Itron petitioned the FCC Wireless Bureau to reconsider its denial of the company’s requests for waivers from Sections 22.355, 22.515, and 22.531 of FCC rules -- co-channel protection requirements and effective radiated power (ERP) rules for its operations on the 931 MHz band. Waivers of the co-channel protection requirements are necessary for Itron to “engage in half-duplex transmissions to facilitate transmissions both to and from Itron’s meter module end points,” the company said Thursday in docket 13-195. The ERP waiver is necessary to permit Itron to operate fixed and mobile stations with an ERP of less than 2 watts to be subject to a frequency tolerance of 5 ppm rather than 1.5 ppm, the company said. The waivers would allow Itron to support automatic meter reading and advanced metering infrastructure systems that are “key components of modern smart grid infrastructure,” the company said. The Wireless Bureau denied Itron’s waiver request Jan. 13 because it said Itron hadn’t adequately explained how its proposed operations would protect co-channel site-based incumbents and co-channel geographic area licensees. Itron clarified in the petition how its proposed operations would protect incumbents and co-channel geographic area licensees.
Establishing an air-ground mobile broadband service could affect secondary service on irregular fixed-service satellite (FSS) operations, including satellite launches, said the Satellite Industry Association in an ex parte notice Thursday in FCC RM-11640. Temporary FSS operations are done under special temporary authorizations, SIA said. The commission should note in a report or order the importance of protecting temporary FSS operations and new satellite constellations from interference from secondary users, SIA said. Earlier this month, the FCC removed from circulation a draft order on establishing an ATG service over national security concerns (see 1502120054).
The FCC intends to recharter the Communications Security, Reliability and Interoperability Council (CSRIC) for a fifth two-year term (CSRIC V) when the council’s current term (CSRIC IV) ends March 18. CSRIC V may tackle 911 service, emergency alerts, mobile device security, national security communications resilience, and VoIP and broadband security, the FCC said Thursday. Nominations for CSRIC V are due March 31, the FCC said. CSRIC IV is to consider several final reports from its working groups at its March 18 meeting, including one from Working Group 4 on recommendations for communications sector cybersecurity best practices adapted in part from the National Institute of Standards and Technology’s Cybersecurity Framework.
There are “some limitations” to the FCC’s agreement with major U.S. wireless carriers to let customers switch networks on their mobile devices, Sherwin Siy, Public Knowledge vice president-legal affairs, said in a news release Wednesday. Those carriers kept a commitment to adopt policies within a year allowing customers to switch networks while keeping their existing devices, two FCC officials said in a Wednesday blog post (see 1502110050 and 1502120028). Consumers are still barred from unlocking their mobile phones, which was the “original source of concern,” Siy said. The Unlocking Consumer Choice and Wireless Competition Act, which allows such unlocking, is “only effective for a short period of time,” he said. Siy noted PK’s recent comments to the Copyright Office seeking to allow unlocking exemptions under Digital Millennium Copyright Act Section 1201 (see 1502110062). PK hopes Congress will “ensure that such a change can be made permanently, and settle the matter once and for all," Siy said.
CTIA urged the FCC to ensure a new open Internet framework won’t hinder differentiated offerings and choices that mobile consumers currently have. The market currently relies on Communications Act Title I classification, and Title II with forbearance isn’t an appropriate framework for mobile wireless broadband, the association said in an ex parte notice filed Wednesday in docket 10-127. The commission can ensure stability and investment in the mobile broadband market with Section 706, it said. Section 332 keeps the commission from treating mobile broadband services as common carriers, it said. The filing included a white paper describing the importance of competition in an open Internet and the consumer benefits of a competitive mobile wireless industry.
Despite FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler’s pledge that the draft net neutrality order wouldn't regulate rates, it preserves the agency’s ability to do that by not forbearing from Communications Act Section 201, NCTA President Michael Powell wrote in a blog post Wednesday. “The Commission can convert its promises into reality quite simply by forbearing at least in part from section 201(b)’s authority to regulate charges,” Powell wrote. “If the FCC means what it says and is not intent on regulating rates … they need to take the bullets out of the proverbial gun.” The agency has said mobile has been under Title II and hasn't been subject to rate regulation. While Wheeler is pledging not to require carriers to file proposed rates with the commission for approval, “anyone will be permitted to file complaints about rates and the Commission will decide if those rates are ‘reasonable’ under their section 201 authority,” Powell wrote. “If they believe they are not [reasonable], then they will declare the rate ‘illegal.’ That is regulating rates no matter how you cut it and it is insincere to suggest otherwise.” Forty-three municipal broadband providers meanwhile urged the FCC in a joint letter posted in docket 14-28 Wednesday not to reclassify broadband. As smaller providers, they “do not have an incentive to harm the openness of the Internet, the ISPs said. Customers would switch to competitors if they were to engage in any business practices that interfere with their Internet experience, the filing said. None of the providers has “the market power to compel payments for unblocking, non-discriminatory treatment or paid prioritization services” because they “serve too few Internet subscribers to matter to edge providers such as Netflix, Amazon or Hulu,” the filing said.
The FCC Wireless Bureau designated the American Society for Health Care Engineering of the American Hospital Association (ASHE/AHA) to be frequency coordinator for Medical Body Area Network (MBAN) operations in the 2360-2390 MHz band. Use of the MBAN will let doctors wirelessly monitor and log data from patients with chronic diseases. The only other applicant was the Enterprise Wireless Alliance, the bureau said Wednesday in its order. While both groups are qualified, the bureau cited ASHE/AHA’s experience as the coordinator for the wireless medical telemetry service, where it maintains and operates a database that includes registration data for more than 9,000 WMTS systems located in more than 3,400 hospitals. “Health care facilities will be better served by having a single point of contact for WMTS and MBAN coordination, given the similar purposes of the two services,” the bureau said. It also cited the hospital association’s “institutional knowledge of the health care industry in general, and its familiarity with the medical telemetry user community in particular.” The bureau noted that the group will work with Comsearch as a consultant. The MBAN order was years in the making and was approved in May 2012 (see 1205250045).
Comcast's highly confidential documents refute its claims that it and Time Warner Cable wouldn't be in competition if the companies don't merge, Dish Network said in a heavily redacted filing in docket 14-57 posted Wednesday. The evidence in the documents establishes “unequivocally” that the deal is “a horizontal merger,” Dish said, by showing that Comcast was considering creating an out-of-footprint online video offering. Dish’s filing is so heavily redacted under confidentiality orders that the evidence it refers to is largely incomprehensible. “Such a service would benefit consumers in TWC territories and in areas served by other cable operators,” Dish said. “If the merger is consummated, the competitive benefits of Comcast’s potential entry will be lost." Comcast’s documents also show that NBCUniversal programming creates "a further incentive towards” foreclosure against other online video distributor offerings, Dish said. Comcast didn’t comment.
Gogo urged the FCC to allow for at least three licensees in the proposed air-ground mobile broadband service (AGMBS) band, said an ex parte filing on various meetings at the agency in docket 13-114. Dividing the 500 MHz band three or more ways would still give each licensee sufficient capacity to offer “robust service,” Gogo said. It urged the agency to adopt a five-year substantial service requirement “or, in the alternative, a seven-year requirement with an interim construction benchmark” as part of the rules. Gogo said it would comply with all applicable rules and directives from law enforcement on air safety. “Technical complexity, physical constraints and cost” mean most aircraft would be able to offer service from only one provider, Gogo conceded. “Nonetheless, AGMBS providers likely would compete on a periodic basis for contracts to provide service to those aircraft, and offering at least three 14 GHz licenses for auction -- with an aggregation limit of 250 MHz -- would help ensure a competitive inflight communications market.”
Various industry groups and Globalstar met with FCC officials to discuss Globalstar’s proposed terrestrial low-power service (TLPS) and its potential effect on adjacent unlicensed operations in the 2.4 GHz band, a filing in docket 13-213 said. The Bluetooth Special Interest Group, NCTA, Wi-Fi Alliance and Wireless Internet Service Providers Association attended the meeting. Some expressed concerns about potential interference to unlicensed operations, the filing said. “Globalstar’s representatives stated their view that TLPS will have little to no impact on these unlicensed operations, and noted that Globalstar is currently deploying TLPS on an experimental basis.”