Safe Connections Act

The Heritage Foundation argued the FCC should abandon rules that let schools and libraries use E-rate support for off-premises Wi-Fi hot spots and wireless internet services. Its position was made in comments on a Further NPRM. Commissioners approved the FNPRM 3-2 in July (see 2407180024). Other commenters supported the order, urging tweaks that could make the program more effective. Comments were due Friday, with most posted Monday in docket 21-31.

Before the launch of early 5G networks, the consensus was that business-to-business (B2B) communications would be a “big opportunity,” Pablo Iacopino, GSMA Intelligence head-research and commercial content, said during a Mobile World Live webcast on Friday. For consumers, 5G adoption has been “very, very fast” compared to the roll-out of 3G and 4G, he said. When carriers think about providing business customers with 5G, they consider connectivity a first step only, he said. “Really, the incremental value comes from services beyond connectivity,” including cloud and edge services and serving IoT networks, he said. Based on a GSMA survey, businesses say they are willing to spend about 9% of their revenue on average globally on digital transformation, he said. That’s “a big number, and it means there are opportunities for many players to catch a piece of this 9%,” he said: “Enterprises are willing to spend on 5G in order to drive digital transformation.” Different businesses have varying needs and providers must “customize” what they offer. After a slow start, there’s growing momentum behind 5G standalone, “which is the real 5G.” In most places, said David Markland, chief product officer at Inseego, 5G began on 4G core networks, “reusing 4G spectrum with a little bit of efficiency gain, and then it built from there, having more and more spectrum.” Inseego provides wireless gear. A lot of people had a 5G icon on their phones years ago but weren’t seeing changes over 4G, and “personal experience, some days it was worse,” Markland said. That has changed as major carriers deploy “a lot more spectrum” on their networks. “We have 10 times more bandwidth now than … back in the 4G era.”

UScellular CEO Laurent Therivel met with FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel and agency staff to make the case for T-Mobile’s proposed buy of “substantially all” of his company’s wireless operations, including some spectrum (see 2405280047), a deal announced in May. Therivel and others company officials also met with Commissioners Brendan Carr and Nathan Simington, aides to Commissioner Geoffrey Starks and top officials in the Wireless Bureau and Office of Economics and Analytics, said a filing posted Friday in docket 24-286. By total handset connections nationwide, UScellular is “the seventh-largest wireless provider and accounts for approximately one percent of connections,” the filing said. Competitive pressures are ramping up in its markets, and it’s losing subscribers “despite deploying a variety of strategies to attempt to arrest that decline,” the carrier said: “Subscriber losses accelerated in 2022, a year that UScellular invested heavily on promotions. UScellular anticipates that it will continue to lose subscribers going forward.” It assumed “significant debt to purchase the mid-band spectrum needed to compete in 5G,” it said. “While UScellular has been pulling back on its network investments, its competitors have been spending more to expand their networks and enhance their network quality and customer experience in UScellular’s footprint.”

Spirent Communications on Thursday launched 5G fixed wireless access testing services. Spirent offers lab-based 5G/Wi-Fi gateway testing “and live network competitive benchmarking to enable communications service providers (CSPs) and device manufacturers to better optimize quality of experience and differentiate their offerings in an increasingly competitive market,” Spirent said. FWA has emerged in the view of some industry observers as 5G’s first, and so far only, “killer app” (see 2308160046), “5G FWA represents a growing trend and significant opportunity for CSPs to expand their revenue streams,” said Stephen Douglas, head-market strategy at Spirent.

The sale of Dish Network and Sling to DirecTV, as well as the spectrum-backed debt deals that accompany that transaction (see 2409300009), will give EchoStar several years to scale its wireless business, but that scaling up won't be easy, Lightshed Management's Walter Piecyk noted Wednesday. Along with the $10 billion EchoStar is raising against its AWS-3 and AWS-4 spectrum, its 3.5 GHz holdings could unlock another $2.75 billion in borrowing, he said. The DirecTV and spectrum deals provide EchoStar money for existing leases while the FCC approval of longer milestones for its 5G network buildout (see 2409200049) focuses on areas where EchoStar would use co-locations instead of new tower builds, he said. It also provides funding for the AT&T and T-Mobile mobile virtual network operator agreements, he said. A stronger balance sheet puts EchoStar in a better position to invest in customer acquisition for its Boost wireless business, "though this remains an uphill battle due to the industry’s low churn rates."

FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel considers fixed wireless access important to competition and 6G helping the wireless industry cope with growing data demands, she said in a recent interview with the San Francisco Examiner. “We’re going to see more activities in the [IoT], more monitoring of industrial equipment, opportunities for smarter cities and smarter services,” Rosenworcel said, adding that the business models are developing. 6G will help “when we get to a point where we’re capacity-constrained on 5G and need to start thinking about what new technologies can assist us with the new loads.” Fixed wireless “is providing some real competitive pressure on a lot of incumbent broadband providers today.” Asked if FWA is a “true alternative” to wired broadband, Rosenworcel said, “the numbers suggest it is” and “a lot of households are signing up.” She touched on some of her top priorities, including the importance of Congress renewing FCC auction authority. The FCC is trying to develop “a legal and social norm” for when AI is used in communications, she said: “You should expect to be told.” On the use of AI in political campaigns, she acknowledged that “there’s a whole world online that’s outside of our purview.” But “waiting for a law that’s perfect, that captures every platform and venue, is waiting too long,” she said. “When I look at the Communications Act, I see principles of competition, universal access, public safety and consumer protection,” Rosenworcel said: “Those values have stood the test of time. So how do we take this law and make sure it meets this moment?” Rosenworcel declined comment when asked whether she would stick around if Kamala Harris is elected president. “Let’s see how the election goes,” she said.

NTIA will release a report “later this fall” on the agency’s May request for comment about the state of 6G development (see 2405230010), Lauriston Hardin, NTIA chief technical adviser, said during RCR Wireless’ 6G Forum on Tuesday (see 2410010033). Comments were filed at NTIA in August (see 2409040032). “We’re working through it now,” he said. “I’m not allowed to give any more comment than that at the moment.” NTIA’s Office of International Affairs issued the request, so some of the focus will be international, he noted. “Our job, in part, is to stay ahead and talk about the policies that will be put in place, or possibly regulations that will be put in place, to help foster as well as maintain new developments in the marketplace,” Hardin said: “We’ve asked the marketplace, ‘Tell us about 6G. Tell us about your use cases. Tell us about when new things will happen. Tell us about the policies you think should be in place that would promote things.’” Hardin stressed the importance of focusing on what 6G can do for consumers. “Engineers like to engineer and think technology is in and of itself a great thing.” We’re still dealing with “the unfulfilled promises of 5G.” Hardin said one of the big questions NTIA is addressing is whether a way can be found to “effectively share” the lower 3 GHz band with DOD (see 2409050032). “One of the things there is airborne radar.” Dynamic spectrum sharing isn’t “a silver bullet,” he said. “Most of the spectrum that we look at, especially sub-6 [GHz], is going to have to be shared.” Anton Monk, senior vice president-strategy at Cohere Technologies, said people view 5G as early in its deployment because carriers have been unable to identify many new use cases. “The consumer hasn’t really seen any significant changes, certainly not enough to pay an extra $10 a month for,” Monk said. “There is a lot of valid concern” that we’re just “following the 10-year cycle” and trying to keep up with other countries that “have huge government-funded initiatives to keep pushing the nest generation,” he said: “Regardless, this is the pace that we’re on, and we just need to make sure that we set expectations correctly” and that we pick use cases “that are really valuable and have paying customers.” Marketing for 5G started early and made too many promises, said Michele Polese, research assistant professor at Northeastern University.

While expectations are that 6G will be commercialized by 2030, large scale deployments will likely come later, Milap Majmundar, AT&T director-advanced radio access network technology, standards and spectrum, said Tuesday at RCR Wireless’ 6G Forum. In addition, other speakers warned that finding new licensed bands for 6G could prove difficult.

Don't expect a DirecTV/Dish Network deal to face the same anticompetitive obstacles as a similar merger attempt did 22 years ago, antitrust and FCC experts tell us. The two direct broadcast satellite (DBS) companies said Monday they reached an agreement where DirecTV would buy EchoStar's Dish and Sling video distribution businesses for $1. DirecTV will also assume an estimated $9.75 billion in Dish DBS debt. The companies said they expect regulatory approval before the end of next year.

FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr again took aim at how the Biden administration and NTIA have implemented the $42.5 billion broadband equity, access and deployment (BEAD) program, a concern Republicans on Capitol Hill have amplified (see 2409190063). BEAD is “a program worth fighting for,” but it must change, Carr said Friday during an American Enterprise Institute webinar.