Advocates of reallocating the 12 GHz band for 5G are putting on a full-court press for FCC action as early as the February commission meeting. 5Gfor12GHz Coalition members said in interviews their strongest argument is that other than 2.5 GHz, nearly ready for auction, and 3.1-3.45, being looked at for reallocation, no other candidate bands are available for the “spectrum pipeline.” Proponents say action will likely have to wait for Senate confirmation action on FCC nominees and for the Office of Engineering and Technology to wrap up engineering work.

Wireless investors have big concerns, starting with risk of “more spectrum coming to the market too soon,” New Street’s Blair Levin wrote investors. “The wireless industry will, within a short time, have spent well over $100 billion" in two auctions to buy licenses, he said this weekend: “They now must spend tens of billions more to deploy networks to take advantage of that spectrum. As a practical political matter, they always argue that they need more spectrum. As a practical economic matter, they don’t want any new big auctions for several years, at the earliest.” Another concern is DOD “controlling the spectrum process and keeping spectrum from coming to market for too long (and when it arrives, having the spectrum come through a shared, rather than exclusive, framework)," he said: Investors fear that concerns over C-band interference with altimeters, an issue being raised by the FAA (see 2110290065), “may delay 5G services.”

Charter Communications will launch a field trial early next year that pairs its Wi-Fi service with citizens broadband radio service (CBRS) band small cells for mobile subscribers, letting it offload wireless traffic that otherwise would be on Verizon's network through the companies' mobile virtual network operator (MVNO) agreement. The test will involve thousands of pole-mounted small cellsites in an unnamed designated market area, CEO Tom Rutledge said Friday as the company announced Q3 results. Charter bought 210 licenses in 106 counties in the 2020 CBRS auction. Rutledge said Wi-Fi with CBRS has "an opportunity to make a significant change" in how much traffic is on Charter's network vs. using the MVNO.

Department of Commerce hires J.D. Grom, ex-New Democrat Coalition, as senior adviser-legislative affairs for Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo ... Center for Strategic and International Studies adds Remco Zwetsloot, who remains a research fellow at Georgetown University’s Center for Security and Emerging Technology until December, to immediately be CSIS International Security Program trustee fellow, working on the U.S. technology workforce, research security, and tech competition with China.

FCC Commissioner Nathan Simington warned of a spectrum crisis looming, in some of his most complete remarks yet on wireless, in a speech at the Mobile World Congress in Los Angeles. The 5G revolution “risks being stillborn,” he said, per written remarks posted Thursday: The crunch “is not, as some would have it, merely an inconvenience to certain narrow business interests. … It would be a tragedy if we were to squander this historic opportunity over lack of vision regarding mid-band spectrum.” Simington wants better federal coordination, echoing a theme of now-Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel. “Better coordination, and stronger relationships among federal agencies, will ensure that agency efforts to identify mid-band spectrum for commercial use are harmoniously aligned and urgently pursued -- not conflicted and half-hearted,” he said. The success of the C-band auction shows the appetite for exclusive-use spectrum, Simington said. “Operators want to engineer at high power and for exclusive use, and manufacturers want to build equipment to operate likewise.” He said the U.S. should take the lead on spectrum harmonization at ITU. “We can't win 5G on our own; we need to win it together with our friends and allies by creating the best technology for the world market,” he said: “The time has passed in which America could look inward.”

Incumbent informing capability, a new and sophisticated sharing technology that makes use of AI and machine learning, is a major NTIA focus, but the agency doesn’t have the congressional funding it needs to put IIC in place, experts told us. IIC would be the next generation of sharing, a more sophisticated version of what's being done in the citizens broadband radio service, replacing the environmental sensing capability (ESC) used in that band.

Collecting regulatory fees from tech companies and users of unlicensed spectrum would be a huge task, outside FCC authority, and hamper broadband adoption, said trade associations and others in comments posted to docket 21-190 by Thursday’s deadline. Comments about establishing a small satellite regulatory fee also had multiple calls in the commercial space sector for creating new fee categories for other types of space operations.

5G smartphone adoption has grown about twice as fast as 4G, with about 25% of Verizon’s customer base now having 5G-capable devices, CEO Hans Vestberg said Wednesday. Postpaid growth continued, but Vestberg warned of growing competitive pressures in wireless. Executives declined to comment on their spectrum strategy or holdings with the 3.45 GHz auction underway. AT&T reports Q3 results Thursday.

Getting “stability” and clear political leadership at the FCC tops Google’s regulatory wish list, Michael Purdy, senior counsel-commercial, product and policy, said during an FCBA wireless webinar Tuesday. “Hopefully, that will resolve by year-end.” The U.S. needs “some consistency in 5G policy,” he said. All the speakers said U.S. leadership on 5G must remain a top goal. The Biden administration hasn't named a permanent chair at the FCC or nominated Democrats to fill two commissioner slots.

The Biden administration is looking past 5G to 6G, said Evelyn Remaley, NTIA acting administrator, at the Americas Spectrum Management Conference Wednesday. She's “very optimistic” about opening the 3.1-3.45 GHz band for 5G and sees industry support for developing a national spectrum strategy. Others cited the importance of the C-band and issues that must be addressed after the record-setting auction.