The 5G download and upload speeds of EchoStar's Boost Mobile network are slightly slower than those of its wireless rivals, Ookla said last week. Citing its Speedtest and RootMetrics data, Ookla said Boost "relies heavily" on AT&T's wireless network, often connecting to it in U.S. metro areas and using it the majority of the time along rural state routes. Boost also hasn't yet launched its network in some major California cities, it noted.
MVPDs looking to replace their in-house pay-TV business with a virtual MVPD partnership need to be concerned about integration, flexibility and availability of local partners, Analysys Mason's Martin Scott wrote Wednesday. Multiple U.S. MVPDs have gone this route, including Frontier, WideOpenWest and Google Fiber, as operators are putting a greater priority on broadband access in their business models, he said. Partnerships can cut the costs and complexity of running a pay-TV service while letting operators keep the value of a bundled offer, Scott noted. But, he added, drawbacks include a dependence on third‑party partners for pricing and channel lineup, as well as the complexity of integrating billing and support.
NextNav countered the arguments that RFID company Avery Dennison made in its challenge to NextNav’s proposal to offer a terrestrial complement to GPS using 900 MHz spectrum (see 2507280039). Avery Dennison said in a filing last month that NextNav’s proposal “presents a significant threat to the continued effective operation of the RFID ecosystem, which plays a vital role across multiple industries, including logistics, retail, airline, consumer goods, and healthcare.”
As policymakers look at reforms to the USF, they need to examine why so many people who are eligible for support don’t enroll in Lifeline and other programs, experts said Monday during an event hosted by Georgetown University's Center for Business and Public Policy. The session coincided with Monday's deadline for responding to the congressional USF working group's request for comments and proposals on USF reform.
Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Ted Cruz, R-Texas, warned Wednesday that a provision in the FY 2026 National Defense Authorization Act (S-2296) would give the Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman authority to veto commercial use of the lower 3 and 7/8 GHz bands. Cruz told an NTIA spectrum symposium (see 2509100051) that he will fight that provision in Section 1564 of the bill. “To be clear, this is not consultation or collaboration on spectrum management,” Cruz said.
Cord-cutting will see the most widely distributed cable networks, like C-SPAN and Food Network, lose 15 million to 20 million subscribers by 2029, S&P Global said in an analysis Friday. The average cable network will likely lose subscribers at an average annual rate of 5.4%, it said, with numbers dropping from 29.8 million this year to 23.8 million in 2029. It noted that only six cable networks grew year-end subscriber numbers between 2023 and 2024. Basic cable networks in the U.S. averaged a 7.1% decline in subscribers last year, marking the ninth consecutive year of declining subscribers for the industry due to cord-cutting, S&P added.
While 5G network slicing has gotten the most attention, it hasn’t proved to be successful in most cases, and fiber slicing may have more promise, said Nick Saporito, executive director at GFiber Labs, during a Fiber Broadband Association webinar Wednesday. Also at the event, FBA CEO Gary Bolton said early indications show that fiber will play an important role in the restructured BEAD program.
Incarcerated people’s communications service (IPCS) providers and some public safety groups are leaning on the FCC not to rescind a Wireline Bureau order delaying some prison-calling deadlines until April 1, 2027. In a surprise move, the bureau postponed implementation deadlines that took effect in January and had been approved by commissioners last year (see 2506300068).
Expanded uplink allocations for non-geostationary orbit broadband in parts of the W band represent a serious interference risk to scientific and weather forecasting interests, including the Tomorrow Companies' own earth observation work, according to the satellite operator. In a docket 25-180 filing posted Friday, Tomorrow said data from the 90-92 GHz and 115-122 GHz passive bands is hugely important to weather prediction and storm structure analysis, and those measurements can't be done in another swath of spectrum. Low-level out-of-band emissions from NGSO uplinks could mimic natural atmospheric signals, it said. Tomorrow urged "strict, enforceable" limits on such emissions and "sufficient separation" between uplink allocations and passive science bands. The FCC adopted a Further NPRM in May asking about opening parts of the W band to satellite communications (see 2505280055).
Spending on U.S. sports rights jumped 122% since 2015, growing from $13.8 billion to $30.5 billion this year, Ampere Analysis said last week. During the same decade, total U.S. TV industry revenues were up just 24%, it noted.