Lycamobile USA, which opposed T-Mobile’s proposed buy of Mint Mobile and other assets from Ka’ena, met with FCC officials about the buyer's alleged anticompetitive behavior. Among those who met with representatives of Lycamobile was Wireless Bureau Chief Joel Taubenblatt. Many details of the complaint were redacted from a filing, made Friday in docket 23-171. “The totality of T-Mobile’s conduct points to an attempt to lessen competition” in the mobile virtual network operator “space,” Lycamobile said: The “ultimate consequence is less competitive discipline on market participants, leading to higher prices and/or lower quality for consumers.” Lycamobile has been in a business dispute with T-Mobile (see 2404180023). T-Mobile didn't comment Monday.

Viaero Wireless asked the FCC for a six-month extension of the July 27 deadline to remove, replace and dispose Chinese equipment from its network. “As a small, rural operation, we lack the financial resources to complete the project with Congress having provided only 40% of the funds needed to complete the project,” said a filing posted Monday in docket 18-89.

Ericsson will make an additional $50 million investment in its USA 5G Smart Factory in Lewisville, Texas, the company said Monday. Ericsson said it has already invested $100 million. The factory “ensures we are working closely to secure fast and agile deliveries to meet US customer requirements, and it has been exciting to see the growth and innovation of our state-of-the-art facility in just a few short years,” said Yossi Cohen, president of Ericsson North America. Ericsson is accelerating production of advanced massive multiple-input and multiple-output radios and its radio access network compute platform, “all proudly made in the USA,” he said.

Bentina Terry, new president-CEO of Southern Linc, and other company representatives completed a round of meetings with FCC commissioners, speaking with Commissioner Nathan Simington and an aide to Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel, according to a filing posted last week in various dockets. They earlier spoke with the other commissioners to discuss utilities' needs for secure communications (see 2405100015).

A new Government Accountability Office report highlights reauthorization of the FirstNet network as offering financial benefits. “Congress should consider reauthorizing FirstNet, including different options for its placement, and ensure key statutory and contract responsibilities are addressed before current authorities sunset in 2027,” said GAO’s annual report, released last week. The report cited potential benefits from FirstNet of $15 billion over 15 years.

Incompas supports the FCC’s proposed 5G Fund but agrees with others who argue the agency should wait on making awards until after funding is released for the broadband access, equity and deployment program, a filing posted Friday in docket 20-32 said. FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel circulated an order on the fund in March (see 2403200071). Allowing NTIA to complete the BEAD allocation “will give the Commission a better understanding of where gaps in wireless 5G service exist and will help ensure that funding efforts are not duplicated and that USF funding will reach the areas where there is still a funding need,” Incompas said.

Ted Miller, co-founder and former CEO of Crown Castle, sent an open letter to Crown Castle shareholders Friday urging them to elect a revised slate of board members. CEO Jay Brown stepped down in January after Elliott Investment Management called for "significant changes" in Crown Castle's executive and board leadership (see 2311280062). Last month, Crown Castle named Steven Moskowitz, a former American Tower executive, president and CEO (see 2404120051). Now at Boots Capital Management, Miller said hiring Moskowitz wasn’t enough. “The last few weeks have exposed us to the candid feedback and insights of Crown Castle's largest shareholders,” he said: “We heard repeatedly an overwhelming concern and frustration with the Company's performance, slipshod governance, and lack of strategic planning.” Agreeing to sell fiber and naming Moskowitz were “worthy moves,” but shareholders “are telling us they want Boots to help drive the necessary changes by replacing decades-old directors responsible for this quagmire and once again focusing Crown Castle on the operations of its core tower business,” Miller said. Shareholders vote Wednesday. The company urged shareholders to vote for management's nominees. Miller “is attempting to replace four of the Company’s highly qualified nominees with his own nominees, whose skill sets and perspectives are not additive and do not reflect current industry dynamics and the competitive ecosystem,” Crown Castle said in a statement. Boots Capital's nominees are Miller, tower veteran Chuck Green, Tripp Rice and David Wheeler, all of whom have ties to Miller. They would replace broad members Ari Fitzgerald, Cindy Christy, Rob Bartolo and Kevin Kabat.

The FCC Wireless Bureau sought comment Friday on a GeoLinks request that it be allowed to give up some local multipoint distribution service (LMDS) licenses in return for others from the commission’s inventory. GeoLinks proposes to use federal funding to serve some 47,000 locations across Arizona, California and Nevada that now lack access to high-speed broadband. The request involves 51 LMDS licenses that GeoLinks holds -- nine A-block and 42 B-block. Under GeoLinks’ proposal, 32 of the licenses would be modified, and 19 relinquished. “GeoLinks’ current LMDS holdings and the Commission’s unassigned LMDS licenses in inventory are both geographically scattered across the country, which has given rise to a fragmented band map that is underdeveloped, difficult to fully utilize, and less attractive to potential market entrants,” GeoLinks said in a March filing. GeoLinks said it would give up more licenses, markets and MHz-POPs than it would receive but consolidate license blocks “gaining contiguous markets that will result in more efficient and economic deployment targeted to rural and underserved areas in GeoLinks’ core service areas.” Comments are due June 17, replies July 2, in docket 24-150.

NTIA is looking at how lidar data can be used for dynamic spectrum sharing, a Friday blog post said. NTIA’s Institute for Telecommunication Sciences recently held a technical seminar to share best practices for using lidar data in spectrum modeling, NTIA said. “By measuring the time it takes for a laser pulse to return to its sending point, a lidar system measures and records the shapes and heights of buildings, trees, and other surface features to create a very precise three-dimensional model of an environment,” the blog post said: “Spectrum sharing relies on these propagation models to predict signal strength between two points, such as a cell phone and a government system like an air traffic control radar.”

Keysight Technologies asked for a waiver allowing it to market cellular vehicle-to-everything technology in the 5.9 GHz band, pending final rules for the band. It wants to market technology for roadside and onboard units “serving the public interest by enhancing roadway safety,” said a filing Friday in docket 19-138. Keysight said it’s designing C-V2X products through a German subsidiary at a plant there. “There is good cause to grant the waiver requested here, as doing so is both in the public interest given benefits of the technology and in line with prior decisions allowing operations under waiver of the same rules,” Keysight said.