The 2023 World Radiocommunication Conference “has been a clear success for U.S. interests," U.S. delegation head Steve Lang, State Department deputy assistant secretary-international information and communications policy, told reporters Friday, minutes after the four-week U.N. event concluded. He said the U.S. delegation "achieved many important objectives," including further harmonization of 5G spectrum across the Americas with an international mobile telecommunications (IMT) identification in the 3.3-3.4 and 3.6-3.8 GHz bands in Region 2. That creates 500 MHz of contiguous spectrum in the 3 GHz band for 5G, Lang said.

Federated Wireless filed a report at the FCC on public tests of its 6 GHz automated frequency coordination (AFC) system. As was the case with Qualcomm (see 2312070062), Federated said most challenges came from the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) and AT&T Labs. Federated “received 16 challenges from AT&T and the FCC that resulted in modifications to the Federated Wireless AFC system,” said the report filed Thursday in docket 21-352. Another 12 challenges involved a buffer area along the Canadian border, which were also resolved, the company said. The EPRI challenges “relate to the implementation of the propagation models specified in FCC Part 15 for different distances” and addressing them would require changes to FCC rules, Federated said.

Qualcomm submitted to the FCC Thursday a report on public tests of its 6 GHz automated frequency coordination (AFC) system, which it earlier announced would start in August (see 2308300018). Only the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) and AT&T Labs filed challenges, Qualcomm said. “Qualcomm was unable to replicate EPRI’s calculations” and differences are tied to test methodologies, the report said: “Out of 214 test vectors submitted, AT&T Labs only challenged 40 test vectors. For each test vector challenged, AT&T provided comparison results as figures and eventually provided detailed logs from their models, which were helpful for understanding and resolving the mismatches. AT&T engineers worked with Qualcomm to determine the source of the mismatches.”

The U.S. delegation to the World Radiocommunication Conference in Dubai has been quiet two weeks into the long-awaited conference. Steve Lang, the State Department official who replaced now-Commissioner Anna Gomez as delegation head, will not hold a news conference until after the WRC concludes Dec. 15, a spokesperson confirmed.

Federated Wireless Chief Technology Officer Kurt Schaubach and other company executives met with FCC Office of Engineering and Technology staff on the future of the 6 GHz band, said a filing posted Thursday in docket 18-295. Federated discussed how an automated frequency coordination system “could be leveraged to protect licensed incumbent services, while enabling and expediting access by Standard Power unlicensed devices to the U-NII 6 and U-NII 8 bands and providing additional power and flexibility for Very Low Power unlicensed devices to the U-NII-5 through U-NII-8 bands,” the filing said. Federated is testing its AFC system as it moves toward full operation (see 2310060025).

Republican condemnation of the FCC’s actions since it shifted to a Democratic majority in late September -- and Democrats’ defense of the commission’s recent record -- dominated a Thursday House Communications Subcommittee hearing on agency oversight, as expected (see 2311290001). The hearing’s slightly rancorous tone signaled a return to more overtly partisan oversight, in contrast to relatively more bipartisan discussion when FCC commissioners testified in front of the subpanel in June, while the commission was still tied 2-2 (see 2306210076).

With the World Radiocommunication Conference starting Monday in Dubai, FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr and former Chairman Ajit Pai questioned how well the U.S. is positioned to score wins. They spoke during an American Enterprise Institute webinar Friday. Pai was chairman during the previous WRC four years ago.

PCTEL Wednesday unveiled a new embedded antenna platform for integrated radio deployments. “PCTEL’s embedded antennas help device manufacturers to overcome space limitations and meet aesthetic requirements without sacrificing performance,” the company said: The platform “consists of compact low-profile design solutions that provide wide coverage patterns in the 2.4 GHz, 5 GHz and 6 GHz frequency bands. They are easy to install and integrate into tight spaces.”

The U.S. is handicapped headed into the World Radiocommunication Conference next week since it proposes only two bands for future studies, 3.1-3.3 and 13 GHz, while China has positions on all five bands proposed for study for international mobile telecommunications, FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr and other speakers said during an Atlantic Council webinar Wednesday. The WRC starts Monday in Dubai. Among the bands targeted by China for IMT is 6 GHz, where the U.S. is promoting an agreement supporting unlicensed use of the band (see 2310270047).

Europe won't back mobile identification in the upper part of the 6 GHz band (6425-7125 MHz) unless five conditions are met, the46-member European Conference of Postal and Telecommunications Administrations (CEPT) said in its European Common Position (ECP) for the 2023 World Radiocommunication Conference (WRC-23). Debate on the band will be intense and complicated and two other agenda items (AIs) are also likely to prove tricky, telecom consultants said. The conference runs Nov. 20-Dec.15 in Dubai.