AT&T said Wednesday it’s expanding fixed wireless 5G trials to business and residential customers in Waco; Kalamazoo, Michigan; and South Bend, Indiana, by year-end. The first trial, in Austin, started in June, said a news release. “Since then, we’ve gained new insights into millimeter wave performance and propagation,” the carrier said. “We’ve also learned more about how things like foliage, building materials, device placement, surrounding environment and weather impact the signal and system in a real-world environment.” The launch of more trials means AT&T could start offering pre-standards 5G next year, AT&T said. It's working with Ericsson, Samsung, Nokia and Intel on the trials.
Changes approved by the FCC to Part 95 personal radio services (PRS) rules in May take effect Sept. 28, said a notice set for Tuesday's Federal Register. The rules cover citizens band radios; walkie-talkies; radio-controlled toy cars, boats and planes; hearing assistance devices; and more sophisticated apparatus including medical implants and personal locator beacons (see 1705180040). The order deleted two rules, requiring the Office of Management and Budget sign off on the resulting modification of the information collections under the Paperwork Reduction Act, the FCC said. “Because subsequent review and consultation with OMB has revealed that there is no existing clearance that will be modified by the deletion of these two rules, OMB review is not necessary,” the notice said. “The same effective date applies to all of the rules in the Report and Order.”
Verizon, Ericsson, Qualcomm Technologies and Federated Wireless said they were the first to demonstrate the successful use of LTE with carrier aggregation in the 3.5 GHz shared band. The demonstration was in an Ericsson lab in Plano, Texas, and offered “end-to-end” Citizens Broadband Radio Service communications “using 2x20 MHz LTE carriers on the CBRS band 48,” said a joint news release. "The use of CBRS spectrum greatly advances our work in emerging spectrum bands,” said Nicola Palmer, Verizon wireless chief network officer.
A group representing Apple, Amazon, AT&T and Comcast wants the FCC to address TV white spaces "as soon as possible" to "provide regulatory certainty" to TVWS operators. TechNet last week wrote all commissioners, in a filing not posted as of Friday afternoon in dockets including 17-183. It said members have been "very active" pursuing rules to successfully use the band; other members include Google and Microsoft, its website said. "The FCC has opened a number of dockets making proposals and adopting rules for how unlicensed technologies can use white spaces and has acknowledged that access to a national footprint of sufficient unlicensed spectrum is needed to drive production of affordable" TVWS technology, TechNet said. It wants three 6 MHz white space channels in every market. Tech companies sought something similar, and NAB had expressed doubts (see 1708230035). “NAB opposes TechNet" because viewers could lose programming, a spokesman replied Friday. "Broadcasters have relinquished more" than half the spectrum allocated to them "in the last two TV auctions," he said: "We’re hopeful that policymakers reject giveaways of spectrum to companies who haven’t participated in either of those auctions, and who would decimate the integrity of the broadcast TV band.”
NAB had a reality check for a coalition of tech companies that filed a letter at the FCC asking the agency to preserve three TV white spaces stations in every U.S. market for “innovative broadband technology.” The Monday letter, by Voices for Innovation, doesn’t mention Microsoft’s proposal to use the TV white spaces (TVWS) spectrum for rural broadband (see 1707110015). NAB tied the letter back to Microsoft in a statement Wednesday. “Using even the most wildly optimistic TVWS database numbers, TVWS advocates just need to connect 33,999,132 more devices to bring broadband Internet to 34 million Americans without access,” NAB said. “Despite sitting on the sidelines for years during the TVWS experiment, Microsoft now demands that the FCC oust television broadcasters and their viewers to pave the way for free spectrum for TVWS advocates. This would jeopardize local broadcast news, programming and lifeline emergency information for millions of Americans.”
The Office of Management and Budget signed off on the final part of rules for the shared 3.5 GHz band, said a notice in the Federal Register Tuesday, when it took effect. But the FCC is looking at a rewrite of parts of the rules, with an NPRM expected in the fall (see 1708010058). Technical work remains, Fletcher Heald wireless lawyer Mitchell Lazarus blogged Wednesday. “Don’t run down to Best Buy quite yet,” he wrote. “The engineers are still working out the kinks. Under development is a so-called Spectrum Access System that will automatically assign frequencies among three priorities of users: incumbents entitled to interference protection; those who pay at auction for priority access; and the rest of us. Getting all this to work right is a major technical challenge."
The American Association of Airport Executives (AAAE) expressed general support for a WiMAX Forum petition for the launch of an NPRM on service rules for the aeronautical mobile airport communications system (AeroMACS). Initial comments were due Friday (see 1707190033). “AeroMACS is an airport surface communications system that will allow for increased volumes of data exchanges at airports around the country,” AAAE said in a filing in docket RM-11793. “As the demand for high-bandwidth, data intensive services and applications continues to grow, the global aviation community has adopted AeroMACS to help meet these needs for airport surface communications.”
Airbus told the FCC it supports a WiMAX Forum petition for launch of an NPRM on service rules for the aeronautical mobile airport communications system (AeroMACS). The Wireless Bureau sought comment in July and initial comments are due Friday (see 1707190033). “The widespread and expeditious deployment of AeroMACS holds the potential to bring significant benefits to airports, airlines, air travelers, and equipment manufacturers,” Airbus said in a filing in RM-11793. “As the demand for high-bandwidth, data intensive services and applications continues to grow, the global aviation community has adopted AeroMACS to help meet these needs for airport surface communications. The FCC has adopted globally harmonized allocations for AeroMACS in the 5 GHz band, but the lack of service rules has hindered the widespread deployment of this service in the United States.”
Fifth-generation wireless will unfold over the next several decades and will be around longer than earlier generations, said Ramjee Prasad, president of the Global Information and Communication Technologies Standardization Forum for India. Prasad spoke Thursday at an IEEE 5G Summit streamed live form India. Every previous generation “lasted only for 10 years,” he said, but “5G will be very different with new technology … many new applications. It will need longer life than 10 years." India is poised to lead the world on wireless technology, he said: “We want to take the leadership. We have the wisdom. We have the talent.” Tom Sebastian, with the Innovation Centre Denmark New Delhi, said Denmark launched an initiative in 2015 with a goal of building 100 smart cities. Sebastian said smart city programs can help municipalities address environmental issues and that can be especially important in countries like India. Bangalore was once known as the garden city of India, with 86 percent tree cover, but that's down to 12 percent today, he said. In the Nordic countries there's significant focus on both tree cover and water management. A smart city program must focus on making cities more “livable,” not just on the technology itself, Sebastian said.
T-Mobile turned on the first part of its 600 MHz LTE network, using spectrum acquired in the TV incentive auction, it said Wednesday in a news release. The initial deployment is in Cheyenne, Wyoming, and uses Nokia equipment, T-Mobile said. “Starting in rural America and other markets where the spectrum is clear of broadcasting today, T-Mobile plans to deploy the new super-spectrum at record-shattering pace -- compressing what would normally be a two-year process from auction to consumer availability into a short six months.” The carrier said it plans to deploy service in the spectrum in Wyoming, northwest Oregon, West Texas, southwest Kansas, the Oklahoma panhandle, western North Dakota, Maine, coastal North Carolina, central Pennsylvania, central Virginia and eastern Washington. It expects to make handsets available for the holiday buying season with 600 MHz chips that can use the new band, a spokesman said. The carrier was the high bidder in the auction, winning 1,525 licenses for $8 billion (see 1704130056).