Howard Buskirk

Tuesday marks the last day that eligible households enrolled in the affordable connectivity program will receive full funding, Miriam Montgomery, chief of the FCC Consumer and Governmental Affairs Bureau’s Consumer Affairs and Outreach Division, noted during a National Association of Telecommunication Officers and Advisors webinar on Monday. The webinar also included an update on the national broadband map.

T-Mobile is considering how to use its growing fiber footprint to further bolster its Home Internet base, CEO Mike Sievert said on a call with investors late Thursday. T-Mobile earlier in the day unveiled a joint venture with infrastructure investor EQT (see 2404250047).

NTIA “is hard at work” implementing the national spectrum strategy, the agency said as it offered details on its progress. Derek Khlopin, deputy associate administrator-spectrum planning and policy in the Office of Spectrum Management, is now in charge of implementing the plan for NTIA, the agency said: “First up: initiating technical studies of spectrum bands -- including a process to streamline funding to federal agencies -- and kicking off the exploration and demonstration of advanced spectrum management techniques including Dynamic Spectrum Sharing.” NTIA is working with other federal agencies on “streamlining” the process for receiving money from the spectrum relocation fund (SRF) and anticipates distributing funds in October. “We expect that more than 10 federal agencies will seek funding, and our hope is this streamlined process will make the application process easier and quicker for these agencies,” it said. Under a three-step process, each agency must submit an application for funding, which is reviewed by a Technical Panel, chaired by NTIA, with representatives from the Office of Management and Budget and the FCC, which considers the request. “If approved by the Technical Panel, OMB notifies Congress and, after a mandatory 60-day waiting period, disperses the funds to each requesting agency,” NTIA said. It noted the presentation DOD made at CTIA this month on dynamic spectrum sharing (see 2404080063) but said it was “separate and apart” from a study that’s getting underway on the lower 3 GHz band's future. NTIA released the implementation plan for the strategy in March (see 2403120056).

The FCC Wireless and International bureaus approved, subject to conditions, T-Mobile’s proposed acquisition of Mint Mobile (see 2303150032) and other assets from Ka’ena. Mint Mobile is a low-cost prepaid wireless brand. Meanwhile, T-Mobile announced plans Thursday to partner with private equity firm EQT as part of a proposed acquisition of fiber-to-the-home provider Lumos.

Industry groups largely questioned the wisdom of using the voluntary cyber mark program for IoT devices, approved in March, to further clamp down on international security threats. But the proposals also received some support from the Internet Protocol Video Market (IPVM) and Whirlpool. FCC commissioners approved 5-0 a Further NPRM, along with the implementing order, asking about software and hardware from countries of national security concern and whether data from U.S. citizens will be stored abroad (see 2403140034). Comments were posted Thursday in docket 23-239.

Carriers worldwide are moving to cloud-native networks in part because they have no choice, experts said Wednesday during a virtual TelecomTV forum on digital support systems. In addition, carriers, they said, increasingly want to work with hyperscalers, the large cloud service providers. Carriers seek access to their expertise.

AT&T added 349,000 net postpaid phone customers, which was far better than Wall Street expectations, and saw record low churn in Q1, CEO John Stankey said Wednesday as the carrier reported quarterly results. Stankey apologized for the nationwide wireless outage that hit customers Feb. 22 (see 2402220058). Compared to Verizon, whose shares sunk after it reported results Monday (see 2404220042), AT&T was up 1.88%, closing the day at $16.82.

Eager to win FCC approval of its proposed buy of Mint Mobile (see 2303150032), a low-cost prepaid wireless brand, and other assets from Ka’ena, T-Mobile told the FCC it would agree to a handset unlocking requirement. Public and consumer interest groups have asked the FCC to push for that concession (see 2402060025). “Within 60 days of the closing of the transaction, T-Mobile commits to implement an unlocking policy applicable to all Mint Mobile and Ultra Mobile devices activated on the T-Mobile network both pre- and post-closing,” said a filing posted Wednesday in docket 23-171. T-Mobile said it views the concession as unnecessary but wants to ensure prompt FCC approval. The company "believes that the public interest benefits of its proposed acquisition of the Mint Mobile and Ultra Mobile wireless brands and their customers are clear and compelling and that no credible competitive concerns have been raised with respect to the proposed transaction,” the filing said. T-Mobile reports quarterly earnings after the close of the financial markets Thursday. “It is good to see progress on the issue, though the voluntary commitments do not quite match what we asked for in the record,” emailed PK Legal Director John Bergmayer. “There are some timing differences,” but the biggest difference is T-Mobile is committing to unlocking Mint Mobile and Ultra Mobile devices, “as opposed to all devices on the T-Mobile network,” he said: “It’s not just Mint customers that would benefit from unlocking, and having a uniform policy would probably be simpler.” It’s “in the public interest to unlock all new devices on T-Mobile’s network, not only the acquired Mint Mobile customers,” said Michael Calabrese, director of the Wireless Future Program at New America: “A uniform policy for all T-Mobile customers would also bring the U.S. closer to the sort of industry-wide unlocking policy that is already required by the regulators in Canada” and the U.K.

CTIA and its major members agreed that grants of special temporary authority (STA) are the best method of getting “inventory” spectrum into play, in reply comments posted Tuesday in docket 24-72. Others continue to stress the benefits of dynamic sharing and other mechanisms (see 2404090045). The FCC sought comment in March as the agency marked the one-year anniversary of its general auction authority expiring.

CTIA and the major wireless carriers urged the FCC to clarify that the Telephone Consumer Protection Act doesn’t apply to robocalls and robotexts from wireless service providers to their subscribers, in reply comments posted Monday in docket 02-278. Consumer and public interest groups argue that providers shouldn’t receive special treatment (see 2404050044). Commissioners approved a Further NPRM in February seeking comment on the wireless provider exemption (see 2402160048).