The FCC approved a complicated deal in which Sprint affiliate Shentel will acquire Sprint wholesale partner nTelos Wireless and spin off some of its assets to Sprint, including spectrum. In return, Sprint agreed to pay Shentel up to $252 million over five to six years. The FCC ordered Sprint to sell off some of the spectrum in markets in Virginia. The companies unveiled the deal in August (see 1508100063). The order was handed down Friday by the chiefs of the Wireless and International bureaus.

The World Radiocommuncation Conference (WRC) that meets in 2019 in Geneva will take on very different issues than the last WRC, which was in November. The future use of the UHF band for mobile broadband isn't expected to come back as a topic, government officials said Thursday during an FCBA brown bag lunch. Top issues from the U.S. perspective in 2019 will include mobile broadband in bands above 6 GHz, global aeronautical distress and safety services, and the 5 GHz band, said Julie Zoller of the State Department, deputy head of the U.S. delegation to WRC-15.

“Expeditious action" is needed by the FCC on 28 GHz, 37 GHz, 39 GHz and 64-71 GHz in the form of proceedings that would help the 5G transition, Nokia said in an ex parte filing Monday in docket 14-177 on a meeting between Nokia executives and Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel. The company previously advocated that the FCC could better facilitate 5G by considering bands below 6 GHz and in the 6-24 GHz range. Nokia said now that 5G requires both millimeter wave bandwidth and low- and mid-band spectrum, and the FCC should also act on 3.5 GHz and "consider that band as [the] 150 MHz centerpiece for an extremely valuable swatch of spectrum from 3.1 GHz to 4.2 GHz, all of which should be studied for mobile broadband." Also, Nokia said, given the infrastructure such as small cells that will be needed for 5G, the FCC "should consider the need for wireless backhaul when studying new bands for mobile broadband" and act to lower regulatory burdens for deploying such infrastructure. "Ubiquitous 5G coverage will be impracticable under the current local government and commercial frameworks that stifle, rather than embrace, wireless infrastructure deployment," Nokia said. The company said the agency should reform its experimental licensing process to foster more and longer experimentation across multiple bands.

The FCC should adopt flexible service rules to encourage the use of the 28 GHz and 39 GHz bands for 5G, said 4G Americas in comments filed in response to the commission’s spectrum frontiers NPRM (see 1510220057). Initial comments were due at the FCC Tuesday and numerous filings were posted by the FCC Wednesday in docket 14-177.

Despite reluctance in much of the rest of the world, the U.S. plans to plow ahead on making spectrum available for 5G "in a timely manner," FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler said Thursday. That the World Radiocommunication Conference-15 said it would look at bands above 6 GHz for 5G but not the 28 GHz band (see 1510230050) -- which had been an FCC priority -- "will not slow the activity in this country," Wheeler said as the commissioners heard a report on WRC-15, which wrapped up last month. Minus 28 GHz, the bands identified by WRC-19 and the bands part of the FCC spectrum frontiers NPRM have significant overlap, said International Bureau Chief Mindel De La Torre. Spectrum frontiers likely will be complete by WRC-19, she said. Identifying global allocations of spectrum is increasingly difficult, De La Torre said. Regional allocations "might be more realistic," she said: WRC footnotes denoting the policy of one or a small collection of nations are increasingly common.

HP asked the FCC to extend the June 2 deadline for when all U-NII-3 equipment imported to or marketed in the U.S. must be compliant with rules on power levels and emission limits for the 5.725-5.85 GHz U-NII-3 band. HP said it supports arguments by Intel last month that the FCC shouldn't require compliance with the rules until six months after it acts on petitions for reconsideration on out-of-band emission limits in the band. “HP Inc. must have time to receive and test compliant updated or new wireless devices and integrate them into production,” the company said in a filing Thursday in docket 13-49. “HP Inc. is concerned there will not be enough time between the publication of the new rules and the June 2nd 2016 date to obtain, test and implement the compliant wireless devices into our products without impacting delivery to consumers and businesses.” Intel asked for a delay in a Nov. 6 filing. “The continuing uncertainty regarding the OOBE [out-of-band emission] limits that will apply to the U-NII-3 band in just 8 months is proving highly problematic to Intel given the high volume of IEEE 802.11 products it produces each month and the fact that Intel’s customer base for that product largely consists of OEMs who incorporate Intel product into their own devices,” Intel said.

Half of the World Radiocommunication Conference-19 agenda is made up of items suggested by the Inter-American Telecommunication Commission (CITEL), including proposals on use of bands below 6 GHz for international mobile telecom (IMT) and bandwidth for high-altitude platform stations, said Julie Zoller, deputy head of the U.S. delegation to WRC-15. The tentative WRC-19 agenda -- still to be finalized by the ITU Council -- also includes CITEL-sponsored proposals on spectrum needs for a global aeronautical distress and safety system, 5 GHz radio local area networks, development of regulations for non-nongeostationary orbit fixed satellite service (FSS) systems in the V-band, a possible allocation of Earth exploration-satellite service in the 460-470 MHz band, and orbital position limits rules, Zoller said. She spoke Tuesday at the U.S. ITU Association (USITUA) annual meeting.

NTIA outlined its preliminary responses to recent recommendations of its Commerce Spectrum Management Advisory Committee, at a CSMAC meeting Wednesday. Sparking the most discussion among members were efforts to develop “quantitative assessments” of spectrum usage and to conduct an ”enforcement” case study. The committee heard from subcommittees working to make new recommendations in May in response to NTIA questions, including on federal access to nonfederal bands (bidirectional sharing), 5G, and possibly extending U.S. spectrum databases internationally. Meeting documents are on an NTIA web page.

Sprint said it's taking on T-Mobile and the other major carriers, offering what it bills as “the biggest wireless offer” in U.S. history. Sprint unveiled a rate plan Wednesday, giving new subscribers who switch from AT&T, T-Mobile or Verizon rates that are half those offered by its competitors.

Draft spectrum legislation from Senate Commerce Committee Chairman John Thune, R-S.D., may have originated without Democratic involvement, but wireless observers told us the provisions likely warrant little pushback. They see a balanced bill that includes bipartisan ideas on freeing up more spectrum beyond what's in the recent budget deal and other deployment measures, such as timeliness of federal and local authorities in siting. Also in the draft is a provision that would allow federal agencies to recoup money from spectrum they give up to auction -- up to 25 percent -- and, as expected (see 1511040047), the dig once proposal.