The American Consumer Institute (ACI) questioned whether the FCC has legal authority to impose handset unlocking rules on carriers, as proposed in an NPRM that commissioners approved 5-0 in July (see 2407180037). “The FCC relies on dubious legal authority to justify unsupported economic assertions, which threaten to undermine the pro-competitive consumer benefits the Commission seeks to achieve,” said a filing posted Monday in docket 24-186. “Instead of empirically validating its claims with a cost-benefit analysis about pro-competitive market conditions from the rule, it simply asserts its conclusions as fact and then works backward from preordained outcomes to justify its decision,” ACI said.

The Association of Public-Safety Communications Officials warned that dispatchable location of wireless calls to 911 may not happen. APCO representatives met with an aide to FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel. “The promise of dispatchable location has substantially faded since it was heralded by the industry and identified as the gold standard for public safety” in an FCC order “nearly 10 years ago,” said a filing last week in docket 07-114. “While wireless carriers may be delivering dispatchable locations for a small number of wireless 9-1-1 calls, the methods being used and whether/how any testing has been conducted are unknown,” APCO said. There is also “a lack of uniformity among the reports produced by the carriers, which makes it difficult to compare and evaluate their efforts.”

The FCC Enforcement Bureau reminded amateur radio service and personal radio services licensees on Monday that the commission prohibits using radios to commit or facilitate crimes. “The Bureau recognizes that these services can be used for a wide range of permitted and socially beneficial purposes, including emergency communications and speech that is protected under the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution,” the notice said. However, those using radio services for criminal purposes "may be subject to severe penalties, including significant fines, seizure of the offending equipment, and, in some cases, criminal prosecution."

The Competitive Carriers Association raised concerns about a Georgia Institute of Technology third-party mobile speed test app in the FCC’s broadband data collection mobile challenge process. The FCC’s Broadband Data Task Force and Office of Engineering and Technology sought comment on the app in September and replies were due Friday (see 2409170010). “CCA is concerned that allowing additional speed test apps alone will not solve the underlying issues that are undermining a vigorous and user-friendly challenge process as called for in the Broadband DATA Act and that are plaguing the Commission’s mobile availability maps,” said a filing posted Monday in docket 24-2. “The Commission must address these issues before it can expect CellWatch, the FCC Mobile Speed Test app, or future third-party apps to meaningfully contribute to the mobile challenge process,” CCA said.

The C-band relocation payment clearinghouse is in the final phase of its claims review, following the July 1 deadline for claims submission, it said in a docket 18-122 filing posted Monday. As of Sept. 30, it had finished reviewing all lump sum claims, all surrogate claims and most non-lump sum claims from earth station operators, as well as almost all claims from satellite operators, it said. Cumulatively through Sept. 30, it had received 4,518 claims with a total dollar value of $3.55 billion, and it's moving to its next phase: reconciliation of satellite operators' claims. The clearinghouse said after that, it will start final operations, including the final accounting and audit, with the expectation it ceases operations by June.

Industry groups repeated in reply comments their earlier arguments that addressing tribal issues shouldn’t slow the awarding of funds through the $9 billion 5G Fund that FCC commissioners approved in August (see 2410180036). Replies were posted on Monday in docket 20-32. Commissioner Brendan Carr dissented on the 5G Fund item, which included a Further NPRM on tribal issues (see 2408290022). Tribes and their associations have stressed the importance of collaboration with tribal governments (see 2410170045). The record shows “that any 5G Fund Tribal consent requirements need to account for the time and uncertainties involved in obtaining Tribal consent,” CTIA said. The commission “should also consider whether Tribal entities’ consent may be presumed after a certain period of good-faith efforts by the 5G Fund applicant,” the group said: “In no event, … should a winning bidder be placed in default or otherwise subject to penalties if the winning bidder demonstrates good-faith efforts to obtain consent in accordance with the rules.” The Rural Wireless Association said the rules should mirror the tribal land bidding credit framework used in other FCC programs. “Obtaining Tribal consent during the long-form application process can be unduly burdensome,” RWA said: “It is also unnecessary for the Tribal consent to be obtained prior to the filing of the long-form application as such consent can still be obtained and provided to the FCC before funding is received."

NextNav countered a recent International Bridge, Tunnel and Turnpike Association (IBTTA) study on the interference risk of the company’s proposal to reconfigure the 902-928 MHz band “to enable a high-quality, terrestrial complement” to GPS for positioning, navigation and timing (PNT) services (see 2404160043). IBTTA’s assertion “that the 5G base stations NextNav’s proposal contemplates will operate at more than 600 times the power level of current operations is accurate only if one disregards the limits of base station equipment, commercial incentives, and urban power limits, and then assumes operations at the extreme outer limits of the Commission’s rules for rural areas,” said a filing posted Friday in docket 24-240. “While NextNav requested a three-watt power limit for user equipment, the vast majority of devices, including all devices that can operate inside vehicles, will have 200-milliwatt maximum conducted output power with even lower [equivalent isotropic radiated power] due to negative antenna gain,” NextNav said. The IBTTA study was filed last month at the FCC by a coalition led by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.

Vermont National Telephone (VTel) Wireless' reconsideration petition concerning the FCC Wireless Bureau extending EchoStar's 5G network buildout deadlines (see 2410230004) never mentions commitments that come with those new deadlines, EchoStar said in an opposition posted Friday (docket 22-212). It added the extension is fully within bureau precedent of giving licensees additional time so they can "complete the arduous process of building wireless networks." In addition, EchoStar said, the bureau's order comports with the FCC's objective of promoting a fourth national wireless provider. No one else has opposed the new deadlines, and VTel's "meritless" petition seems likely to have sprung from its unrelated litigation against EchoStar that alleges fraud against Dish Network in the FCC's 2015 AWS-3 auction.

The bulk of wireless data is carried over Wi-Fi rather than mobile connections, though differences are notable in the traffic ratio among wireless operators, OpenSignal said last week. Major wireless carriers Verizon, T-Mobile and AT&T see significantly more of their data moving over mobile connections than Comcast's and Charter's mobile services do, it said. More use of Wi-Fi by cable mobile virtual network operator subscribers is a product of Comcast and Charter Wi-Fi offload strategies. The cable operators use their in-home Wi-Fi and extensive out-of-home Wi-Fi hot spot networks to help reduce their wholesale cellar traffic costs, OpenSignal said. Both home and away, T-Mobile users spend the most time on mobile, reflecting in part its lack of public Wi-Fi hot spots, OpenSignal said. With all five, though, the vast bulk of their data usage is over Wi-Fi rather than mobile -- anywhere from 82% for T-Mobile to 89% for Comcast.

With T-Mobile not receiving good offers for its 800 MHz spectrum (see 2410240044), the company's options range from deploying or leasing the spectrum to selling it, consultant Terry Chevalier wrote Thursday on LinkedIn. Deployment of the spectrum into T-Mobile's network would require a significant capital investment, as well as higher operational expenses, Chevalier said. Potential leasing opportunities include utilities or other IoT-based users looking at industrial IoT or smart network applications, or private network uses, he said. He said the long timeline for new spectrum in the U.S. pipeline could mean a better return on auctioning the 800 MHz.