The FCC’s approval of spectrum sharing rules for the 3.5 GHz band is a big step toward flexibility and a new way of looking at spectrum, John Leibovitz, deputy chief of the Wireless Bureau, said in a blog post. In an earlier era of “high-powered analog transmissions, it made sense to put different radio uses on different bands, everywhere in the United States,” he said. But the silos also limited flexibility, he said. “As evidence, one need only look at the innumerable exceptions, footnotes, or other asterisks that have been added to the rules over the years to accommodate uses that do not fit within neat regulatory boxes,” he said. “With the new 3.5 GHz rules, the Commission enables a new model that uses modern technologies -- spectrum sensing, cloud computing, and others -- to break down some of the old categories.” Work remains, including authorizing Spectrum Access System providers and establishing auction procedures for the new priority access licenses, he said. “We expect multi-stakeholder groups to agree on procedures for coordinating use in the band. And, as with any new spectrum band, technology vendors will have to design equipment that meets the technical requirements spelled out in the rules.” The FCC approved an order on the band Friday (see 1504170055).

The FCC released its order on the 3.5 GHz shared spectrum band, approved at last Friday’s open meeting (see 1504170055). “We live in a world of wirelessly connected people, apps, and things,” the Tuesday order said. “The 3.5 GHz Band has physical characteristics that make it particularly well-suited for mobile broadband employing small cell technology. The creation of our new Citizens Broadband Radio Service in this band will therefore add much-needed capacity to meet the ever-increasing demands of wireless innovation.” A further notice asks a battery of questions on how the agency should define the rights of priority access licensees (PALs), allow for a secondary market for PALs and protect fixed satellite service use of the 3650-3700 MHz portion of the band.

While 82.5 percent of homes with school-age children have broadband access, 5 million such households don't, Pew Research Center said in a report released Monday. “Low-income households -- and especially black and Hispanic ones -- make up a disproportionate share of that 5 million,” Pew said. “Roughly one-third (31.4 percent) of households whose incomes fall below $50,000 and with children ages 6 to 17 do not have a high-speed internet connection at home.” FCC Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel flagged the report in a statement released Monday. “There was a time when doing basic schoolwork required no more than a little bit of quiet, a clear workspace, and a pencil,” she said. "No more. Today, 7 in 10 teachers assign homework that requires Internet access. Kids may be connected in the classroom, but if they are disconnected at home getting basic schoolwork done is hard.”

The Wi-Fi Alliance asked the FCC to “maximize” use of the TV spectrum for unlicensed operations as it finalizes rules for the TV incentive auction. The alliance said in a filing the FCC’s record demonstrates broad recognition of the importance of unlicensed spectrum. “Overly conservative requests to protect particular services, beyond what is necessary to reasonably guard against harmful interference, should not defeat the opportunity to create additional critical capacity for unlicensed applications,” the group said. There's disagreement about the protection licensed wireless services require from adjacent unlicensed devices, the group said. “On one side, V-COMM suggests that an out-of-band emission limit of -89 dBm/100 kHz into 600 MHz downlink spectrum and a 5 megahertz buffer is required for white space devices operating at the permitted 40 mW power level,” the alliance said. “These limitations would effectively eliminate the ability for white space devices to use the guard bands and duplex gap.” The filing was posted by the FCC Wednesday in docket 12-268. Also in the docket, representatives of wireless mic maker Shure said the company “reaffirmed” support for the FCC’s proposal to authorize wireless microphone operations in the 600 MHz duplex gap and guard bands, in a meeting with FCC officials. “Shure reemphasized that the duplex gap and guard bands would provide urgently needed spectrum for wireless microphone users given the looming repurposing of the broader 600 MHz Band,” Shure said.

Mitsubishi Electric is demonstrating with Nokia Networks a prototype Active Phased Array Antenna (APAA) to verify new multibeamforming technology for envisioned 5G mobile networks, at the Brooklyn 5G Summit in New York this week. Features of the APAA prototype include four-beam spatial multiplexing achieved in a multi-element antenna, beamforming control of the direction of radio signal transmission and reception for two-dimensional vertical and horizontal scanning and use of 3.5 GHz, the highest frequency available in current cellular mobile communication, Mitsubishi said. Mobile systems based on 5G will use multibeamforming to cope with fast-increasing radio traffic volume, it said. Mitsubishi plans to adapt its APAA technology, currently used commercially in satellites, for use in 5G base stations, it said.

Sennheiser representatives met with Julius Knapp, chief of the FCC Office of Engineering and Technology, and other officials to say wireless mics "and white space devices use different technology and serve different purposes,” said an ex parte filing at the commission. “They should not be regulated identically.” Sennheiser showed its “top-of-the-line Digital 9000 wireless microphone system, demonstrating the technological innovations of the industry and showing how professional wireless microphone operators scan the UHF frequency range and take other steps to find clear spectrum for wireless microphone use,” the company said. The filing was posted by Tuesday in docket 12-268.

AT&T said NAB complaints about problems with TV white spaces databases raise real concerns for AT&T as well. NAB recently filed an emergency petition at the FCC asking the agency to suspend operation of the TV white spaces (TVWS) database system until “serious flaws” are corrected in the system (see 1503190056). “These issues are important,” AT&T Vice President Joan Marsh said in a blog post Thursday. “Policymakers increasingly view spectrum sharing as policed by a database-driven frequency manager as critical to the future of U.S. spectrum policy.” Marsh said the TV white spaces deployment has been slow, but the FCC is promoting spectrum sharing everywhere from the TV band following the upcoming incentive auction to the 3.5 GHz band. “Even in the best circumstances, real time external monitoring and management of a complex interference environment is a tall order,” Marsh said. “But we now learn that database providers have not been able to effectively maintain information on less than 600 TV white space devices. This raises serious questions about the ability of a database to patrol the complexities involved in robust spectrum sharing, including in the 3.5 GHz band.”

U.S. Cellular became the first wireless carrier to offer weBoost signal boosters to its customers, both companies said in a news release Monday. WeBoost is the company formerly called Wilson Electronics. U.S. Cellular plans to offer three models at its stores: Home 4G, which boosts cellular signals in one to two rooms of a household or office; Connect 4G, with enough power to boost signals throughout an entire home or larger workspace; and Connect 4G-X, which boosts signals throughout a larger indoor space.

The recently completed AWS-3 auction demonstrated that licensed spectrum remains valuable, FCC Commissioner Mike O’Rielly said in a blog post Friday. “Although some argue that the future lies only with unlicensed or shared spectrum, this view ignores the fact that our nation’s commercial wireless carriers still seek exclusive spectrum in order to be able to maintain quality of service and network control,” he said. The auction showed the paired spectrum blocks are much more valuable to industry than unpaired spectrum, he said. The auction also showed that location matters. "As expected, the licenses covering the top 30 metropolitan areas, which account for approximately 10 percent of the licenses offered, brought in 79 percent of the overall gross revenues. This is nothing against medium- or small-sized markets, but this fact is important as the Commission looks toward the incentive auction and issues raised by potential market impairments.” The auction also showed that mid-band spectrum remains valuable and highlighted the need for the FCC to address its designated entity rules. Dish Network was able to indirectly buy the second most AWS-3 spectrum of any player in the auction at a discounted price through DEs Northstar and SNR Wireless (see 1501300051). He didn't directly cite Dish. This major company was “able to use this structure to outbid not only small businesses and rural telephone companies, but also some of the country's largest wireless providers,” he said. “If these bidding credits are granted, which I take no position on at the current time, the rules would allow these licenses to be ‘flipped’ to another company after five years without repaying a penny of the subsidy.”

Google officials suggested FCC rule changes that would remove barriers to broadband deployment. The officials met with commission Chairman Tom Wheeler’s senior counselor Philip Verveer and other agency officials March 24, said an ex parte filing posted in docket 07-245 Friday. Existing rules still permit owners of infrastructure including poles, ducts and conduits to delay network build-outs through protracted make-ready timelines and processes, Google officials said in the meeting. The commission should “expeditiously update and clarify its infrastructure access and make-ready rules to streamline deployment processes,” Google said. Representing the company were Kevin Lo, Google Fiber general manager, Johanna Shelton, Google director-public policy and government relations, and Staci Pies, senior policy counsel. Google met with Wheeler aide Gigi Sohn and Matthew DelNero, deputy Wireline Bureau chief. Earlier last week, NCTA said it's “particularly puzzled” by Wheeler’s comments that cable companies are blocking access to utility poles by competitors (see 1503260052).