Government agencies have been willing to be more forthcoming than before on spectrum questions, House Commerce Committee Majority Chief Counsel David Redl said Thursday during a Mobile Future forum (see related story). Redl said he and other committee staffers were tasked by their bosses to meet regularly with NTIA, the FCC and Department of Defense on the AWS-3 band, which is to be cleared of users to be sold to wireless carriers in an auction later this year. “I think we have made significant progress,” he said. “All the agencies have been very responsive to the concerns of Capitol Hill.” Shawn Chang, senior Democratic communications counsel to the House Commerce Committee, also said he’s pleased with the progress made. “We are entering this extremely crucial period,” he said. “We really need the agencies to work together with the industry in providing enough information so that interested bidders can evaluate this spectrum."

AT&T and Verizon aren’t the only carriers complaining about proposed FCC spectrum aggregation rules for the TV incentive auction. U.S. Cellular said the restrictions could end up restricting its rights to bid in some markets, in a meeting with FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler, Chief of Staff Ruth Milkman and others at the agency. “Such a proposal would place U.S. Cellular at a significant disadvantage to at least three of the four national carriers in acquiring the spectrum likely necessary for the deployment of 5G technology in the next decade in its operating markets,” the carrier said (http://bit.ly/1gTXf9v). It said the rules as written would let carriers with less than 44 MHz of low-band spectrum in a market buy unlimited amounts of 600 MHz spectrum, while those with 45 MHz couldn’t buy any.

The Find Me 911 Coalition released a survey it says highlights problems with tracking wireless 911 location accuracy. It submitted to the FCC the results of the survey, which collected responses from 1,014 911 call center managers and dispatchers throughout 50 states and gathered upwards of 200 anecdotes of such struggles, on Thursday (http://bit.ly/1rpSLxX). The coalition said 82 percent of the staffers don’t trust the location data from carriers. They also pointed to the struggle of calls routed to the wrong 911 call center. Nearly all respondents back the FCC going forward with wireless location accuracy standards within two years, the coalition said. The stories the coalition collected focused on the wireless location problems. “We had a caller call in [and] all we could hear was what sounded like a struggle to breath and loud music in the background,” one 911 call center staffer from California said. “He called from his cell phone, however there was no Phase II [location information], only Phase I where it shows only a triangle of area that he could be calling from. ... The subject was eventually found and he had been murdered by having his throat cut.” The FCC and lawmakers have emphasized efforts to improve such accuracy.

T-Mobile US said the FCC Wireless Bureau approved the carrier’s acquisition of Verizon Wireless’s 700 MHz A-block spectrum. The FCC issued its approval as part of a general release Wednesday of license transfer approvals. T-Mobile announced in January that it had reached a deal to buy the long-coveted licenses for $3.3 billion, including the transfer of $950 million worth of AWS and PCS spectrum (CD Jan 7 p1). The Department of Justice approved the application in February. The deal gives T-Mobile low-band spectrum in 21 of the top 30 U.S. markets, including New York, Los Angeles and Washington. The new spectrum covers an area with 158 million potential customers. T-Mobile “is pleased by the FCC’s prompt approval of our acquisition of 700 MHz A-Block spectrum, which will provide the company with low-band spectrum in a number of key markets across the country,” said Kathleen Ham, vice president-federal regulatory affairs, in a statement.

The main area of contention as the FCC takes up a rulemaking on the 3.5 GHz band at Wednesday’s open meeting is likely to be the exclusion zones where the band will not be available for sharing, FCC officials said. The rulemaking offers a much more detailed plan for the band, a testbed of sorts for spectrum sharing and small cells, and would create a new Part 96 to the FCC’s rules (CD April 3 p1). The FCC began its initial rulemaking in December 2012 (CD Dec 13/12 p6) and the exclusion zones in the updated proposal have changed little since then, agency officials said.

The FCC should adopt a “whole network” approach as it revises rules for the E-rate program, PCIA said in comments filed at the agency. “Adopting a whole network approach to E-rate funding will best serve the Commission’s goals to ‘focus E-rate funds on high-capacity broadband, especially high-speed Wi-Fi and internal connections,'” PCIA said (http://bit.ly/1rgcLmA). “A whole network approach enjoys broad support among commenters. Such an approach would eliminate the priority system currently in place for E-rate and give schools and libraries the flexibility to address the most critical areas of need in their networks.”

The FCC’s forthcoming rulemaking on licensing models and technical requirements for the 3.5 GHz band should ask whether the 2007 World Radiocommunication Conference’s (WRC) harmonization for the 3.4-3.6 GHz band should affect licensing terms for the band within the U.S., said Intel Associate General Counsel Peter Pitsch during a meeting last week with Brendan Carr, wireless aide to FCC Commissioner Ajit Pai. The 2007 WRC identified the 3.4-3.6 GHz band for “International Mobile Telecommunications” within much of ITU Region 1 and in eight areas within ITU Region 3, Intel said in an ex parte (http://bit.ly/1he5S2d). The U.S. is included in ITU Region 2.

The FCC is continuing to clamp down on audio equipment makers for violating its digital device rules, most recently, a fine to professional audio supplier Peavey Electronics, said wireless lawyer Mitchell Lazarus of Fletcher Heald in a post on the law firm’s blog Sunday (http://bit.ly/1r9nfEo). “Are there no music lovers at the FCC?” Lazarus asked. “Perhaps not in the Enforcement Bureau, which over the last few years has singled out audio and music companies for large fines relating to the FCC’s digital device rules.” Lazarus doesn’t represent Peavey. He said the lessons to be drawn are clear. “In none of the recent cases had any of the equipment actually been shown to cause interference,” he said. “There are not even allegations that the equipment exceeded the FCC’s technical limits. A few of the cases charged the manufacturer with not properly testing the equipment for compliance. ... In the remaining cases, including Peavey, the only offenses involved missing labels and information in the instruction manuals. But the penalties are still substantial."

Microsoft said it signed a patent licensing agreement with Motorola Solutions that covers Motorola devices on both the Android platform and the Chrome operating systems that use Microsoft patents. “Microsoft prefers licensing to litigation, since licensing is a more effective way to share technology and accelerate the pace of innovation,” said Nick Psyhogeos, associate general counsel-IP licensing for Microsoft’s Innovation and Intellectual Property Group, in a Monday news release (http://bit.ly/1eWEiHM).

Broadcom warned that carrier offload, extended range hot spots and other broadband applications will be precluded unless the FCC provides unlicensed channels of at least 6 MHz with 40 mW maximum power. The “Super Wi-Fi” standard continues to be important to delivering wireless broadband services in the 600 MHz band, and the FCC should preserve white space channels wherever possible, Broadcom said in an ex parte filing in docket 12-1268(http://bit.ly/RFFlBQ). Broadcom also highlighted the standard-setting effort to establish 802.11ac, the standard that expands operations in the 5 GHz band, it said. Establishing an inadequate duplex gap and guard band “would both unnecessarily increase the risk of harmful interference to licensed services and preclude unlicensed broadband services in these frequencies,” it said. The filing recounts meetings with FCC Commissioners Mignon Clyburn, Jessica Rosenworcel, Ajit Pai and Mike O'Rielly, and with staff from Chairman Tom Wheeler’s office.