Agenda

The Kentucky Wired plan has been delayed and survived a near-death experience during the 2018 legislative session, but the “middle mile” broadband network plan now intends to roll out within 18 to 24 months with its original intent and focus – putting gigabit-speed internet service nodes into every commonwealth county. Originally, the 120-county Kentucky Wired program was to be complete by September 2018 at a cost of around $324 million, most of that coming from Australia’s Macquarie Capital in a public-private partnership deal.

I have spent the last two weeks or so doing a deep dive on what, exactly does 5G actually do — with a particular emphasis on the recently released 3GPP standard (Release 15) that everyone is celebrating as the first real industry standard for 5G. My conclusion is that while the Emperor is not naked, that is one Hell of a skimpy thong he’s got on. More precisely, the bunch of different things that people talk about when they

T-Mobile and Sprint are small players in a wireless market where being small makes it hard to survive. One expert told me that if the deal is framed as a pairing of two of the four national wireless carriers, it has little chance of making it past the regulators. That’s why T-Mobile CEO John Legere and Sprint executive chairman Marcelo Claure have been trying to describe the combined company as a new kind of entity that sells not only wireless service, but potentially home broadband service and a host of media in the future.

With Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy announcing he will retire come July 31, the high court could be headed for a major shift as the president will look to solidify the body’s conservative majority. Here’s a look at how some of his opinions have shaped the technology and telecommunications spheres — and what his absence could mean going forward. A perennial swing vote in his more than 20 years on the high court, Justice Kennedy served as the deciding vote on numerous high-profile legal battles.

Critics of the Sinclair-Tribune merger continue to try to get Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai to delay a decision on the deal until a federal appeals court rules on the UHF discount that made the combo possible. Common Cause and Public Knowledge officially petitioned the FCC to "hold the proceeding in abeyance," which is just legalese for "hold off," pointing out that "the Court’s consideration of the UHF Reinstatement Order has direct bearing on whether the proposed acquisition of Tribune Media Company (“Tribune”) by Sinclair Broadcast Group, Inc.

The higher speeds of fifth-generation (5G) wireless networks will enable connected cars, telemedicine, and the broader internet of things. Preparing for next-generation networks and their many applications will require upgrading existing wired infrastructure and freeing up wireless spectrum.

The New York attorney general’s office is investigating how T-Mobile’s  $26 billion deal to buy Sprint could impact competition in the pay-as-you-go wireless market, according to people familiar with the matter. Representatives from the state attorney general’s office have contacted companies that sell prepaid phone services in recent weeks with questions about pricing and customers. Dozens of other state attorneys general are part of the probe. Prepaid subscribers don’t sign long-term contracts and instead pay up front each month.

In the wake of the government’s setback in the AT&T/Time Warner case, it’s natural enough to ask: what will be that case’s impact on the government’s ability to challenge vertical mergers in the future? I think the answer is “very little if anything.” The government could take steps to build an even stronger foundation for the review of vertical mergers in the future. Here are some suggestions. First, the current 1984 guidelines on the treatment of vertical (technically, non-horizontal) transactions should be withdrawn. Second, new vertical guidelines should be created.

Executives from T-Mobile and Sprint pitched their $26 billion merger to the Senate's antitrust subcommittee, saying that the combination would give their companies the ability to develop increased capabilities and catch up with bigger wireless carriers. “When we do this, AT&T and Verizon will be forced to react and follow our lead or we will happily take their customers and give them more value and better price,” T-Mobile CEO John Legere said.  “Trust me, the New T-Mobile will not stop, we will be relentless,” he added.