AT&T announced that it is the winning bidder for spectrum licenses covering more than 99% of the U.S. population following the close of FCC Auction 103. The company said its winning bids will allow continued improvements and advancements to its wireless network.

U.S. Army Lt. Gen. Bruce Crawford recently addressed public television station managers to share his vison about the future of the Army’s information and communications technology needs. He spoke about leveraging existing infrastructure and capabilities to improve information sharing, resiliency and readiness for the Army. He acknowledged that the commercial sector is developing and deploying advanced technology that the Army can use to effectively meet these needs. Crawford said that taking advantage of these developments, rather than creating everything internally, can speed deployments and better equip and inform our troops.

The FCC granted special temporary authority (STA) to AT&T to use additional spectrum to serve Puerto Rico and U.S. Virgin Islands (USVI) during the coronavirus pandemic. The commission granted AT&T access to the Advanced Wireless Service (AWS)-4 spectrum, licensed to Dish, for 60 days to expand its network capacity to meet expected increases in network traffic as a result of more Americans on the islands working from home, social distancing and sheltering in place.

The FCC pushed back the start of the Citizens Broadband Radio Service (CBRS) Auction 106 until July 23 and postponed indefinitely Auction 106 given the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Project 25 Technology Interest Group (PTIG) highlighted accomplishments and work in progress for 2020 from the Telecommunications Industry Association (TIA) TR-8 committee. New work includes addressing interference with 700/800 MHz cellular systems and security features, among others.

American Petroleum Institute (API) members called out Anterix for not providing enough information on how it plans to remedy interference concerns in the 900 MHz band and said refineries can’t give up critical spectrum until the issues are addressed.

The International Association of Fire Chiefs (IAFC) and other public-safety and related industry organizations wrote to congressional leaders urging action to repeal the T-Band auction mandate on the nation’s largest municipalities as part of any coronavirus emergency stimulus spending package.

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.