FCC Chairman Ajit Pai is considering an item addressing the 2.5 GHz band for the June 6 commissioners’ meeting, industry officials said Monday. The agency should hold off further action on the band until a full record is established on the educational broadband service (EBS), the Schools, Health & Libraries Broadband Coalition and others said Monday in a letter to the commission.

Home builders care about Wi-Fi “because home buyers want connected homes,” representatives of Leading Builders of America said in a meeting with Chief Julius Knapp and others from the FCC Office of Engineering and Technology. The focus was the 6 GHz band, which the agency is examining allocating for unlicensed use, said the group, which earlier commented (see 1902150030) in docket 18-295. “Just as granite countertops went from optional to standard due to demand, the same thing is happening to wifi-enabled homes,” the group said Friday.

NTIA highlighted work to make open the 3.5 GHz citizens broadband radio service band, and wrapped up lab tests of spectrum access system vendors this week. It said the Institute for Telecommunication Sciences turns "to crafting test reports with a target of providing them to the vendors in June for their submission to the FCC.” This week, working with NTIA, the FCC cleared environmental sensing capability providers (see 1904300208). “These milestones give momentum to development of the 3.5 GHz band, which affords an excellent mix of capacity and coverage capabilities, defining characteristics of mid-band spectrum,” NTIA said Wednesday. Its Office of Spectrum Management and ITS worked together, the agency said: “From shrinking exclusion zones into smaller protection zones to designing the concept of dynamic protection areas to assisting the FCC in certifying the components of the spectrum sharing mechanism, it has been a long, complex process, but the light at the end of the tunnel is getting brighter.” Each radar detector had "to see thousands of low-power radar pulses successfully," blogged ITS Director Keith Gremban. "Detectors also had to keep functioning in the presence of high-power radar pulses that were equivalent to what you would see if you were just 6 miles from a radar transmitting a billion watts.”

FCC Chairman Ajit Pai thanked DOD for cooperation in developing rules for sharing in the upper 37 GHz band, approved by commissioners this month despite concerns by Commissioners Mike O’Rielly, Jessica Rosenworcel and Geoffrey Starks (see 1904120058). The rules clear the way for the 37, 39 and 47 GHz auction, to start Dec. 10. Pai spoke Tuesday at a National Spectrum Consortium event in Arlington, Virginia. “The issues here are quite complex, and I appreciate [DOD’s] working in good faith to reach a mutually agreeable resolution,” Pai said. “Reaching a compromise that worked for both sides wasn’t easy, but it was well worth it. And I hope that those efforts will serve as a model for future collaboration between the FCC and federal agencies. ... We recognized that at the end of the day, we are all on the same team working towards the same goal: advancing the national interest of the United States.” Pai said the FCC is focused on making more mid-band spectrum available for 5G. “We have ongoing rulemakings to free up spectrum in the 2.5 GHz, 3.7 GHz, 4.9 GHz, and 6 GHz bands, an upcoming auction in the 3.5 GHz band, and ongoing work with our federal partners to share the 3.1 GHz, 3.45 GHz, and 5.9 GHz bands,” he said.

The C-Band Alliance’s proposed 36-month transition process for making spectrum available for 5G doesn’t move quickly enough, Ericsson told the FCC in a Monday filing in docket 18-122. “The future of 5G will be severely impacted by a failure to release large swaths of the C-band and 6 GHz as exclusive-use licensed spectrum,” the company said. “Because the CBA approach does not make nearly enough mid-band spectrum available for 5G and proposes to release the spectrum in a manner that could fragment the C-band, we are not in favor of the proposal.” The alliance agrees "with Ericsson that clearing spectrum quickly is the most important factor when creating a path to 5G for the U.S.,” a CBA spokesperson emailed. “As our filings indicate, in order to clear the 200 MHz proposed by our plan, yet continue to serve every one of our television and radio customers, we will need to procure eight satellites. Repositioning virtually every television channel in the U.S. -- safely and without signal interference -- to the remaining portion of the band will take time.” CBA has committed to doing all that within 18 to 36 months of a final FCC order, clearing 80 MHz of spectrum within 18 months, “far earlier than the alternatives,” the representative said.

Chairman Henry Samueli and other Broadcom executives met Monday with FCC Chairman Ajit Pai on the company’s “enthusiastic support” for the proposed framework for opening the 6 GHz band for unlicensed use. “An FCC decision to open the full 6 GHz band to unlicensed technologies is critical to accelerating deployment of 5G services in the U.S. and extending 5G’s reach beyond urban cores and into rural areas,” says a filing to come in docket 18-295. “Adjust the proposed framework in certain limited, but important, ways in order for the 6 GHz band to support all the benefits of Wi-Fi 6, and support 5G services in the near term. In particular, they emphasized the need for rules that allow low-power indoor operations throughout the band, and the importance of very-low-power portable operations.” The agency is examining Wi-Fi and other unlicensed use of the band (see 1903190050).

Apple representatives said the FCC shouldn’t adopt rules for the 6 GHz band that would put users’ privacy at risk. Technical rules in an NPRM “will robustly protect incumbents, making privacy-intrusive device-identification requirements unnecessary,” the company said in docket 18-295, posted Thursday. “Successful rules for the 6 GHz band will support innovative consumer products, including portable and mobile devices, in addition to access points.” Apple met with aides to all commissioners, except Chairman Ajit Pai. The agency is examining Wi-Fi and other unlicensed use of the band (see 1903190050).

Ericsson urged the FCC to repurpose the 6.425-7.125 GHz band for flexible-use licensed service and the 7.125-8.5 GHz band for fixed commercial use, in a meeting with an aide to Commissioner Mike O’Rielly. There's "no large swath of mid-band spectrum available for licensed, macro 5G service in the U.S.,” Ericsson said in docket 17-183, posted Wednesday. “To lead in 5G, the U.S. needs to identify more mid-band spectrum -- and soon -- as other countries are moving forward quickly to seize the 5G mantle.”

AT&T, Verizon and Comsearch officials met with Chief Julius Knapp and others from the Office of Engineering and Technology to urge the FCC to focus in its 6 GHz proceeding on protecting incumbents. “Licensed incumbent operators in the 6 GHz band are entitled to at least the same protections that the Commission has afforded to licensed incumbents in other bands,” they filed Tuesday in docket 18-295. “The FCC should not permit unlicensed use in the 6 GHz band without requiring rigorous technical analyses and adopting robust protections for licensed incumbent operations.” The agency appears committed to moving forward with unlicensed in 6 GHz, and licensed in the C band, and must decide on such issues as whether to allow use of the band indoors without automated frequency control (see 1902250054). AFC is key to ensuring incumbents are protected, the companies said.

FCC Media Bureau promotes Holly Saurer to deputy bureau chief, announces Paul Jackson, ex-House Commerce Committee, rejoins commission as associate bureau chief ... Colorado Office of Information Technology’s Broadband Office names Teresa Ferguson, from Colorado Public Utilities Commission, broadband program manager ... Freeform appoints Lauren Corrao, ex-Tornante TV, executive vice president-original programming and development ... CBS names Jose Andino, ex-Mediapro US, to the newly created senior vice president-human resources, CBS News ... E.W. Scripps hires Jim Doty, ex-WJAC-TV, Johnstown, Pennsylvania, as vice president and general manager-director of sales at KERO-TV, Bakersfield, California.