Wireless Telecommunications

The Federal Communications Commission is following through on its promise to work with corrections and public safety officials to combat contraband cellphones in the nation’s prisons, setting a meeting in Feb to work on the issue.  The meeting among state and federal prisons officials, as well as the U.S. Department of Justice, has been scheduled for February 7 at FCC headquarters.

The Federal Communications Commission released an 8-page document outlining "A Year of Action and Accomplishment" led by FCC Chairman Ajit Pai, broken down into the following categories: bridging the digital divide, promoting innovation and investment, protecting consumers and enhancing public safety, transparency and process reforms, and cutting and modernizing outdated regulations. 

Once the photographer Rian Dundon began seeking out cell-phone towers and transmission boxes, he started seeing them everywhere. Dundon’s resulting series of photographs, taken around the Bay Area, are scant on people, but instead highlight the telecommunications infrastructure–from tall, tree-like towers to clusters of boxes and cables–that have slowly taken over our cities and landscapes. The infrastructure, Dundon says, serves as a way to think about ideas and concepts that are largely invisible, namely, our creeping dependence on constant communication and data usage.

Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai has circulated a draft 2018 Broadband Deployment Report to his colleagues and below are the key findings and additional information:

In a blink of an evolutionary eye, radio and television then give way to smartphones—all of the world’s threats in your hand, all the time. “The smartphone, especially, more than pretty much any other technology that existed before, is constant,” says Barry Glassner, a professor of sociology. “For many people, at least, notifications come and updates come pretty much nonstop. It’s a very far cry from picking up the daily paper,” let alone the town square. 

A second round of broadband infrastructure bills have been introduced by members of the House Communications Subcommittee. The bills focus on supporting innovation and advancing broadband infrastructure in rural communities. 

Sprint renewed a promotion that offers a free year of unlimited service to customers who switch to the carrier and bring their own phone. The promotion is available to anyone who owns any one of roughly three dozen phones, including those from Apple, Samsung, Motorola, Google and others, but it appears mostly slanted toward unhappy Verizon customers. The new promotion is similar to the one Sprint unveiled in the summer of 2017. That promotion, described at the time by Wall Street analyst Craig Moffett as the “most aggressive promotion in the history of the U.S.

Standard Oil and American Telephone and Telegraph were the technological titans of their day, commanding more than 80% of their markets. Today’s tech giants are just as dominant: In the US, Alphabet’sGoogle drives 89% of internet search; 95% of young adults on the internet use a Facebook product; and Amazon now accounts for 75% of electronic book sales.

Apparently, US lawmakers are urging AT&T to cut commercial ties to Chinese phone maker Huawei Technologies Co Ltd and oppose plans by telecom operator China Mobile Ltd to enter the US market because of national security concerns. The warning comes after the administration of President Donald Trump took a harder line on policies initiated by his predecessor Barack Obama on issues ranging from Beijing’s role in restraining North Korea to Chinese efforts to acquire U.S. strategic industries.

A research note from New Street Research throws a little cold water on a potential 5G fixed wireless competitive threat to cable broadband. Verizon is expected to launch the fixed wireless service later in 2018 in 3 to 5 markets, including Sacramento (CA), a Comcast market.