Wireless Telecommunications

To sell regulators on their $26 billion mega merger, T-Mobile and Sprint executives told anyone who’d listen that the deal would provide near-miraculous benefits. But economists warned that US telecom merger promises are historically meaningless, and the reduction in overall competitors would — sooner or later — result in higher prices and job cuts.

AT&T struck a deal to carry Dish Network’s existing cellphone customers over its wireless network, bringing two erstwhile rivals closer as they each pursue more advanced 5G technology. The nonexclusive deal would pay AT&T at least $5 billion over 10 years to support Dish’s consumer cellphone brands, which include Boost Mobile, Ting, and Republic Wireless. The agreement also provides an avenue for AT&T to use some Dish wireless spectrum licenses to support both companies’ customers.

Federal Communications Commission Acting Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel announced that the items below are tentatively on the agenda for the August Open Commission Meeting scheduled for Thursday, August 5, 2021:

Dish Chief Commercial Officer Stephen Bye gave updates on the company's 5G network progress at the Federal Communications Commission Open RAN Solutions Showcase. Bye touted Dish’s operations support system and business support system, which the company has said it is getting from Amazon Web Services.

AT&T now covers more than 250 million people across the US with its flavor of 5G, which includes low-band spectrum in large parts of the country. It reached that goal a full six months earlier than originally planned. The company uses dynamic spectrum sharing, which allowed it to speed its 5G deployment by putting it on top of its LTE network. Its millimeter wave (mmWave) technology, which it calls 5G Plus, is now in parts of 38 cities and 20 venues, with plans to be in parts of 40 cities and 40 venues by the end of 2021.

A few years ago I was actually the first at the Federal Communications Commission to speak about the power of opening radio access networks (Open RAN), and we’ve come a long way since then. There’s momentum building in this agency and across government. One company has already made it into the history books as the first to launch an Open RAN network—and it is winning customers every day. One nationwide provider right here in the United States has committed to building a nationwide 5G network using Open RAN by 2023.

Federal Communications Commission Acting Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel proposed establishing Raleigh (NC) and Boston (MA) as innovation zones to allow for advanced wireless communications and network innovation and research. These designations would, among other positive impacts, help spur the development and integration of 5G network technologies and open radio access networks (Open RAN). Innovation zones are FCC-designated, city-scale test beds managed by the National Science Foundation’s Platforms for Advanced Wireless Research.

The Federal Communications Commission adopted an Order that incorporates changes to the FCC's rules consistent with the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2021, which appropriated $1.895 billion for the Secure and Trusted Communications Networks Reimbursement Program. The Order is another step in ongoing FCC action to protect the communications networks from those who would harm the United States. Key changes include:

The Federal Communications Commission proposed and sought comment on updated rules for short-range radars in the 60 GHz spectrum band. Cutting edge radar sensing technology has been used to enable in-car radar-based technology to monitor for children left in dangerous, hot cars and touchless control of devices, including to promote accessibility for users with mobility or speech impairments.

AT&T is adding a few more benefits to its $85-per-month top-tier unlimited plan at no added cost. Unlimited Elite subscribers will now truly have access to unlimited high-speed data and will no longer be subject to deprioritization after hitting 100GB of data per month. Customers will also get a bump from 30GB of monthly hotspot data up to 40GB as well as up to 4K video streaming—boosted from a maximum of 1080p.