Wireless Telecommunications

The Federal Communications Commission adopted an Order that incorporates changes to the FCC's rules consistent with the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2021, which appropriated $1.895 billion for the Secure and Trusted Communications Networks Reimbursement Program. The Order is another step in ongoing FCC action to protect the communications networks from those who would harm the United States. Key changes include:

The Federal Communications Commission proposed and sought comment on updated rules for short-range radars in the 60 GHz spectrum band. Cutting edge radar sensing technology has been used to enable in-car radar-based technology to monitor for children left in dangerous, hot cars and touchless control of devices, including to promote accessibility for users with mobility or speech impairments.

AT&T is adding a few more benefits to its $85-per-month top-tier unlimited plan at no added cost. Unlimited Elite subscribers will now truly have access to unlimited high-speed data and will no longer be subject to deprioritization after hitting 100GB of data per month. Customers will also get a bump from 30GB of monthly hotspot data up to 40GB as well as up to 4K video streaming—boosted from a maximum of 1080p.

In 2016, the Federal Communications Commission adopted a comprehensive reform and modernization of its Lifeline program. For the first time, the FCC included broadband as a supported service in the program, allowing support for stand-alone mobile (think cell phone) or fixed broadband Internet access service (think home broadband service delivered over a wire), as well as bundles including fixed or mobile voice and broadband. But the 2016 decision also set out to zero-out support for voice-only services.

Dish Network has its sights set on the 12 GHz band for 5G, and it isn’t backing down, even in the face of some pretty stiff competition. Dish—which is in the process of building out a cloud-native, open RAN-based 5G network—itself uses the 12 GHz band for direct broadcast satellite (DBS). Yet it says sharing with 5G in the band is feasible, and while it still wants to support the diminishing TV satellite business (DBS) business, it’s confident that sharing isn’t going to hurt those customers.

The Federal Trade Commission has issued a complaint charging Broadcom with illegally monopolizing markets for semiconductor components used to deliver television and broadband internet services through exclusive dealing and related conduct.

The Federal Communications Commission is still reviewing Verizon’s proposed purchase of TracFone Wireless from América Móvil. Verizon CEO of the Consumer Group, Ronan Dunne, and TracFone CEO, Eduardo Diaz Corona, met with Acting FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel to try and convince her that the transaction is in the public interest. Their main argument is that a combined Verizon/TracFone will introduce a third facilities-based provider in the prepaid segment to compete against T-Mobile’s Metro and AT&T’s Cricket.

The Mobile Marketing Association and WARC's new joint "State of the Industry" report found that while mobile marketing budgets boomed during the COVID-19 pandemic, connsumer privacy concerns remain a significant barrier to growth. The top-line finding of the report is that two out of three marketers boosted their mobile marketing budgets over the past year, at least partly due to the acceleration of ecommerce following the pandemic. And while marketers appear to be more optimistic about almost every potential barrier to further mobile marketing budget growth, consumers' concern over their p

The National Science Foundation (NSF) and the US Department of Agriculture are spending $8 million to build a rural broadband testing site in Ames, Iowa, that both industry engineers and researchers from Iowa State University plan to use for developing wireless technologies and piloting rural connectivity strategies.

Ranking member of the Senate Armed Services Committee Jim Inhofe (R-OK), Tammy Duckworth (D-IL), and Mike Rounds (R-SD) introduced the Recognizing and Ensuring Taxpayer Access to Infrastructure Necessary for GPS and Satellite Communications (RETAIN GPS) Act (S.2166). The April 2020 Ligado Order from the Federal Communications Commission recognized the likelihood of interference to GPS signals and requires Ligado Networks to pay the federal government the costs for repairs.