Wireless Telecommunications

In meetings with Federal Communications Commission staff, NTCA–The Rural Broadband Association reiterated its support for ensuring that lowincome consumers have affordable access to the voice service they need and therefore urged the Commission to retain the Lifeline subsidy for stand-alone voice service. Voice service remains critical for many low-income and older individuals who rely on such service as an affordable method of contacting health care providers, government agencies, and public safety. NTCA further stressed the urgent need for FCC action on the National Association of State U

This article examines the roles and consequences of different approaches to 5G market design for innovation. The analysis is grounded in a conceptual framework that explicitly considers the complementarities among networks, applications, and services. Good policy arrangements align the legal and regulatory framework with the technical and economic characteristics of the sector and the broader, social visions for new technologies.

Sens Ron Wyden (D-OR), Chris Van Hollen (D-MD), Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), Dick Durbin (D-IL), and Edward J Markey (D-MA) wrote a letter urging the Federal Communications Commission to take action in response to national security risks posed by foreign companies that manage and service US wireless phone networks. Although the US government has responded forcefully to risks from Chinese hardware manufacturers, including Huawei and ZTE, it has not yet accounted for risks from foreign companies that operate or maintain US networks.

The First Responder Network Authority was established to deploy a nationwide broadband network for public safety communications and meet first responders’ communications needs. One of the key capabilities that public safety requested during the planning phase of FirstNet was the ability to determine the Z-axis, or vertical axis, location of personnel. FirstNet’s Z-axis capability is the next evolution of FirstNet Enhanced Location Services, designed to assist with identifying where a first responder is located within a building.

The Rural Wireless Association (RWA) filed an ex parte to apprise the Federal Communications Commission of the results of RWA’s member survey concerning the ongoing impact of the 3G sunset on rural consumers, and of the need for the carriers to implement Voice over Long-Term Evolution (VoLTE) roaming before 3G is shut down nationwide.

Microsoft wants to be the global wide area network (WAN) for 5G. Victor Bahl, chief technology officer of Azure for Operators, noted that while 5G offers big boosts in speed, those speeds get watered down because “every network operator ultimately depends on the internet at some point.” Bahl said ultra-reliable low-latency communication (URLLC) within the 5G New Radio standard is nice; its delay specification can be anywhere from one to four msec on-air latency.

AT&T is preparing to upgrade customers in three Louisiana towns to GPON fiber after Hurricane Ida wreaked havoc on its copper assets. In a filing with the Federal Communications Commission, AT&T said Hurricane Ida “significantly damaged” its copper cables and terminals in Baton Rouge, Denham Springs and Zachary (LA) when it made landfall in late August 2021.

The Federal Communications Commission, backed by the Department of Justice, told the US Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit that it was reasonable for the FCC to reclaim a swath of 5.9 GHz licensed vehicular communications spectrum for unlicensed WiFi and it had the authority to do so.

According to advocates of the Convergence Apocalypse theory, telecommunications companies’ increasingly ambitious fiber deployments pose a big threat to major cable companies at the same time that cable companies’ increasing success in offering mobile service poses a big threat to the major telcos. Both threats are real, researchers argue, but they don’t see the threats as symmetrical. Instead, they see cable companies having the advantage. MoffettNathanson offers several data points to illustrate the threat that telco fiber deployments pose to cable companies.

US carriers have further expanded their 5G coverage using their low band 5G networks. However, the largest and most notable improvement was driven by the expansion of mid-band 5G. AT&T and Verizon are about to receive the first tranche of C-band spectrum (3.7–3.98 GHz) — which will be released in December 2021, and have made plans already to deploy their own mid-band 5G and follow the path T-Mobile pioneered with the deployment of its 2.5 GHz spectrum.