T-Mobile filed at the FCC an annual report on the progress of its affiliate T-Mobile Puerto Rico in hardening its network through Uniendo program funding. Parts of the report, posted Wednesday in docket 18-143, were redacted. “T-Mobile is dedicated to strengthening its infrastructure and mitigating any network outages or failures following a natural disaster or emergency situation,” the carrier said: “In 2023, with the help of Stage 2 funding, T-Mobile has significantly hardened its network and increased the availability and capacity of the system to ensure a more resilient network and improve the overall customer experience.” Puerto Rico Telephone Co. also filed a redacted report, as did Liberty Mobile Puerto Rico.
5G fixed wireless access is “changing the broadband marketplace” but it needs the FCC to make more full-power, licensed, mid-band spectrum available for carriers, CTIA said in a Wednesday blog post. FWA is having “such an impact on cable’s bottom line that you’ve probably also seen their commercials attacking it -- a striking indicator that 5G home broadband is bringing real competition to cable incumbents,” CTIA said. The blog notes that the fastest growing broadband companies are all wireless carriers, led by T-Mobile. In the first three quarters of last year, FWA had 34 times more adds than cable broadband, based on reports by Leichtman Research, CTIA said. Wall Street analysts have found that nearly 20% of 5G home gross adds “are new to the broadband marketplace altogether,” the group blogged: “That’s twice what they found for the full broadband market, meaning FWA is connecting more people for the first time than cable or any other broadband service.” Spectrum is the sticking point, CTIA warned. “More spectrum will increase speeds -- we’re seeing that with the C-band allocations that have been coming online -- and allow providers to serve more Americans with more capacity.” CTIA called for a “pipeline of spectrum” starting with the lower 3 GHz and 7/8 GHz bands to give consumers “an even more robust 5G for home experience, all while keeping more money in their pockets.” T-Mobile said last week it added 541,000 home internet customers in Q4 and 2.1 million for the year (see 2401250076). Verizon reported 375,000 fixed wireless adds for the quarter, bringing its total to more than 3 million (see 2401230071).
A representative of the Open Technology Institute (OTI) at New America complained that T-Mobile wants to use network slicing as an excuse to exempt from net neutrality rules any specialized application or service that a mobile carrier delivers. The argument was made during a Jan. 26 meeting with an aide to FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel. In a December filing, T-Mobile defined slicing as offering “customized, software-defined, virtual networks -- or ‘slices’ -- that are each logically separated and individually optimized to meet the specific needs of each application.” The problem is T-Mobile “leaps” from the fact that network slices can be customized to create non-broadband internet access services “for a purpose that cannot function on the regular internet (e.g., factory automation, auto safety, precision agriculture) to the general claim that anything a mobile carrier labels as a ‘slice’ of its network should by definition be treated as a non-BIAS data service and be exempt from the open internet rules,” OTI said in a filing posted Wednesday in docket 23-320. T-Mobile said in December that “with the advent of network slicing that can offer applications tailor-made to particular use cases, the services broadband providers can support are richer and more diverse than ever.” OTI made similar arguments in a meeting with an aide to Commissioner Anna Gomez, a second filing said.
The FCC is quickly following up on a November AI notice of inquiry (see 2311160028), with Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel proposing a ruling Wednesday that would make voice-cloning technology in robocall scams illegal. The draft proposes a declaratory ruling that voice-cloned calls violate the Telephone Consumer Protection Act. The FCC recently finished a comment cycle on the NOI. Among the comments, attorneys general from 25 states and the District of Columbia asked the agency to use the proceeding to clarify that calls mimicking human voices are considered “an artificial voice” under the TCPA (see 2401170023). An FCC news release cites that filing. “AI-generated voice cloning and images are already sowing confusion by tricking consumers into thinking scams and frauds are legitimate,” Rosenworcel said: “No matter what celebrity or politician you favor, or what your relationship is with your kin when they call for help, it is possible we could all be a target of these faked calls.” If approved, the rules would give the AGs “new tools” to battle the “bad actors behind these nefarious robocalls and hold them accountable under the law,” the FCC said. Pennsylvania AG Michelle Henry said her office supports the ruling “to protect consumers from intentionally deceptive and manipulative marketing tactics.” The proposed ruling would “put the calling industry and provider community on notice that they need consent to make calls with AI,” a USTelecom spokesperson said in an email: “This important action will thwart prolific robocallers that want to use AI to deliver to consumers calls they never asked for and do not want. We encourage the Commission to quickly adopt the Chair’s proposal.”
Challenges are rolling into some states charged with distributing billions from NTIA’s broadband, equity, access and deployment (BEAD) program, officials said during a Broadband Breakfast webinar Wednesday. Several officials said their states will be ready to start processes to dispute unserved or underserved locations as soon as NTIA approves volume one of their BEAD proposals. "A successful challenge process underpins the credibility of any state's entire BEAD program,” Kansas Office of Broadband Development Director Jade Piros de Carvalho said.
The FCC Precision Agriculture Task Force met Wednesday, welcoming new members and discussing the group's mandate as it kicked off its third and final term (see 2308210069). The commission gave it the task of identifying gaps in broadband availability on agricultural land, as well as providing recommendations for rapid deployment and data collection.
The FCC’s Nov. 20 order, published Jan. 22 in the Federal Register, purports to implement congressional “instruction” to facilitate equal broadband access under the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, but it gives the commission “unprecedented authority to regulate the broadband internet economy,” said the Ohio Telecom Association’s (OTA) petition for review Tuesday (docket 24-3072) in the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.
SpaceX and Dish Network continue lobbing broadsides at one another on SpaceX's plans for limited supplemental coverage from space (SCS) service in the G-block spectrum. In a docket 23-135 filing Tuesday, SpaceX labeled Dish criticisms "baseless fearmongering" and part of its "standard fare of misdirection and misinformation." Dish has petitioned the FCC to reconsider its Space Bureau decision allowing SpaceX to conduct limited SCS operations over the G block (see 2401040005). SpaceX said while Dish attacks its out-of-band emissions, SpaceX operations have been proven to readily fall below the noise floor of adjacent band users. Dish said SpaceX's response to the petition (see 2401180061) reinforced rather than countered concerns about harmful interference to Dish's adjacent H-block operations and to mobile satellite service uplinks worldwide. Pointing to SpaceX statements that testing will show its SCS service won't cause interference, Dish said the need for "a bespoke test" as proof "demonstrates all by itself that the risk of interference is likely too high."
Don't prematurely change equivalent power flux density rules or otherwise push for EPFD limit changes at the 2027 World Radioccommunication Conference, SES/O3b told the FCC Tuesday. In docket 16-185, it said SpaceX bullishness about possible EPFD changes being undertaken for non-geostationary orbit systems at WRC-27 (see 2312200046) misses that WRC-23 clearly decided only analysis would occur before WRC-27, with conclusions reported then.
XGen Network filed with the FCC for two additional experimental licenses to transmit in 5G broadcast (see 2306120003), according to a release. The licenses are for HC2’s station WTXX-LD Springfield, Massachusetts, and EGOT Media’s WYJH-LD White Lake, New York, joining Milachi Media’s WWOO-LD Boston. “XGN's Proof of Concept deployments are meant to test the platform, bringing developments out of the lab to testing in the field,” said Xgen CEO Frank “SuperFrank” Copsidas in the release.