Nokia completed the first phase of a 5G-ready, industrial-grade private wireless network deployment for the Port of Zeebrugge in Belgium. The platform will provide private wireless connectivity to more than 100 endpoints across the entire port operations

As the coronavirus continues to wreak havoc in the United States and other countries globally, mission-critical communications organizations are changing how they work to address the resulting COVID-19 disease.

The European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI) Industry Specification Group on the Augmented Reality Framework (ISG ARF) unveiled ETSI GS ARF 003, a specification toward the interoperability of augmented reality (AR) components. Compliance with the ETSI framework will allow components from different providers to interoperate via the defined interfaces, allowing broader and quicker adoption of AR technology.

The FCC granted requests from AT&T and Verizon for special temporary authority (STA) to use additional spectrum to help meet Americans’ wireless broadband needs across the country during the national COVID-19 emergency. AT&T was granted authority for 60 days to operate in AWS-4 band spectrum licensed to Dish. In addition, AT&T and Verizon were granted similar authority to use AWS-3 spectrum currently held in the FCC’s inventory.

The FCC denied requests from two jurisdictions to reinstate terminated licenses.

The FCC released an order to expedite the 800 MHz rebanding program and declared 2,103 licensees as having completed rebanding. The 800 MHz Transition Administrator (TA) reported that only four licensees, all in the Mexican border region, have yet to complete physical reconfiguration.

The International Telecommunication Union (ITU) launched a global platform to help protect telecommunications networks during the COVID-19 crisis. The new platform will assist governments and the private sector in ensuring that networks are kept resilient, the group said.

Telespazio Argentina, a subsidiary of Telespazio and a joint venture between Leonardo (67%) and Thales (33%), was awarded a contract following an international tender in Costa Rica to perform an urban and rural cadastral survey of the country. The contract is worth $20 million and will last four years.

The FCC’s Wireless Telecommunications Bureau granted Verizon’s request for special temporary authority (STA) to use additional spectrum to help meet increased customer demand for broadband during the coronavirus pandemic.

FCC Chairman Ajit Pai said the commission will use “physics” and “sound engineering analysis” to decide on the best use of the 6 GHz band, while CTIA backed a report that suggested relocating fixed wireless incumbents to 7 or 8 GHz.

“At the end of the day, our decision on how to best use the 6 GHz band will be driven by a simple test: What is in the public interest?” Pai said.