Industry groups largely questioned the wisdom of using the voluntary cyber mark program for IoT devices, approved in March, to further clamp down on international security threats. But the proposals also received some support from the Internet Protocol Video Market (IPVM) and Whirlpool. FCC commissioners approved 5-0 a Further NPRM, along with the implementing order, asking about software and hardware from countries of national security concern and whether data from U.S. citizens will be stored abroad (see 2403140034). Comments were posted Thursday in docket 23-239.
Howard Buskirk
Howard Buskirk, Executive Senior Editor, joined Warren Communications News in 2004, after covering Capitol Hill for Telecommunications Reports. He has covered Washington since 1993 and was formerly executive editor at Energy Business Watch, editor at Gas Daily and managing editor at Natural Gas Week. Previous to that, he was a staff reporter for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution and the Greenville News. Follow Buskirk on Twitter: @hbuskirk
AT&T added 349,000 net postpaid phone customers, which was far better than Wall Street expectations, and saw record low churn in Q1, CEO John Stankey said Wednesday as the carrier reported quarterly results. Stankey apologized for the nationwide wireless outage that hit customers Feb. 22 (see 2402220058). Compared to Verizon, whose shares sunk after it reported results Monday (see 2404220042), AT&T was up 1.88%, closing the day at $16.82.
Carriers worldwide are moving to cloud-native networks in part because they have no choice, experts said Wednesday during a virtual TelecomTV forum on digital support systems. In addition, carriers, they said, increasingly want to work with hyperscalers, the large cloud service providers. Carriers seek access to their expertise.
Eager to win FCC approval of its proposed buy of Mint Mobile (see 2303150032), a low-cost prepaid wireless brand, and other assets from Ka’ena, T-Mobile told the FCC it would agree to a handset unlocking requirement. Public and consumer interest groups have asked the FCC to push for that concession (see 2402060025). “Within 60 days of the closing of the transaction, T-Mobile commits to implement an unlocking policy applicable to all Mint Mobile and Ultra Mobile devices activated on the T-Mobile network both pre- and post-closing,” said a filing posted Wednesday in docket 23-171. T-Mobile said it views the concession as unnecessary but wants to ensure prompt FCC approval. The company "believes that the public interest benefits of its proposed acquisition of the Mint Mobile and Ultra Mobile wireless brands and their customers are clear and compelling and that no credible competitive concerns have been raised with respect to the proposed transaction,” the filing said. T-Mobile reports quarterly earnings after the close of the financial markets Thursday. “It is good to see progress on the issue, though the voluntary commitments do not quite match what we asked for in the record,” emailed PK Legal Director John Bergmayer. “There are some timing differences,” but the biggest difference is T-Mobile is committing to unlocking Mint Mobile and Ultra Mobile devices, “as opposed to all devices on the T-Mobile network,” he said: “It’s not just Mint customers that would benefit from unlocking, and having a uniform policy would probably be simpler.” It’s “in the public interest to unlock all new devices on T-Mobile’s network, not only the acquired Mint Mobile customers,” said Michael Calabrese, director of the Wireless Future Program at New America: “A uniform policy for all T-Mobile customers would also bring the U.S. closer to the sort of industry-wide unlocking policy that is already required by the regulators in Canada” and the U.K.
CTIA and its major members agreed that grants of special temporary authority (STA) are the best method of getting “inventory” spectrum into play, in reply comments posted Tuesday in docket 24-72. Others continue to stress the benefits of dynamic sharing and other mechanisms (see 2404090045). The FCC sought comment in March as the agency marked the one-year anniversary of its general auction authority expiring.
CTIA and the major wireless carriers urged the FCC to clarify that the Telephone Consumer Protection Act doesn’t apply to robocalls and robotexts from wireless service providers to their subscribers, in reply comments posted Monday in docket 02-278. Consumer and public interest groups argue that providers shouldn’t receive special treatment (see 2404050044). Commissioners approved a Further NPRM in February seeking comment on the wireless provider exemption (see 2402160048).
Verizon CEO Hans Vestberg sees little possibility that Congress will continue the affordability connectivity program, he told CNBC Monday as the carrier released Q1 results. House Democrats hope they can force a vote on a bill that would keep the ACP alive (see 2404170066). Vestberg told an analysts' call Verizon is happy with its roll-out of C-band spectrum and offered an update about how the company is using AI to improve efficiency.
Most ex parte meetings on the net neutrality order have focused on Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel and her fellow Democrats Geoffrey Starks and Anna Gomez, with about twice as many meetings as with the Republicans, based on our count. Industry officials said that’s not surprising, saying Commissioners Brendan Carr and Nathan Simington certainly will dissent and have little leverage to seek changes. Commissioners vote Thursday.
The FCC approved Thursday waiver requests from 11 additional parties seeking permission to launch early deployments of cellular vehicle-to-everything (C-V2X) technology in the 5.895-5.925 GHz band. The FCC has yet to finalize rules for C-V2X in the band -- an item pending since November 2020, when the commission approved an order opening 45 MHz of the band for Wi-Fi, while allocating 30 MHz C-V2X technology (see 2011180043).
When people started discussing 5G 10 years ago, Mischa Dohler, Ericsson vice president-emerging technologies, said he was asked why anyone needs the next generation of wireless. Dohler, who spoke Thursday at a Competitive Carriers Association conference streamed from Palm Springs, California, said he has spent the last 10 years finding answers to that question.