DOJ has “grave concerns” about T-Mobile's impending shuttering of its CDMA network and what that means for Dish Network's many Boost customers left in the lurch, said a July letter to Dish and T-Mobile from DOJ antitrust acting Assistant Attorney General Richard Powers that Dish filed Monday with the SEC. Justice said it might “pursue all remedies available” if the CDMA network shutdown means either T-Mobile or Dish not taking necessary steps to ensure Boost customers aren't left stranded without a functioning network. Many think the FCC is unlikely to act on Dish's CDMA complaint (see 2105060024).
Matt Daneman
Matt Daneman, Senior Editor, covers pay TV, cable broadband, satellite, and video issues and the Federal Communications Commission for Communications Daily. He joined Warren Communications in 2015 after more than 15 years at the Rochester Democrat & Chronicle, where he covered business among other issues. He also was a correspondent for USA Today. You can follow Daneman on Twitter: @mdaneman
FCC-proposed two-tier regulatory fees for non-geostationary orbit (NGSO) systems (see 2012100078) are dividing the satellite industry, stirring controversy and leaving stakeholders uncertain if the agency might change course, many involved in the proceeding told us. They agreed it's not clear what the FCC might do next. Industry is lobbying bureau personnel and agency staffers.
Rebounding in-flight connectivity helped Viasat grow, though the company is "still well below pre-pandemic business levels," CEO Rick Baldridge told analysts Thursday on results for fiscal Q1 ended June 30. Satellite services revenue was $274 million, up 36% year over year, with commercial air activity picking up, it said. It expects revenue growth for the rest of the fiscal year due in part to passenger traffic trends. Overall revenue was $665 million, up $135 million. The stock closed 8.5% higher at $52.16.
June's launch of EchoStar's S-band nanosatellite is "an important step in perfecting" the company’s global S-band non-geostationary satellite spectrum rights for mobile satellite service, Chief Strategy Officer Anders Johnson told analysts during a call this week as the company announced Q2. He said the company is focused on “full integration” of S-band satellite services into 5G networks and the 2022 standards release by the 3rd Generation Partnership Project will include non-terrestrial networks and address satellite’s role in 5G. EchoStar said HughesNet lost 20,000 U.S. subscribers, a trend that will continue near term as HughesNet is capacity constrained. Hughes Network Systems President Pradman Kaul said the hybrid network architecture it’s exploring with OneWeb should let it offer a viable product that makes it eligible for federal broadband subsidies. SES CEO Steve Collar said the company is "fully on track" to complete phase 1 of the U.S. C-band clearing this year, and it expects to start receiving reimbursement compensation in coming months, on a call Wednesday as it released results. He said cruise ship and aviation connectivity is picking up and SES' video revenue improved its trajectory for the first half of the year. SES said video revenue of $622.7 million for H1 was down 3.9% from H1 2020, vs. an 8% decline a year ago. Collar said SES expects to be "flattening the curve" in the medium term with its video distribution business. Also reporting in-flight connectivity improvements, Intelsat said Tuesday in-flight helped drive network services growth, which was $221 million, up 25% year over year. It said video revenue was $184.2 million, down 9% due to a service migration by a customer from Intelsat's network to its own network assets.
The number of non-geostationary orbit (NGSO) satcom satellites is rocketing, but space operators and experts don't see geostationary-provided broadband becoming obsolete. But many expect low earth orbit satellites and constellations to elbow geostationary orbit (GSO) satellites out of some markets and applications in coming years.
Comcast's Peacock, with 54 million signups, is rolling out to Europe later this year to Sky's 20 million customers, and the next aim is global availability of the streaming service, said the company Thursday. Comcast executives waved off the need for more mergers and acquisitions as a prerequisite to become a viable international streaming power, during a call with analysts. "I love the company we have," and more organic growth is ahead without further acquisitions, said CEO Brian Roberts. "I think we do have the scale. We don't need M&A."
Sixth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Judge John Bush repeatedly raised red flags during oral argument Thursday about the different liabilities government and private sector robocallers face under the Telephone Consumer Protection Act and how that seems to run afoul of the First Amendment. He twice said he was "bother[ed]" by what appears to be speakers treated differently due to the content of their speech. It's an appeal of a lower court's tossing TCPA litigation against Realgy Energy on grounds the act was unconstitutional until the Supreme Court severed the government-debt exception from the general robocall ban last year, with severance retroactive to 2015 (see 2102020068).
New York is enjoined from enforcing its broadband affordability law, in a stipulated final judgment (in Pacer, docket 21-CV-02389) approved Wednesday by U.S. District Judge Denis Hurley in Central Islip, Long Island. Hurley ruled last month that ISPs would likely succeed on conflict and field preemption arguments, and granted a motion for preliminary injunction by the New York State Telecommunications Association, CTIA, ACA Connects, USTelecom, NTCA and the Satellite Broadcasting and Communications Association (see 2106110064). Under the stipulated final judgment, the sides agreed to a final judgment in favor of the ISP interest plaintiffs conceding that the state law is preempted by federal law. New York Attorney General Letitia James (D) reserves the right to appeal the stipulated final judgment, declaration and permanent injunction. Her office didn't comment. For our report on the sides settling this case that may go to an appeals court, see here.
AT&T and Verizon's Cellco Partnership were by far top recipients of C-band flexible use overlay licenses in Auction 107. Per our breakdown of an FCC Wireless Bureau public notice Friday, Verizon received 3,518 licenses and AT&T 1,620. Others included U.S. Cellular with 253 licenses, T-Mobile (141) and Canopy Spectrum (83). Acting Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel called the licenses "the sweet spot for 5G deployment [due to] the right mix of capacity and propagation that will help us reach more people in more places faster. With these licenses in hand, more carriers can deploy mid-band 5G." The C-band auction was approved under former Chairman Ajit Pai and was “no walk in the park,” Commissioner Brendan Carr said Monday. “We must do more than implement the tough spectrum decisions the FCC made over the last few years if we are going to extend U.S. leadership in 5G,” he said: “We must move forward with a number of new spectrum proceedings too.”
Items adjacent to net neutrality in President Joe Biden's executive order issued earlier this month (see 2107090006) could get packaged together with net neutrality or at least all be on deck for FCC meetings late this year or early 2022, experts and interested parties told us. Some think the agency may try to move some less controversial items, such as broadband “nutrition labeling,” while it still has a 2-2 party split and acting chairwoman. Many think work is underway on net neutrality (see 2107200036).