Wireless carriers are unlikely to “get more promotional in a way that would drive demand for the iPhone” following Monday’s release of the iPhone 16, New Street’s Jonathan Chaplin told investors Monday. “The big question is whether there will be organic demand for the device that will drive an upgrade cycle; based on the comments from industry executives and the extensive work done by our Global Tech team … we think the answer is ‘no,’ but we’ll be watching for clues to the contrary,” Chaplin said.

The Enterprise Wireless Alliance welcomes innovation in spectrum but can’t support NextNav’s proposal for reconfiguring the 900 MHz band, the group said in a filing last week in docket 24-240 (see 2409060046). “EWA’s established commitment to encouraging innovative spectrum approaches has always been conditioned on an appropriate balancing of the potential benefits of those initiatives and the continued viability of incumbent operations that also serve vital public interests,” EWA said. In most cases, it’s possible “to craft an approach that accommodates both objectives,” but “EWA is not confident that spectrum equilibrium can be achieved in this instance and thus cannot support the Petition.”

The Michigan Public Safety Communications Interoperability Board and Florida Police Chiefs Association became the latest groups to oppose a proposal to give the FirstNet Authority control of the 4.9 GHz band. “Granting the license to the FirstNet Authority would likely result in that spectrum being incorporated into that network’s existing cellular architecture, which would practically eliminate one of the primary existing applications of the band -- local point-to-point links,” the Michigan organization said in a comment posted Monday in docket 07-100. The Florida chiefs called the proposal “troubling.” Groups have lined up on both sides of the issue. New Street’s Blair Levin told investors last week, that FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel appears supportive of the band's reallocation to FirstNet. “This issue does not appear to be election dependent, but there is a material risk that the order may be overturned by the courts,” Levin said.

Comments are due Oct. 7, replies Nov. 5, in docket 17-258, on an August NPRM from the FCC asking about further changes to rules for the citizens broadband radio service band, said a Friday notice in the Federal Register. The FCC adopted initial CBRS rules in 2015, launching a three-tier model for sharing 3.5 GHz spectrum, while protecting naval radars. The NPRM explores further changes (see 2408160031).

CTIA urged the FCC to avoid imposing additional requirements to block texts, in response to a December Further NPRM (see 2312130019). A filing posted Friday reports on a meeting with an aide to Commissioner Brendan Carr, ahead of the FCC’s release of a draft order for the Sept. 26 open meeting on new robocalling and robotexting rules (see 2409050045). “The record continues to show that a requirement to incorporate text message authentication solutions are unnecessary to address the main problem in text messaging: identity spoofing/impersonation,” the filing in docket 21-402 said. CTIA urged the commission “to reject calls from a handful of non-consumer message senders to dismantle the wireless ecosystem’s existing practices that are stopping billions of spam and scam text messages.”

Very low power (VLP) devices pose little risk to mobile electronic newsgathering (ENG) receivers, tech companies said in a meeting with FCC Office of Engineering and Technology staff. A Broadcom analysis “demonstrated that ENG systems can operate error-free with SINRs [signal to interference and noise ratio] at and above 1 dB and that interference from VLP transmitters is very unlikely to cause SINR levels to fall below that 1 dB threshold in any plausible operating scenario,” said a filing posted Friday in docket 18-295. New, supplemental analysis further “confirms that VLP devices in U-NII-6 and U-NII-8 do not present a significant risk of harmful interference and that mobile ENG systems will operate with a[n] SINR above 8 dB in every realistic scenario,” the filing said. Also in the meeting were Apple, Google, Meta Platforms and Qualcomm.

The FCC “clearly lacks authority” to assign the 4.9 GHz band to the FirstNet Authority and FirstNet “clearly lacks authority to receive it,” the Coalition for Emergency Response and Critical Infrastructure (CERCI) said in a filing posted Friday in docket 07-100. Coalition representatives met with aides to FCC Commissioners Brendan Carr, Geoffrey Starks and Nathan Simington about concerns with a Public Safety Spectrum Alliance (PSSA) proposal that would give FirstNet control of the band. “PSSA’s and AT&T’s alternative proposal that the Commission effect this unlawful assignment indirectly through a forced sharing agreement with a Band Manager does not solve the problem,” CERCI said: “The PSSA and its allies do not cite a clear congressional grant of authority for this proposal.” CERCI cited the U.S. Supreme Court’s recent decision in Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo, which “makes clear that agency interpretations of statutes … are not entitled to deference.”

A FirstNet Authority task force report about the Feb. 22 nationwide AT&T wireless outage (see 2403040062) found “the network did not perform up to public safety’s standards that day,” CEO Joe Wassel blogged Thursday. The task force made five recommendations including “more complete All Hazards Emergency Operations planning between the FirstNet Authority and AT&T, so both entities can better prepare for, respond to, and communicate effectively during planned and no-notice network impacting events.” The report also discusses the importance of “stakeholder communications” and continuity planning. The FCC released a report on the outage in July (see 2407220034). In a second development, the Commerce Department Office of Inspector General said it’s starting an audit of authority “oversight of the Nationwide Public Safety Broadband Network.” The objective “is to determine whether FirstNet Authority is ensuring that the Nationwide Public Safety Broadband Network is achieving service availability requirements,” a notice said.

The FCC Wireless Bureau on Thursday launched a record refresh seeking comment on updating performance standards for maritime radiocommunications equipment under Part 80 of the commission’s rules. Comments are due Oct. 21, replies Nov. 4, in RM-11765. The bureau asked for comment on the specific updated version of the standard the agency should incorporate into its rules, “the rule section(s) where the standard appears, … the element(s) of the standard which have been modified from the version currently referenced in part 80” and “the costs and benefits of referencing the updated standard,” among other issues.

The Electronic Frontier Foundation opposed NextNav’s proposal that the FCC reconfigure the 902-928 MHz band “to enable a high-quality, terrestrial complement” to GPS for positioning, navigation and timing services (see 2404160043). Comments were due Thursday in docket 24-240. “NextNav’s own proposal makes it clear that this is essentially a land grab,” the foundation said: “NextNav seeks to increase the amount of band they have sole use of, the size of the physical region those licenses operate in, the amount of power they can use, and amount interference they can cause.”