Telecommunication

The California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) released a ruling and staff report on "Equity and Transparency of Fees, Taxes and Surcharges Assessed on Customers of Telecommunications Services in California." The report found that the total number of communications subscribers in the state has increased substantially over the past decade. Yet, over the same period, the surcharges have yielded diminishing revenues.

AT&T says fiber internet is a "superior" technology that is built for today and the future because of its ability to deliver symmetrical upload and download speeds of 1Gbps and higher. AT&T also says that "there is no compelling evidence" to support the deployment of fiber across the US, and that rural people should be satisfied with non-fiber internet access that provides only 10Mbps upload speeds. The difference between those two wildly different statements was the audience.

UK operator BT teamed up with satellite company OneWeb to explore how the latter’s service could help close broadband gaps in areas beyond the reach of its mobile and fiber networks. Working together under a new Memorandum of Understanding (MoU), the companies aim to determine how connectivity from OneWeb’s constellation could be used to deliver increased coverage and capacity to consumers and businesses in remote areas across the UK. In addition to using OneWeb’s technology to improve mobile service, they aim to explore other connectivity options including fixed wireless access broadband.

A bipartisan pair of Colorado lawmakers want the Justice Department (DOJ) to investigate T-Mobile's plans to shut down a network used by Dish customers. T-Mobile agreed to help Dish stand up its own 5G network as a condition of obtaining approval for the Sprint merger, but Dish argues that T-Mobile is putting its customers at risk with its shutdown plans.

During a hearing titled "Building Resilient Networks," lawmakers on the Senate Commerce Committee's Subcommittee on Communications, Media, and Broadband were asked to boost the reliability of the nation's broadband networks by spreading infrastructure funding among a variety of technologies such as fixed wireless and mobile broadband rather than limiting it solely to fiber. Wireless Infrastructure Association President Jonathan Adelstein testified that a singular focus on fiber broadband networks that can deliver "symmetrical" speeds of 100 megabits per second would prioritize a sometimes c

A federal appeals court ruled that Huawei can’t subsidize the sale of its 5G technology with federal funds earmarked for US broadband development because the Federal Communications Commission determined the company is a national security threat. The 5th Circuit Court agreed that the FCC was fully within its power and competence to issue the rule barring “Universal Service Fund” subsidies recipients from buying equipment or services from companies deemed national security risks.

Shrihari Pandit, CEO of fiber ISP Stealth Communications, argued the creation of an open access conduit system across the US could help spur broadband competition by lowering barriers to entry for new players. Pandit pitched the construction of a conduit highway akin to the Interstate, which would allow fiber to be more easily run between cities and towns. The CEO stressed the government should only be responsible for building the conduits and not for running fiber or other lines, leaving decisions about what technology to use up to providers.

Enterprise fiber provider Lightpath charted a course to double-digit revenue growth, planning to spend millions to expand its footprint and serve more customers through a combination of network extensions and acquisitions. Lightpath is jointly owned by Altice and Morgan Stanley and has hitherto operated within Altice’s traditional footprint in New York, New Jersey and Connecticut. However, it gained a foothold in Massachusetts through three acquisitions focused in the Boston area.

An advanced optical technology, hollow core fiber (HCF) is a potential tool to help slash network costs and enable advanced use cases with latency-sensitive requirements. The fundamental idea behind HCF is that light travels faster through air than glass. Thus, as the name implies, HCF cables have been designed to have an air-filled center channel which is surrounded by a ring of glass tubes. Generally, a cross-section of a hollow core cable looks a bit like honeycomb with a hole in the middle.

The Federal Communications Commission proposed new rules that would prohibit all future authorizations for communications equipment deemed to pose an unacceptable risk to national security.