Competitive Carriers Association and Nex-Tech Wireless representatives met with an aide to FCC Commissioner Anna Gomez to discuss potential gaps in the agency’s broadband data collection, a filing posted Friday in docket 19-195 said. Nex-Tech discussed issues it saw as it collected data for the broadband maps. “In Kansas, the outdoor stationary 5G 7/1 Mbps mobile broadband layer of the most recent FCC national broadband map shows 63% of the state to be currently covered, whereas in-vehicle mobile coverage at 7/1 Mbps shows only 30% … covered,” the filing said: Even if the reported coverage were accurate, “this methodology would leave 70% of Kansas below even the 7/1 Mbps 5G bar for those using mobile phones while mobile.” The representatives warned about the implications “of overstated maps and a flawed challenge process” for “the success of the 5G Fund.”

Utilities Technology Council President Rusty Williams and others from the group met with FCC Commissioners Geoffrey Starks and Brendan Carr to discuss UTC concerns about 6 GHz interference and utility interest in having access to the 4.9 GHz band. “Utilities need highly reliable mission critical communications and additional licensed spectrum with sufficient capacity and coverage to meet increasing demands to meet emerging grid modernization and clean energy requirements and protect against greater and more sophisticated physical and cybersecurity threats and increasingly severe weather events, as well as wildfires,” the filing on the Starks meeting, posted Friday in docket 18-295 and other dockets, said.

The FCC on Friday approved waivers for equipment manufacturers Autotalks, Innowireless and Keysight Technologies, and automaker North American Subaru to launch cellular vehicle-to-everything operations in the upper 30 MHz of the 5.9 GHz band. The notice comes days after Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel circulated an order finalizing rules for C-V2X operations in the band (see 2407170042). The order imposes conditions approved for previous waiver recipients, as modified a year ago (see 2307050048). “All operations authorized pursuant to this waiver are limited to transportation and vehicle safety-related communications,” the order by the Wireless and Public Safety bureaus and Office of Engineering and Technology said.

The FCC Wireless Bureau said it added “an enhancement” to the universal licensing system by adding tribal-specific “entity types” to some ULS forms. “This enhancement will improve identification of how and where Tribal Nations are directly accessing licensed wireless spectrum, and use of the new entity types will exempt applications filed by Tribal Nations and Tribally controlled business entities from related FCC Application Fees,” a notice in Friday’s Daily Digest said.

Mongoose Works is entitled to an additional $69,686 in the C-band transition reimbursement, FCC Administrative Law Judge Jane Hinckley Halprin ordered Thursday (docket 21-333). Mongoose appealed a Wireless Bureau decision upholding the C-Band Relocation Payment Clearinghouse’s reducing Mongoose’s lump sum claim amount from $356,052 to $286,366 under the C-band relocation program (see 2309180019). In her 17-page order, the judge said Mongoose proved that its operations weren't restored to pre-reallocation capabilities and that the categorization of two of its antennas is inconsistent with the agency's C-band order.

The FCC on Thursday approved Nokia’s application to begin initial commercial operations as a spectrum access system administrator for the citizens broadband radio service band. Nokia has satisfied the commission’s SAS laboratory testing requirements, a notice from the Wireless Bureau and Office of Engineering and Technology said. Nokia must file at the FCC information on the beginning date of its initial commercial deployment and specific geographic areas covered, the notice said.

WifiForward called on the FCC to reject Axon's waiver request that would allow it to market three investigative and surveillance devices operating at higher power levels than allowed under FCC rules in the heavily used 5 GHz spectrum. Law enforcement agencies are the intended market for the devices. The proposal has proven controversial (see 2403080044). Axon should “re-engineer its devices with compliant technology readily available in the highly-competitive Wi-Fi equipment and module marketplace,” WifiForward said. “There is no reason why, in 2024, a vendor should come before the Commission with outdated technology that fails to meet the band rules, proposing to disrupt the successful coexistence environment that the Commission so carefully built,” a filing posted Thursday in docket 24-40 said.

Verizon announced Thursday a new offer for its Mobile and Home Internet customers. Customers can subscribe to the Peacock Premium annual plan for $79.99, and get a year of Netflix Premium for free. The announcement comes ahead of Verizon’s release of Q2 earnings Monday.

FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel circulated for a commissioner vote a long-awaited order (see 2404180050) finalizing rules for cellular vehicle-to-everything use of the 5.9 GHz band, the agency said Wednesday. The order wasn’t circulated in anticipation of a vote during the commissioners' Aug. 7 open meeting. Accordingly, the FCC did not release the order's text. The order codifies “C-V2X technical parameters in the Commission’s rules, including power and emission limits and message prioritization,” a news release said. The rules provide flexibility for the auto industry “to use three 10-megahertz channels either separately, in combination as a 20 megahertz channel or as a single … channel” and would “establish prioritization of safety-of-life communications,” the release said. Licensees operating under C-V2X waivers wouldn’t need to change already deployed systems. The order also provides a two-year timeline for sunsetting existing dedicated short range communications technology, the FCC said. Under the rules, geofencing could be used to allow higher equivalent isotopically radiated power limits for on-board C-V2X units, as NTIA proposed. The proposal received broad support in comments just filed at the FCC (see 2407080024). “The evolution of the 5.9 GHz band advances new car safety technologies in an efficient and effective way while also growing our wireless economy,” Rosenworcel said: “This is sound spectrum management at work.” The order was circulated Tuesday, the FCC said. Rules for the band were changed late in 2020, allocating 45 MHz for Wi-Fi and 30 MHz for C-V2X technology (see 2011180043). “This is a very positive development -- and something we’ve been urging the FCC to greenlight for nearly four years,” emailed Hilary Cain, senior vice president-policy at the Alliance for Automotive Innovation. “C-V2X is an exciting safety technology and a perfect example of the sort of spectrum-enabled innovation that’s possible when the FCC and [the] auto industry work together,” she said.

Small wireless carrier Smith Bagley urged the FCC to approve a waiver that Carolina West Wireless sought allowing it to receive supplemental high-cost USF support. Carolina West highlights a problem that many small carriers face, Smith Bagley said. “In many sparsely populated areas, new cell towers deliver high-quality voice and data services, both fixed and mobile, to citizens who are among the last in the nation to receive them,” a filing posted this week in docket 09-51 said: “Small wireless carriers like Carolina West are carrying out the task that the FCC, by way of Congress, seeks to complete -- providing rural citizens with advanced voice and data services that are reasonably comparable to those available in urban areas.”