FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel warned the FCC’s Disability Advisory Committee Tuesday that despite the FCC’s best efforts, the affordability connectivity program will run out of funding in April (see 2401250075). DAC approved a report from its Audio Description File Transmittal to IP Video Programming Working Group. The other four commissioners also spoke Tuesday.
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
CTIA broke with some trade associations in urging FCC approval of a November proposal permitting schools and libraries to use E-rate support for off-premises Wi-Fi hot spots and wireless internet services (see 2311090028). Other industry groups questioned whether the FCC has authority under the Communications Act to expand the E-rate program as proposed in November (see 2401180033). Commissioners Brendan Carr and Nathan Simington dissented on the NPRM. Replies were due Monday in docket 21-31.
The FCC’s 70/80/90 GHz order, approved by commissioners ahead of last week’s open meeting (see 2401240077), saw a noteworthy change with the agency now seeking comment in a Further NPRM on the potential inclusion of ship-to-aerostat transmissions as part of maritime operations. The FNPRM also seeks comment on including fixed satellite service (FSS) earth stations in the light-licensing regime for the 70/80 GHz bands, though that was in the draft. The order was posted in Monday’s Daily Digest.
Wireless carriers are concerned that mobile broadband has “maxed out” its opportunities for revenue growth, Hans Hammar, Ericsson head-business strategy for business area networks, said during a Mobile World Live webinar Monday. Other speakers agreed that 5G faces challenges, including living up to what providers promised the new technology can do.
Telephone and Data Systems and UScellular stock prices rose Friday after T-Mobile Chief Financial Officer Peter Osvaldik said his company was eyeing UScellular. The boards of TDS and UScellular are exploring the future of the carrier and “strategic alternatives," the companies said in August (see 2308070043). TDS was up 5.85% to $20.08 Friday, UScellular 3.26% to $46.51.
The FCC released draft items set for votes at the commissioners' Feb. 15 open meeting, including an NPRM aimed at simplifying the process for alert originators to send multilingual emergency alerts over TV and radio. Also released Thursday was a second draft item that codifies some robocall rules while asking about applying protections in the Telephone Consumer Protection Act to robocalls and robotexts from wireless carriers to their own subscribers.
FCC commissioners unanimously approved an order Thursday requiring carriers to implement location-based routing (LBR) for calls and real-time texts to 911 within six months of when the rules become effective for nationwide providers and 24 months for small providers.
AT&T had 526,000 postpaid phone net adds and 273,000 AT&T Fiber adds in Q4, the company reported Wednesday. AT&T bested Verizon, which reported Tuesday (see 2401230071), on wireless adds. But AT&T’s adjusted earnings outlook for 2024 fell short of Wall Street's expectations and the company said its $14 billion deal with Ericsson to build an open radio access network would accelerate the depreciation of other equipment (see 2312050049). AT&T closed down 2.97% Wednesday at $16.68.
NTIA is expecting detailed comments from federal agencies this week about the proposed implementation plan for the national spectrum strategy (see 2311130048), Scott Harris, NTIA senior spectrum adviser, said during an FCBA webinar Wednesday. NTIA has shared with the agencies its initial thoughts, he said. Next, it will prepare “a full draft” implementation plan, which it will also share, and “kick off” interagency meetings seeking “government-wide” consensus, Harris added.
Verizon Tuesday reported it added a net 318,000 consumer wireless postpaid phone customers in Q4, compared with just 41,000 a year ago. Verizon also saw 375,000 fixed wireless adds in the quarter, bringing its total to more than 3 million. Officials said Verizon is on track to hit as many as 5 million by the end of 2025. Verizon was the first of the major wireless carriers to report Q4 results. Verizon finished up 6.7% Tuesday at $42.23 per share.