The FCC Public Safety Bureau sought comment Friday on a waiver request by Tiverton, Rhode Island, which wants to add a base station in the 470-512 MHz T band to its public safety radio system. A waiver is needed because of an adjacent TV station located in Boston, about 50 miles away, the bureau said. Tiverton says it’s “in dire need of improved coverage and building penetration in its historical downtown business district,” the bureau said. Comments are due June 12, replies June 23, in universal licensing system file 0010645349.
The Rural Wireless Association urged the FCC in comments posted Friday to look at AT&T’s proposed buy of 700 MHz and 3.45 GHz licenses from UScellular in the broader context of the U.S. wireless market. The sale of the licenses is tied to a larger deal with T-Mobile that's also still before the FCC (see 2504150046). Replies to oppositions were due at the FCC on Thursday in docket 25-150.
A drop in immigrants to the U.S. will inevitably put downward pressure on wireless carriers' subscriber numbers, MoffettNathanson’s Craig Moffett warned Thursday. It will take some time to fully assess the effects of the Trump administration’s actions against immigrants, Moffett told investors.
UScellular filed data at the FCC on its radio access network, answering questions about its proposed sale of wireless assets to T-Mobile (see 2405280047). The carrier redacted all the data in the filing, posted Thursday in docket 24-286. Based on text that wasn't stripped, the company provided data on how it defines congestion, its average cost per radio and its fixed wireless access offering, among other areas.
Nokia, ZTE and Ericsson are the top three in the 5G private network sector, Omdia said in a Wednesday report. The market presents “significant challenges for vendors and service providers,” the report said: “Vendors now recognize that private networks are highly specialized and require a few focused partners -- not a wide distribution channel -- to drive market growth.”
T-Mobile representatives met with FCC staffers to discuss the difficulty of calculating eligible and supported households for the purposes of fixed wireless access as the agency considers the company’s proposed buy of wireless assets from UScellular. Parts of the filing, posted Wednesday in docket 24-286, were redacted.
Since any FCC action on EchoStar's use of the 2 GHz band could affect the future of open radio access network deployments, more time to comment on the relevant public notices is warranted, a collection of interest groups said Tuesday (docket 25-173). Public Knowledge, the Open Technology Institute at New America, the Benton Institute for Broadband & Society and the Institute for Local Self-Reliance backed Incompas' call to add 30 days to the comment deadline for the FCC's EchoStar public notices (see 2505190056). The groups said the extra time is also justified because the FCC must consider the effect on EchoStar's Dish Network subscribers if the commission makes it impossible for Dish to expand its 5G network to the point of viability.
A new report by CableLabs warned that Wi-Fi is running out of spectrum given spiraling demand, and it urged policymakers to preserve the 6 GHz band for unlicensed use. The report came as Congress scrambles to identify 600 MHz of spectrum for full-power licensed use (see 2505140062).
The FCC Enforcement Bureau issued a warning to Miami’s Biscayne Towing & Salvage for allegedly operating a radio that was interfering with 156.8 MHz (VHF Marine Channel 16), following a complaint by the U.S. Coast Guard. Operation on the frequency “is reserved for the marine radio service and is for ship to ship or ship to shore (coast station) operation,” said a notice posted Tuesday. It gave the business 10 days to report back on what steps it has taken to ensure the interference has stopped and won't happen again.
The FCC Office of Engineering and Technology on Tuesday approved waivers sought by Comsearch and C3Spectra, which provide automated frequency coordination systems in the 6 GHz band, to take building entry loss into account for “composite” standard- and low-power devices that are restricted to operating indoors. “We find that granting this waiver will serve the public interest by increasing the utility of 6 GHz unlicensed devices without increasing the potential for these devices to cause harmful interference to licensed services that share the spectrum,” OET said.