Railroads face a growing need for spectrum in light of requests from the National Transportation Safety Board and Federal Railroad Administration but have had difficulty identifying additional spectrum to use, the Association of American Railroads said in a meeting with FCC Wireless Bureau Chief Joel Taubenblatt and staff. AAR explained “the railroads’ current use of spectrum in the 160-161 MHz, 219.5-222 MHz, 450 MHz, 900 MHz, and 6 GHz bands,” a filing posted Thursday in docket 24-99 said. The group discussed “how the railroads continue to improve their technology and use their existing spectrum more efficiently.”

Aides to Senate Commerce Committee supporters of the Spectrum and National Security Act (S-4207) say revisions that the Commerce Department and military leaders endorsed Tuesday night will sway enough Republicans to ease the bill's path forward in the chamber. Senators told us much will depend on the language in a new substitute version of S-4207 that was still under development Wednesday afternoon. The bill would restore the FCC’s spectrum auction authority for five years, allocate $7 billion to the expired affordable connectivity program during FY 2024 and fully pay for the Secure and Trusted Communications Networks Reimbursement Program.

The work that industry and government are doing addressing “clutter analysis” and dynamic sharing is critical to the future of wireless, Shiva Goel, NTIA senior spectrum adviser, said at an International Symposium on Advanced Radio Technologies (ISART) conference on Tuesday. Goel said the government, working with industry, is making progress. The Denver conference's main focus this week is on propagation models that account for the impact of clutter, including foliage and buildings, on wireless signals.

Congressional leaders haven't reached a consensus on how to resurrect the FCC's expired affordable connectivity program. In interviews this week, lawmakers pointed to a range of options, including an expected third attempt at a Senate Commerce Committee markup next week (see [2405310070]) of the Spectrum and National Security Act (S-4207). The FCC formally shuttered ACP Friday after supporters on Capitol Hill failed numerous times at allocating stopgap funding (see 2403280001).

The FCC Office of Engineering and Technology on Monday approved a request from Broadcom, Wi-Fi Alliance Services and the Wireless Broadband Alliance to modify their open automated frequency coordination (AFC) code, which determines available power spectral density for 6 GHz standard power devices. The three sought the change in March (see 2404150050). OET acknowledged the Fixed Wireless Communications Coalition's concerns (see 2404150050). FWCC argues that a complete report detailing the proposed changes would “ensure transparency and without said report, incumbent licensees and other interested parties cannot fully consider an AFC’s proposed changes,” OET said: “Given that the modifications were minor corrections, and OET’s internal analysis found no discrepancies, we find that additional testing is not needed.”

The U.S. is reaching an inflection point where some bands will be available only for sharing, said Derek Khlopin, deputy associate administrator-spectrum planning and policy in the NTIA Office of Spectrum Management. During an RCR Wireless private networks forum Tuesday, Khlopin said the national spectrum strategy discusses spectrum dynamic sharing many times, and that’s not a surprise. Khlopin, who is coordinating NTIA’s work on the strategy (see 2405060051), said, “I don’t think we really have a choice."

APCO representatives met with aides to the FCC commissioners, except Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel, on the public safety group's top issues. Among the topics was the 6 GHz band, said a filing posted Tuesday in 18-295 and other dockets. “APCO remains concerned that the expansion of unlicensed devices in the 6 GHz band presents a substantial threat of interference to public safety,” it said: “Real-world testing has raised doubts over the technical assumptions underlying the Commission’s decision to open the band.” APCO also remains concerned about wireless 911 location accuracy. “Further Commission action is needed to improve the transparency and reliability of testing to evaluate location technologies and to provide stronger requirements for carriers to deploy methods, several of which are feasible today, to derive dispatchable location,” APCO said.

The House is set to vote as soon as Tuesday night on a revised version of the NTIA Reauthorization Act (HR-4510) under suspension of the rules, the office of Majority Leader Steve Scalise, R-La., said Friday night. The House Commerce Committee-cleared measure would elevate the NTIA administrator from assistant secretary to undersecretary of Commerce. It also proposes other steps aimed at improving coordination of federal spectrum (see 2307270063). Chamber leaders pulled HR-4510 from consideration in early March amid objections from leaders of the House Armed Services Committee over the fight between NTIA and DOD about allowing 5G use of the 3.1-3.45 GHz band (see 2403060062). In addition, the House will consider the Senate-passed FAA Reauthorization Act (HR-3935) amid questions about whether backers of additional funding for the FCC’s affordable connectivity program and Secure and Trusted Communications Networks Reimbursement Program will attempt to attach money for those initiatives to it. Senate Communications Subcommittee Chairman Ben Ray Lujan, D-N.M., and other senators unsuccessfully sought an amendment aimed at including $6 billion for ACP and $3.08 billion for rip and replace in HR-3935 (see 2405100046).

Backers of stopgap funding for the FCC’s ailing affordable connectivity program and Secure and Trusted Communications Networks Reimbursement Program believe they made progress last week toward their goal of firming up the initiatives even as a bid attaching funds to the FAA reauthorization legislation appeared all but dead. Senate Communications Subcommittee Chairman Ben Ray Lujan, D-N.M., emerged from the chamber Thursday night touting commitments from leaders to move forward on allocating the proposed money even as the body voted 88-4 to pass the FAA Reauthorization Act (HR-3935) without funding language he and others sought (see 2405070083).

Broadcom, Wi-Fi Alliance Services and the Wireless Broadband Alliance offered the FCC an update on changes to power spectral density rules for automated frequency coordination systems in the 6 GHz band, which the three proposed in March (see 2404150050). The filing, posted Tuesday in docket 21-352, asks the Office of Engineering and Technology to “promptly approve the proposed code modification for our systems so that they can continue to perform as the Commission anticipated while accounting more accurately for the permitted PSD levels.”