers submitted in response to the 2023 mandatory data collection. The first dataset includes cost and revenue information used to determine the upper and lower bounds of the zones of reasonableness. The other dataset includes geocoding information on facility locations.
The FCC said Monday it plans to recharter its Consumer Advisory Committee for two years and is seeking nominations for membership. A renewed charter will become effective on or before Oct. 13, the notice said. Nominations are due Sept. 6. The current CAC is focused on AI and met last in June (see 2406260041).
FCC commissioners are expected to approve at Wednesday's open meeting, largely as circulated, a draft NPRM aimed at reducing unwanted AI robocalls. Industry officials active in the proceeding predicted few tweaks based on the limited number of ex parte filings in docket 23-362.
Only Telesat and SpaceX have issued quantitative inference analyses of spectrum sharing among earlier and later processing round non-geostationary orbit satellite systems (see 2407220021), SpaceX said Friday. In a docket 21-456 filing recapping a meeting with FCC Space Bureau staff, SpaceX said the protection proposals from other commenters "involve hand-waving arguments to support arbitrarily-selected values." In a recap of meetings with the offices of Commissioners Geoffrey Starks and Nathan Simington and the Space Bureau, Amazon's Kuiper said it urged the FCC to wrap the proceeding and discussed its recommended protection values.
Blue Origin hopes to launch its Moon Lander MK1 Pathfinder for an orbital mission around the moon as soon as Q1 2025, it said in an FCC Space Bureau application posted Friday. The Pathfinder cargo lander will carry sensors and cameras; it will collect data and assist with training for Blue Origin's lunar program, the company said.
The FCC should phase in the regulatory fee hike facing Space Bureau payers or risk causing financial hardship that could stymie the satellite industry's growth, according to Intelsat. Recapping a meeting with the office of Commissioner Anna Gomez, Intelsat said Friday in docket 24-85 that it reiterated its argument for a five-year phase-in (see 2405170032).
FCC rules changes intended to expedite processing of satellite and earth station applications and new spectrum allocations for space launches go into effect Sept. 4, said a notice for Monday's Federal Register. The commissioners adopted the changes and allocations at their September 2023 meeting (see 2309210055). The application processing order among other things sets time frames for placing satellite and earth station applications on notice for public comment and lets non-geostationary orbit licensees have more than one unbuilt system without facing the possible dismissal of applications. The spectrum order sets an allocation in the 2025-2110 MHz band and makes the 2200-2290 MHz band available for launch telemetry.
The FCC updated the Licensing and Management System (LMS), making major change applications for Class A, low-power TV and TV translator stations available in advance of the Aug. 20 lifting of the 14-year freeze on channel change filings (see 2405290068), a public notice in Friday’s Daily Digest said. “Effective immediately, applicants are permitted to input information in their major change application, but should not submit their application prior to August 20, 2024,” the PN said. Applications filed before Aug. 20 “will be dismissed and applicants will need to re-file once the freeze is lifted.” The PN also included a reminder that after updates to the FCC’s TVStudy software, all TV broadcast applications filed after Aug. 1, must use 2020 Census Data for conducting interference analyses. “Failure to do so will require amendment and may result in dismissal of applications as defective,” the PN said.
Communications Workers of America supports a Public Safety Spectrum Alliance (PSSA) proposal that assigns the 4.9 GHz band to FirstNet, a hotly contested FCC issue (see 2407230045). Doing so would ensure public safety makes use of the band, a filing posted Friday in docket 07-100 said. “CWA is deeply invested in the success of FirstNet, which was built and is maintained by AT&T, the only wireless carrier with a union-represented workforce,” the union said: Allocating the band “to a single nationwide licensee rather than multiple commercial users would facilitate rapid and efficient nationwide deployment and stop the slow and fragmented approach that has led to prolonged underutilization of the band in the last 20 years.”