Telecommunication

Law360 announced the formation of its 2022 Telecommunications Editorial Advisory Board which will provide feedback on the publication's coverage and expert insight on how best to shape future coverage. Included on the board is Benton Senior Counselor Andrew Jay Schwartzman. 

Altice USA reported its first-quarter 2022 results. Total Revenue declined -2.3 percent in first-quarter 2022 to $2.42 billion. Net income attributable to stockholders was $196.6 million in first-quarter 2022 compared to net income of $274.1 million in first-quarter 2021. Residential broadband net losses were -13,000 in first-quarter 2022, compared to +12,000 broadband net additions in first-quarter 2021.

Charter Communications reported financial and operating results for first-quarter 2022. First quarter total broadband customers increased by 185,000. As of March 31, 2022, Charter served a total of 30.3 million broadband subscribers. Wireless increased by 373,000. As of March 31, 2022, Charter served a total of 3.9 million mobile lines. First quarter revenue of $13.2 billion grew by 5.4 percent year-over-year, driven by residential revenue growth of 3.7 percent, mobile revenue growth of 40.2 percent and commercial revenue growth of 4.3 percent.

Federal Communications Commission Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel announced that the items below are tentatively on the agenda for the May Open Commission Meeting scheduled for Thursday, May 19, 2022. The FCC will consider:

Speedtest Global Index Market Analyses from Ookla identify key data about internet performance in countries across the world. This quarter Ookla has provided updated analyses for 44 markets that include details on fastest mobile and fixed broadband providers, performance of most popular devices and chipsets and internet speeds in cities.

The war in Ukraine is reviving concerns in Taiwan and some Asia-Pacific nations about the fragility of their internet connections because they rely on undersea cables that could be severed in a Chinese attack.

Senator Shelley Moore Capito (R-WV) wrote a letter to Federal Communications Commission Chairman Jessica Rosenworcel regarding the issue of pole attachments. Specifically, Sen Capito stressed that the high costs and long waits imposed by pole owners when poles need to be replaced are hindering the progress of broadband deployment. "There are many reasons for the stubborn lack of broadband access in rural communities, but with recent congressional action, funding is no longer one of them," said Capito.

A cyberattack targeting an underwater cable that could have shut down telephone services, financial transactions, internet and cable connectivity in Hawaii was foiled by federal agents with Homeland Security Investigations. The servers of a private Oahu company responsible for managing a trans-Pacific undersea cable that connects Hawaii and the Pacific region were targeted by an international hacking group, according to HSI, the investigative unit of the US Department of Homeland Security.

For years the industry used the word redundancy when talking about how we protected our networks. The primary aspects of redundancy are having multiple fiber routes in place so that areas don’t become isolated if a fiber is cut or having enough spare electronics to quickly recover from problems. But in recent years, we’ve started to talk about resiliency, which encompasses redundancy but means a whole lot more. Resiliency means taking proactive steps to prepare against reasonably expected problems of all sorts.

I was asked an interesting question recently: will fiber help the big telecom companies turn the corner to success? It’s a good question when looking at telcos like Frontier, Windstream, Lumen, and any others who are late to the game for converting copper to fiber. There are a lot of factors that will come into play, so the answer is likely to be different by company. On the plus side is a general consensus by many households that fiber is the best technology. There is a sizable percentage of homes in any market that will move to fiber given a chance.