Howard Buskirk

Verizon CEO Hans Vestberg sees little possibility that Congress will continue the affordability connectivity program, he told CNBC Monday as the carrier released Q1 results. House Democrats hope they can force a vote on a bill that would keep the ACP alive (see 2404170066). Vestberg told an analysts' call Verizon is happy with its roll-out of C-band spectrum and offered an update about how the company is using AI to improve efficiency.

Most ex parte meetings on the net neutrality order have focused on Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel and her fellow Democrats Geoffrey Starks and Anna Gomez, with about twice as many meetings as with the Republicans, based on our count. Industry officials said that’s not surprising, saying Commissioners Brendan Carr and Nathan Simington certainly will dissent and have little leverage to seek changes. Commissioners vote Thursday.

The FCC approved Thursday waiver requests from 11 additional parties seeking permission to launch early deployments of cellular vehicle-to-everything (C-V2X) technology in the 5.895-5.925 GHz band. The FCC has yet to finalize rules for C-V2X in the band -- an item pending since November 2020, when the commission approved an order opening 45 MHz of the band for Wi-Fi, while allocating 30 MHz C-V2X technology (see 2011180043).

When people started discussing 5G 10 years ago, Mischa Dohler, Ericsson vice president-emerging technologies, said he was asked why anyone needs the next generation of wireless. Dohler, who spoke Thursday at a Competitive Carriers Association conference streamed from Palm Springs, California, said he has spent the last 10 years finding answers to that question.

FCC Commissioner Anna Gomez and carrier executives warned of challenges from the pending expiration of the affordable connectivity program and negative implications for the broadband access, equity and deployment program, speaking Wednesday at a Competitive Carriers Association conference streamed from Palm Springs, California. Gomez said she supports the proposed 5G Fund, circulated by Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel last month (see 2403260052), and is focused on concerns raised by CCA and others.

FCC commissioners approved fines against the then four national wireless carriers for failing to safeguard data on their customers' real-time locations, industry officials said Wednesday. Commissioners were reportedly still finishing their statements. The notices of apparent liability were approved in 2020 under former Chairman Ajit Pai (see 2002280065). The FCC proposed the largest fine, $91 million, against T-Mobile, followed by AT&T, $57 million; Verizon, $48 million; and Sprint, $12 million. T-Mobile subsequently acquired Sprint. “It’s time to hold [the carriers] accountable and make them pay for this behavior -- and by that I mean the more than $200 million in fines proposed by the last administration,” Rosenworcel said last year (see 2306140075). The FCC didn’t comment.

Paradise Mobile, which launched last year in Bermuda and will start operations soon in the Cayman Islands, offers a new take on what a wireless network can look like, executives for the mobile network operator said Tuesday during a Light Reading webinar. The network is a completely virtualized open radio access network.

Proponents of revised net neutrality rules are urging FCC commissioners to further tighten provisions on 5G network slicing, one of the more contested items in the proposed rules (see 2404050053). But officials on both sides said it’s not clear how many changes will be made to the order, prior to an expected 3-2 vote next week. Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel may need to make some concessions because the rules likely won’t pass without support from her fellow Democrats Geoffrey Starks and Anna Gomez.

Use of cyber insurance to protect companies against sometimes unexpected digital risks is growing in popularity, experts said Thursday during an FCBA Cybersecurity Committee online panel. Speakers said companies should view cyber insurance as one way of limiting risk from a cyberattack.

The FCC should make inventory spectrum available for free to “non-dominant” carriers to promote competition, EchoStar, the parent of Dish Wireless, told the FCC (see 2404090045). “Non-incumbent carriers (more specifically, every carrier other than AT&T, T-Mobile and Verizon) should have a ‘right of first refusal’ to all Inventory Spectrum,” EchoStar said. The company also urged the FCC to address the lower 12 GHz band, as advocated by the 12 GHz for 5G Coalition (see 2312270045): “Substantial evidence in the record shows that fixed 5G services can provide broadband to tens of millions of Americans, while fully protecting existing non-geostationary orbit Fixed-Satellite Service and Direct Broadcast Satellite customers.” In another filing this week in docket 24-72, electric utilities said the approaches the FCC is examining don’t provide the certainty they need. “Currently, utilities have very few options for accessing spectrum -- particularly spectrum with the certainty provided by licensed exclusive-use -- and those limited options are increasingly insufficient in bandwidth,” they said. “The ability to access Inventory Spectrum presents one potential solution to the problem of spectrum availability.” The filing was signed by the Edison Electric Institute, the Utilities Technology Council, the Utility Broadband Alliance, FirstEnergy, Southern California Edison and the Southern Co. The Blooston Group of small and rural carriers said the best approach would be site-based licensing, which “would provide a simpler and lower cost way to promote access to spectrum in rural areas, and by entrepreneurs and smaller operators.” Third-party coordinators and licensee-to-licensee coordination “could be relied upon to minimize harmful interference between operators,” Blooston said. NCTA said the Lower 3, 7, Lower 37 and 12.7 GHz bands would be “perfectly situated -- both spectrally and technologically” for licensed-shared and unlicensed spectrum access frameworks. “A coexistence-based approach in each band would allow for efficient and cost-effective spectrum use by a diverse set of users, offer the fastest method of putting this spectrum in the hands of businesses and consumers, and enable federal and non-federal incumbents to continue providing critical services without disruption,” NCTA said.