Tech industry officials praised the Trump administration for defending U.S. interests against France’s digital services tax. France agreed to delay collecting new taxes on tech companies until the end of the year after the administration threatened to levy tariffs on $2.4 billion of French goods (see 1908190043 and 1912030002).
Sprint said it continues to lose key postpaid phone customers at a growing rate. The company had a net loss of $120 million in the third quarter. Postpaid phone churn was 2.06 percent, much higher than other national carriers. Sprint was the first of the big carriers to report Monday. U.S. District Judge Victor Marrero is considering a lawsuit brought by state attorneys general aimed at blocking the T-Mobile deal (see 2001150077). One of the arguments the companies have made is that Sprint needs to combine with T-Mobile to stay financially viable. Sprint closed at $4.63, down 4.14 percent for the day, its lowest level in four years.
Expect this year to bring finalization of 10G standards and the first field tests by cable ISPs of 10G network technology, industry executives said in recent interviews. Modem companies are awaiting those DOCSIS 4.0 standards and those field trials so they know what to build. CableLabs Chief Research and Development Officer Mariam Sorond said the DOCSIS 4.0 specs being created by a consortium of CableLabs members with working groups and vendors should be finalized early this year. It's a process similar to how DOCSIS 3.1 was hammered out.
The Commerce Spectrum Management Advisory Committee is looking at some radical possibilities for future spectrum regulation, including creating a new spectrum agency. The FCC and NTIA would lose oversight under two of the proposals being considered by CSMAC’s Spectrum Strategy Governance Subcommittee.
The House Consumer Protection Subcommittee’s privacy draft bill is a significant shift in the privacy debate, but more compromise is needed, the Center for Democracy & Technology commented Friday. Public Knowledge, the Internet Association, CTA and BSA|The Software Alliance offered suggestions for improving the legislation by Friday’s subcommittee deadline (see 2001080072).
TRENTON -- A state senator wants to amend New Jersey’s constitution to stop about 90 percent of 911 fee revenue from being used for unrelated purposes. "It's high time that we say enough is enough,” said Sen. Michael Testa (R) alongside county and wireless officials at a Friday news conference.
The satellite industry is resisting latency requirements in the Rural Digital Opportunity Fund and wants hybrid networks included in performance metrics. Whether it's making any headway isn't clear, satellite interests told us. An FCC official said the satellite industry has to get agency staffers on board with the hybrid networks idea, and so far they don't seem to be.
The FCC auction of 3,400 MHz in the 37, 39 and 47 GHz bands brought in the highest bids of any high-band auction, at just more than $7.5 billion. But prices per MHz/POP for the 37 and 39 GHz bands are lower than the previous auctions, which offered much less spectrum, and much lower for the 47 GHz band. Auction watchers told us Friday more will be known about how industry views high-band for 5G when it’s revealed what AT&T and Verizon did in the auction. The auction closed for the day Friday at $7.5 billion after 86 rounds.
House Democrats’ upcoming infrastructure bill package is expected to use composite broadband legislative language drawn from existing measures, communications lobbyists told us last week. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of California announced earlier this month Democrats would unveil the legislative package this week (see 2001160063). Lawmakers and industry observers question the extent to which Congress will be able to make substantial headway on infrastructure legislation this year given expectations of gridlock before the November presidential election.
There's much attention to an FCC Rural Digital Opportunity Fund vote Jan. 30 (see 2001230005). Speakers at a Next Century Cities conference Thursday urged policymakers not to neglect low-income urban and minority communities to address the digital divide. The event was closed to the media in-person, so we heard the webcast.