Results of the 3.45 GHz auction are likely to be made public as early as this week, New Street’s Philip Burnett told investors Monday. Burnett said the consensus seems to be that AT&T spent $9 billion, T-Mobile $6 billion, Dish Network $5 billion and Verizon just over $2 billion. That could be wrong, with Verizon more likely to have taken a pass, he said. “Our conviction that Verizon sat out isn’t especially high, but we’d note that Verizon” management has gone “to serious lengths to point out the deficiencies in 3.45 GHz … when compared to C-Band, which they described as a ‘clean’ band of spectrum,” he said: “We also believe that the equipment initially deployed to towers by Verizon for C-Band isn’t compatible with 3.45 GHz spectrum.”

The FCC and Wi-Fi advocates notched a win in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit Tuesday, which upheld the agency’s April 2020 order reallocating the 6 GHz band for unlicensed use. The court remanded part of the order for more explanation. Judge Justin Walker, a new member of the court, had warned the order could be remanded or even vacated, and the FCC faced tough questions during oral argument in September (see 2109170057).

Seek more information and ask more questions of the 14 companies or organizations seeking FCC certification to become automated frequency coordination (AFC) system operators in the 6 GHz band (see 2112010002), asked the Fixed Wireless Communications Coalition and other incumbents in comments posted Wednesday in docket 21-352. “Protecting incumbent 6 GHz users remains critically important, and the Commission must demand that AFC operators meet rigorous standards to ensure licensees’ protection,” the coalition said: “At least one FWCC member has already experienced harmful interference to a licensed 6 GHz link from an unlicensed device.” The Utilities Technology Council and Edison Electric Institute raised similar concerns. None of the applicants “sufficiently demonstrate that they will fully comply with the Commission’s rules and all lack necessary technical detail for the Commission or affected incumbent operators to be certain that they will properly function and protect primary licensees from harmful interference,” the groups said. Applicants offer “differing explanations for how they will respond to reports of harmful interference,” with some suggesting “they will only be responsive to reports from the Commission,” APCO warned: “Public safety agencies should not be expected to report interference to individual AFC operators. Even if the particular device causing interference can be identified, incumbents are not likely to know which AFC operator is controlling the device.” AT&T said “the vast majority of the AFC System applications only superficially describe their compliance with the requirements of the 6 GHz Report and Order, and therefore fail to provide assurances that primary … incumbents will be protected.” Stakeholders haven't "identified consensus parameters for the propagation models that will assess unlicensed 6 GHz transmissions, in particular the confidence level, and only one of 13 AFC system applicants revealed the confidence level its system applies,” Verizon said. Apple, Broadcom, Cisco, Google, Hewlett Packard Enterprise, Intel, Microsoft, Meta and Qualcomm encouraged the FCC to act. “Articulate a decisional framework for processing the applications … with a goal of completing the review and authorization of commercial operations of AFCs and Standard Power devices in 2022,” the tech players said: “The relative simplicity of the AFC sharing mechanism compared to those in other bands should make FCC review and approval straightforward.” That 14 entities submitted proposals to operate AFC systems “evidences the utility of AFC-controlled standard power devices in the 6 GHz band,” the Wi-Fi Alliance said.

The FCC is unlikely to finalize pending orders on broader use of the 6 GHz band until after the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit rules on a challenge to the 2020 order opening the band, experts told us. The FCC wrapped up a comment cycle on a Further NPRM in July 2020 (see 2007280033). This year, the agency sought comment on whether to allow client-to-client operations in the spectrum (see 2103240065). Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel has said only that the commission is working on the item.

Representatives of the Utilities Technology Council, Edison Electric Institute, APCO and others told an aide to FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr they would like the agency to stop certifying low-power indoor (LPI) devices in 6 GHz and seek new rules for the band (see 2112080058). “Adopting new rules for 6 GHz LPI devices and granting a stay of certification of all 6 GHz LPI devices is procedurally appropriate and in the public interest,” said a filing posted Monday in docket 18-295.

Representatives of the Utilities Technology Council, Edison Electric Institute, APCO and others spoke with aides to FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel on their request that the agency stop certifying low-power indoor (LPI) devices in 6 GHz and seek new rules for the band (see 2112080058). They “requested that the Commission immediately grant the Request for Stay and expeditiously adopt a rulemaking to develop new rules for 6 GHz LPI devices, establish a cost recovery mechanism to reimburse the costs incurred by licensed microwave incumbents to mitigate and resolve interference from unlicensed operations in the band,” said a filing posted Thursday in docket 18-295. They also sought “independent testing to consider the extent to which new rules for standard power access devices should be developed."

The Enterprise Wireless Alliance urged the FCC to stay further certification of low-power indoor (LPI) devices in the 6 GHz band, as sought by the Utilities Technology Council and others (see 2112080058), until it fully evaluates Southern Co. interference field tests. “EWA has no reason to challenge the FCC’s decisions in this proceeding other than a profound concern about the interference potential of unlicensed LPI operations in the 6 GHz band under the current rules, a concern that has been greatly increased in light of the Southern Test Report,” said a filing posted Thursday in docket 18-295. EWA said it represents “numerous utilities, transportation providers, oil and gas companies, manufacturers, private wireless operators, and other enterprise users that depend heavily on 6 GHz microwave networks to manage their operations.”

The Fixed Wireless Communications Coalition urged the FCC to reject a November request to consider using Part 101 frequency coordination procedures as an alternative to automated frequency coordination. “Because Encina’s Letter is not clear regarding what it seeks and does not meet the requirements for a petition for rulemaking or a waiver of the rules, the Commission should dismiss the Letter at this time,” the coalition said in a filing posted Wednesday in docket 18-295.

The Wi-Fi Alliance, NCTA and others urged the FCC to reject a request that it stop certifying low-power indoor (LPI) devices in the 6 GHz band, sought by the Utilities Technology Council and others (see 2112080058). Utilities supported the stay, citing the results of recent field tests by Southern Co.

The U.S. is “in great shape” on 5G competition internationally, FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr told a Media Institute virtual event Thursday. He said the agency's approach over the past five or six years of freeing up spectrum and lowering infrastructure barriers has been a proven success. He waved off former Google Executive Chairman CEO Eric Schmidt's repeated warnings of the U.S. lagging behind other nations such as China as "the Chicken Little of 5G leadership." Google didn't comment. Carr said more should be done in spectrum availability and infrastructure reform, citing completion of the 2.5 GHz auction and authorizing very low power use in the 6 GHz band as goals. Asked about 6G planning, Carr said the U.S. could start contemplating issues like the terahertz spectrum it might require, but the U.S. has "got to tend to our knitting" with 5G foremost. Asked about the likelihood of a resumption of net neutrality rules, he said it's "largely baked in" that the agency will at least debate a return to Communications Act Title II rules, though he was dismissive. "It's such an old debate of the past," he said, saying regulatory focus shouldn't be on ISPs but on edge provider behavior. He said if rate regulation were taken off the table, it would be relatively easy to find consensus about net neutrality rules for blocking and throttling. He said there could be a route for Communications Decency Act Section 230 changes that puts an affirmative anti-discrimination requirement on platforms while remaining consistent with the First Amendment. He said the Supreme Court's rulings on the First Amendment, when put on a continuum, include an opening for regulating tech companies' actions as a speech conduit while not implicating the First Amendment. Asked whether the FCC's 2018 broadcast ownership quadrennial review is likely to get done in 2022, Carr said there "is some precedent" for rolling it over: "These may start to run together a little bit."