The FCC on Thursday approved Nokia’s application to begin initial commercial operations as a spectrum access system administrator for the citizens broadband radio service band. Nokia has satisfied the commission’s SAS laboratory testing requirements, a notice from the Wireless Bureau and Office of Engineering and Technology said. Nokia must file at the FCC information on the beginning date of its initial commercial deployment and specific geographic areas covered, the notice said.
Verizon announced Thursday a new offer for its Mobile and Home Internet customers. Customers can subscribe to the Peacock Premium annual plan for $79.99, and get a year of Netflix Premium for free. The announcement comes ahead of Verizon’s release of Q2 earnings Monday.
Boost Mobile prepaid and Boost Infinite postpaid brands will be offered as Boost Mobile, EchoStar announced Wednesday. “Boost Mobile is now the only nationwide carrier with both prepaid and postpaid mobile services under one name because Boost believes how you pay is not a product,” EchoStar said. The company said it’s offering “simplified pricing” with unlimited plans starting at $25 a month, and is “kicking off a nationwide brand and advertising campaign.” EchoStar also offered a 30-day money-back guarantee allowing new customers to try Boost Mobile's 5G network “risk free.” EchoStar owns Dish Network, which obtained Boost Mobile from T-Mobile as part of an agreement with regulators allowing T-Mobile to buy Sprint (see 1911180038).
Comments are due Aug. 19, replies Sept. 3, on a Further NPRM on the voluntary cyber-trust mark program FCC commissioners approved in March (see 2403180046), a notice for Thursday’s Federal Register said. Topics raised in the FNPRM include the format of cybersecurity label administrator (CLA) and lead administrator applications, filing fees for CLA applications, the criteria for selecting CLAs and the lead administrator and CLA sharing of lead administrator expenses. Comments should be filed in docket 23-239.
FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel circulated for a commissioner vote a long-awaited order (see 2404180050) finalizing rules for cellular vehicle-to-everything use of the 5.9 GHz band, the agency said Wednesday. The order wasn’t circulated in anticipation of a vote during the commissioners' Aug. 7 open meeting. Accordingly, the FCC did not release the order's text. The order codifies “C-V2X technical parameters in the Commission’s rules, including power and emission limits and message prioritization,” a news release said. The rules provide flexibility for the auto industry “to use three 10-megahertz channels either separately, in combination as a 20 megahertz channel or as a single … channel” and would “establish prioritization of safety-of-life communications,” the release said. Licensees operating under C-V2X waivers wouldn’t need to change already deployed systems. The order also provides a two-year timeline for sunsetting existing dedicated short range communications technology, the FCC said. Under the rules, geofencing could be used to allow higher equivalent isotopically radiated power limits for on-board C-V2X units, as NTIA proposed. The proposal received broad support in comments just filed at the FCC (see 2407080024). “The evolution of the 5.9 GHz band advances new car safety technologies in an efficient and effective way while also growing our wireless economy,” Rosenworcel said: “This is sound spectrum management at work.” The order was circulated Tuesday, the FCC said. Rules for the band were changed late in 2020, allocating 45 MHz for Wi-Fi and 30 MHz for C-V2X technology (see 2011180043). “This is a very positive development -- and something we’ve been urging the FCC to greenlight for nearly four years,” emailed Hilary Cain, senior vice president-policy at the Alliance for Automotive Innovation. “C-V2X is an exciting safety technology and a perfect example of the sort of spectrum-enabled innovation that’s possible when the FCC and [the] auto industry work together,” she said.
Small wireless carrier Smith Bagley urged the FCC to approve a waiver that Carolina West Wireless sought allowing it to receive supplemental high-cost USF support. Carolina West highlights a problem that many small carriers face, Smith Bagley said. “In many sparsely populated areas, new cell towers deliver high-quality voice and data services, both fixed and mobile, to citizens who are among the last in the nation to receive them,” a filing posted this week in docket 09-51 said: “Small wireless carriers like Carolina West are carrying out the task that the FCC, by way of Congress, seeks to complete -- providing rural citizens with advanced voice and data services that are reasonably comparable to those available in urban areas.”
Verizon has hired advisers as it looks to sell a package of up to 6,000 towers, Bloomberg reported Tuesday, citing unnamed sources. The package could reportedly bring in more than $3 billion. In 2015, Verizon sold the rights to lease and operate 11,000 towers to American Tower for an upfront payment of $5 billion (see 1502050059). The rumored price is too low, New Street’s Philip Burnett told investors: “We suspect this price is based on Verizon and AT&T’s tower sales a decade ago. Based on recent transactions and market [comparisons], we estimate the assets could sell for close to three times the rumored deal value.”
The FCC Wireless Bureau sought comment Tuesday on North East Offshore's request for a waiver of the freeze on nonfederal applications for new or expanded Part 90 operations in the 3100-3550 MHz band (see 1905290011). Comments are due July 31, replies Aug. 21, in docket 24-212. “North East argues that ‘there have been no indications that either the FCC or NTIA is considering reallocating the 3100-3300 MHz band’ and notes that its proposed operations are for a proposed facility more than 40 kilometers” off the U.S. coast, the bureau said.
Samsung Electronics America representatives met with aides to FCC Commissioners Geoffrey Starks and Anna Gomez about the company’s request for a waiver on a 5G base station radio that works across citizens broadband radio service and C-band spectrum (see 2309130041). Samsung “emphasized its dedication to the success of CBRS and 5G, generally,” in the U.S., a filing posted Tuesday in docket 23-93 said. Samsung noted the commission has had the waiver request for more than 700 days.
The 12-month compliance timeline in the FCC's draft next-generation 911 order might be insufficient for smaller providers, according to the Competitive Carriers Association. The order is part of the FCC's July agenda (see 2406260058). In a docket 18-64 filing Monday recapping meetings with the offices of Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel and Commissioner Brendan Carr, CCA said non-nationwide commercial mobile radio service providers should have at least 18 months for each phase of the NG911 transition following a request from a 911 authority, rather than 12 months. It urged the FCC to clarify that it will consider waiver requests from non-nationwide CMRS providers in completing connections. In addition, it asked the FCC to clarify that when a provider falls into two categories for the purposes of compliance time frames, the longer compliance time frame applies.