Wireless Infrastructure Association President Patrick Halley Thursday called for Congress to fund an extension of the affordable connectivity program, which is set to expire. Rural networks are expensive to operate and maintain, Halley said: "Losing this broadband subsidy program will force families to make hard choices and will likely lead to many losing connectivity altogether. ... This is not a good result for our country.”
A Better Business Bureau National Advertising Review Board panel recommended Thursday that Mint Mobile change some of its ads and promotions in response to a Verizon complaint. In ads for Mint’s $15 monthly promotional plan for unlimited service, “it failed to consistently, clearly and conspicuously disclose that consumers are required to prepay the entire $45 for three months of service,” the panel found. Moreover, Mint should discontinue a claim “that it ‘cut out the cost of retail service and passed those sweet savings directly to you’ because it did not provide evidence demonstrating that it ‘passes along’ any cost savings to consumers,” the panel said. It found fault with some of Mint’s claims on social media against Verizon. Mint said it would comply with the panel’s recommendations, "although it disagrees with the panel’s recommendation regarding certain social media ... claims," the release said.
The FCC Wireless Bureau Wednesday rejected a request by the North Shore Emergency Association (see 2401290030) to extend by two months the deadlines to comment on a request from Garmin International (see 2310060031) for a waiver of rules concerning certification of the hand-held general mobile radio service (GMRS) devices it manufactures. Comments remain due Feb. 12, replies Feb. 27 (see 2401120031). The group “has not shown that an extension is warranted,” the bureau said.
Google asked the FCC for an emergency waiver of rules requiring environmental sensing capability systems to protect federal incumbent users in the citizens broadband radio service band as storms sweep through parts of California. Operations in one dynamic protection area (DPA) lost commercial power while another “suffered physical damage” due to high winds, Google said. In another DPA, the power provider “is currently unable to provide an estimated time for restoration of commercial power,” said a filing posted Wednesday in docket 15-319.
T-Mobile is adding perks and T Life, an app for managing them, the carrier said Wednesday as it unveiled “Magenta Status.” Rolling out next week, the perks include discounted movie and show tickets, Hilton hotel deals and the ability to return electric cars to Hertz and gas cars to Dollar without needing to recharge/refill them. “Where T-Mobile Tuesdays was built for thanking customers, Magenta Status was created to give them the next-level treatment they deserve … like the VIPs they are,” T-Mobile said.
Dish Network Chairman Charlie Ergen and others from the company met with all FCC commissioners, except Anna Gomez, for discussions focused mostly on spectrum, said a filing posted Wednesday in 20-443 and other dockets. The executives urged that the commission “unleash 500 MHz of spectrum in the 12.2-12.7 GHz band for fixed 5G broadband services,” Dish said: “Substantial evidence in the record shows that fixed 5G services can provide broadband to tens of millions of Americans, while fully protecting existing non-geostationary orbit Fixed-Satellite Service and Direct Broadcast Satellite customers.” In addition, the executives discussed the need for a modernized spectrum screen, a proposed 5G Fund and “the benefits of proposals to maximize the efficiency” of the citizens broadband radio service, among other issues.
The FCC updated a notice on deadlines for responses to a CTIA petition seeking a 12-month extension (see 2401090026) to the FCC's current six-month deadline for carriers to implement rules protecting consumers from SIM swapping and port-out fraud. Intended for Thursday’s Federal Register, the notice adds a date for replies to oppositions -- Feb. 23. Oppositions are due Feb. 13 (see 2401260054).
ATIS warned that proposed enhancements to the wireless emergency alert system could take years to implement. The FCC’s Communications Security, Reliability and Interoperability Council issued a report last year about the enhancements (see 2303210069). Implementation of dedicated audio attention signals or vibrations for some emergencies, such as earthquakes, would require “36-54 months in total,” said a filing posted Tuesday in docket 15-91. ATIS said the timeline would require six months “for high-level design,” 18-24 months “for completion of specification work” and another 12-24 months “for development, testing (individual components), integration testing and deployment.” ATIS laid out similar timelines for other proposed enhancements.
The FCC Office of Engineering and Technology is seeking comment by March 7 on a request by Axon Enterprise for a waiver of FCC rules to market three investigation and surveillance devices to law enforcement agencies. Replies are due March 22 in docket 24-40. “Axon states that to meet law enforcement’s need for continuous and reliable video feeds, the devices must use analog signal modulation” but need to operate at power levels higher than allowed for the 5725-5850 MHz band, OET said Tuesday. The devices, a drone, a ground vehicle and a pole-mounted camera, “are intended to provide law enforcement with real-time information in dangerous situations and to reduce safety risks,” OET said.
Verizon and Ericsson completed a trial of advanced low-latency, low-loss, scalable throughput (L4S) capabilities designed to optimize Verizon’s 5G network “for more robust solutions,” including interactive video, remote control of industrial processes and augmented and virtual reality, Verizon said Tuesday. “While the first wave of 5G saw massive network infrastructure deployments, increased 5G adoption, and rapid ecosystem building, the second wave of the 5G era will be characterized by widespread innovation built on speed, massive capacity, low latency, security and reliability,” said Adam Koeppe, Verizon senior vice president-network and technology planning. The L4S trial was conducted at an Ericsson lab in Santa Clara, California, testing an extended reality (XR) application using an XR virtual reality headset over Ericsson’s 5G stand-alone core and using Verizon’s C-band spectrum, Verizon said.