New Street’s Jonathan Chaplin predicts a $25 billion 3.45 GHz auction. “This assumes Verizon drops out and AT&T, T-Mobile, Dish [Network], and others bid aggressively,” the analyst told investors Monday. “If Verizon bids to win,” a $35 billion auction is possible, he wrote: If T-Mobile drops out, “the auction could fail.” The auction starts Tuesday.
The FCC Office of Engineering and Technology extended through March 31 a waiver of the push notification requirement for fixed and mode II personal/portable TV white space devices, set to have expired Thursday. The original waiver was approved in a 2015 order on Part 15 rules. “This action will ensure that manufacturers may continue to market previously approved white space devices, and that users may continue to operate them,” said a Thursday notice: “The ability of all approved white space devices to satisfy the at-least-once-daily database re-check requirement will ensure that wireless microphones will continue to receive interference protection from white space devices.”
Industry backed an Alarm Industry Communications Committee request to delay AT&T's Feb. 22 3G data termination sunset, in comments posted Tuesday in FCC docket 21-304 (see 2108200021). AICC "clearly demonstrated the harmful impact" of the planned sunset, said the Alliance for Automotive Innovation. The auto industry "has been constrained in its ability to address or mitigate the impact of the 3G sunset," the group said, adding that it supported AICC's proposed Dec. 31, 2022, deadline. The Alcohol Monitoring Systems and AARP backed a 10-month extension. A "global semiconductor chip shortage" has affected the electronic monitoring industry's 4G transition, AMS said. AARP cited "clear linkages" between the COVID-19 pandemic and "the ability of AICC members to successfully complete the 3G transition." An "abrupt, premature, or disorganized shut-down of this key element of wireless connectivity threatens millions of people that rely on 3G," said Public Knowledge, Access Humboldt, the Benton Institute for Broadband & Society, Center for Rural Strategies and New America's Open Technology Institute. The FCC is "well-positioned to serve as an honest broker that can collect and protect information necessary to make an objective evaluation of the obstacles facing the transition," they said. AT&T disagreed, saying alarm companies are "fully capable of replacing 3G radios" used by customers. The chip shortage "has not kept the major alarm companies from ... winning and activating new customers," it said. A delay would "undercut AT&T’s 5G rollout and overall network performance," it said. AT&T will respond to others' comments in replies due Sept. 14, said a spokesperson.
Shure fired back at Microsoft for urging the FCC to reject Shure's petition for reconsideration of amended white spaces rules (see 2108100054). Shure sought recon of the 16-watt effective isotropic radiated power level for mobile white spaces devices and the nationwide scope of the authorization for narrowband devices. “Microsoft opposes Shure’s request on procedural and substantive grounds but fails to present sufficient reasons for the Commission to disregard Shure’s reasonable request for reconsideration,” said a filing posted Friday in docket 20-36. “Shure is concerned that the mitigation and protective measures chosen by the Commission are inappropriate for mobile services because they are designed to address interference from fixed-devices -- a fact that is not in dispute,” Shure said: “The portable and dynamic nature of mobile [white space devices] makes them vastly more difficult to anticipate and plan for compared to fixed devices.”
Representatives of Broadcom, Cisco and Facebook spoke with Office of Engineering and Technology acting Chief Ron Repasi and others from OET about launching the Open Automated Frequency Coordination Software Group for the 6 GHz band (see 2108100022), said a filing posted Friday in docket 18-295.
Microsoft urged the FCC to reject Shure's petition for reconsideration of amended white spaces rules. Shure sought recon of the 16-watt effective isotropic radiated power level for mobile white spaces devices and the nationwide scope of the authorization for narrowband devices. Shure “impermissibly raises arguments and introduces studies for the first time,” Microsoft said in a filing posted Tuesday in docket 20-36. The petition is “substantively flawed because it fails to raise any credible grounds for reconsideration,” the company said: “The Commission’s rules were cautious, well-reasoned, evidence-based, clearly articulated, in line with precedent, and within the scope of the proceeding.”
The Wireless and Public Safety bureaus offered guidance to intelligent transportation system licensees pursuing waivers of FCC rules to operate roadside units using cellular vehicle to everything technology in the top 30 MHz of the 5.9 GHz band. Additional waivers of gear authorization rules are needed “with respect to both roadside units and on-board units,” said Friday's notice in docket 19-138: Certification “must be obtained prior to marketing, sale, or operation of this equipment for use under any waiver authorizing operation of C-V2X-based equipment.”
A recent FCC update on the spectrum screen after the C-band auction could have implications for T-Mobile and Dish Network in the 3.45 GHz auction, New Street’s Jonathan Chaplin told investors Wednesday. “After the 3.45 GHz auction, the amount of spectrum in circulation would increase from 1023 MHz to 1123 MHz and the screen would increase from 350 MHz to 380 MHz,” the analyst said: “T-Mobile, with 354 MHz today, would be allowed to acquire just 26 MHz (on a national average basis), compared to the 40 MHz we think they would want.” One wrinkle is Dish Network has a right to buy 14 MHz of specialized mobile radio spectrum from T-Mobile, he said: If Dish exercises this right, it would clear T-Mobile to buy 40 MHz in the 3.45 GHz band.
NAB representatives urged aides to all FCC commissioners to reject petitions for reconsideration by wireless mic makers on an order terminating docket 15-146 on use of vacant channels in the TV band to provide spectrum for TV white space devices and wireless mics (see 2101080050). The FCC’s “central objective” in seeking comment was “expressly to preserve one television channel for white spaces devices and wireless microphones nationwide, not to create a patchwork quilt of channel availability as Shure and Sennheiser now request,” said a filing posted Wednesday. The companies didn't comment.
Tech companies fired back at Southern Co report from last month, warning of interference from low-power indoor unlicensed devices for electric utility operations in the 6 GHz band (see 2106240075). “We were disappointed to see that, more than a year after the Commission’s unanimous decision to authorize unlicensed low-power indoor devices in the 6 GHz band, Southern continues to focus its efforts on undermining that decision,” the companies said, posted Friday in docket 17-183: “The result of this approach is yet another set of advocacy-driven tests.” Apple, Broadcom, Cisco, Facebook, Google, Hewett Packard Enterprise, Intel, Microsoft and Qualcomm filed. Southern declined comment.