The FCC should consider the interests of small broadband providers as it works on net neutrality rules, the Wireless Internet Service Providers Association said in a meeting with FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler last week, according to an ex parte filing posted in docket 14-28 Monday. Many WISPs have small staffs and cannot depend on USF funds for support, said the association. Additional disclosure and reporting requirements would create a substantial burden for WISPs under either Title II or Section 706 authority, WISPA said.
Wireless net neutrality rules could hamper the ability of small carriers to compete, said Cellcom CEO Patrick Riordan and Bluegrass Cellular CEO Ron Smith in a series of meetings at the FCC. The two carried the message for CTIA in meetings with Commissioners Ajit Pai and Mignon Clyburn, Wireless Bureau Chief Roger Sherman and others at the agency, said filings in docket 10-127. “They both explained that adopting onerous open Internet rules could make it more difficult to raise capital and invest in their communities, at the detriment of service to rural America, areas where cable and telecommunications broadband companies often do not reach,” said the filing made by CTIA on the Pai meeting. It said the CEOs “also explained that adoption of expansive open Internet rules for mobile broadband would hinder their ability to offer the alternative business models at the heart of competitive differentiation and engage in practices designed to improve network performance.”
T-Mobile USA General Counsel Dave Miller pressed the FCC to act on the carrier’s May petition for a declaratory ruling containing guidance and “predictable” enforcement criteria for determining whether the terms of data roaming agreements meet the “commercially reasonable” standard adopted in a 2011 data roaming order (see 1408220055). Miller and others from T-Mobile met with FCC General Counsel Jonathan Sallet to make their case, said a filing posted Friday in docket 05-265. “Action is needed now, as T-Mobile and other carriers are negotiating new data roaming agreements -- many of which are replacing legacy agreements negotiated prior to the release of the Data Roaming Order.” T-Mobile isn’t seeking rate regulation, the carrier stressed. “Instead, it requests a ruling well within the Commission’s authority and which was, in fact, anticipated in the Data Roaming Order.”
The FCC should stay the course and allow robust unlicensed use of the TV band, Google and Microsoft said in an FCC filing. Unlicensed should be allowed to use a channel in the duplex gap, guard bands separating LTE from incumbent licensed services, and Channel 37, they said. The firms opposed petitions by GE Healthcare, Qualcomm and others for reconsideration of the incentive auction order. “Several of these parties base their petitions on the claim that unlicensed services cannot coexist alongside licensed services under any set of technical rules,” said a filing in docket 12-268. “This is plainly incorrect. It is always possible to avoid harmful interference by adjusting operating parameters such as transmit power, signal timing, spectral separation, and physical separation, and unlicensed devices in the 600 MHz band are no exception.” Also posted in the same docket Friday, Mobile Future opposed various recon petitions seeking changes to the rules. “The Commission should reject requests to reimburse Low Power television stations or wireless microphone users for the costs associated with relocation following the Incentive Auction, because those entities are not eligible for reimbursement of relocation expenses under the Spectrum Act,” Mobile Future said. “The Commission similarly should reject requests to protect LPTV and TV Translator stations in the repacking process as inconsistent with the Spectrum Act.”
Wearable electronics are poised to become a $25.2 billion global market, with a volume of 142.6 million units, by 2020, based on a 26 percent compound annual growth rate through the end of the decade, said Allied Market Research in a report. North America currently has the largest share of the global wearables market, but Europe will grow the fastest to become the largest market by 2020, it said. It estimated that wearables were a $4 billion market globally last year. The market is dominated by large players such as Adidas, Google and Nike, but companies like Fitbit and Jawbone "have raised a lot of capital through funding based on their business ideas and are now competing with large players in the wearable electronics space," it said.
T-Mobile is picking up a large number of “high quality” subscribers, but most are coming from AT&T or Verizon, rather than from Sprint, T-Mobile Chief Financial Officer Braxton Carter said Thursday at the Walls Fargo financial conference. Carter’s boss, CEO John Legere, has repeatedly said T-Mobile will soon pass Sprint in total subscribers (see 1410280049). Carter said T-Mobile welcomes a more competitive Sprint. “I think that’s a common myth in the wireless industry that Sprint has to fail in order for T-Mobile to be successful,” he said. T-Mobile is getting “the vast majority” of subscribers leaving AT&T and Verizon, Carter said. The company picks up subscribers at twice the rate it losses them through porting, he said. T-Mobile is watching Sprint closely and it’s “refreshing” to see the company emerge “rejuvenated,” he said. He added that like T-Mobile, the subscribers Sprint picks up will come mostly from “the duopoly.” Carter said T-Mobile is already offering 700 MHz handsets and is aggressively building out the 700 MHz spectrum it bought from Verizon. “It’s a game changer for us,” he said. Sprint CEO Marcelo Claure, who spoke to the conference Wednesday, said he has made a lot of progress since taking over three months ago. “Sprint is a great company,” he said. “It has an incredible set of employees who are eager to win, who are eager to get back on the winning track.” Claure said that when he started, Sprint was getting only 10 percent of gross customer adds industrywide. “When you’re 10 percent, that means you are not even part of the conversation, you’re irrelevant,” he said.
The FCC’s long-awaited AWS-3 auction gets underway Thursday with 70 bidders qualifying to take part, including AT&T, Dish Network, T-Mobile and Verizon. “Americans’ demand for mobile Internet access anytime, anywhere will only continue to grow,” wrote Scott Bergmann, CTIA vice president-regulatory affairs, in a blog post Wednesday aimed at consumers. “When you add the Internet of Things which is expected to fuel everything from transportation to utilities and health care, the demand will only continue to grow. This spectrum will help to meet this demand.”
The FCC Wireless Bureau extended the comment deadline on Recco's waiver request to permit equipment authorization and licensing of Recco’s avalanche rescue system. Initial comments were due Thursday (see 1410140175). The new deadline is Dec. 5 for initial comments, Dec. 22 for replies, the bureau said Wednesday. “The posting of the underlying requests to the Commission’s Electronic Comment Filing System was delayed, which has impeded prospective commenters’ review of the requests,” the bureau said.
The FCC International Bureau dismissed as moot a Dec. 17, 2004, petition by Wilkinson Barker seeking review of Foreign Ownership Guidelines issued the previous month. The law firm sought reconsideration of the rules as applied to common carrier and aeronautical radio station applicants, licensees and spectrum lessees, the bureau said Monday. Wilkinson Barker asked the agency to revise the guidelines to say the stricter review requirements in Communications Act Section 310(b)(3) apply only to direct foreign ownership of licensees and that Section 310(b)(4) applies to all indirect foreign ownership. “Since the filing of the Petition, the Commission has adopted a forbearance approach to section 310(b)(3),” the bureau explained.
AT&T’s buy of Iusacell for $2.5 billion (see 1411070053) gives AT&T less than 10 percent of the wireless market in Mexico, “but could set the stage to later on add regional assets in Mexico that America Movil is attempting to sell or even assets from the bankrupt Nextel International,” BTIG analyst Walter Piecyk said Monday in a research report. “The bigger question that will likely emerge is what AT&T plans are for Brazil, which is on the cusp of wireless market consolidation.” Analysts also commented on AT&T’s announcement that it will spend less on capital expenditures in 2015 than in 2014, a 14 percent cut from $21 billion to $18 billion. The announcement seems like a negative for tower, fiber and other infrastructure companies but “the headline may appear worse than the reality” since AT&T “will continue to spend on some important initiatives such as wireless capacity and GigaPower,” wrote Wells Fargo's Jennifer Fritzsche.