Spectrum

T-Mobile CEO John Legere and Sprint executive chairman Marcelo Claure will pitch their companies' $26 billion merger before Congress, hoping to ease lawmaker's concerns about wireless competition while pushing the tie-up as a key part of the nation's 5G quest. It's a key test for a deal that would reduce the number of major national wireless carriers from four to three. The deal's opponents are fighting an uphill battle against a generally business-friendly administration, but the upcoming hearings let them air their concerns and turn up the heat.

New York’s Public Service Commission has approved T-Mobile's acquisition of Sprint with some conditions related to jobs and benefits provided to employees in the fourth most populated state in the country. The state agency determined that the merger is “not expected to cause interruptions or changes in service for existing Sprint wireline customers.” Moreover, as a condition for approval, the commission is requiring the company to continue to operate its relay call center in Syracuse and honor existing contracts until they expire.

T-Mobile’s pricing is under scrutiny as both federal and state regulators continue to evaluate its proposed merger with Sprint. CEO John Legere recently sent a letter to Federal Communications Commission chair Ajit Pai pledging not to raise prices for three years on any of its current mobile plans if the merger is approved. Critics said perhaps T-Mobile’s pledge was leaving wiggle room for higher-priced, new 5G plans. Legere said emphatically that was not the case. 

I’m constantly meeting with the National Association of Tower Erectors (NATE) and its members for a very practical reason. Actually, make that two practical reasons: One is the race to 5G and the other is the broadcaster repack stemming from the FCC's incentive auction.

The Federal Communications Commission recently proposed a new rule that will allow unlicensed users to access the 6 GHz band — a frequency on the radio spectrum — for Wi-Fi connectivity, causing a disagreement between broadband companies that would benefit from the rule and utility companies that currently rely on the frequency to communicate. The FCC reserves portions of the 6 GHz band for communications between licensed electric, water and natural gas utilities companies.

Making 400 MHz of mid-band spectrum available for commercial 5G networks will add $274 billion to the U.S. economy and create 1.3 million new jobs, according to new research from Analysis Group. Key findings include:

In 2008, Northern Michigan University (NMU) elected to tackle the lack of adequate broadband access in its community head-on. With over 8,000 notebook computers assigned to its students, NMU launched an aggressive plan to construct the nation’s first Educational Broadband Service (EBS) WiMAX network.