The Wi-Fi Alliance said the FCC “should move quickly” on rules allowing unlicensed use of the 6 GHz band. The alliance and others “have demonstrated that there is both an urgent need for spectrum to support Wi-Fi and that low power indoor or very low power devices do not pose a risk of harmful interference while standard-power transmissions can be controlled by an automatic frequency coordination system,” the alliance said in docket 18-295, posted Wednesday. The group downplayed AT&T concerns. “AT&T continues to challenge the public-interest benefit the Commission's proposals will produce, while ignoring the overwhelming evidence in this proceeding, distorting facts, contravening basic economic principles and making unfounded technical assumptions,” the alliance said. AT&T didn't comment. Gregory Bryant, general manager of Intel’s Client Computing Group, backed action on 6 GHz, in a call with FCC Chairman Ajit Pai. Bryant “stressed the importance, for the continued success of Wi-Fi, that the Commission expeditiously open the full 6 GHz band including spectrum for low power indoor use,” said a filing.

Proposed expanded use of ultra-wideband (UWB) spectrum (see 1906190032) raises questions about whether the government will do the same kind of rigorous, multiyear testing of the proposal and its possible effects on GPS that was done for Ligado's proposed broadband terrestrial low-power service, the Resilient Navigation and Timing Foundation blogged Tuesday. RNTF said it's not clear the FCC has the resources to do such testing, or views such testing as the agency's responsibility. It said GPS would face the same interference concerns as when the issue was last considered nearly 20 years ago and the agency put restrictions on UWB, but the FCC's drive to make more spectrum available commercially is growing. The agency didn't comment Wednesday.

The FTC 5-0 approved final orders settling claims five companies violated the Consumer Review Fairness Act by including in form contracts provisions that prohibit customers from posting negative reviews online. A Waldron HVAC, National Floors Direct, LVTR, Shore to Please Vacations and Staffordshire Property Management, are barred from using such provisions in the future and must notify customers who signed such contracts. Shore to Please was also ordered to dismiss a private lawsuit “in which the company alleged that a renter violated its non-disparagement agreement,” the FTC said. Attorneys for the companies didn’t comment Friday.

The FTC’s “Nixing the Fix” half-day workshop July 16 about manufacturer restrictions on third-party repairs of consumer products will feature three panels heavily stacked with right-to-repair advocates, but no individual tech companies, according to a final agenda released at the agency Tuesday. Walter Alcorn, CTA vice president-environmental affairs and industry sustainability, will appear on a panel on the impact of self-repair restrictions on consumers and small businesses. CTA, along with other tech groups, has lobbied for years against state right-to-repair laws, saying they wrongly impose government regulation on the relationship between OEMs and equipment repair facilities (see 1704090001). Alcorn will share the panel with Vibrant Technologies CEO Jennifer Larson, whose firm refurbishes and resells used information technology equipment. Larson is a supporter of right-to-repair legislation in her native Minnesota because she argues the large tech firms are trying to put organizations like hers out of business through measures that include limiting free-market access to replacement parts. Another panelist, Theresa McDonough, who owns Tech Medic, an independent repair shop in Middlebury, Vermont, argued on a Vermont Public Radio podcast last year that all the big tech companies are “guilty” of building planned obsolescence and limited repairability into their products, making it difficult for operations like hers to survive. "The older-generation iPads, if you needed a new charging port, they had a pop connector, you could easily change them out,” she said. “But with some of the newer generations, they solder them in. I get that there are some technological advances that require soldering, but things like charging ports don’t need the micro-soldering.” Apple didn’t comment Wednesday. Other workshop panels will feature state legislators who have sponsored or backed right-to-repair bills, plus the Repair Association advocacy group and iFixit, one of its key board members. The FTC has said the workshop will examine whether manufacturer repair restrictions can undercut consumer protections in the 1975 Magnuson-Moss Warranty Act, which it’s charged with enforcing. The commission will accept written comments through Sept. 16 in the Nixing the Fix docket but has been silent on what actions it might take on the public input it receives.

Comments are due June 3, replies June 17, on an FCC NPRM on updating a rule for over-the-air reception devices (OTARDs), primarily sought by wireless ISPs, said Thursday's Federal Register. Commissioners approved the NPRM 5-0 last month. “The Commission’s previous decision to limit the applicability of the OTARD rule reflected the infrastructure needs of a previous generation of wireless technologies that relied on larger antennas spread over greater distances to provide service to consumers,” the notice said: “The wireless infrastructure landscape has since shifted toward the development of 5G networks and technologies that require dense deployment of smaller antennas across provider networks in locations closer to customers.” Local governments may oppose the rule change.