The nation's largest cable, wireline phone providers and fixed wireless services -- combined representing about 96% of the market -- added about 840,000 net additional broadband subscribers in Q2, compared with a pro forma gain of about 700,000 in Q2 2022, Leichtman Research Group said Monday. It said those providers in total have 112.9 million subs: 76.2 million cable subs, 30.7 million wireline phone subs and 5.9 million fixed wireless subs. Leichtman said Verizon's and T-Mobile's fixed wireless services added 890,000 subs in Q2, compared to 815,000 net adds the same quarter a year earlier. Cable added about 10,000 subs, vs. a loss of about 60,000 the same quarter a year earlier, and wireline lost about 60,000 subs, similar to its Q2 2022 losses.
The FCC activated a more focused version of the disaster information reporting system called DIRS-Lite for the wildfires in Hawaii and is receiving "more granular situation-specific information through ongoing direct communications with communications providers,” said a communications status report Monday. In a standard DIRS release, the information is self-reported by telecommunications providers. Nineteen of the 21 cellsites that serve the most affected areas of West Maui are down, and 17,832 cable and wireline subscribers are out of service. The Wireless Bureau granted special temporary authority to AT&T Mobility to use several frequencies for microwave backhaul from five cell towers, and to operate two cells-on-wheels and three temporary microwave sites, the report said.
Major wireless carriers said they were rushing equipment to Maui to try to restore coverage of the island lost in the wake of wildfires there last week. "West Maui is pretty much down," Tamara Paltin, Maui County councilwoman for West Maui, emailed Friday. "If you see a bunch of folks looking at their phone, for some reason that area could catch, but if you go back in an hour might not happen," she said. "Biggest concern is ability to be able to communicate." She said SpaceX Starlink receivers "are running here and there" and efforts were underway to set up towers on Lanai to reach West Maui. AT&T said Friday it had deployed portable generators to cellsites affected by power outages "where it is safe to do so." "Some of our cell sites are inaccessible at this time due to the fires, however, our teams continue to plan for immediate restoration efforts," it said. It said its network disaster recovery team and FirstNet Response Operations Group "are working with local public safety to deploy a locally based portable cell site to provide Band 14 connectivity dedicated to public safety and service for residents." It said it also was shipping backhaul equipment and other portable communications solutions from the neighboring islands. It said the FirstNet group was "working around the clock to support public safety’s emergency communications and has liaisons engaged with local and federal agencies." T-Mobile said its emergency management team was preparing to deploy portable satellite and microwave solutions to restore service in affected areas "when it is safe to do so." It said its cellsites were "holding up well during the fires," but power outages could affect customers. Verizon said it had emergency network assets, including mobile cellsites, en route to Maui. IT said it was deploying satellite-based mobile hot spots in evacuation centers.
The metaverse is often cited as driving the eventual need for fiber networks, but generative AI alongside the metaverse "will really be a catalyst" for the higher speeds and improved latency and reliability fiber brings, Dell'Oro Group's Jeff Heynen blogged Thursday. Broadband service providers increasingly are introducing machine learning and AI platforms with the goal of anticipating and correcting network issues before they have notable impact, he said: "Self-healing broadband networks are the goal." He said AI also will likely be leveraged for broadband mapping as nations increasingly push for investments to expand broadband availability and affordability.
The Better Business Bureau's National Advertising Review Board referred some Xfinity ad claims to the FTC after Comcast declined to modify or drop ad claims as recommended, NARB said Wednesday. It said Comcast appealed a National Advertising Division recommendation that the Xfinity ads be modified or pulled (see 2305160005), and an NARB panel hearing the appeal sided with NAD. NARB said since Comcast isn't complying with the panel recommendation, it "is referring the advertising to the FTC for possible enforcement action." Comcast didn't comment Wednesday.
Federal offices in the Washington, D.C., region closed early Monday because of concerns over a severe storm approaching the area. The National Weather Service issued an unusual Level 4 risk warning for the area. “Employees of Federal agencies in the Washington, DC area are authorized for Early Departure,” said a notice from the Office of Personnel Management: “Employees should depart 2 hours earlier than their normal departure time and may request Unscheduled Leave to depart prior to their staggered departure time. All employees Must Depart no later than 3:00 at which time Federal offices are Closed.”
The FCC should extend by 45 days the comments and replies deadlines for lower and upper 12 GHz band proceedings, satellite interests urged Monday in docket 20-443. The questions posed have long-term implications for multiple industries and "require significant and thoughtful analysis that merits providing additional time," they said. They said the satellite industry is also under a time crunch with another comment deadline coming at about the same time. Signing the filing were the Satellite Industry Association, Eutelsat, Hispasat, Intelsat, Ovzon, SES, SpaceX and OneWeb.
The FCC agreed Thursday to a Federal Emergency Management Agency request (see 2308020047) for a waiver to do a national test of the wireless emergency alert system Oct. 4. FEMA will also do a nationwide emergency alert system test the same day. All commercial mobile service (CMS) providers that participate in the WEA program are required to participate, said a notice from the Public Safety Bureau. “FEMA will initiate the test of WEA at 2:18 pm EDT ... using the National Alert classification of Alert Message,” the bureau said: “Members of the public with mobile device service from a CMS provider that participates in WEA in their areas will receive the test message, which will read ‘THIS IS A TEST of the National Wireless Emergency Alert System. No action is needed.’ The WEA alert will be transmitted in both English and Spanish in both 90 and 360 character sets.” The nationwide test of the EAS starts at 2:20 p.m. EDT. The test will use the Integrated Public Alert and Warning System and “be disseminated in English and Spanish as a Common Alerting Protocol message using the Nationwide Test of the Emergency Alert System code," the bureau said. If conditions on that date require rescheduling of the tests, they will be done Oct. 11, the bureau said.
The C-band overlay licensees have been sent a billing statement for $653 million for Phase II accelerated relocation payments for Telesat, Eutelsat and Embratel, all of which certified their relocation from the band, the Relocation Payment Clearinghouse said in a report posted Tuesday in docket 18-122. The clearinghouse said it received 499 claims totaling $295 million during Q2 2023 for lump-sum payments and relocation reimbursement costs. It said it cumulatively has received 2,766 claims for $3.01 billion.
Consumers' Research asked the U.S. Supreme Court to extend the deadline to file its cert petition challenging a 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals decision upholding the FCC's USF 2021 Q4 contribution factor (see 2305300009). The group asked in an application posted Friday that the court extend the Aug. 28 deadline by 60 days, to Oct. 27, to file its petition. The group noted the 5th Circuit's decision to grant rehearing for its challenge of a separate contribution factor, saying it "signals that it may soon split from the Sixth Circuit on these important nondelegation matters" (see 2306290074).