Wireless Telecommunications

Nextlink Internet, which was one of the biggest winning bidders in the Rural Digital Opportunity Fund (RDOF) auction, said it has achieved speeds of 1 Gbps doanload and 500 Mbps upload using fixed wireless equipment in the 6 GHz band. The performance was achieved using a 160 MHz channel over distances of two miles, the company said.

Customer satisfaction with wireless service overall retreats 1.4 percent to a score of 73 (out of 100), according to the American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI) Wireless Phone Service and Cell Phone Study 2021-2022. Mobile network operators (MNOs) and full-service mobile virtual network operators (MVNOs) are steady at 73 apiece. Satisfaction with value MVNOs also is unchanged yet still outperforms the other wireless categories. After a slight dip last year, customer satisfaction with cell phones is stable.

Fixed wireless internet service providers represented by the Wireless Internet Service Providers Association (WISPA) are telling the Federal Communications Commission that intention to discriminate should undergird any rules meant to prohibit digital access inequity based on race, ethnicity, income, religion, color, or national origin. It also says rules should be tech-flexible. That came in comments on the FCC's inquiry into its legislative mandate to come up with rules that promote digital equity by eliminating discrimination in broadband deployment and access.

WeLink announced the Cities Challenge to invest up to $100 million of private capital in deploying the company’s turnkey solution in low-income communities across the country. The company focuses on bringing ultrafast internet to historically overlooked communities to make them future-ready. The WeLink Cities Challenge allows cities to work with WeLink to deliver much-needed digital infrastructure in neighborhoods identified by government partners. Through the Cities Challenge, WeLink aims to partner with large and mid-sized cities to accelerate efforts to deliver lasting digital equity.

Federal Communications Commissioner Brendan Carr called for the FCC to adopt new rules that will promote consumer access to robust, resilient wireless networks during disasters. Specifically, Carr proposed adopting new FCC rules to:

• Require wireless providers to participate in the wireless resiliency framework;
• Expand the types of events that would trigger activation of the framework;
• Mandate roaming during disaster arrangements; and
• Ensure an effective roaming during a disaster regime.

Located in the heart of the San Joaquin Valley, Dos Palos (CA) is halfway between San Jose and Fresno. It’s a remote community, which created challenges for the Dos Palos-Oro Loma Joint Unified School District (DPOL) when it needed to implement distance learning plans during the pandemic. Paoze Lee, the district’s technology systems director, said it was obvious that the district could provide wireless and broadband coverage only to about 50 percent of its students via commercial wireless operators. “As we tried to bridge the digital divide, we wanted to fill in the gaps,” Lee says.

Verizon will raise prices on its wireless bills for the first time in two years as the largest US wireless carrier grapples with higher costs. Millions of consumers will see a $1.35 increase in administrative charges for each voice line starting in their June 2022 phone bill. And business customers will see a new “economic adjustment charge” beginning June 16, with mobile phone data plans increasing by $2.20 a month and basic service plans going up by 98 cents. Like many businesses, Verizon has been weighing options on how to adjust to inflation pressure.

The two public private partnerships that AT&T has announced in Indiana, including one expected with the City of Boonville (IN), could be the first of many, said Jeff Luong, AT&T president for broadband access and adoption initiatives. “We’re having discussions with communities across the country,” said Luong.

Experts from the US Department of Commerce's Commercial Law Development Program (CLDP) partnered with the Spectrum Management Authority and other technology agencies within the Government of Jamaica to expand and expedite broadband internet service to underserved communities in the country.

For nearly a decade, veteran technologist Steve Perlman has been