Wireless Telecommunications

Hawaii’s legislators and governor have approved a bill aimed at more closely defining wireless broadband facilities while streamlining the application process for providers. The legislation acknowledges wireless broadband’s necessity and foundational significance to the island state’s economic and technological future.

T-Mobile and Sprint are small players in a wireless market where being small makes it hard to survive. One expert told me that if the deal is framed as a pairing of two of the four national wireless carriers, it has little chance of making it past the regulators. That’s why T-Mobile CEO John Legere and Sprint executive chairman Marcelo Claure have been trying to describe the combined company as a new kind of entity that sells not only wireless service, but potentially home broadband service and a host of media in the future.

Last week, T-Mobile and Sprint officially filed their public interest statement on their merger to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC).

The Long Term Evolution (LTE) mobile device standard used by billions of people was designed to fix many of the security shortcomings in the predecessor standard known as Global System for Mobile communications. Mutual authentication between end users and base stations and the use of proven encryption schemes were two of the major overhauls. Now, researchers are publicly identifying weaknesses in LTE that allow attackers to send nearby users to malicious websites and fingerprint the sites they visit.

AT&T’s wireless customers are expected to pay almost $1 billion in new fees every year to the company after it increased a monthly “administrative fee” this spring in a move that went largely unnoticed, according to an industry analyst. The analyst, Walt Piecyk of BTIG, initially estimated that AT&T could pocket roughly $800 million more annually from the higher fee, before revising that figure upward to $970 million once he learned that the fee hike will also affect tablets and smartwatches on AT&T’s network, not just cellphones.

AT&T has been offering free HBO to its unlimited data customers since 2017, and you might have expected that deal to continue unaltered now that AT&T owns HBO thanks to its acquisition of Time Warner. But AT&T revamped its two unlimited mobile plans this week, and in the process it raised the price for the entry-level plan by $5 a month while removing the free HBO perk.

The Public Utilities Commission of Ohio (PUCO) issued a call for comments regarding AT&T Ohio’s application to discontinue its participation in the federal Lifeline program throughout the majority of its service territory. Comments are due Aug. 31, 2018. Lifeline is a federally funded program that provides monthly discounts to eligible consumers of landline, wireless or broadband services. Customers enrolled in their service provider’s Lifeline program receive a $9.25 monthly credit. On Sept.

The higher speeds of fifth-generation (5G) wireless networks will enable connected cars, telemedicine, and the broader internet of things. Preparing for next-generation networks and their many applications will require upgrading existing wired infrastructure and freeing up wireless spectrum.

The New York attorney general’s office is investigating how T-Mobile’s  $26 billion deal to buy Sprint could impact competition in the pay-as-you-go wireless market, according to people familiar with the matter. Representatives from the state attorney general’s office have contacted companies that sell prepaid phone services in recent weeks with questions about pricing and customers. Dozens of other state attorneys general are part of the probe. Prepaid subscribers don’t sign long-term contracts and instead pay up front each month.

Executives from T-Mobile and Sprint pitched their $26 billion merger to the Senate's antitrust subcommittee, saying that the combination would give their companies the ability to develop increased capabilities and catch up with bigger wireless carriers. “When we do this, AT&T and Verizon will be forced to react and follow our lead or we will happily take their customers and give them more value and better price,” T-Mobile CEO John Legere said.  “Trust me, the New T-Mobile will not stop, we will be relentless,” he added.