President Joe Biden this week renewed a national emergency authorizing certain sanctions related to the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the White House said. Congo has been “marked by widespread violence and atrocities that continue to threaten regional stability” and pose an “unusual and extraordinary threat to the foreign policy” of the U.S., the White House said. The emergency was renewed for one year from Oct. 27.
AT&T, Dish Network, NCTA and public interest groups were among those to call on the FCC to revisit spectrum caps, in response to a September notice from the FCC (see 2309220064). Other comments saw the rulemaking as a waste of time for the agency. AT&T asked for a rulemaking two years ago, focused on mid-band holdings, but the FCC's questions go beyond what AT&T sought (see 2310060051).
U.S. District Judge Timothy Kelly for the District of Columbia agreed to give Dish Network additional time to buy 800 MHz licenses from T-Mobile, accepting a motion filed last week by the two companies and the DOJ (see 2310190010). Kelly granted the consent motion, “with no party to this action opposing the requested relief," said his signed order Monday (docket 1:19-cv-02232). The option to buy the licenses was part of a series of agreements tied to T-Mobile’s buy of Sprint, aimed at helping Dish emerge as fourth national wireless provider essentially replacing Sprint (see 2308170065). Dish missed an August deadline to buy the licenses and asked for an extension until June 30. The new deadline is April 1. Dish also agreed to pay T-Mobile a $100 million extension fee.
U.S. District Judge Timothy Kelly for the District of Columbia agreed to give Dish Network additional time to buy 800 MHz licenses from T-Mobile, accepting a motion filed last week by the two companies and the DOJ (see 2310190010). Kelly granted the consent motion, “with no party to this action opposing the requested relief," said his signed order Monday (docket 1:19-cv-02232). The option to buy the licenses was part of a series of agreements tied to T-Mobile’s buy of Sprint, aimed at helping Dish emerge as fourth national wireless provider essentially replacing Sprint (see 2308170065). Dish missed an August deadline to buy the licenses and asked for an extension until June 30. The new deadline is April 1. Dish also agreed to pay T-Mobile a $100 million extension fee.
The three major wireless carriers told the FCC the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s Oct. 4 wireless emergency alert had relatively few problems (see 2310040071), in filings posted Thursday in docket 15-91, though each reported some glitches. T-Mobile said repeatedly it had no difficulties receiving FEMA’s integrated public alert and warning system (IPAWS) alert. Test alert messages broadcast via LTE, UMTS and GSM “were transmitted 14.411 seconds after receipt from FEMA IPAWS due to mapping requirements imposed on these three broadcast technologies by the significantly larger database underlying T-Mobile’s nationwide coverage footprint,” the carrier said: “This represents an improvement of over 20 seconds from the 2021 test. Test Alert Messages broadcast via 5G were transmitted in under one (1) second.” T-Mobile also observed “an anomaly” for subscribers using some handsets running the Android R or newer operating system (OS). “Affected devices had the device language set to English but presented the alert in both English and Spanish,” T-Mobile said: “The anomaly was caused by an inadvertent overwrite of the logic in the device OS by the OS vendor, affecting National Alerts. T-Mobile is not aware of an instance in which this anomaly delayed or prevented receipt of the Test Alert Message.” Verizon said the system largely worked. Verizon had a delay of 1.663 seconds between the receipt of the test alert message from FEMA IPAWS and transmission to subscribers. “Verizon does not consider this a ‘delay,’ ‘complication,’ or ‘anomaly,’” it said: “The processing time between receipt of the alert and transmission to subscribers simply results from the large number of cell sites in our network, and the need for the two mated [cell broadcast entities] facilities to efficiently coordinate the delivery of both the English and Spanish language versions of the alert across all those sites.” Verizon also reported complaints and inquiries to its customer care channels that indicated “some cases where subscribers may not have received the alert due to the local RF propagation environment, or where the user’s device was operating in Wi-Fi mode only.” AT&T said some customers in Texas didn’t receive an alert, because of a fiber cut affecting 30 cellsites. “AT&T did not observe any instances of excessive delay in the network and does not consider the lapse of one second between the receipt of the alert from IPAWS and the transmission of the alert to subscribers as in any way delayed or abnormal,” it said. AT&T also said it surveyed more than 1,000 employees about their experience: More than 99.3% “received and reviewed the English version of the alert,” 85% “received and reviewed the alert within 1 minute or less. And 90% … received and reviewed the alert within 3 minutes or less.” AT&T also worked with a handset vendor in four states to test the alert on 77 handsets. “Of these, 100% of the devices received the English version of the alert and 97.4% of these devices received the test alert within 1 minute,” AT&T said. Also, 42 of the devices “were enabled to receive Spanish alerts and 100% of the devices received the alert in Spanish and 100% of these devices received the alert within [one] minute.”
Dish Network, T-Mobile and the DOJ filed a motion Wednesday (docket 1:19-cv-02232) with the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia agreeing to give Dish extra time to buy 800 MHz licenses from T-Mobile. DOJ previously filed in support of giving Dish until April 1 to buy the spectrum, or pay a $72 million fee for walking away from the deal (see 2309190061). As part of the agreement, Dish will pay a $100 million extension fee to T-Mobile, the companies said. Dish had asked for an extension through June 30. When DOJ filed “we thought the Judge was very likely to agree with the DOJ position,” said a New Street note to investors: “We think this filing increases the odds even higher, as there are now no parties in opposition to the extension.” The option to buy the licenses was part of a series of agreements tied to T-Mobile’s buy of Sprint, aimed at helping Dish emerge as fourth national wireless provider (see 2308170065). “Acquiring Defendant and Divesting Defendant will make reasonable efforts to secure timely approval by the FCC of the transfer of the spectrum,” the filing said. “Notwithstanding any other provision in this Amended Final Judgment, there shall be no extension of the Closing Deadline for any reason, whether foreseeable or not, except at the sole discretion of Divesting Defendants and with the consent of the United States.” The court “has jurisdiction to modify the Final Judgment pursuant to Section XVII of the Final Judgment, Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 60(b)(5), and the Court’s inherent authority to enforce its lawful orders, including the ‘power to construe and interpret the language of the judgment’ and to modify a decree of injunctive relief,” the filing said: “Where all parties to the agreement consent to the modification, a court need only review the modification to ensure that it is in the ‘public interest.’” The proposed modified final judgment is in the public interest, the parties said. “The Final Judgment was designed from the outset to provide DISH the first opportunity to purchase the spectrum, and as such is consistent with this Court’s original public interest determination regarding T-Mobile’s spectrum divestiture,” they said.
The FCC released a public notice Thursday seeking partners to test alternative technologies for wireless emergency alerts when cell towers are disabled during disasters. “The Commission is seeking partners to examine the feasibility of using complementary technologies, such as satellite service, to address this public safety gap,” said Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel: “This initiative is the latest in our ongoing effort to strengthen the nation’s alerting systems, working closely with our government partners.” The Public Safety Bureau notice asks for responses by Dec. 18 in docket 22-160. “WEAs can provide immediate, life-saving information when a mobile device user is in harm’s way,” the notice said. “The utility of this critical tool, however, can be significantly reduced or eliminated when the infrastructure needed to deliver WEAs, such as cell towers, is damaged or disabled due to disaster circumstances.” The bureau said alternate possibilities include satellites, high-altitude platforms systems and drones. The bureau “seeks to partner with any entities that have a technology, method, or other solution for delivering a WEA to a mobile device when the device is not connected to a functioning cell tower.”
The era of FCC agreement on most items appears to be over. In addition to the fight over net neutrality, and perhaps the longest statement yet at a meeting by Commissioner Brendan Carr (see 2310190020), Carr and Simington dissented Thursday on a declaratory ruling clarifying that the use of Wi-Fi on school buses is an educational purpose and eligible for E-rate funding. But an order approving changes to rules for wireless emergency alerts, a notice of inquiry on broadband and maternal health and an NPRM on connectivity in Alaska were approved without dissents.
The two companies and the DOJ filed a motion with the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia Wednesday agreeing to give Dish Network extra time to buy 800 MHz licenses from T-Mobile. DOJ previously filed in support of giving Dish until April 1 to buy the spectrum, or pay a $72 million fee for walking away from the deal (see 2309190061). Dish asked for an extension through June 30. When DOJ filed “we thought the Judge was very likely to agree with the DOJ position,” said a New Street note to investors: “We think this filing increases the odds even higher, as there are now no parties in opposition to the extension.” The option to buy the licenses was part of a series of agreements tied to T-Mobile’s buy of Sprint, aimed at helping Dish emerge as a fourth national wireless provider (see 2308170065). “Acquiring Defendant and Divesting Defendant will make reasonable efforts to secure timely approval by the FCC of the transfer of the spectrum,” the filing said. “Notwithstanding any other provision in this Amended Final Judgment, there shall be no extension of the Closing Deadline for any reason, whether foreseeable or not, except at the sole discretion of Divesting Defendants and with the consent of the United States.”
Intelligence officials from U.S., U.K., Canada, Australia and New Zealand met with industry officials and academics this week to discuss ways to improve security guardrails around emerging technologies, said the FBI, which organized the meetings. The talks included officials from each of the Five Eyes countries and were held near Silicon Valley as part of the first Emerging Technology and Securing Innovation Security Summit, which the FBI said will help government and industry discuss threats to innovation and coming trends in the use and exploitation of emerging technology, and find “means to work together to advance both economic security and public safety.”