Google has a monopoly over general search services and acted as a monopolist, defending its dominance in violation of U.S. antitrust law, a federal judge ruled Monday (docket 1:20-cv-03010-APM).
States are using several approaches to prevailing wages in their broadband equity, access and deployment (BEAD) state plans, we found in our analysis of BEAD volume 2 initial plans. How a state considers prevailing wages in application reviews could possibly affect providers' participation in BEAD (see 2309080027) and 2403060005). NTIA has signed off on 31 BEAD volume 2s so far.
Consumer advocates and industry officials disagreed Wednesday about the need for addressing junk fees in the broadband and communications marketplace. After noting that increased competition results in consumers getting faster speeds and better service, ACA Connects Chief Regulatory Counsel Brian Hurley said, "In this competitive marketplace, our members and providers have every incentive to avoid bill shock and other negative experiences that could compel their customers to take their business elsewhere." Addressing a Broadband Breakfast webinar, Hurley added there's "no finding that junk fees are prevalent" in the marketplace.
DOJ and the FTC on Thursday will co-host the first public meeting for President Joe Biden’s Strike Force, a multiagency effort to crack down on unfair and illegal pricing. Launched in March, the Strike Force includes the FTC, DOJ and the FCC. The agencies are focused on issues like high internet costs, junk fees and competition issues. FTC Chair Lina Khan and DOJ Antitrust Division Chief Jonathan Kanter are scheduled to speak at the meeting.
Charter Communications' internet subscriber numbers took a hit in Q2 from June's expiration of the affordable connectivity program, the company said Friday. It followed Comcast saying ACP wasn't a big weight yet but is expected to be a notable drag in Q3.
Direct-to-device (D2D) market annual revenue will exceed $17 billion by 2032, according to an ABI Research analysis Thursday (see 2403260063). Apple's iOS 18 and Android 15 will add satellite messaging as a core feature in the coming months, it said. Also driving growth is SpaceX's D2D Starlink network, expected to launch commercial service in the second half of the year, ABI said. These advances will push the combined D2D markets to a compound annual growth rate of 39.8%. The satellite communication market is moving from narrowband emergency services to two-way messaging and data services and “this competition is reducing overall cost to these services while increasing accessibility to more users,” said Andrew Cavalier, ABI senior analyst. Updates to cellular technology will be coupled with increased satellite launch capacity, potentially unlocking a new era of abundance in lower-cost satellite services, ABI said. "We anticipate the seamless access of Starlink and Apple Satellite connectivity on devices will attract new and existing customers to leverage this technology when outside terrestrial coverage,” Cavalier predicted.
The citizens broadband radio service band has shown that spectrum can be shared without interfering with government users, in particular the naval radars that use the band, Richard Bernhardt, Wireless ISP Association vice president-spectrum and industry, said Thursday. Recent changes approved by the FCC, working with DOD and NTIA (see 2406120027), will make the band much more usable, he said during a WISPA webinar on “CBRS 2.0.” The rule changes take effect Friday.
Given the vast amount of capacity SpaceX's Starlink is bringing online and its moves into new markets, along with expectations that Amazon's Kuiper will take a similar approach, satellite incumbents and new entrants face reduced opportunities, Analysys Mason's Christopher Baugh blogged Tuesday. Starlink is moving into markets including military, mobility and backhaul, he said. It offers more than 102 Tbps of capacity today and Kuiper is expected to deliver more than 117 when fully deployed, Baugh said. Contrast that with worldwide high-throughput satellite capacity of just 2.3 Tbps in 2019, he noted. Yet neither constellation will have enough bandwidth to cover the total addressable market, Baugh said. Within three to five years, Kuiper's launch of full commercial service will force connectivity prices further downward. Moreover, pricing pressure and churn across their customer base will challenge most operators. The "plan B" for those competitors could include consolidation, multi-orbit strategies or new verticals such as earth observation.
Most of Paris seems “5G-ready” with the Olympic Games starting Friday, Ookla reported Tuesday. “Our analysis of Speedtest data across Paris shows that 5G is available in almost every corner of the city,” Ookla said. There are coverage gaps in or near the Montparnasse and Pere Lachaise cemeteries and in major parks, “but for the most part you’ll have a hard time finding an area where you cannot connect at all.”
Verizon lost 410,000 prepaid wireless customers tied to the end of the affordable connectivity program in Q2, the company said Monday as it became the first major wireless carrier to report earnings since the impact of ACP's demise could be measured. Overall prepaid customer losses were 624,000. But Verizon also gained a net 148,000 postpaid customers, which beat expectations. Revenue of $32.8 billion just missed consensus estimates. Though most numbers were positive, Verizon was down 6.08% to $39.09 for the day.