T-Mobile representatives met with FCC staff to discuss the “drive test data” that the company submitted with its annual progress report, required as part of its purchase of Sprint. “T‑Mobile also identified the software used to calculate low-, medium-, and high-intensity developed areas in large rural census blocks as part of the selection of additional testing locations in these areas,” said a filing Friday in docket 22-211. The slides from T-Mobile’s presentation to staff were redacted in the filing.
A coalition opposed to T-Mobile’s purchase of wireless assets from UScellular spoke with aides to FCC Commissioner Anna Gomez about its challenge to a Wireless Bureau order approving the deal. Gomez has said commissioners should have been asked to vote on it (see 2507310041). Representatives from the Rural Wireless Association, Open Technology Institute at New America and Communications Workers of America were present, according to a filing posted Friday in docket 24-286.
Comments are due Sept. 8 in dockets 25-256 and 25-257 on two Consolidated Communications applications to discontinue legacy voice services at locations in Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont, said a public notice in Friday’s Daily Digest. The application will be granted automatically Sept. 22 unless the FCC notifies the company otherwise.
Intrepid is dropping its petition asking the FCC to preempt a contract that Cottage Grove, Minnesota, has with another provider for deployment of fiber-optic infrastructure there. In a motion to withdraw posted Friday (docket 25-248), Intrepid said it and the city have settled, "and there is no longer a 'controversy' requiring resolution by the Commission." In its petition, Intrepid said Cottage Grove granted exclusive access to another provider and was denying Intrepid access to its right of way.
Comments are due Sept. 5, replies Sept. 12, on Crown Castle's proposal to sell its fiber network business to Fiber FinCo. That company is a wholly owned subsidiary of Front Range, a joint venture between investors DigitalBridge Group and Sweden’s EQT. Filings should be posted in docket 25-174, said a Friday order by the FCC Wireline Bureau. Crown Castle sought agency clearance in May.
Wireless and aviation groups are working together to look at how the upper C band can be safely reallocated for full-power licensed use, officials from the Aerospace Industries Association, Airlines for America and CTIA told the FCC in a filing posted Friday. Questions about the implications for radio altimeters, which use adjacent spectrum, surfaced ahead of FCC approval of a notice of inquiry on the band (see 2502120046).
The Public Safety Spectrum Alliance (PSSA) and the Fraternal Order of Police (FOP) urged the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit to throw out an appeal of last year’s FCC order giving the FirstNet Authority, and indirectly AT&T, control of the 4.9 GHz band through a nationwide license (see 2410220027). The Coalition for Emergency Response and Critical Infrastructure (CERCI), which leads the appeal, fired back, saying a challenge by PSSA also should be tossed.
NTCA, the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners (NARUC) and other commenters told the FCC last week that they dislike a proposal to deregulate telephone access charges more now than they did five years ago, when the agency last sought comment (see 2008050030).
New questions in the FCC Enforcement Bureau’s previously routine equal employment opportunity (EEO) audit letters appear to be aimed at seeking out broadcaster diversity hiring programs and grievances against them.
Testing done in Colombia -- like previous testing conducted in Romania -- confirms that a non-geostationary orbit (NGSO) satellite system can protect geostationary orbit (GSO) system Ku-band downlinks even when using co-frequency beams, according to SpaceX. In a docket 25-157 filing posted Thursday, SpaceX recapped a meeting with the FCC Space Bureau, saying it will submit a full report of the Colombia testing soon. The company said the test results "deliver direct, real-world evidence" supporting the protection criteria that it proposed. SpaceX has petitioned the commission for a revision of U.S. spectrum-sharing methodology between NGSO and GSO fixed satellite service downlinks (see 2408120018).