Mike Dano

AT&T is currently conducting Wireless Local Loop (WLL) technology tests on its LTE network in two locations in the United States, part of the carrier’s ongoing efforts to evaluate a range of high-speed transmission technologies in order to determine how they stack up against each other. John Donovan, AT&T's chief strategy officer and group president for technology and operations, explained that AT&T is testing a total of five different network technologies: G.Fast, AirGig, 5G, WLL and fiber to the premises (FTTP). To be clear, some of those efforts are further along than others; for example, AT&T has already deployed FTTP to roughly 4 million locations, a number AT&T’s CTO Andre Fuetsch said would triple during the next 36 months. “That’s obviously matured” as a technology, Fuetsch said. But some of AT&T’s other efforts are very much in the testing phase. For example, AirGig is AT&T’s new take on broadband over powerline (BPL) technology, which promises to transmit internet communications over power grids. AT&T announced its AirGig effort last year, and is now entering advanced discussions with a number of electric utilities and other companies about trialing AirGig in up to two locations this fall. And of course AT&T made waves last month when it announced it would launch its first “5G Evolution Markets” in the coming months in Austin (TX) and Indianapolis (IN) and it will build two new 5G test beds set to go on air this spring at the AT&T Labs in Austin.

[Commentary] As President Donald Trump settles into his new job there are a number of outstanding issues in the telecommunications industry he will likely address in the coming weeks, months and years. Below are the top seven issues that President Trump will likely weigh in on throughout his administration, as well as speculation on what he might do.

1. Select Federal Communications Commission’s leadership and determine its direction
2. (Almost certainly) repeal network neutrality
3. Act on AT&T’s proposed merger with Time Warner…
4. …and rule on future deals, like a possible Sprint and T-Mobile matchup
5. Finish the incentive auction and formulate an overall spectrum policy
6. Address "unlock the box" and the pay-TV market
7. Create more jobs in telecom

AT&T, which now owns DirecTV, urged a federal judge to reject the Justice Department’s lawsuit against its DirecTV business, arguing that the lawsuit relies on “only a handful of episodic, separate contacts” comprising nothing more than “industry chatter.” The Department of Justice’s claims are based on “nothing more than industry chatter about high-visibility topics, and cannot be sufficient to plausibly allege an ongoing reciprocal agreement to share competitively sensitive information,” AT&T said in its filing.

Specifically, AT&T said that Judge Michael Fitzgerald should shelve the antitrust charges by the Department of Justice. The company said the government’s lawsuit doesn’t “allege any traditional theory of antitrust liability” and is based on “narrow and generalized allegations of ‘information sharing.’” “Never before has a court found an antitrust violation for the mere sharing of non-price information of the type alleged here, especially when based on such threadbare allegations of an agreement,” continued AT&T in its recent filing, arguing that none of the conversations at issue in the case involved exchanging competitive price information.

T-Mobile US CFO Braxton Carter cheered the incoming administration of President-elect Donald Trump, arguing that less regulation—including the dismantling of the Federal Communications Commission’s network neutrality rules—and less onerous corporate taxes would be “positive for my industry.” However, Carter declined to address a potential merger between Sprint and T-Mobile, a transaction that industry observers have speculated may be possible under a Trump White House. “It’s hard to imagine, with the way the election turned out, that we’re not going to have an environment, from several aspects, that is not going to be more positive for my industry,” Carter said. “I think that it’s very clear that there’s going to be less regulation. And less regulation—regulation often destroys innovation and value creation.”

AT&T’s giant $85.4 billion deal for Time Warner likely will satiate AT&T in the mergers & acquisitions space, at least for a time. After all, AT&T failed to acquire T-Mobile in 2011, but was successful in purchasing DirecTV in 2015 for around $49 billion. And AT&T executives have argued that the carrier’s purchase of Time Warner will be successful since it’s a “vertical” acquisition rather than a “horizontal” transaction involving two players in the same industry.

So if AT&T is busy buying Time Warner, what will happen next? First, it’s clear the stage is set for further M&A. The Federal Communications Commission’s ongoing incentive auction of TV broadcasters’ unwanted 600 MHz spectrum is likely to end later this year or early next year. And the presidential election will be over Nov. 8, paving the way for some kind of stability at the FCC and the Department of Justice. Possibilities: Comcast, Charter, Altice and cable; T-Mobile and Sprint; Dish (an outlier); and Verizon.

CenturyLink announced that it will be the exclusive broadband provider to up to 12,000 homes in a new development in southern Denver (CO). CenturyLink will offer its services – including a wireless access point and the opportunity to add its Prism TV offering – to residents at the development starting at $85 per month. CenturyLink will run up to 1 Gbps services over Lumiere Fiber’s network at the development. Lumiere Fiber is an affiliate of Sterling Ranch Development Company, the company behind the massive development.

As the exclusive provider of fiber services, CenturyLink appears to have beaten Comcast and others to supply services in the 3,400-acre, master-planned community dubbed Sterling Ranch. “Sterling Ranch’s vision to elevate their infrastructure to give residents forward-thinking digital experiences like eHealth, distance learning, community engagement and smart home control presents a unique opportunity for CenturyLink to deliver an exceptional broadband service offering speeds up to 1 gigabit per second to an entire community,” said Chris Denzin, vice president of national field and partner sales for CenturyLink.

According to a new report from CCS Insight, the dramatic and continued growth of the Android smartphone operating system may not be the boon to Android developer Google that some may have expected.

According to the firm, fully one in four Android phones don't currently access Google services like Maps, Gmail and the Google Play app store -- and that number will likely grow in the future.

"Android's dominance will increasingly fail to translate to Google dominance," the firm wrote in a wide-ranging report on the smartphone market. "The proliferation of forked variants of Android and the Chinese government's blocking of Google search in China is producing a growing proportion of Android devices that pose a challenge for Google's open-source Android model. Such devices provide Google with little or no revenue or data and provide a platform for services from Google's competitors. We estimate this could increase to over 30 percent in 2015. It also raises a question about how Google will control Android in the future as policing the platform through access to Google services will prove increasingly ineffective."

According to new maps from Mosaik Solutions, Verizon Wireless could be subject to bidding restrictions across virtually the entire country in the Federal Communications Commission's 600 MHz auction in 2015.

Meanwhile, AT&T Mobility could face restrictions in locations across wide portions of the West and East Coasts, but not in the central part of the country.

Maps from Mosaik provide the clearest view yet as to exactly how the FCC's 600 MHz auction rules will affect the nation's two largest wireless carriers. They show that Verizon could face restrictions in virtually every state in the country. The only major places where Verizon won't face restrictions are in Southern Texas, parts of the Great Lakes and in parts of the Northwest.

AT&T, meanwhile, could be restricted from bidding in parts of California, southern Texas and large sections of the Northeast. AT&T will be free to bid on 600 MHz without restrictions across wide swaths of the Western United States.

AT&T Mobility has inked an agreement to purchase all of Sprint's WCS spectrum licenses. Sprint owns 19 2.3 GHz WCS licenses in locations across the South including in markets in Florida, Louisiana, Texas, Alabama, Georgia and elsewhere.

The companies did not disclose the financial details of the transaction, which still requires FCC approval. Representatives from both AT&T and Sprint declined to comment beyond the companies' FCC filing on the transaction.

In its filing with the FCC on the transaction, AT&T noted only that it would use Sprint's WCS spectrum for "mobile broadband use, thereby supporting [the Commission's] goal of expanding mobile broadband deployment throughout the country."

AT&T also noted that, if the transaction is approved, it would hold up to 165 MHz of spectrum in some of the markets covered in the deal, thus putting it over the FCC's so-called spectrum screen.

Verizon Wireless is expanding the reach of its LTE network in California and Hawaii via new deals with two small carriers, Golden State Cellular in California and Mobi PCS in Hawaii.

Under the terms of the two separate deals, which both still require Federal Communications Commission approval, Verizon will essentially buy the small carriers.

According to a Verizon filing with the FCC, Verizon plans to transition Golden State Cellular's customers to its service plans within 15 months after the deal closes. According to a person familiar with the transaction, Golden State Cellular operates a CDMA network and counts around 18,000 subscribers.