AT&T

AT&T Unveils AT&T Call Protect to Help Customers Manage Unwanted Calls

Dec 20, AT&T launches AT&T Call Protect. The free network-based service gives eligible AT&T wireless customers with HD Voice more control over unwanted calls on their smartphones. This innovative solution harnesses the power of the AT&T network to give customers automatic fraud blocking and suspected spam call warnings. You can extend this innovative network-based service and get more optional features, including temporary call blocking, by downloading the complementary AT&T Call Protect mobile companion app. Simply add the feature through your myAT&T account or the AT&T Call Protect app and get these benefits:

Automatic fraud blocking which helps reduce the chances that a customer will become the victim of a phone fraud or scam by stopping these types of calls in the network before they even reach the phone.
Suspected spam warnings on the incoming call screen which let customers choose whether or not to answer calls that originate from a suspected spam source. (Must be in HD Voice coverage area).

AT&T Responds, Again, to Wireless Bureau's Sponsored Data Inquiry

As we explain (again) in the response provided to the Wireless Bureau, the video entertainment marketplace is ripe for disruptive change, which is exactly why consumers have enthusiastically embraced Data Free TV in all its competitive forms. That enthusiasm has caused competitors to react with additional consumer-friendly video offerings, like the T-Mobile offer announced recently.

And although the Commission has decided to apply Title II to broadband services, the Wireless Bureau’s analysis of AT&T’s sponsored data platform abandons decades of Title II jurisprudence to raise questions about a service that undeniably increases choice and lowers costs for video consumers. This is exactly the type of pro-consumer benefit that the DirecTV acquisition was designed to achieve.

AT&T Offers 3 Ways to Stream Premium Video Content, Launches DirectTV Now

On Nov 30, AT&T begins offering 3 video streaming services – DIRECTV NOW, FreeVIEW and Fullscreen. This is rules-free TV for anyone in the US who wants to stream shows and movies anytime, anywhere. For the more than 20 million US households who have dropped cable or are flirting with cutting the cord, we’re now delivering video over a technology platform that will have multiple product capabilities. And, if you’re an AT&T Mobility customer, DIRECTV will pick up the tab for data to help you achieve all your binge-worthy goals. Data Free TV means you won’t use your AT&T mobile data for watching DIRECTV NOW or FreeVIEW in the App. Fullscreen will also cover your data for streaming in the Fullscreen App on the AT&T mobile network.

Making Access to Broadband a Reality for Low-Income Americans

We are notifying the Federal Communications Commission that we are “opting-in” to the forbearance granted in the Commission’s 2016 Lifeline Modernization Order. By opting in to forbearance today, AT&T will not offer a Lifeline discount on our broadband products at this time except where we deploy broadband as part of a high-cost funded public interest commitment. Again, opting in to forbearance will still allow us to offer Lifeline-supported broadband in the future, should we choose to do so. We will continue to assess our options as the current Lifeline program reforms are implemented and further updates are adopted.

When Disruption Spurs Innovation and Investment

[The AT&T/Time Warner] transaction will reshape the competitive landscape. Put simply, AT&T and Time Warner will innovate within the system, forcing other providers to compete with innovations of their own and creating demand for wireless connectivity that will give all wireless providers greater confidence to deploy 5G networks faster, deeper, and more robustly than they otherwise would. The result is a virtuous cycle of innovation and investment that expands consumer choice, incentivizes investment in the nation’s broadband infrastructure, and allows wireless companies like AT&T to bring needed competition to consumers looking for a wireless alternative to their cable broadband.

And we can accomplish all of this without harm to competition. As we begin the merger review process, we look forward to sharing these facts with our regulators. Vertical mergers like this one have long been recognized as being fundamentally pro-competitive, and for good reason. This transaction is about giving consumers more choices, not less. It is about expanding the distribution of Time Warner’s content, not restricting it. It is about stimulating the creation of more and better content, generating demand for next generation wireless services, and delivering consumers what they want. This only happens when the right combination of assets yields the right incentives to invest, innovate, and transform. The next revolution in video awaits.

AT&T, WOW announce 1-gig deployments as battle over Huntsville, Ala. heats up

AT&T and WOW simultaneously announced 1-gig deployments Oct 11, setting up Huntsville (AL) as the latest unlikely location for a pitched battle between competing cable and telecommunication gigabit-speed services. For AT&T, Huntsville is among three more metropolitan areas that will have the switch turned on for 1-gig services in October.

Other cities now served include Detroit and Columbus (OH). WOW announced in August that it was bringing its “Gigtopia” service to five market say the end of the year. Oct 11, it said deployments have been made in four of them Huntsville and Auburn (AL).; Knoxville (TN); and Evansville (IN). "In both Auburn and Huntsville, we are already offering the highest speeds available with our 600 Mbps Internet service,” said WOW System Manager Matt DeMuro, in a statement. “By enabling 1 Gig Internet over our existing Alabama coax plant, WOW customers will be able to access the fastest Internet service from WOW.”

Joan Marsh Takes Over Leadership of AT&T's Federal Regulatory Team in DC

The week of Oct 3, I am privileged to take over leadership of AT&T’s Federal Regulatory team in AT&T’s DC office. I take the reins from my mentor, boss and friend, Bob Quinn, as he rises to succeed Jim Cicconi, who leaves us for the next chapter of his life and a richly-deserved retirement.

This opportunity comes to me at an important inflection point for our company, our industry and our country. We are on the precipice of a Presidential election that will, in all events, herald change during a time when communications companies are increasingly scrutinized through the lens of a dated regulatory code that is more and more untethered from the realities of today’s modern networks. We have moved well beyond trying to fit a square regulatory peg into a round regulatory hole to fundamental questions about whether pegs and holes are an adequate regulatory framework at all. While I don’t know what issues will dominate the regulatory stage next year, I plan to proceed in my new role consistent with the high standards established by Jim and Bob – to engage in honest and fact-based debate, to listen in good faith to opposing viewpoints and to seek consensus wherever it can be found.

Failing to Pass the Straight-Face Test

Sept 12, AT&T filed comments with the Office of Management and Budget on the Federal Communications Commission’s woefully deficient analysis of the burdens associated with the so-called enhanced transparency requirements adopted in the 2015 Open Internet Order (OIO). The Commission’s analysis evinces a complete disregard for its responsibilities under the Paperwork Reduction Act. The FCC has not specifically identified the things Internet service providers (ISPs) must do to comply with the new transparency requirements; it has not separately estimated the burden of each requirement; it has not explained the benefits that would justify these requirements; and its lowball estimate of the overall costs is absurd on its face. The FCC’s PRA analysis, which took the Commission more than a year to complete, does not pass the straight-face test. We hope OMB will reject it.

Lies, Damn Lies, and Statistics

Over the past several months, the Federal Communications Commission – first through its hired economist, and later through Staff – has released over 100 regressions that purport to analyze the data the Commission has collected about the Business Data Services market. Each time, the FCC announced that the regressions show that incumbant local exchange carriers (ILECs) retain market power for legacy DS1 and DS3 services. Each time, economists, including those the FCC asked to conduct peer reviews of the FCC regressions, observed that the regressions suffer from significant flaws that render them unreliable, including the severe correlation/causation problem that economists refer to as “endogeneity,” incomplete and incorrect data on pricing and the number of competitors, mismatches in the pricing and competitor data, and incorrect methods for computing the statistical significance of the results. And each time, we noted that some of the most significant of these flaws are not fixable because of the limitations of the data available to the FCC’s economists.

Without reliable evidence of significant market power, there is simply no data-driven basis for new heavy-handed rate regulation of BDS services. Chairman Wheeler astutely declared soon after joining the FCC that “[i]ncentivizing competition is a job for governments at every level. We must build on and expand the creative thinking that has gone into facilitating advanced broadband builds around the country…Working together, we can implement policies at the federal, state, and local level that serve consumers by facilitating construction and encouraging competition in the broadband marketplace.” But, as the record in this proceeding makes clear, government rate regulation will not “facilitate advanced broadband builds around the country.” Instead, it will do exactly the opposite – discourage facilities-based entry by limiting the returns, particularly in rural areas, available to those willing to risk investing and punishing those that already have taken that risk.

Broadband Investment: Not for the Faint of Heart

Building reliable, ubiquitous high-speed broadband connectivity is tough. It takes an enormous commitment of capital and resources and a highly-skilled and capable work force. Yet AT&T has been at it for over 140 years. Between 2011 and 2015, while Google Fiber was cutting its teeth on fiber, AT&T invested over $140 billion in its network, building to over one million route miles of fiber globally and deploying ultra-high-speed fiber-fed GigaPower broadband services, reaching over a hundred cities. Along the way, AT&T spent over $13 billion with minority, women and disabled veteran-owned suppliers in 2015 alone. Google Fiber will no doubt continue its broadband experiments, while coming up with excuses for its shortcomings and learning curves.

Google Fiber still complains it’s too hard…and costs too much…and takes too long… even as it’s reported that Google Fiber will now try to do all this with half its current workforce. Meanwhile, without excuses or finger-pointing, and without presenting ultimatums to cities in exchange for service, AT&T continues to deploy fiber and to connect our customers to broadband services in communities across the country. Welcome to the broadband network business, Google Fiber. We’ll be watching your next move from our rear view mirror. Oh, and pardon our dust.

Facts not Fiat

AT&T filed its response to a July 27 Notice of Apparent Liability (NAL) issued by the Federal Communications Commission for alleged violations of the lowest corresponding price (LCP) requirements of the E-rate program. These rules say that in order to participate in the E-rate program, a carrier must charge a participating school, library or consortium no higher than the lowest price that it charges to any similarly situated non-residential customer for similar services. To be clear, AT&T wholeheartedly supports the E-rate goals of providing schools and libraries with affordable broadband and telecommunications services. The FCC’s arguments, however, that AT&T applied the LCP rule incorrectly are factually wrong, they deviate from the FCC’s own rules and existing precedent, and they continue the FCC Enforcement Bureau’s troubling pattern of “rulemaking through enforcement.” The facts of the case aptly demonstrate that no actual FCC rules were violated.

A Return to Permission-Less Innovation

The latest chapter of the Wi-Fi vs. LTE-U saga unfolded this month as the Wi-Fi Alliance (WFA) announced that, after many months, it was finally closing in on an approved LTE-U coexistence test plan but surprised everyone by suggesting that the test plan should also include LTE-LAA. To understand why this is so aggravating, we need to take a little trip in the not-so-way-back machine.

Let me be clear on one point – AT&T has no interest in undermining the vibrant Wi-Fi ecosystem that exists today. Well over 100 million devices connect to our network and the vast majority of those devices include a Wi-Fi client. But with LTE-LAA, the “mother-may-I” paradigm must be rejected so the wireless industry can move forward. Make no mistake, the rest of the world is not waiting for permission – Deutsche Telecom conducted the first LTE-LAA over-the-air trials last November in Germany. With LTE-LAA, the asserted objections to LTE-U have been fully addressed. Any pending or future application for equipment authorization for a LTE-LAA device that otherwise meets the Part 15 requirements should be granted in normal course. Any other result could do permanent damage to the incredibly successful Part 15 paradigm, result in the U.S. falling behind the world in the development of LTE unlicensed technologies and deny American consumers important advancements in mobile broadband.

The BDS Facts Speak for Themselves

The Federal Communications Commission has spent the last year analyzing the data submitted in the Business Data Services proceeding to understand what is driving the BDS marketplace. It has committed to a “data-driven” rulemaking process in its analysis of whether additional BDS regulation is needed. The jury is still out as to whether that will take place.

As we explain in our reply comments, the facts show that competition in the BDS market is thriving. Even as of 2013, competitors had deployed competing facilities in more than 95% of MSA census blocks with BDS demand, and those blocks contain 97% of all BDS connections and 99% of business establishments. And, according to the NPRM, ILECs’ in-region market share was already under 50%. Undoubtedly, competition is now even more pervasive, particularly given that cable companies are now prioritizing the BDS marketplace to grow their revenues in the face of more intense competition for their core video offerings.

Drones Taking Our Network to New Height

Imagine you’re at a concert watching your favorite band, and out of the corner of your eye you notice a tethered drone hovering nearby. But this drone isn’t taking photos or videos of the band. It's temporarily providing enhanced LTE wireless coverage at the packed venue so you, along with thousands of others in attendance, can simultaneously send photos and videos to share the moment.

While this isn’t a reality yet, we expect many different drone uses in the future. This week, we reached another milestone by launching the trial phase of our national drone program. Led by Art Pregler, our national drone program is driving innovation, and focuses on how AT&T and our customers can benefit from drone-based solutions. We expect our experiences will lay the foundation for new, exciting drone applications. Possible uses include Flying COWs (Cell on Wings) providing LTE coverage at large events or even rapid disaster response. A Flying COW may even be able to provide coverage when a vehicle is unable to drive to a designated area.

TechGirls: My Day with the next generation of innovators

For the past two years, I’ve had the privilege to host TechGirls -- an international exchange program for girls from the Middle East and North Africa -- at AT&T’s office in DC for a day of job-shadowing.

TechGirls focuses on hands-on skills development in fields such as programming, mobile application building, web design, and more for girls between ages 15 and 17.

It’s an initiative of the US Department of State Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs and administered by Legacy International.

The Roaming Marketplace is Working

T-Mobile, which advertises itself as the “un-carrier,” has asked the Federal Communications Commission to “un-do” its data roaming rules, which were established in 2011 to facilitate reasonable data roaming arrangements while continuing to incent network investments.

T-Mobile now asks for a “declaratory ruling” which would effectively eviscerate that FCC decision and run afoul of the DC Circuit case which upheld it. There is no justification for granting T-Mobile’s petition -- in fact, according to T-Mobile’s own economist, wholesale roaming rates have trended “downward strongly” in recent years, and the average wholesale roaming rates paid by T-Mobile have fallen nearly 70 percent since 2011 and continue to decline.

There is also evidence that commercial negotiations are producing a variety of terms to meet differing needs, including the highly-touted LTE roaming hub T-Mobile’s own trade association (CCA) has established with scores of rural carriers to “help Sprint and T-Mobile fill the holes in their network[s].”

‘911’ Location Accuracy: Getting Dispatchable Addresses

TruePosition recently commissioned and produced a test report purporting to show that its proprietary technology can meet the Federal Communications Commission’s proposed benchmarks for locating wireless 911 callers horizontally and vertically indoors.

The tests were run on a test bed in Wilmington, Delaware outside the context of the established CSRIC process specifically designed to assess new “911” location technologies.

And although TruePosition claims the test relied on commercial off-the-shelf technologies, it did not and the technologies used by TruePosition are not fully supported in any wireless network today. Moreover, the technology used would not provide complete location information in that it does not have the capability to provide a vertical estimate of location.

Beyond these significant limitations, the testing highlights even bigger concerns. The fact is that the approach proposed by TruePosition is, at the core, antithetical to the design of modern 3G and 4G networks.

TruePosition’s proposed solution depends on hardware installed at each base station seeing the handsets being served by other base stations. They also ignore the potential for the untenable interference that such an approach would likely create.

[Marsh serves as the AT&T Vice President of Federal Regulatory]

Spectrum Sharing: Let’s Walk Before Running

The Federal Communications Commission recently released proposed rules for the 3.5 GHz proceeding, a proceeding that has received a lot of attention as it is the first attempt to apply the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST) report that promotes the sharing of federal spectrum with non-federal users.

The Commission has identified this spectrum as an “innovation band” and we applaud them for their “outside-the-box” thinking on increasing spectrum efficiency. However, it is crucial that the Commission find the right balance between implementation of this new sharing model and incentives to invest in the technology necessary to make it work.

As this 3.5 GHz spectrum is spectrally higher than what mobile broadband optimally uses, the FCC has proposed using this band for “small cell” deployments. Small cells are low-powered, low-elevation micro cells that are typically installed in office complexes, campuses and residential areas to augment the large macro cell sites that are used for main coverage areas.

Small cells are typically used to increase network capacity in areas such as stadiums or metro stations where demand for network services is concentrated in a small area. Today, this is accomplished in many areas by using Wi-Fi networks where available. But a licensed spectrum band such as 3.5 GHz could offer an alternative and potentially even better user experience than Wi-Fi as small cells would be connected directly to a mobile operator’s macro network.

More on low band spectrum debate

[Commentary] As the debate about auction limitations and restrictions rages on, one new argument is particularly notable. The Competitive Carriers Association has for months sought low band restrictions or limits in the auction.

CCA has long argued that AT&T and Verizon have somehow foreclosed their members from access to low band spectrum (a notion that I debunked in a blog some months ago). Therefore, CCA has argued, there should be low band limits that restrict AT&T and Verizon in the 600 MHz auction while their members have free reign.

The FCC has now proposed a set of restrictions that basically gives CCA exactly what it has demanded -- it is proposing to restrict a carrier’s participation in the 600 MHz auction based on the amount of low band spectrum it holds in its portfolio.

One would think CCA would be cheering from the stands, but they are not. Why? Because the FCC’s proposal has finally forced CCA to acknowledge that there are “multiple examples” “throughout the country” of incidences where their members already have a significant portfolio of low band spectrum. Those members would therefore be restricted under the FCC’s current proposal.

AT&T Eyes 100 US Cities and Municipalities for its Ultra-Fast Fiber Network

AT&T announced a major initiative to expand its ultra-fast fiber network to up to 100 candidate cities and municipalities nationwide, including 21 new major metropolitan areas.

The fiber network will deliver AT&T U-verse with GigaPowerSM service, which can deliver broadband speeds up to 1 Gigabit per second and AT&T’s most advanced TV services, to consumers and businesses. AT&T will work with local leaders in these markets to discuss ways to bring the service to their communities.

Similar to previously announced metro area selections in Austin and Dallas and advanced discussions in Raleigh-Durham and Winston-Salem, communities that have suitable network facilities, and show the strongest investment cases based on anticipated demand and the most receptive policies will influence these future selections and coverage maps within selected areas.

This initiative continues AT&T’s ongoing commitment to economic development in these communities, bringing jobs, advanced technologies and infrastructure. The list of 21 candidate metropolitan areas includes: Atlanta, Augusta, Charlotte, Chicago, Cleveland, Fort Worth, Fort Lauderdale, Greensboro, Houston, Jacksonville, Kansas City, Los Angeles, Miami, Nashville, Oakland, Orlando, San Antonio, San Diego, St. Louis, San Francisco, and San Jose. With previously announced markets, AT&T now has committed to or is exploring 25 metro areas for fiber deployment.

More on Auction Limits

[Commentary] The word out of the Federal Communications Commission is that we can expect a 600 MHz auction framework item in the May timeframe. This has set the auction restrictions drums beating (again).

Calls for large-carrier limitations and even strategic set asides are growing ever louder. In all the rhetoric, some fundamental facts are getting lost. So, let’s ground this debate.
Fact No. 1: It will take a lot of revenue for the incentive auction to be successful.
Fact No. 2: No one bidder can run a $30 billion table.
Fact No. 3: A set aside of any type will only exacerbate the $30 billion revenue challenge.
Fact No. 4: A low band cap will also exacerbate the $30 billion revenue challenge.
For this auction to succeed, the FCC must attract wide broadcaster participation in major markets. Period. No exceptions. And to do that, the FCC must be prepared to meet prevailing price expectations.

We are firmly convinced that scoring on any basis related to station value or revenue will undermine the very broadcaster participation that is essential to success. TV stations are selling spectrum -- not their broadcast businesses. And if broadcasters don’t show up, the question of whether the auction will raise the necessary revenue on the forward side will be moot.

Establishing Effective Spectrum Policy

When the Federal Communications Commission’s mobile spectrum holdings proceeding was initiated over a year ago, AT&T argued that the Commission’s basic spectrum aggregation test -- as originally conceived -- remained a sound approach.

The test seeks to strike a balance between regulatory certainty, by assuring licensees that spectrum accumulations within a safe harbor will be approved, and regulatory flexibility, by giving the Commission a focused tool to assess whether proposals that exceed the safe harbor screen will foreclose competition. The benefits of this balanced, consumer-focused approach have been extraordinary.

To be sure, modest steps are still needed to update the screen and restore its validity. These two steps are all that is necessary to restore the screen to its proper and intended function of addressing the potential for market foreclosure.

For one thing, the screen continues to exclude a substantial amount of spectrum that the Commission’s own reports to Congress recognize as usable for mobile wireless service and that, in fact, is being used today. Most prominently, the Commission should correct a current glaring omission by including in the screen the entire 194 MHz of BRS and EBS spectrum held almost entirely by Sprint/Clearwire, rather than the mere 55.5 MHz the Commission has included to date.

Moreover, some recent decisions have departed from longstanding precedent by no longer treating the safe harbor as “safe,” requiring divestitures even where the screen has not been exceeded.

These ad hoc departures from the Commission’s framework undermine the predictability that is critical to business planning. The Commission should make clear that its case-by-case analysis will be reserved for proposals to exceed the threshold level in any local market and that this review will be properly focused on the potential for actual foreclosure.