Wireless Internet

On February 28, 2024, ten entities filed a petition for rulemaking asking the Federal Communications Commission to provide an option for 5/5 megahertz broadband networks in paired 896-901 MHz and 935-940 MHz spectrum (900 MHz band).  In this Public Notice, the FCC's Wireless Telecommunications Bureau seeks comment on the Petition. In particular, the FCC seeks comment on whether existing rules would be sufficient to protect incumbent narrowband operations from interference, as well as whether those rules would be sufficient to protect operations in adjacent spectrum bands. 

A private equity firm based in Canada may prevent a lot of rural US Midwesterners from getting fiber broadband. But that’s OK with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) because it’s all perfectly legal. Mercury Broadband, which is majority owned by the private equity firm Northleaf Capital Partners, has claimed it covers vast swathes of Michigan, Kansas and Indiana with its fixed wireless access (FWA) broadband service.

In a survey of 8,000 broadband customers nationwide, Parks Associates found that FWA cellular wireless customers feel better about the price they pay for broadband than subscribers of other technologies. The survey asked broadband customers to react to the following statement: “I receive Internet service at a fair cost / good price”. The response by technology was as follows:

Choice Broadband, the wireless broadband branch of the Navajo Tribal Utility Authority, and Tarana Wireless have officially launched a new ngFWA broadband network in Tohatchi, New Mexico. This is the first of many upgraded networks that will equip residents and businesses of Navajo Nation, the largest indigenous tribe in the United States, with reliable, high-speed internet. In Tohatchi, rocky terrain and significant distances between homes makes trenching fiber for broadband access extremely costly.

If Congress doesn’t act soon, the Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP) is expected to run out of money by the end of April, leaving millions of Americans without discounted internet services.

There are growing concerns among some lobbyists that 5G network operators will be able to use network slicing technology to evade the Federal Communications Commission's (FCC) proposed net neutrality rules.

Wireless internet service providers (WISPs) hit a homerun when federal officials clarified that areas covered by broadband running on Citizens Broadband Radio Service (CBRS) spectrum could be marked as served for purposes of BEAD. Many folks in the fiber broadband community are not familiar with wireless internet service and the rules regarding wireless spectrum.

The Michigan High Speed Internet Office kicked off its BEAD challenge process this week, and it’s doing everything in its power to scrub the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) map of locations where providers are overstating their coverage. The state is receiving a historic $1.56 billion BEAD funding allocation—the fourth highest in the nation.

For rural operators, fixed wireless access (FWA) technologies have served well to "edge-out" and deliver services to areas that can't be reached by cable and fiber networks cost-effectively.

Consumer fixed wireless (FWA) access growth using 5G networks has been one of the bright spots of the move to the new cellular standard. Both T-Mobile and Verizon in the United States have seen success offering the latest wireless technology to replace cable internet for the public stateside and it is spreading across the world. The reason?