Wireless Internet

The Federal Communications Commission's Wireline Competition Bureau (WCB) and the Wireless Telecommunications Bureau (WTB) released updated data on fixed broadband deployment and mobile voice and broadband deployment as of December 31, 2017. These data were collected through FCC Form 477 and are available on the FCC's website.

The Rural Wireless Association (RWA) claims T-Mobile lied to the Federal Communications Commission about the extent of its 4G LTE coverage. T-Mobile claimed—under penalty of perjury—to have coverage in areas where it hadn't yet installed 4G equipment. As part of the FCC's Mobility Fund challenge process, RWA members have conducted millions of speed tests at their own expense to determine whether the major carriers' coverage claims are correct. Those speed tests previously found that Verizon didn't cover the entire Oklahoma Panhandle as the carrier claimed.

The Federal Communications Commission adopted its first Communications Marketplace Report, which provides a comprehensive evaluation of the state of the communications marketplace. As required by Title IV of RAY BAUM’S Act of 2018, the report consolidates several separate reports to address the state of the broader communications marketplace in one place. And as mandated by Congress, this report will be issued every two years.

The Federal Communications Commission has launched an investigation into whether one or more major carriers violated the Mobility Fund Phase II (MF-II) reverse auction’s mapping rules and submitted incorrect coverage maps. The investigation comes after a preliminary review of the 20,809,503 speed tests filed with the agency in connection with the MF-II challenge process; the window for initial challenges closed on November 26. The FCC has suspended the next step of the challenge process—the opening of a response window—pending the conclusion of this investigation

The Qualcomm Snapdragon Technology Summit was the first time that journalists were able to see real, consumer 5G devices running on real 5G networks from Verizon and AT&T. On the island of Maui, a handful of 5G devices are available, but  journalists aren’t being allowed to try 5G in any meaningful way.

The House has passed, by a voice vote,  the SMART (State of Modern Application, Research, and Trends) IoT (Internet of Things) Act (H.R. 6032). Authored by Consumer Digital Commerce Subcommittee Chairman Bob Latta (R-OH) and Rep. Peter Welch (D-VT), the SMART IoT Act would direct the Secretary of Commerce to conduct a study on the state of the internet-connected devices industry. The report is to be delivered to Congress within one year. 

The legislation instructs the Sec of Commerce to 

(1) develop and conduct a survey of the internet-connected devices industry including:

Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) submitted a formal challenge to the Federal Communications Commission's Mobility Fund Phase II initial eligible areas map, the only lawmaker to do so. He argued the map does not accurately show broadband coverage in West Virginia. “Rural areas were getting screwed, and all of West Virginia was getting screwed because these big-time carriers were showing, ‘Oh, this is our area. We’ve got it taken care of, don’t worry,'” he said. “They’re only going to go into areas where they know that they’re going to have a return on an investment.