Joan Engebretson

The House of Representatives has adopted legislation and a resolution targeting broadband for veterans and school-age children.

Broadband for Veterans: The bill is the Improving Broadband Access for Veterans Act of 2016 (HR 6394). Introduced by Rep Jerry McNerney (D-CA), the bill would require the Federal Communications Commission to submit a report to Congress about promoting broadband Internet access service for veterans, with a special focus on low-income veterans and veterans residing in rural areas.

Student Broadband Resolution: The resolution, H. Res. 939, was introduced by Rep Peter Welch (D-VT). It argues that all students should have access to digital tools, including broadband, which are necessary to further their education and compete in today’s economy. Leading up to that assertion are 13 “whereas” clauses, such as:
Whereas the United States should lead the world in providing high-quality education and opportunities to its citizens;
Whereas digital skills are essential for education and preparing citizens for the economy of the future;
Whereas a disproportionate number of students without high-speed Internet access at home reside in low-income and minority households.

The Verizon 5G fixed wireless trial planned for 2017 will support gigabit speeds and will include over-the-top (OTT) video, said Verizon CEO Lowell McAdam. “I call it ‘wireless fiber,’” said McAdam of the 5G fixed wireless technology. Eventually 5G is expected to also support mobile services, but initial plans for Verizon and some other carriers are focused on fixed deployments. Verizon’s initial 5G fixed wireless deployments are expected to support services similar to fiber-to-the-premises based offerings such as Verizon’s FiOS service, but fiber will be brought only to within 200 to 1,000 feet of the home, using high-speed wireless for the final link, McAdam explained.

iPass Inc., the leading provider of global mobile connectivity, and Telrite Corporation, through its Lifeline supported wireless service, Life Wireless™, announced a partnership to bring unlimited Wi-Fi access to qualifying subscribers of the Lifeline program. The partnership will help provide Lifeline program subscribers with a secure, fast connection on their mobile devices.

Beginning on Dec 1, 2016, Lifeline program subscribers will receive access to the iPass global Wi-Fi service. Once activated, the service will provide each subscriber with access to the world’s largest Wi-Fi network. “For the individuals and families we serve through the Lifeline program, Wi-Fi access, courtesy of iPass, is absolutely invaluable,” said Brian Lisle, the president of Telrite Corporation. “This partnership represents our continued dedication to ensuring that the subscribers we serve continue to have access to doctors, families, employers and emergency services – as well as access to education resources to help bridge the ‘Homework Gap’ for students at home – so that they can compete on a level playing field.”

If CenturyLink’s plan to merge with Level 3 Communications is approved, the combined carrier will get 76% of its revenue from the enterprise and wholesale market, said a Level 3 executive. After the CenturyLink, Level 3 merger, the combined company would be the most heavily business-focused of the nation’s five largest service providers by a long shot, according to data presented by Level 3 Chief Financial Officer Sunit Patel at the Bank of America Merrill Lynch Leveraged Finance Conference, which was also webcast. AT&T would be in the number two spot, with 17% of its revenue coming from enterprise and wholesale, followed by Verizon and Charter who are tied at 13% and Comcast, which gets just 6% of its revenues from the enterprise and wholesale market.

The combined Level 3/ CenturyLink enterprise and wholesale markets “really becomes the prime business of the company moving forward,” said Patel. At $32.5 billion for 2015, AT&T would still have the largest overall enterprise and wholesale revenues after a CenturyLink/ Level 3 merger. But the merged company would be in the number two spot with combined CenturyLink enterprise and wholesale revenues of $18.8 billion, followed by Verizon, Charter and Comcast.

Two key telecommunication associations – USTelecom and NTCA—The Rural Broadband Association – have asked the Federal Communications Commission for additional Universal Service funding. The requests come in the wake of the revelation that more rate-of-return carriers than anticipated had opted for A-CAM Universal Service funding based on a cost model, creating a budget shortfall of $1.6 billion over a 10-year period. At the time this news came to light, the FCC asked for input from stakeholders about how to address the shortfall.

A-CAM is an acronym for “alternative Connect America model.” Carriers opting to receive Universal Service funding based on that model also must commit to building out broadband to customers that cannot get broadband today in conformance with strict targets and deadlines that are more aggressive than those for carriers not opting for A-CAM funding. In separate filings, USTelecom and NTCA asked the FCC to make up the $160 million annual funding shortfall in A-CAM Universal Service support for the next 10 years.

Facebook has achieved broadband transmission of 20 Gbps over an eight-mile distance using millimeter wave technology. The Facebook millimeter wave broadband wireless technology could be used for several different applications, eventually including connecting the company’s Aquila communications drones with ground stations, the blog post said. Other applications might include providing backhaul connectivity for Facebook’s OpenCellular wireless access initiative or as backup to free space optical communications. “One of our goals is to provide connectivity in areas without traditional infrastructure and reliable power sources,” said Facebook.

A good idea for small carriers pursuing gigabit networks comes from 11 carriers in South Carolina. The carriers, who already work together on the Spirit Communications statewide fiber network, have undertaken a new initiative dubbed GigUP South Carolina that aims to spur economic development through gigabit network deployment. An impressive 60% of South Carolina residents and 80% of businesses in the state have gigabit service available to them, according to the Spirit Communications GigUP web page. Those are important numbers for other small telcos to consider as they pursue gigabit networks. Rather than touting just your own capabilities, wouldn’t it be a good idea to see what other carriers in your state or your part of the state are doing and consider banding together to determine the combined achievements you could highlight?

This week brings two more announcements involving small town gigabit networks. One comes from LS Networks, a company formed by a consortium of electric cooperatives, which will offer broadband at speeds between 100 Mbps and 1 Gbps in rural Maupin (OR). The other announcement comes from MaxxSouth Broadband, a company that operates fiber-to-the-home networks in three Mississippi markets and plans to launch gigabit service in Oxford (MI) – a college town with a population of 20,000. Smaller town gigabit networks are more common than one might expect, because many of the smaller carriers that serve those towns had previously deployed fiber-to-the-home networks, which in many cases can be easily upgraded to support gigabit service. Neither the LS Networks nor the MaxxSouth Broadband announcement today involved a network upgrade, however. Both companies are making their initial fiber-to-the-home deployments in the announced communities.

The Federal Communications Commission plans to vote in Nov on a proposal for a Universal Service/ Connect America mobility fund that FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler shared with other commission officials recently. A fact sheet about the FCC mobility fund proposal released to the public raises some important questions about the fund and how it would be implemented. Also last week, Chairman Wheeler circulated a proposal regarding data and VoLTE roaming within the commission – another proposal scheduled for a vote next month by the full commission.

One question I would ask about that is whether there are any currently subsidized areas that are high-cost for the landline provider but not for the wireless carrier. If so, it would appear that a wireless carrier who doesn’t really need funding might still get it if all of the 4G LTE carriers serving an area were previously collecting high-cost funding. That carrier would have to underbid the other carriers to continue to collect funding, but might not actually need funding at all. It also isn’t clear whether the proposed budget is sufficient to achieve what the FCC wants to accomplish, as the budget seems to have been calculated based on historical support for wireless carriers, rather than on an examination of the funding needed to achieve program goals.

AT&T launched what the company says is the first LTE-M enabled commercial site, which will support an Internet of Things pilot involving several companies, including PepsiCo, Samsung and others. “We think LTE-M will be the workhorse for low-power wide area” connectivity, said Cameron Coursey, AT&T vice president of product development for IoT solutions, in an interview.

So what is LTE-M? The term low-power wide area (LPWA) is a category of wireless communications optimized for IoT applications. Low power requirements are important to IoT because long battery life is critical. AT&T claims battery life of up to 10 years for some types of LTE-M devices. Excellent range also is important because IoT devices may be installed in remote areas. According to an AT&T white paper, LTE-M offers seven times the range of traditional LTE communications. As Coursey explained, another way of describing this is to say that LTE-M provides 15 decibels better coverage, which means that it also does a better job of penetrating walls and floors – another important capability for IoT applications, where wireless sensors or other devices may have to be located in basements or other environments that can be challenging for traditional cellular communications.