Verizon CEO Hans Vestberg assured investors Tuesday remaining issues on the C band will be resolved quickly (see 2201190064), as the company became the first of the major national carriers to report full Q4 results. AT&T announces Wednesday.
Howard Buskirk
Howard Buskirk, Executive Senior Editor, joined Warren Communications News in 2004, after covering Capitol Hill for Telecommunications Reports. He has covered Washington since 1993 and was formerly executive editor at Energy Business Watch, editor at Gas Daily and managing editor at Natural Gas Week. Previous to that, he was a staff reporter for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution and the Greenville News. Follow Buskirk on Twitter: @hbuskirk
The FCC should consider imposing cybersecurity rules tied to USF support, similar to what the regulator did on insecure network equipment from China (see 2012100054), said former FCC Chairman Ajit Pai during a Hudson Institute virtual event Friday. Pai was interviewed by former Commissioner Harold Furchtgott-Roth.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit’s decision on 5.9 GHz may not be as straightforward as its ruling on 6 GHz, because the court will have to grapple with a novel issue -- whether the FCC ignored the Transportation Equity Act and the Department of Transportation’s role in encouraging intelligent transportation systems when it reallocated the band, experts said. The FCC’s 2020 5.9 GHz order allocated 45 MHz of the band for Wi-Fi and 30 MHz for cellular vehicle-to-everything technology.
The biggest news this week on the C band is that, despite the “noise,” Verizon and AT&T were able to turn on the band in key markets, New Street’s Blair Levin told investors Thursday. “The last 72 hours probably had more press stories about spectrum than any 72-hour period in history,” including a question at President Joe Biden’s news conference (see 2201190064), he said. “The dispute will leave a problematic residue in terms of spectrum policy but the important thing for investors is that AT&T and Verizon were able to begin 5G transmissions, the constraints on the service will not affect their ability to attract subscribers, and the battle did not cause a delay that would have materially worsened their competitive position relative to T-Mobile,” Levin said. Verizon and AT&T had to agree to new conditions to “placate” the FAA because they need to play catch up with T-Mobile, Mark Giles, lead industry analyst at Ookla, blogged Thursday. “It was critical for both telcos that the delay to their C-band launch was only temporary,” he said: With the C band, “the margin of difference” with T-Mobile “will be substantially reduced, and then it will largely come down to how many 5G cell sites each operator deploys, and when they can turn on additional spectrum resources -- the race is on.” The FAA said Thursday it has cleared 78% of the U.S. commercial fleet to do low-visibility landings at airports near C-band deployments, including some regional jets. That’s up from 62% Wednesday. “The FAA is working diligently to determine which altimeters are reliable and accurate where 5G is deployed,” the agency said: “We anticipate some altimeters will be too susceptible to 5G interference. To preserve safety, aircraft with those altimeters will be prohibited from performing low-visibility landings where 5G is deployed because the altimeter could provide inaccurate information.”
Commenters disagreed whether the voluntary wireless network resiliency cooperative framework, launched in 2016, is working and whether to codify some or all of the framework, in reply comments posted in docket 21-346 through Wednesday. Commissioners approved a network resilience NPRM 4-0 in September, amid hints regulation could follow (see 2109300069). State and public interest groups want rules, which they say would make networks more resilient.
NTIA will likely move soon to appoint members to and relaunch the Commerce Spectrum Management Advisory Committee, now that Alan Davidson has taken office as NTIA administrator, longtime members of the group told us. CSMAC has been in existence since the George W. Bush administration and grew out of a 2004 presidential memorandum on Spectrum Management for the 21st Century. But in recent years, it has been handicapped by a lack of political leadership at NTIA, even as spectrum issues have grown in importance, officials said.
AT&T and Verizon plan to start turning on their C-band operations Wednesday, despite a push by major airlines to delay the start. Both said Tuesday they will defer the launch around some airports and expressed frustration with the FAA.
Airports Council International-North America (ACI-NA) is making a final attempt to delay launch of 5G in the C-band by Verizon and AT&T starting Wednesday, warning of the threat to radio altimeters from wireless transmissions. Industry observers said it’s unlikely AT&T and Verizon will again delay launch, which has been on hold since Dec. 5.
The biggest surprises in the 3.45 GHz auction were that Dish Network came in relatively big and T-Mobile small, according to the early analysis of the results, which were released Friday (see 2201140040). Verizon dropped out of the auction, after dominating the C-band sale, as expected (see 2111170037).
FCC Commissioner Geoffrey Starks expressed hope Thursday that political leadership at NTIA, with Alan Davidson approved by the Senate to lead the agency, will lead to improved “working relationships” within the federal government. “There are institutional concerns here,” he told a Cooley webinar: “We are all glad for his confirmation.” Starks noted there hasn’t been a Senate-confirmed NTIA chief since May 2019 (see 1905090051). Meanwhile, Sen. Roger Wicker, R-Miss., pressed the FCC and NTIA to work together on improving coordination on spectrum (see 2201130050).