Fierce

A brewing controversy over technical standards and hiring issues are some of the latest bugaboos haunting the First Responders Network Authority (FirstNet) as it crafts plans for the national public-safety broadband network (NPSBN).

During board committee meetings here, held June 2 prior to the annual PSCR Public Safety Broadband Stakeholder meeting, FirstNet board member Kevin McGinnis noted that the mission of enabling mission-critical voice communications over LTE is progressing, as the 3GPP standards body moves ahead on technological specifications for the service as part of the group's work on Releases 12 and 13.

However, McGinnis expressed displeasure at the fact that "certain vendors" are attempting to shift LTE public-safety standardization out of 3GPP and into the Open Mobile Alliance (OMA). McGinnis said he did not know which vendors are behind the move, but he has been told that they aim to move proceedings "to a standards body where those vendors presumably have more influence." He called the move "distracting," and said it detracts from the progress that has been made within 3GPP.

Sprint will soon jump into LTE Advanced carrier aggregation as part of its Sprint Spark initiative, and the operator is also taking hard looks at numerous other cutting-edge technologies, such as SON and even Cloud RAN, for inclusion in its long-term roadmap, said a top executive.

"Historically we've looked to technologies a bit differently than everyone else. We're the only ones deploying TD-LTE. We're the only ones deploying 8T8R," observed Ron Marquardt, vice president of technology for Sprint technology innovation and architecture. That willingness to stand out from the crowd means technologies that other US operators may not consider could find a home at Sprint.

"We're evaluating everything from CoMP (coordinated multipoint) to even Cloud RAN on the more speculative end, just because of the backhaul requirements for that," said Marquardt.

Advanced self-organizing network (SON) technologies, enhanced inter-cell interference coordination (EICIC), high-order MIMO options and other advanced antenna systems "are all under consideration," Marquardt added. "We're actively investigating all sorts of SON options--architectures as well as specific implementations," he noted, though cautioning that "we're not even close to making any decisions, much less any announcements."

Sprint CEO Dan Hesse said he does not see the carrier going head-to-head in the near-term with the likes of Comcast, Verizon Communications and AT&T in the market for wired home broadband Internet access.

Hesse's comments, made during a Sprint meeting with industry analysts and relayed by an analyst, stand in contrast to the long-term vision of Sprint Chairman and SoftBank CEO Masayoshi Son, who has said Sprint could eventually compete in and shake up the wired broadband market in the US. According to Jackdaw Research analyst Jan Dawson, Hesse said that Sprint isn't planning to go after the home broadband market actively, and that it would be difficult to make money in that market, especially given how much video wired broadband customers tend to use.

AT&T, for instance has said its average, non-U-verse broadband customers use around 21 GB of data per month; overall average monthly usage on North American fixed access networks was 51.4 GB, according to a May study from network vendor Sandvine. Those numbers are much bigger than the average monthly data consumption by wireless phone users.

Dawson said that Sprint is simply focused on other business priorities right now and does not plan to aggressively compete in the home broadband market. He said that such a plan is "not on the roadmap" right now but could be somewhere down the line as the carrier expands its Spark service and increases speeds. For now though, Dawson said, Hesse was acknowledging that Sprint's spectrum position and the realities of deploying Spark make it infeasible to actually enact Son's vision.

"The difference is between the strategic vision Masa Son is laying and the operational reality of running the Sprint business today with the spectrum holdings they have," he said.

The deal-making chess pieces are being moved around in the telecom industry, and one financial analyst thinks the next move might be for Comcast to make a bid for T-Mobile US.

According to a research note from UBS analyst John Hodulik, AT&T's proposed deal to buy DirecTV for $49 billion, and the implications that has for mobile video delivery, "could be the final straw that draws Comcast into the wireless mix."

Hodulik notes that Comcast's current wireless strategy leverages Wi-Fi deployments and a Verizon Wireless resale deal.

"While this may be a capital-efficient way to put a toe in the water, we believe it is not a long term strategy," he wrote. "In our opinion, this could eventually lead to the acquisition of T-Mobile -- if it is still independent. Initial moves to execute on a Wi-Fi-MVNO strategy will inevitably spark the speculation that Comcast will indeed need to go further and put a still-independent T-Mobile back on the merger target list were the SoftBank deal to be rejected."

AT&T is feeling encouraged by its initial rollout of its 1 Gbps fiber-based broadband service and a more favorable permitting process from local communities.

AT&T CFO John Stephens told investors that these factors are making it more bullish about the opportunity to potentially extend service into new markets outside of Austin (TX). Like other telecommunications companies, AT&T needs to get permitting approval from local communities to get access to necessary rights of way (ROWs) along public streets and utility poles to lay fiber and install related network electronics.

"In Austin, we were able to do a success-based build with some of the new streamlined permitting, right of way easement processes," Stephens said. "What we have seen is great adoption by our customers of high-speed products, strong customer satisfaction scores and appreciation for the product."

The early success and acceptance of the Gigapower service in Austin combined with its ongoing U-verse broadband expansion efforts has driven the telco to consider deploying FTTH in other markets.

AT&T Mobility will likely be adding between 1,500 and 3,000 macro cell sites to its network per year for the next few years as part of a wide-ranging effort to beef up its network and improve coverage and capacity, according to a senior AT&T executive.

Bill Smith, president of AT&T network operations, said the carrier would be adding that many sites to its network per year "for the foreseeable future." That will likely happen in parallel with AT&T's deployment of new spectrum bands for LTE service, such as the 2.3 GHz WCS band or AWS-3 band, which the Federal Communications Commission will be auctioning later in 2014.

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.

Picture some 17,000 miles of fiber-optic cabling -- equaling six trips between New York City and Los Angeles -- and you'll have some idea of how much infrastructure Verizon Communications has installed in the Big Apple.

That infrastructure includes interoffice and backbone network equipment, specialized fiber for large enterprises, and consumer and SMB FiOS services. The nearly 90 million feet of fiber, spanning all five boroughs at a cost of $3 billion-plus so far, "is the largest, most ambitious fiber-optic deployment in any US city," according to Kevin Service, Verizon's president for the carrier's Northeast area.

"We have invested more than $3 billion in the city alone, making it one of the most 'fiberized' cities on the planet."

As of December 2013, Verizon says it's been meeting its Cable Franchise Agreement benchmarks with the city, wrapping network upgrades in 90 percent of the Bronx, 89 percent of Brooklyn, 94 percent of Manhattan, 90 percent of Queens and virtually all of Staten Island. Also included in the statistics are FiOS connections to more than 60,000 New York City public-housing units.

Federal regulators should refrain from adopting new location accuracy rules until indoor-positioning technology is truly ready for prime time, according to the Telecommunications Industry Association (TIA), which represents manufacturers and suppliers of communications networks.

"Although TIA supports the development of improved location accuracy, many concerns remain regarding the impact of new requirements on innovation and whether technology is sufficiently developed to support the proposed mandate," said the organization in a filing regarding the FCC's ongoing proceeding on wireless E911 location-accuracy requirements.

Location-accuracy requirements should be based on technology "the claims for which can be confirmed with verified data using commercially available products," TIA said. The group stressed that indoor-location technologies are still quite nascent and may not be sufficiently developed to support an indoor location-accuracy requirement for determining a caller's location within 50 meters on a horizontal grid, as proposed by the FCC.

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.