Howard Buskirk

Anna Gomez, for now, remains head of the U.S. delegation to the World Radicommunication Conference, which starts Nov. 20 in Dubai, while she awaits taking office as an FCC commissioner. But doing both jobs concurrently could be difficult and would require broader agreement among federal agencies. The Senate confirmed Gomez 55-43 Thursday (see 2309070081).

AT&T still has questions about reporting in The Wall Street Journal this summer that warned of health threats from legacy lead-sheathed telecom cable (see 2307210004) owned by AT&T and other carriers, CEO John Stankey said Wednesday at a Goldman Sachs financial conference. AT&T has done its own investigation and come up with different findings, Stankey said. Meanwhile, T-Mobile CEO Mike Sievert said at the conference his company’s buy of Sprint was likely “the most successful merger in telecom history.”

Dish Network got support from public interest groups and the Phoenix Center on its request for an extension, until June 30, to exercise an option to buy 800 MHz licenses from T-Mobile. T-Mobile and parent Deutsche Telekom oppose the extension. Last week, Dish defended its request in a filing at the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia (see 2309010050).

Much remains to be seen on what the mapping challenge process will look like as the broadband, equity, access and deployment program unfolds, speakers said during a Broadband Breakfast webcast Wednesday. The experts agreed the states play a critical role. The states get to propose to NTIA their methodology for determining eligibility for BEAD funding, said Tom Reid of Reid Consulting Group: “To me that’s the big, big issue.”

The Inter-American Telecommunications Commission (CITEL) meeting last week endorsed the U.S. position for the upper 6 GHz band, approving “no change” to allow international mobile telecommunications (IMT) in the band at the upcoming World Radio Communication conference, industry officials said. But a few nations sided with China's position of China, which the U.S. opposes, to approve a future agenda item on the topic at the WRC in 2027.

Dish Network fired back Friday at T-Mobile in their dispute (see 2308280055) over whether the emerging carrier should have until June 30 to exercise an option to buy 800 MHz licenses from T-Mobile. Dish asked for an extension from the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. The option to buy the licenses was part of a web of agreements in T-Mobile’s buy of Sprint (see 2308170065). Dish noted T-Mobile’s dominance among U.S. wireless carriers, with the largest market cap of the big three. “T-Mobile wants the Court to view DISH’s Motion as nothing more than an ordinary commercial dispute,” Dish said: “The Opposition reads as if the Court’s evaluation of this Motion were just an exercise in contract interpretation. But the Opposition’s rhetoric about how contracts ought to be read obfuscates the key principle relevant to the Court’s analysis of the Final Judgment: preserving Competition.” Dish noted that two weeks ago, in agreeing to the spectrum transfer, T-Mobile told the FCC, “The terms of the Final Judgment are designed to facilitate DISH’s entry into the wireless market as a facilities-based provider and ... [t]he 800 MHz spectrum licenses contemplated by this transaction will substantially enhance DISH’s ability to do so.” That admission undermines T-Mobile’s opposition to an extension, Dish said: T-Mobile’s objection “should be seen for what it is: an attempt by the market leader to hinder a nascent competitor, one that has taken on the Herculean task of building a modern nationwide facilities-based wireless network in a period of unprecedented economic turmoil.”

Industry groups and telecom investors raised concerns about FCC overreach in comments on an NPRM asking about changes to rules for Section 214 international authorizations, approved by commissioners 4-0 in April (see 2304200039). The FCC sought comment on rules requiring carriers to renew these authorizations every 10 years and on other potential changes to the authorization process. But Team Telecom urged the FCC to strengthen its rules.

The National Academy of Sciences, through its Committee on Radio Frequencies (CORF), urged the FCC to provide more certainty on radioastronomy service (RAS) use of the 42 GHz band, in response to an NPRM on sharing the band (see 2308310053). The comments were posted Friday in docket 23-158. “As the Commission has recognized throughout … radio astronomy is a vitally important tool used by scientists to study the universe,” CORF said. The commission proposes that RAS observations be protected, but “it does not propose a means for doing so,” the committee said: “At 42 GHz, terrain shielding can provide effective protection to an RAS observatory. However, this shielding is highly dependent on the details of the surrounding topography and the nature of a prospective active service deployment. Thus … coordination requires the use of terrain elevation data combined with an irregular terrain propagation model.” In another filing, Qualcomm said its long-standing proposal for licensed sharing in the 37 GHz band (see 2104280038) could also work in 42 GHz. “Qualcomm’s technology-based sensing proposal enables licensed sharing of the entire band in the same location, at the same time, and on the same exact frequencies, by taking advantage of synchronized access, energy measurements, and the highly directional nature of millimeter wave communications,” the company said. The Wireless ISP Association opposed the Qualcomm model, which was mentioned in the 42 GHz NPRM. “The approach Qualcomm offers would require users to shut down for a given period of time, deploy sensing capability to detect other transmitters, and then transmit only where there would be no predicted harmful interference,” WISPA said: “It would be difficult, if not impossible, for licensees to build a business model under this narrow approach when consumers need real-time access to connectivity.”

The FCC released a draft Further NPRM on the long-awaited 5G Fund Thursday, with commissioners scheduled to vote Sept. 21 (see 2308300062). Also on the agenda is a Space Bureau “transparency initiative,” with the bureau giving more guidance at initial application stages. Per the draft order and accompanying Further NPRM, the streamlining proposal is to be the first in a series of intended improvements to the Space Bureau. Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel also is seeking a vote on an additional action targeting VoIP robocalls.

Wireless carriers don't have much apparent interest in the 42 GHz band, to judge from comments posted Thursday in response to a June NPRM on potential sharing in the 42 GHz band. New America’s Open Technology Institute and Public Knowledge were enthusiastic about the possibilities. Comments were due Wednesday in docket 23-158.