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.
The FirstNet Finance Committee plans a special meeting Nov. 17 via teleconference, FirstNet said Monday in the Federal Register. The board will post an agenda online before the meeting. The teleconference is to begin at 9:30 a.m.
Gogo continued to urge the FCC to take action on the air-to-ground mobile broadband service proposed by Qualcomm. Gogo repeated its preference for dividing the proposed 500 MHz band into four nationwide 125 MHz licenses, it said in an ex parte filing in docket 13-114. With a 125 MHz license, each ground station could support forward link capacity of about 400 Mbps, Gogo said. The number of ground stations in a network can be increased “through cell splitting without additional interference to satellites operating in the band,” it said. Auctioning four nationwide licenses wouldn’t increase the potential for harmful interference to primary services in the band, it said. Licensees wouldn’t be operating co-frequency with one another “and aggregate interference would be limited on a per-Hertz basis,” it said. The filing pertained to a meeting with the Wireless Bureau.
U.S. shoppers who own a Samsung Galaxy S or Galaxy Note device can add "Card Linked Offers" via the Samsung Wallet app for automatic coupon redemption at checkout as a result of a new partnership between Samsung and Coupons.com. The partnership will mean mobile savings for more than 20 million Samsung flagship devices in the U.S., the companies said Monday. With a single tap, shoppers can add coupons from top national retailers and restaurants directly to their Visa, American Express and MasterCard accounts, they said. "We are striving to enhance Samsung Wallet through strategic partnerships and to connect users to more useful content," Samsung said. "As coupon redemption continues to play a more and more prominent role in the mobile shopping experience, our service will allow consumers to save money more conveniently when shopping," online or offline, it said.
Mobile really is different and shouldn't be subject to the same net neutrality rules as fixed networks, said 4G Americas President Chris Pearson in a Friday letter to FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler. “Mobile operators face continuously changing environments in their cell sectors, with constant challenges to maximize the experience for the majority of users in a given sector,” Pearson said. “All the spectrum below 100 GHz does not amount to the capacity of a single Terabit fiber optic cable.” The success of wireless is tied to “effective and dynamic bandwidth management,” Pearson said. “If policymakers want wireless to be a competitor to wireline broadband, they need to allow wireless operators the flexibility required to manage their networks.” The FCC’s proposed rules are much more complex and demanding than the 2010 rules, he said. Carriers could meet the transparency requirements of that order with a single disclosure, he said. The proposed rules would require “tailored disclosures (i) for end-users to make informed choices; (ii) for edge providers (including content and device providers) to develop, market and maintain Internet offerings; and (iii) for the Commission and the public to understand compliance with the no-blocking and no-commercially unreasonable practices rule,” Pearson said. The requirement is “subjective” and would be difficult to implement, he said.
Wireless carriers will deploy more than 4 million public Wi-Fi hot spots and 20 million home spots in 2015, consultant Mobile Experts said in a report. "Even if we exclude homespot deployments, the number of Wi-Fi access points will reach the level of millions for cable operators and public venues during 2015, outstripping the capacity of new LTE base stations,” said Joe Madden, principal analyst, in a news release. “Several large mobile operators have made a gigantic blunder, by ignoring the opportunity to deploy Wi-Fi or utilize Hotspot 2.0 -- so cable operators and other service providers are jumping on the opportunity.”
The FCC Consumer and Governmental Affairs Bureau Friday sought comment on a Bijora petition asking for clarification that FCC rules do not prohibit text message advertisements sent with the prior express consent or permission of the recipient. Alternately, the company sought a retroactive waiver for such ads already sent out. Comments are due Nov. 21, replies Nov. 28, the bureau said. In its petition, Bijora describes itself as a “small business owner currently facing a class action lawsuit seeking multi-billions of dollars in damages because it sent text messages to customers who had expressly consented to receive them.” The lawsuit claims the company violated the Telephone Consumer Protection Act, which prohibits sending an unsolicited advertisement, Bijora said. The plaintiff “relies on a regulation, Section 64.1200(a)(4)(iv), issued by the Commission in an order implementing amendments to the TCPA,” the company said. “That regulation requires that certain opt-out language appear on faxes, but its scope is unclear.” Bijora asked the FCC to clarify that the prohibition “should be limited to unsolicited faxes and texts, as that reading best accords with the TCPA's language and legislative history.”
Sprint will take an additional charge of about $105 million for the quarter that ended Sept. 30 for severance and “related costs” tied to a workforce reduction plan, said the company in an SEC filing. The carrier said it had already reported a $160 million charge for the quarter because of workforce reduction costs. Analysts said last week that Sprint faces a long period of rebuilding under new CEO Marcelo Claure (see 1411040039).
AT&T agreed to buy Mexican wireless company Iusacell for $2.5 billion, inclusive of debt, AT&T said Friday. The deal gives AT&T all the Mexican carrier’s spectrum licenses, network assets, retail stores and approximately 8.6 million subscribers, AT&T said. Grupo Salinas, current owner of 50 percent of Iusacell, must first close its announced purchase of the other 50 percent it doesn’t own, AT&T said. “Mexico is still in the early stages of mobile Internet capabilities and adoption, but customer demand for it is growing rapidly,” said AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson. “This is an opportunity for us to provide Iusacell the financial resources, scale and expertise to accelerate the roll-out of world-class mobile Internet speeds and quality in Mexico, like we have in the United States.” The company also offers service under the Unefón brand.
The FCC is dropping a requirement that applicants for certification of Unlicensed Personal Communications Service devices must be members of UTAM, said a Federal Registernotice Friday. UTAM was established to clear the 1910-1930 MHz band of incumbent microwave licensees and the membership requirement was established to guarantee it had money to do its job, the FCC said. But UTAM has told the FCC it has accomplished this objective and the group is being dissolved, the agency said.