Verizon continued its push for FCC handset unlocking rules last week in a series of meetings with commissioner aides. Verizon seeks a locking period of at least 60 days for postpaid phones, 180 days for prepaid, the carrier said in meetings with aides to Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel and Commissioners Brendan Carr and Geoffrey Starks. A filing was posted Thursday in docket 24-186. “Regardless of the locking period the Commission adopts, a uniform unlocking policy that applies to all providers is paramount; the record is replete with evidence that uniformity will benefit both consumers and competition,” it said.

The extended deadlines granted EchoStar's Dish Network for building out its 5G terrestrial network were "clearly justified," New America's Open Technology Institute and Public Knowledge said in an FCC docket 22-212 filing posted Friday. Vermont National Telephone (VTel) Wireless has a pending reconsideration petition (see 2410230004). "Building a nationwide mobile network from scratch is a high hill to climb, and EchoStar deserves every benefit of the doubt as it tries to overcome numerous obstacles," OTI and PK said. They said the extension includes "positive and unprecedented" public interest conditions. VTel Wireless said last week that the FCC Wireless Bureau lacked legal authority to grant the extension. The extension clearly harmed VTel, the company said, as it forestalls reauction of EchoStar's H-block and AWS-3 spectrum licenses. Acquiring those licenses would have more than doubled VTel's AWS spectrum holdings, it added.

The Wireless ISP Association told the FCC many of its members use CBRS spectrum for reaching subscribers, and it opposes higher power levels for priority access license holders as a threat to general authorized access use of the band. Comments were due last week on an August NPRM in docket 17-258 (see 2411070032). Increasing maximum power levels “would substantially increase mutual interference between GAA users and even between GAA and PAL users on different channels,” WISPA said. “WISPA members should not be required to replace existing, relatively new equipment and purchase and deploy expensive high-powered base stations such as those used by mobile carriers in order to maintain their service areas.” Lockheed Martin said the FCC must coordinate major changes with DOD. “The current power levels represent a material, established feature upon which CBRS is premised,” Lockheed said: “Despite the essential role of pre-coordinated and established power levels, the Commission appears to have proposed these changes independently, and it is unclear what inter-agency coordination has or will occur and whether, even, there is support for such action by federal stakeholders.” Researchers at the University of Notre Dame noted that the use of CBRS is accelerating, even in small markets such as South Bend, Indiana, where the university is based. The researchers called for more reporting of interference metrics as measured on the ground by users. “When spectrum is being shared among multiple different users deploying networks in different verticals, the more information that can be shared, the better the performance for all,” they said. The Notre Dame researchers opposed adding a third category of devices that transmit at higher power levels than currently authorized, saying it would “exacerbate the secondary coexistence problem.” But Ericsson said the FCC should at least examine use of higher power levels. “Higher power levels for both [devices] and user equipment improve the efficiency of coverage to serve rural and underserved areas and reduce the cost of deployment,” Ericsson said: “Power levels can constrain certain use cases, especially wide-area commercial and enterprise networks. Enterprises like mining, large-scale agriculture, and media and entertainment companies need to support large outdoor coverage areas, and higher power levels can have a dramatic impact on enabling efficient deployments.” Increasing transmit power levels “will improve coverage, especially in rural areas, increase network efficiency, and reduce equipment and network design and deployment costs” and “can be achieved without causing harmful interference to incumbents or other spectrum users,” Federated Wireless said. Federated noted transmit levels are much lower than in the adjacent 3.45 GHz and C-band. “This discrepancy creates a significant coverage imbalance between CBRS and these adjacent bands, which undermines CBRS’s competitive capability and restricts its potential for expanded service, particularly in rural and underserved areas.”

5G Americas' white paper said Thursday the wireless industry is undergoing a significant shift as carriers expose their application programmable interfaces (APIs) as a major business opportunity. Citing a recent McKinsey report, 5G's paper said, “this technology transition can produce between $100-$300 billion industry-wide revenue over the next 5 to 7 years.” In addition, 5G noted: “To unlock this huge opportunity and generate returns on the sizable investments made in the network infrastructure, the industry needs to grow an ecosystem involving developers, enterprises, hyper-scalers, vertical industry players and vendors while engaging in new market structures such as aggregation and federation.” Viet Nguyen, 5G Americas vice president-PR and technology, said carriers are moving away from viewing their networks as “dumb” pipes. “There is a quiet revolution going on in the telecommunications industry that is introducing intelligence into those pipes and evolving 5G networks into something much more significant,” he said. “5G networks are becoming programmable, software-driven architectures supported by a robust ecosystem” of APIs.

UScellular announced on Thursday a $1 billion agreement to sell AT&T some of its spectrum licenses, which are not part of the proposed sale of wireless assets to T-Mobile (see 2405280047). T-Mobile is buying “substantially all” of UScellular’s wireless operations in a deal valued at about $4.4 billion, but it's purchasing only some of its spectrum licenses. AT&T agreed it will buy 3.45 GHz spectrum and 700 MHz B/C-block licenses for $1.018 billion. Like an earlier deal with Verizon and two undisclosed carriers, the sale is dependent on closing the proposed T-Mobile transaction. "We are pleased with the significant value that will be realized in the various transactions recently announced," said Laurent Therivel, UScellular CEO: "This agreement adds a fourth mobile network operator, in addition to T-Mobile, to the list of those whose subscribers will benefit from the sale of our spectrum licenses. As with the other mobile network operators, we are confident that AT&T can put it to productive use in communities throughout the U.S.” With the latest transaction, UScellular said it has deals to sell 70% of its total spectrum holdings, excluding high-band spectrum, measured on a MHz/POPs basis. UScellular retains 1.86 billion MHz/POPs of low and mid-band spectrum and 17.2 billion MHz/POPs of millimeter-wave, Therivel said, noting that the most valuable spectrum left to sell is in the C-band. “Our C-band licenses are positioned in an attractive mid-band frequency that can deliver outstanding speed and capacity.” There is “a substantial 5G ecosystem of equipment vendors and existing infrastructure that uses C-band” and “they have a lengthy build-out timeline, with first and second build-out dates of 2029 and 2033, respectively.” The deal “is in line with UScellular’s objective to monetize its remaining spectrum following the transaction with T-Mobile announced in May,” said RBC Capital Markets in a note to investors. The firm estimated that the price for the 3.45 GHz spectrum associated with the sale is 55 cents per MHz/POP, compared with the national average spectrum price of 77 cents during the 2022 auction. The C-band holdings are UScellular’s most valuable unsold band, RBC said, noting an average price of 94 cents MHz/PoP in the 2021 auction: “We view the remaining C-Band licenses as [complementary] to AT&T's and Verizon's holdings.”

Tech companies responded to NAB concerns (see 2410290052) about interference to broadcasters' electronic news-gathering (ENG) operations from very-low-power (VLP) devices in parts of the 6 GHz band. The companies noted that in June they submitted a report on broadcast auxiliary service use of the spectrum and VLP (see 2407010057). “NAB faults the study for simulating distant devices in locations where they could not cause interference,” said a filing posted Thursday in docket 18-295: “But this is no flaw. Rather, the fact that the vast majority of VLP devices will not operate in locations where they could cause harmful interference is a key finding of the study.” Apple, Broadcom, Google, Meta Platforms and Qualcomm made the filing.

Verizon said that it will modify or discontinue ad claims about using its smartphones to receive satellite-supported texting services in remote locations, the Better Business Bureau's National Advertising Division said Thursday. T-Mobile challenged Verizon's claims. The ads promise customers they can “Text Anywhere via Satellite,” NAD said. The ads offer “a small font disclosure reading 'Satellite connectivity requires select smartphones. Must be outside w/line of sight to satellite; might not work in parts of Alaska,'” the group said. NAD found “that the disclosure in Verizon’s commercials is not clear and conspicuous and is unlikely to be read and understood by consumers.”

T-Mobile said it set a world record speed of 2.2 Gbps for a wireless uplink, using a combination of 2.5 GHz and millimeter wave spectrum, during a test at SoFi Stadium in Southern California. 5G dual-connectivity technology “enables the Un-carrier to aggregate 2.5 GHz and mmWave spectrum, allowing for an insane boost to uplink throughput and capacity,” T-Mobile said this week: “T-Mobile was able to allocate 60% of the mmWave radio resources for uplink where previous use cases typically allowed up to 20%.”

SI Wireless asked for an additional six months to remove, replace and dispose of Huawei and ZTE equipment from its network. The deadline for SI Wireless was previously extended from May 24 to Nov. 24 (see 2404300031). “Due to a variety of reasons, most notably the FCC’s unexpected current hold on all funding disbursements” the company can’t meet the Nov. 24 deadline, said a filing posted Wednesday in docket 18-89. “The grant of an additional six-month extension, as contemplated by the FCC’s rules, is warranted and in the public interest.”

SiriusXM Radio told the FCC that its network is more vulnerable than other incumbents to interference from outdoor use of very-low-power devices in part of the 6 GHz band. The company was responding to Apple, which last month downplayed those concerns in meetings at the FCC. “Sirius XM’s satellite-delivered service is unique among satellite providers because of our custom-designed network that provides digital audio and data services primarily to vehicles,” said a filing Tuesday in docket 18-295. The service “is received by these vehicles through low gain, tea cup size satellite antennas installed on vehicle roofs,” SiriusXM said: “These antennas use an extremely low noise amplifier to capture very weak signals near the noise floor from satellites located more than 36,000 kilometers above the Earth.”