The FCC began the process of lifting the T-band application freeze that has been in effect over the band since 2012.

The FCC provided guidance to licensees of state channels in the 700 MHz public-safety narrowband spectrum (769 – 775/799 – 805 MHz), regarding their upcoming final substantial service benchmark showing. Licensees of state channels must demonstrate by June 13 that they are providing or prepared to provide “substantial service” to two-thirds of their population or territory.

Teltronic CEO Juan Ferro offers an update on the business following Hytera’s 2017 acquisition of Sepura, which came after Sepura purchased Teltronic in 2015.

Chevron is testing the standard developed last year for mission-critical data applications using 1.4 GHz spectrum. The oil and gas firm is conducting an 802.16s pilot with Ondas Networks equipment and a 500-kilohertz bandwidth channel.

For the first time in years, new spectrum opportunities are opening for the critical infrastructure industries (CII) and private wireless communications users, although the FCC has not yet released final rules.

NextEra Energy continues to “vigorously oppose” the proposal by Enterprise Wireless Alliance (EWA) and pdvWireless to reconfigure the 896 – 901/935 – 940 MHz band for broadband operations. The Florida electric utility submitted to the FCC a cost-benefit analysis (CBA) that found the direct costs of reallocating the 900 MHz band in the parts of Florida served by NextEra’s subsidiary Florida Power & Light (FPL) will be $98 million.

Los Angeles Regional Interoperable Communications Systems (LA-RICS) is planning Long Term Evolution (LTE) round two with the primary objective of site augmentation of the round one system. The new round two sites will be selected in collaboration with AT&T.

In a second report and order, the FCC amended and clarified its 700 MHz narrowband (769 – 775/799 – 805 MHz) interoperability and technical rules.

Prescom and StreamWIDE jointly demonstrated the interoperability of Long Term Evolution (LTE) mission-critical push-to-talk (MCPTT) networks with narrowband professional mobile radio (PMR) networks. PRESCOM, a provider of interconnection gateways for heterogeneous networks and high availability communications systems for control and command centers, and StreamWIDE, a provider of MCPTT application servers, joined efforts to showcase the interoperability of narrowband and broadband services.

Comments for the FCC’s notice of inquiry (NoI) were mixed in response to a petition to realign the 900 MHz band for broadband operations, with most utilities opposing any realignment and other critical infrastructure industries (CII) entities saying it would benefit future networks and licensees.