NextNav received support from the California Fire Chiefs Association for its controversial proposal that would reconfigure the 902-928 MHz band, enabling a terrestrial “complement” to GPS for positioning, navigation and timing (PNT) services (see 2409060046). “We have firsthand experience with degradation of GPS due to the ‘urban canyons’ and dense environment we cover, a problem that is ideally resolved by a terrestrial PNT service of this type proposed,” the group said in a filing posted Friday in docket 24-240. Reply comments are due at the FCC this week.

The FCC on Friday asked the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to dismiss on procedural grounds Maurine and Matthew Molak's petition seeking review of a commission order from July that lets schools and libraries use E-rate support for off-premises Wi-Fi hot spots and wireless internet services (see 2407180024). Lawyers defending the order had predicted the FCC would take that step because the agency hasn’t yet addressed a petition by the Molaks seeking reconsideration of the order (see 2408300027). “This Court’s jurisdiction to review FCC orders under the Hobbs Act is limited to specified ‘final orders’” of the FCC, the commission said in docket 24-604460. “For purposes of Hobbs Act review, it is well settled that ‘a motion to reconsider renders the underlying order nonfinal’ as to the party that sought reconsideration,” the agency said: That rule “avoids ‘wasting judicial resources’ … without compromising petitioners’ ability to seek judicial review of a subsequent final order.” The Molaks' son died by suicide aged 16 after he was cyberbullied. The couple previously challenged the FCC’s Oct. 25 declaratory ruling that authorizes school bus Wi-Fi, also in the 5th Circuit, widely viewed as the most conservative of the federal circuits (see 2312200051). It's expected that judges will hear the case in November.

In the wake of Hurricane Francine, the FCC Wireless Bureau on Friday approved Google's request for a waiver of rules that require environmental sensing capability systems to protect federal incumbents in the citizens broadband radio service band from harmful interference. Francine has weakened to a tropical depression, according to NOAA. However, “the risk of heavy rainfall and flooding will continue across large portions of the Southeast through Saturday,” the bureau said. Google’s request for a waiver was also posted Friday.

Representatives of Alaska’s GCI asked the FCC not to wait until the end of Alaska Plan commitments in 2026 before revising the commission’s approach to 5G in the 49th state. “New requirements to deploy 5G technology cannot simply be appended to the current Alaska Plan commitments,” said a filing posted Friday in docket 23-328. 5G deployments have “different engineering and core network requirements” than older technology, GCI said: Hitting higher throughput speeds anticipated for 5G “results in a smaller coverage area than the lower throughput speeds for 4G, meaning that a provider may need to construct more towers to provide 5G service to the number of population reflected in its existing Alaska Plan commitments -- construction that has not been planned and was not considered in negotiating the original Alaska Plan commitments.” The GCI representatives met with staff from the Wireless and Wireline bureaus and Office of Economics and Analytics.

The BWI Business Partnership urged the FCC not to grant the FirstNet Authority effective control of the 4.9 GHz band. “The FCC’s current 4.9 GHz regulations allow effective communication by public-safety agencies and their partners in Howard County, Anne Arundel County, and throughout Maryland,” the partnership said in a filing posted Thursday in docket 07-100.

Some of the world’s largest carriers, including AT&T, T-Mobile and Verizon in the U.S., working with Ericsson, unveiled a venture Thursday that will “combine and sell” network application programming interfaces (APIs) “on a global scale.” Today’s networks “have advanced and intelligent capabilities, which have historically been inaccessible to developers,” said an Ericsson news release: “It has been impractical for developers to integrate the different capabilities of hundreds of individual telecom operators. The newly formed company will combine network APIs globally.” The venture is targeting hyperscalers, communications platform as a service providers, system integrators and independent software vendors, the release said.

Many of the suggested ways of dealing with harms related to social media and smartphones are questionable under the First Amendment, and a scholarly effort is needed to find solutions, Steven Collis blogged Thursday. The founding faculty director of the University of Texas at Austin's Bech-Loughlin First Amendment Center said a better understanding of related problems is needed, such as the dopamine rush that comes with reading and commenting on smartphone posts.

T-Mobile asked the FCC for permission to use information from the E.U.’s Galileo system “in conjunction” with U.S. GPS to provide 911 location information. The company satisfied FCC conditions for commercial mobile radio service providers “to receive authorization to use information derived from Galileo signals to improve its 911 location services,” according to a filing posted Thursday in docket 07-114. “More importantly, grant of the requested authorization would serve the public interest by increasing the availability, accuracy, and reliability of T-Mobile’s 911 location services, which will better help emergency responders quickly find and assist 911 callers, potentially saving callers’ lives,” T-Mobile said. The commission has recognized that “supplementing GPS with Galileo … signals can increase the availability, accuracy, and reliability of Positioning, Navigation, and Timing services,” the carrier added.

T-Mobile US and Lycamobile USA told the FCC they settled a lawsuit in a state court in King County, Washington. T-Mobile sued Lycamobile, saying it accidentally undercharged the company for more than a year for access to its network. The lawsuit was referenced in objections Lycamobile made to T-Mobile’s buy of Mint Mobile, a low-cost prepaid wireless brand, and other assets from Ka’ena (see 2405200031). The filing was posted on Thursday in docket 23-171.

Patti Kukula, executive director of the Detroit Public Safety Foundation, withdrew a filing at the FCC made in August opposing FirstNet control of the 4.9 GHz band (see 2408290015). The filing "is not reflective” of the foundation’s “position or stance on this public safety communications matter,” said the new filing posted Wednesday in docket 07-100. “The submission of the Foundation’s original filing did not adhere to our organization’s process for review,” Kukula said. The foundation was “operating on an incomplete set of facts regarding this regulatory proceeding and a mistaken assumption regarding the proposal.”