The U.S., followed by China, took the top two spots in the inaugural Broadband and Cloud Development Index, the World Broadband Association (WBBA) said Thursday. It said the index looks at broadband coverage and cloud computing items, quantifying and ranking major countries on their performance. The report said the U.S.'s top score in the index's cloud segment is unsurprising due to the early adoption of cloud services by U.S. enterprises and because the world's largest cloud providers are there. WBBA said some other nations outscored the U.S. in broadband because it traditionally has not been a leader in the global broadband market, particularly for availability and adoption. The association said the index was developed with support from member companies and written by Omdia and China Telecom Research Institute.
Exports to China
AT&T reported 468,000 postpaid phone and 296,000 AT&T Fiber net adds in Q3, as it became the first of the major carriers to report. Other financial indicators were also mostly an improvement over last year. CEO John Stankey slammed the FCC’s expected vote later that day approving an NPRM on net neutrality (see 2310190020), suggesting policymakers should address other problems. “Why we would use taxpayer money and resources and political capital to chase a problem that doesn't exist is a bit of a mystery to me,” Stankey said Thursday.
Getting Congress to restore the FCC’s spectrum auction authority as quickly as possible is a top priority of the Competitive Carriers Association, CCA President Tim Donovan said Wednesday at the start of the group’s annual conference in Atlanta. Donovan also urged launching a 5G Fund, the topic of a September Further NPRM (see 2309210035).
The U.S. “has done a great job of limiting the presence of Chinese telecom equipment domestically, but that’s only the tip of the iceberg” and “there’s still a great deal that must be done both domestically and internationally,” FCC Commissioner Nathan Simington said Thursday during a Hudson Institute webinar. He is seeking recognition that Chinese technology that’s not considered telecom equipment still “poses a substantial risk when it’s included as a component of a larger cyber and telecom ecosystem.” The U.S. must go deeper than communications equipment and focus also on AI, automated systems and the “cyber environments” for pipelines, manufacturing plants and vehicular controls, he said. Chinese telecom “poses a threat to the private sector as well,” Simington said. “We have to remain at the forefront of telecommunications and its integration into technologies,” he said. The FCC issues licenses for undersea cables but can’t issue or revoke a license without State Department approval, he said. The U.S. “has taken significant steps to limit the use of Chinese-built undersea cables,” but China’s HMN Technologies still supplies more than 10% of cable infrastructure worldwide, he said. China lays less undersea cable than the U.S., France and Japan, “but not an insignificant amount -- and increasing,” he said. Starting in 2022, the U.S. government “exerted influence” to prevent some new cables from connecting directly between the U.S. and China, he said: “This has led to a quiet cable-laying rivalry between Southeast Asia [and] all the way into the Middle East and Western Europe.”
China’s focus on 5G is tied to that nation's desire to “reclaim” what it believes is its “rightful place at the center of the world,” said James Lewis, Center for Strategic and International Studies senior vice president, at the Hudson Institute Tuesday. Lewis also warned the U.S. may not be keeping up with China headed into the World Radiocommunication Conference, which begins Nov. 20. Lewis was interviewed by Harold Furchtgott-Roth, Hudson senior fellow and former FCC commissioner.
Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo publicly committed Wednesday to brief Senate Commerce Committee members on the DOD study on repurposing the 3.1-3.45 GHz band for commercial 5G use sent to the Commerce Department last week (see 2309280087). Panel ranking member Ted Cruz, R-Texas, and several other members raised questions about the DOD study during a hearing on implementing the 2022 Chips and Science Act.
TikTok’s decision to hire executives from Chinese parent company ByteDance raises questions about national security and TikTok’s independence from Beijing, Sens. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., and Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., wrote in a letter to the company Tuesday. Citing Wall Street Journal reports, they claimed former ByteDance executives have moved to the U.S. to work for TikTok, replacing U.S. executives. “The relationship between ByteDance and TikTok poses a unique risk to the security and privacy of TikTok’s users in the United States,” they wrote. “TikTok executives, including personnel based in China, have been found spying on American journalists, and, in leaked recordings, its staff acknowledged that ‘everything is seen in China,’” they wrote. TikTok said in a statement Tuesday: "In a large, global organization, it is not uncommon for employees to work on different products or geographies over the course of their career. This is neither a recent development, nor is it unique to TikTok. We welcome the opportunity to provide the Senators facts and context the Journal chose to ignore in their initial story."
CTIA applauded the transmission of the 3.1 GHz report from DOD to the Department of Commerce (see 2309280087). “America needs more 5G spectrum to meet surging demand, grow our economy, counter China’s ambitions and secure our leadership of the industries and innovations of the future,” emailed CTIA President Meredith Baker Tuesday: “5G already coexists with U.S. military systems in the lower 3 GHz band in more than thirty countries around the world, including here in the United States along the border with Mexico, and we are encouraged to see the DOD and Department of Commerce commit themselves to further exploring all options for making this spectrum available.”
The Biden administration’s effort to protect national security by limiting tech investment in China could have the opposite effect by putting American companies at a disadvantage, tech associations told the Treasury Department in comments due Thursday (see 2308100003).
The FTC’s proposed merger filing changes will cost billions for combining parties and won’t benefit consumers, telecom and tech associations told the agency in comments filed by due date Wednesday. Progressive lawmakers countered that lax antitrust rules have contributed to mass consolidation and harmed consumers. The FTC and DOJ requested comments in June on proposed changes to the Hart-Scott-Rodino premerger notification process.