Wireless Telecommunications

The Federal Communications Commission's Wireline Competition Bureau (Bureau) announced updated minimum service standards for Lifeline-supported services as required by the 2016 Lifeline Order. The 2016 Lifeline Order established minimum service standards for certain Lifeline-supported services and established annual increases in those standards either in the FCC’s rules or pursuant to calculations set out in the Order and the FCC’s rules.  Accordingly, the Bureau announced the newly calculated minimum service standard for fixed broadband data usage allowance, which is the same as the curren

Chances looked pretty good that a class action suit would be filed after T-Mobile said the “price lock guarantee” that many customers thought they had signed up for wasn’t actually a lifetime guarantee. Indeed, four named plaintiffs filed a complaint in U.S.

Alan Davidson, Administrator of the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA), said that the agency is going to put out a guidelines document in a couple of weeks that will outline the use of alternate technologies in Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment (BEAD) projects.  NTIA stated from the beginning that fiber is its preferred technology for BEAD projects. But in cases where that isn’t economical, other technologies such as licensed wireless or coaxial cable may be approved for BEAD funds.

Wireless Internet Service Providers (WISPS) are making moves to either invest in their own fiber network or share an open access network because they see fiber as an opportunity to grow. Mike Wendy, communications director with the trade group Wireless Internet Service Providers Association (WISPA) said that anecdotally he’d estimate about 30% of WISPA members are doing fiber-to-the-home (FTTH). One WISP that is doing both fiber and fixed wireless access (FWA) is Cajun Broadband in Louisiana, a small provider with about 2,000 subscribers.

Charter Communications reported financial and operating results for the three and six months ended June 30, 2024. Charter had 29.6 million residential customer relationships, excluding mobile-only relationships.

A new broadband trend has quietly entered the market. Both Starlink and T-Mobile are advertising broadband that can be used practically anywhere and are aiming new products at campers, hikers, and others that go to remote locations. According to T-Mobile this is a huge market, with 15 million households that take RV trips each year and 59 people who go camping. T-Mobile says that 40% of these folks would like to be able to do some work while camping.

To hear well-known Wall Street analyst Craig Moffett tell it, Verizon spent a mind-boggling $52 billion on C-band spectrum which “isn’t very good” and fixing its 5G coverage problem is going to require even more money—“lots of money.” That was one of the hottest and most publicized take-aways from Verizon’s Q2 earnings call. While Moffett described Verizon’s overall wireless Q2 results as “fair,” the gist of his report focused on “Verizon’s C-band problem,” one that he said will take a whole lot of densification to rectify.

US senators wrote to Jonathan Kanter, Assistant Attorney General for the Antitrust Division of the Department of Justice (DOJ) and Jessica Rosenworcel, Chair of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), urging them to closely scrutinize T-Mobile’s proposed acquisition of UScellular. Since T-Mobile acquired Sprint in 2020, just three carriers have dominated the national mobile wireless service market.

In a ruling that quickly caused shock waves in the U.S. telecommunications industry, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled, 9-7, that the Universal Service Fund (USF) is unconstitutional as currently administered. The Court explained its ruling by saying that the USF is a “misbegotten tax” that violates Article I, § 1 of the Constitution, which states that all legislative powers are given to Congress, which is made up of the Senate and the House of Representatives.

After the Fifth Circuit ruled, 9-7, that the Universal Service Fund is unconstitutional as currently administered, we've seen the following responses.