Howard Buskirk

AT&T added 656,000 net postpaid phone customers in Q4, closing the year with 69.6 million subscribers, it said Wednesday. Verizon reported 217,000 net post-paid phone adds Tuesday (see 2301240053). T-Mobile said before its release it added 927,000 postpaid phone net adds in Q4. The earnings report sent AT&T’s stock price up 6.34% to close at $20.42.

Barriers remain to wide-scale launch of open radio access networks, said NTIA Administrator Alan Davidson and other speakers at an NTIA listening session Tuesday as the agency seeks advice on a $1.5 billion federal fund to spur ORAN. The fund was part of the $54.2 billion Chips and Science Act signed into law in August (see 2208090062). NTIA is also taking written comments, due Friday in docket NTIA-2022-0003.

Verizon returned to positive postpaid phone adds in Q4, with net adds of 217,000, after losing subscribers in recent quarters. It reported retail postpaid net adds of 1.4 million, its “best single quarter performance in seven years.” Analysts said questions remain as Verizon fights for customers with AT&T, which reports Wednesday, and T-Mobile, which reports next week.

Reply comments largely tracked initial comments on an FCC NPRM on proposed rules for making the emergency alert system and wireless emergency alerts more secure (see 2212270048). FCC commissioners approved an NPRM 4-0 in October (see 2210270058). Replies were due Monday in docket 15-94. “As demonstrated throughout the record, the Commission should not adopt the cybersecurity proposals in the NPRM,” said CTIA: Participating carriers “implement WEA-specific technical standards and have robust cyber risk management plans that cover WEA operations, making the proposed certification requirement unnecessary.” The Competitive Carriers Association agreed with CTIA that the record is clear. “Instead, the Commission should promote the success and security of the WEA program in other ways including through collaborative multistakeholder security improvement processes,” CCA said: “Imposition of onerous new regulatory burdens that make WEA less flexible, more difficult, and disproportionately more costly for smaller and regional carriers to administer may potentially undermine participation in the WEA program.” USTelecom also urged a light-handed approach by the FCC. “Rather than create a new regime, the Commission should find ways to achieve its goals within the context of a harmonized, whole-of-government approach, in coordination with the Department of Homeland Security Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency and other government partners, as well as industry,” USTelecom said. The group noted CISA is already looking at when incidents should have to be reported: “Additional requirements, at this time, before the dust has settled, risk further fragmenting reporting requirements across the federal government, frustrating the Commission’s interest in working with its federal partners.” Opposition wasn't unanimous. The FCC won’t impose a significant burden on providers by requiring annual security certifications, said the Center for Internet Security. “The required risk management plan consists of nothing more than implementing [security standards] in a timely manner as part of normal operations,” the center said: “There is essentially no cost associated with implementing these controls, and a requirement for annual self-certification to the FCC would likely involve at most an on-line submission or completion of a two-page template with check-off boxes.” Broadcasters and cable companies also raised concerns. “It is imperative … that any changes to the EAS rules are proportionate to the needs of the EAS ecosystem and consistent with evolutions in broadcast infrastructure,” said Gray Television: “Gray shares the concern of several commenters that many of the proposals in the NPRM are not justified and could prove counter-productive by imposing unnecessarily burdensome obligations on broadcasters. At the same time, Gray wholeheartedly endorses the proposal of the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) to permit EAS Participants to virtualize certain elements of their EAS operations.” As comments show, “the Commission should take care when creating any new EAS monitoring or reporting requirements to ensure that the new rules are clearly necessary and that EAS Participants continue to have sufficient time to evaluate any potential issues regarding failure of, or unauthorized access to, their EAS system and facilities,” said Altice USA: “Any new rules also should allow the greatest possible flexibility in cybersecurity policies and practices so that Participants can tailor them to the unique needs of their networks.”

The Wireless ISP Association’s message to NTIA is simple: Without WISPs, the U.S. won’t connect everyone everywhere to broadband, said WISPA President David Zumwalt in an interview Monday. WISPA is working to overcome NTIA reluctance to fund projects that rely partly on using unlicensed spectrum, he said. Zumwalt is a former WISP executive who took the helm at WISPA last year.

The FCC is investigating the latest data breach at T-Mobile, an agency spokesperson said Friday. T-Mobile reported in an SEC filing Thursday that someone started obtaining data through a single application programming interface (API) starting Nov. 25. T-Mobile said it became aware of the breach Jan. 5. The perpetrator accessed billing addresses, email, phone numbers and other limited data covering about 37 million customers, the company said.

The U.S. Export-Import Bank said Thursday the U.S. doesn’t have comparative leadership in telecom equipment manufacturing and agreed to move forward on a long-term project to restore it. The Ex-Im board supported 4-1 a policy change to potentially provide additional support for gear made outside the U.S., to better compete with China, and to promote open radio access networks.

The FCC released a long-awaited order and Further NPRM Wednesday on the future of the 4.9 GHz band. Commissioners approved the item 4-0 as expected (see 2211090036). Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel circulated an order in October establishing a national band manager, which would govern the leasing process in the band, with an accompanying FNPRM asking for feedback on details of how the leasing process could work (see 2210260064). None of the commissioners attached statements.

FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel isn’t signaling what the FCC may do following up on last year’s receiver performance notice of inquiry. Initially, some experts speculated the FCC may focus on a policy statement rather than rules (see 2208050044). At an FCBA webinar Tuesday, an aide to Commissioner Nathan Simington said the commissioner wants a follow-up to the notice (see 2301170072).

American Doreen Bogdan-Martin's election as ITU secretary-general was critical to the future of secure communications, FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel said Tuesday in a speech at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. CSIS plans to release a paper Friday on “The Strategic Imperative of U.S. Leadership in Next-Generation Networks: Lessons from Europe’s Stumbles and Implications for the Future of Free-Market Democracies,” which Rosenworcel hailed Tuesday.