AT&T selling a minority stake in DirecTV to TPG (see our report here, news release here) drew speculation about the video business that's being spun off eventually being combined with Dish Network. Meanwhile, AT&T told us it will file satellite license transfer applications with the FCC to assign operations to DirecTV. A Barclays analyst asked during a Thursday conference call if the TPV deal has any provision about how the ownership of the entity would be shared in any future DirecTV-Dish. “There's a lot of different terms and conditions in it and a lot of different scenarios that might be out there, none of which I'm going to talk about,” AT&T CEO John Stankey said: “If something else occurs, we get 70% of ultimately the value,” the stake the telco keeps. Dish Chairman Charlie Ergen thinks a future DirecTV-Dish is “inevitable” (see 2011060043). A Dish spokesperson declined to comment. The transaction “is better than it seems for AT&T, but only if there is a subsequent value-enhancing transaction (like a merger with Dish),” theorized New Street Friday. “We are confident that this transaction was set up as a precursor to a second transaction, presumably a combination with Dish.” The deal foretells “more wheeling and dealing ahead,” likely putting DirecTV’s “popular but costly” NFL Sunday Ticket service "into play," wrote GlobalData senior analyst Tammy Parker.

AT&T will spin off its U.S. video distribution business in a $7.8 billion deal with TPG that will give the investment firm a 30% stake to AT&T's 70%. The telco said Thursday New DirecTV -- made up of its DirecTV, AT&T TV and U-verse video services -- will have a five-person board: two people each from AT&T and TPG, plus the new company's CEO, Bill Morrow, who currently heads AT&T's U.S. video unit. The transaction is expected to close in the second half of the year. This "aligns with our investment and operational focus on connectivity and content, and the strategic businesses that are key to growing our customer relationships across 5G wireless, fiber and HBO Max," said AT&T CEO John Stankey. He added it's in line with plans to invest in growth areas, maintain its dividend, focus on debt reduction "and restructure or monetize non-core assets." The spinoff "provides the flexibility and dedicated management focus needed to continue ... managing the business for profitability." “We certainly didn’t expect this outcome” when AT&T closed on DirecTV in 2015, Stankey said in a call with analysts. He said it lines up with “current realities of the market" and AT&T’s focus on connectivity and content, and improves the “overall growth profile” of the remaining core business. The carrier had strong wireless subscriber and fiber customer growth in 2020, and HBO Max adoption is surpassing expectations, he said. Asked about a similar sale of AT&T’s Latin American video assets, Stankey said the company has looked at opportunities for monetizing them and “we’ll continue to look at them … if the right opportunity popped up.” AT&T said it will receive $7.6 billion in cash from New DirecTV at close, which it will use to pay down debt, and the spinoff will assume $200 million in existing DirecTV debt. It said TPG will pay $1.8 billion in cash to New DirecTV for its stake, and New DirecTV has secured $6.2 billion in bank group funding. TPG Principal John Flynn said it anticipates growing New DirecTV's streaming video service while continuing DBS service to subscribers. AT&T said it and DirecTV will have a commercial agreement to continue offering bundled pay-TV service for its wireless and internet customers. Analysts said AT&T is under pressure to pay down debt after its big spending in the C-band auction (see 2102250046).

The wireless industry seems "unwilling to accept" the FCC's repeated conclusion that fixed satellite service earth stations can share spectrum with upper microwave flexible-use service (UMFUS), such as the proposed FSS allocation in the 51.4-52.4 GHz band, the Satellite Industry Association said in RM-11871 Wednesday. It replied to CTIA's opposition to SIA's spectrum allocation petition (see 2102090050). Existing restrictions on placing FSS gateway earth stations in spectrum shared with UMFUS shows that CTIA's claim the satellite industry wants unrestricted FSS deployments in the 51.4-52.4 GHz band is groundless, SIA said. FSS operators "urgently" need that millimeter-wave spectrum for more capacity to support the growing demand for broadband satellite services, it said. CTIA didn't comment. Amazon's Kuiper said the spectrum will help fix a V-band FSS uplink/downlink "imbalance," with 4.5 GHz available for FSS downlinks in the 37.5-42 GHz band but only 4 GHz in the 47.2-50.2 and 50.4-51.4 GHz bands for uplinks.

President Joe Biden was expected to have signed off Wednesday night on an executive order aimed at improving the resiliency of the supply chain for semiconductors and other “essential products.” The EO would direct federal agencies to conduct a 100-day comprehensive review of U.S. supply chains for semiconductors and three other products, the White House said. It would direct a one-year review of the U.S. supply chain for information and communications technology. Agencies should recommend ways to improve supply chain resiliency, the White House said. The Information Technology Industry Council and Semiconductor Industry Association praised the coming document. Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Mark Warner, D-Va., and 11 other lawmakers met with Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris to discuss supply chain resiliency. Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, told reporters he focused on funding the Creating Helpful Incentives to Produce Semiconductors for America Act. The measure, which passed as part of the FY 2021 National Defense Authorization Act (see 2101030002), authorizes federal incentives to promote semiconductor manufacturing and public-sector investments in semiconductor R&D. Sen. Maggie Hassan, D-N.H., another meeting participant, said in a statement that the U.S. must “bring home the manufacturing of advanced technologies, including for 5G infrastructure, in order to address potential shortages and vulnerabilities.”

AT&T and other ISPs would be happy with standardized bans on behaviors such as blocking or shaping online traffic, which they don't do anyway, instead of the net neutrality policy "whipsaw" that seems to follow changes in political parties, CEO John Stankey said Tuesday. Industry wants to avoid uncertainties of such possibilities as price regulation or behavioral constructs on new services, he said. Broadband accessibility -- which is largely a rural issue -- and affordability need to be addressed, he said. Funding for Lifeline needs changing because the system “is not going to make it. It’s an accident waiting to happen,” Stankey said. Subsidies must be sufficient to provide fixed broadband, not just mobile, he said. Noting China has an internet different from the U.S., Stankey said bifurcation of internet along national lines is likely to continue, as is bifurcation of internet standards.

Regional conferences increasingly drive the outcomes of World Radiocommunication Conferences, and U.S. success depends more on support from and collaboration with its inter-American colleagues in the rest of the hemisphere, acting FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel said at Tuesday's WRC-23 advisory committee meeting. The committee unanimously adopted a preliminary view backing compatibility and sharing studies to determine possible new primary or secondary allocations for non-geostationary mobile satellite service in 1695-1710 MHz, 3300-3315 MHz and 3385-3400 MHz in Region 2, plus 2010-2025 MHz in Region 1. Dante Ibarra, International Bureau International Radiocommunication Branch chief, said the U.S. is "getting interest" from other Inter-American Telecommunication Commission (CITEL) member states about the preliminary views. He and NTIA International Spectrum Policy Division Chief Charles Glass said the U.S. may have to modify some views to get support from other countries. Glass said NTIA is close to sending the FCC three preliminary views on spaceborne radar, space weather sensors and protection of earth exploration satellite services in the 36-37 GHz band. He said NTIA's focus is turning to reconciliation efforts with the FCC and adjustments to preliminary views that could get CITEL buy-in. April's CITEL meeting will be virtual, and CITEL is playing it by ear whether its August meeting will be likewise or in person, potentially in Mexico, said Ibarra. He said the dates for WRC-23 appear to be solid. He said the earliest in-person ITU meetings might be next year, though the agency is expecting some demolition and renovation at its Geneva headquarters, which could affect its ability to meet there.

Outdoor and home Wi-Fi routers and extenders and vehicle-mounted video cameras pose harmful interference problems for SiriusXM's satellite radio receivers and other vehicle electronics systems such as AM/FM radios, vehicle remote controls and tire pressure monitoring systems, the company wrote the FCC Enforcement Bureau Monday. The problem "is increasing exponentially" with increased development, production and distribution of wireless devices, it said. Its own "increasingly difficult 'whack a mole' approach" of contacting manufacturers and retailers "is highly resource-intensive, and manufacturers and retailers often fail to respond helpfully," it said, seeking an enforcement advisory and follow-up with actions. The FCC said it's reviewing the letter and that it takes interference concerns "very seriously."

NTIA sent a letter to the FCC Monday providing “more refined geographic parameters” for proposed cooperative planning areas (CPAs) and periodic use areas (PUAs) provided by DOD, tied to an eventual 3.45-3.55 GHz auction. NTIA urged the FCC to release rules and auction the band “as expeditiously as practical.” It's seen as a top priority under acting Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel (see 2102190046). The areas aren’t exclusion zones, but “military systems require protection from harmful interference from new non-federal operations, either indefinitely (in CPAs) or episodically (in PUAs), in support of national security missions and to meet readiness requirements,” NTIA wrote. More information will be released as the auction approaches, the letter said: “NTIA and DoD will provide supplemental information to potential bidders similar to the DOD AWS-3 Workbook and NTIA recommends issuing a joint Public Notice, like with AWS-3, with more details on federal notification and coordination.” NTIA reported Monday incumbent informing capability (IIC) time-based sharing holds promise for making more federal spectrum available for commercial use. The sharing system will likely be federalized, “run and administered by NTIA,” the paper said. “NTIA expects that IIC will be deployed over the next few years to support mid-band spectrum sharing predominately between federal systems and broadband wireless carriers using 4G and 5G technology,” it said: “IIC is expected to be a long-term project with iterations that will ultimately allow federal agencies to populate and update in realtime a database with frequency, location, and time-of-use information for systems they deploy.” First steps for testing in the citizens broadband radio service band in this effort are updating the previously developed CBRS portal to a DOD scheduler 11 participating test ranges “and identifying the data collection and security requirements and considerations,” NTIA said. “If successful, NTIA will next evaluate expanding IIC functionality to other 5G mid-band spectrum and ultimately transition the capability to an NTIA operation, allowing us to potentially apply IIC to all federal operations in other bands.” The letter to the FCC said IIC will play a role in 3.45 GHz.

Winter storm Uri’s effects on power grids in the Midwest and Southeast caused communications services to rely on generators, said an FCC Public Safety Bureau update. The network outage reporting system recorded eight outages in Oklahoma and 208 in Texas as of Thursday, affecting 24,449 users in Oklahoma and 1,138,094 in Texas, an increase of about 800,000 over the previous day (see 2102170046). Texas and Oklahoma declared states of emergency and “activated emergency support function (ESF) #2 (Communications) at the state level,” the update said. The White House approved both states' requests for disaster assistance. Neither the Federal Emergency Management Agency nor the affected states requested activation of the disaster information reporting system, “but the FCC continues to monitor the situation and stands ready to assist if needed,” the report said. The bureau issued another update late Friday

The Virginia House passed the Senate version of a state privacy law Thursday, while the Senate delayed a vote on the House version until Friday. The House voted 89-9 Thursday for SB-1392; the Senate wanted to reconsider arguments on HB-2307. The measure would let consumers access, correct, delete and obtain copies of personal data, and opt out of targeted advertising. The state attorney general would enforce the bill after giving 30 days to cure violations. The bill doesn’t include a private right of action. Legislators amended the bill to add a work group to review the law and implementation and report to the legislature by Nov. 1, before the law takes effect Jan. 1, 2023 (see 2102160040). Gov. Ralph Northam (D) is expected to sign. His office didn’t comment.