Wireless Telecommunications

Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo redoubles her call for the Biden administration to develop a national spectrum strategy in remarks before the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA)'s annual Spectrum Symposium. Putting together such a strategy was a priority for former President Donald Trump, but one that was never fully developed.

With support from the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, Verizon announced a new program to provide access to wireless broadband data and voice services to underserved communities in Massachusetts and eight neighboring states plus the District of Columbia. Verizon will provide turnkey connectivity, devices and other solutions available to eligible families who lack access to the internet.

Shawn Bone, a senior telecommunications counsel for Senate Commerce Chair Maria Cantwell (D-WA), is joining Verizon on October 11 as its director of federal regulatory public policy. Bone, who has worked for Senate Commerce Democrats for more than nine years, will focus on broadband at Verizon.

Nokia is working with non-profit DigitalC to deliver much-needed high-speed internet connectivity to underserved homes in Cleveland (OH) using its Digital Automation Cloud (DAC) end-to-end private wireless solution. The deployment of Nokia DAC will allow DigitalC to leverage private LTE technology to provide affordable, reliable and high-speed internet access to thousands of people around Cleveland.

When you think of Verizon and fiber, you tend to think of Fios, which is a fiber-based brand in the Northeast US that bundles connectivity, voice and video. But Verizon has other fiber as well, including long-haul routes, and the company is currently deploying lots of fiber as part of its 5G roll-outs. As part of its 5G/fiber rollouts, Verizon is also looking to help close the digital divide. And it sees fixed wireless access (FWA) as a technology to help with that.

Project Taara’s wireless optical communications links are now beaming light-speed connectivity from Brazzaville (Republic of Congo) to Kinshasa (Democratic Republic of Congo). In the same way traditional fibre uses light to carry data through cables in the ground, Taara’s wireless optical communication links use very narrow, invisible beams of light to deliver fiber-like speeds. To create a link, Taara’s terminals search for each other, detect the other’s beam of light, and lock-in like a handshake to create a high-bandwidth connection.

The next US mid-band spectrum auction is set to start on October 5 for spectrum in the 3.45 GHz range. The deadline to resubmit incomplete applications and upfront payments was September 7, so the Federal Communications Commission should soon be releasing a final list of participating bidders. AT&T, Dish and T-Mobile all submitted applications, while Verizon was on the incomplete list as of the initial filing deadline. AT&T appears to be favored to spend the most on 3.45 GHz spectrum, followed by T-Mobile and Dish.

Duane Stanley, an official with the North Dakota Attorney General’s Office, is the latest to sound the alarm about a wireless industry plan to sunset its legacy 3G network in the coming months.

Comcast Chief Financial Officer Mike Cavanagh reported that subscriber additions for Comcast’s cable business—which consists of the Xfinity-branded broadband, pay-TV, landline and mobile phone units—slowed at the end of August 2021, and lags behind the same period in 2019 before the pandemic. Cable peers, such as Charter Communications, Altice USA and Cable One, also experienced stock share-price selloffs. During the height of stay-at-home pandemic orders at the beginning of 2020, companies such as Comcast and Charter added record numbers of broadband customers as people

Billions in federal funding have been made available to expand broadband access since the COVID-19 pandemic began, but Wireless Internet Service Providers Association (WISPA) CEO Claude Aiken argued some of that money is being wasted on wireline rollouts in areas already covered by fixed wireless access service.