Wireless Telecommunications

AT&T, the latest to retire old mostly-unlimited plans, did so only 20 months after the June 2018 introduction of its previous offers. The new ones – announced days before the Federal Trade Commission fined AT&T $60 million for not disclosing speed limits on plans sold five years ago as unlimited – require factoring in the same three variables as the other nationwide carriers’ unlimited-ish deals.

The House Commerce Committee's Subcommittee on Communications and Technology advanced nine bills in a markup session Nov 14. Eight of the bills moved with little controversey:

To gain federal approval of their $26 billion merger, T-Mobile and Sprint have spent years promising a universe of incredible benefits, from lower prices to better rural wireless coverage. So far, agencies like the Federal Communications Commission have been more than happy to believe them. But US telecom history suggests you shouldn’t believe a word coming out of their mouths.

The C-Band is a slice of spectrum that in the US that lies between 3.7 GHz and 4.2 GHz. When first authorized for commercial satellite use back in the day, these frequencies were considered far too high to have much value for terrestrial use.

As America races to deploy next-generation wireless technology, several arms of the government are at odds over how to allocate space on the radio-frequency spectrum for 5G. The Federal Communications Commission, which sets policy for spectrum licenses, has openly fought with the Commerce Department, which houses agencies that use spectrum for weather satellites that are crucial to predicting hurricanes. The departments of Transportation, Energy and Education have also objected to various plans to open up airwaves for faster networks.

Speculation is at a fever pitch surrounding Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai’s pending decision on how to sell the 5G-friendly airwaves in the so-called C-band, with many suspecting the FCC may take up an item on the matter at its Dec. 12 meeting.

Internet usage is no longer a good deal in the US. In France, consumers pay about 90 euros (or $100) a month for a combination of broadband access, cable television and two mobile phones. A similar package in the United States usually costs more than twice as much. Many Americans have a choice between only two internet providers. A few companies have grown so large that they have the power to keep prices high and wages low.

The Federal Trade Commission announced a $60-million settlement from wireless giant AT&T for not playing straight with the public. The issue is "throttling" and wireless companies intentionally slowing down your speed to near unusable levels if you consume too much of its "unlimited" data. AT&T said it was sorry, that the practice was way in the past – dating back to 2011 – and that it ha

Eleven House Commerce Committee Democratic Reps sent a letter to Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai expressing growing concern that the FCC is failing to protect consumers’ privacy by refusing to hold wireless carriers accountable for unauthorized disclosures of consumers’ real-time location data. Over a year ago, in May 2018, it was reported that major wireless carriers were selling consumers’ real-time location data to third-party data aggregators.  This location data was then easily purchased by other private companies, such as bounty hunters.

The Department of Justice announced that it has filed an amended complaint that adds Arkansas as a plaintiff in the suit and proposed settlement relating to the proposed merger of T-Mobile and Sprint.Arkansas joins Colorado, Florida, Kansas, Louisiana, Nebraska, Ohio, Oklahoma and South Dakota in the settlement, which is designed to launch Dish Network as a fourth nationwide provider of retail mobile wireless services.  In addition to protecting competition, the proposed settlement will expedite the availability of high-quality 5G networks for American consumers and entrepreneurs.