Mike Dano

 The analysts at Oppenheimer raised their capital expenditure estimates for both AT&T and Verizon for 2018, noting that both carriers are spending slightly more on their network efforts than the analysts had initially expected. The analysts also lowered their capex estimate for Sprint for the current quarter to just $1 billion, down from $1.5 billion, but the firm didn’t change its estimates for Sprint’s total 2018 capex spending.

AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson said that the company’s work to upgrade its network with FirstNet’s 700 MHz spectrum will position it to move to 5G network technology via a software upgrade. “To build out this FirstNet capability, this first responder network, we have to go climb every cell tower. Literally, we have to go touch every cell tower over the next couple of years,” explained Stephenson. "As we're touching those cell towers, every single one of them, we have a lot of spectrum in inventory.

If regulators approve their merger proposal, Sprint and T-Mobile promise to offer in-home internet services to roughly 9.5 million American households by 2024, or about 13% of the country. The company said that figure would give it a market penetration of around 7%, making it the nation’s fourth largest in-home ISP based on current subscriber counts.

[Commentary] In a report on the topic, the analysts at New Street Research laid out a pretty compelling argument for how ISPs will be able to cash in on real-time sports betting by providing high-speed links to gamblers looking for an edge. “Placing a bet does not require a lot of bandwidth.

[Commentary] The U.S. wireless industry is now facing its own version of a Cambridge Analytica-style public relations disaster.  Specifically, a hack into the website of a company called LocationSmart reportedly allowed anyone to obtain real-time location information for any mobile device from AT&T, Verizon, T-Mobile and Sprint.

One of the federal agencies that must sign off on the proposed merger between Sprint and T-Mobile is the Committee on Foreign Investment in the US (CFIUS), and that agency has become a more important factor in recent international merger-and-acquisition action.  Indeed, under the Trump administration and led by Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, the CFIUS played a critical role in ultimately blocking Broadcom’s attempted hostile takeover of Qualcomm over national security concerns.

The Utilities Technology Council, a trade group representing hundreds of US utility companies, is urging federal agencies to make sure that power and electricity providers retain control of interference-free spectrum so they can continue to operate their own private wireless networks. Utilities Technology Council noted that part of the reason utilities need their own licensed spectrum is because “utilities have built out and maintained their own ICT networks, rather than outsourcing service from commercial telecommunications carriers.

T-Mobile appears to be rallying former regulators and legislators to its side, while some congressional Democrats and some public interest groups are formulating their arguments against the deal. Sitting in the middle are the Federal Communications Commission and Department of Justice, which must sign off on the transaction. It’s unclear how those agencies might act on the deal: Although most observers see the Trump administration as favorable to big businesses, the DoJ filed a lawsuit against AT&T’s attempts to purchase Time Warner.

Windstream is in the process of deploying Radwin’s fixed wireless equipment in two states covering thousands of potential customers, and is considering expanding that effort to additional customers in additional states. 

T-Mobile executives for years have downplayed the opportunity for fixed wireless technology to replace wired internet connections. But with the proposed deal to swallow Sprint, T-Mobile executives said that the merger would position the newly-combined company to offer internet services to homes, offices and other locations—a move that would put the company into direct competition with the likes of Comcast, Charter, Verizon and other wired internet service providers.