Verizon lost wireless customers in Q1, dropping 127,000 net postpaid phone customers, after gaining 271,000 in Q4. The company also dropped 263,000 retail postpaid phone customers. But Verizon executives reported progress Tuesday on the C-band build and on Fios broadband. Postpaid churn climbed to 1.15% in the quarter, from 0.95% in Q1 last year. This was the last quarterly report with Chief Financial Officer Matt Ellis who's leaving the company May 1.
Rural healthcare program participants and advocates welcomed FCC proposals on the program's rate determination rules, whether to reinstate the support cap for satellite services, and how providers can receive funding as soon as they become eligible. Comments were posted through Tuesday in docket 17-310. Commissioners adopted the NPRM in January, which also sought comments on how to revise the FCC’s Form 466 to improve data collection efforts (see 2301260041).
Businesses lined up against tech regulation bills at hearings Monday in Florida and Minnesota. Opposition failed to deter the Florida Senate Rules Committee from advancing comprehensive privacy bill to the Senate floor. But at a Minnesota Senate Judiciary Committee hearing earlier that day, multiple members suggested taking more time to study a kids’ privacy bill rather than pass it this year.
Disagreement continued between industry groups and consumer advocacy organizations on how the FCC should implement rules to curb digital discrimination as required by the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act in reply comments posted through Friday in docket 22-69 (see 2302220045). Commenters disagreed on how to define digital discrimination and the technical or economic limitations providers may have for broadband deployment.
Wireless industry commenters disagreed in docket 16-185 Monday on which of three views presented by the FCC’s World Radiocommunication Conference Advisory Committee Agenda Item 10, on spectrum for international mobile telecommunications (IMT) best reflects what the U.S. should advocate at the upcoming WRC. Carriers support a broad look. Several satellite operators also expressed concerns about considering portions of 7-15 GHz for IMT use. Among satellite operators, there was a lack of consensus about supporting a proposed future agenda item to review existing Ku- and Ka-band equivalent power flux density (EPFD) limits.
FCC commissioners made numerous tweaks to a wireless emergency alerts Further NPRM on the way to approval last week (see 2304200040), based on a side-by-side comparison with the draft. The FNPRM was published in Monday’s “Daily Digest.” Comment deadlines will be set in a Federal Register notice. Commissioner Brendan Carr warned last week that revised rules shouldn’t prompt providers to opt out of the WEA program.
The White House National Security Council led a 6G summit Friday at the National Science Foundation’s Alexandria, Virginia, headquarters aimed at ensuring the U.S. leads the coming wireless technology’s standards research development and deployment. Officials in part cited a need to prevent China from gaining a foothold on the emerging technology like it has on 5G. FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel pushed during the summit for restoring the FCC’s spectrum auction authority as one means of cementing the U.S.' 6G role.
Montana is right to try to ban TikTok across the state, but it’s unclear how such a prohibition can be enforced at the state-level, Republican senators told us in interviews last week. Consumer groups and the tech industry condemned the Montana measure as unconstitutional.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit has denied the Standard/Tegna broadcasters’ petition for writ of mandamus, according to a brief, unpublished decision in docket 23-1084 Friday morning.
Most reply comments supported FCC grant of a waiver request by the Wi-Fi Alliance of rules for the predictive propagation models that an automated frequency coordination system must employ in the 6 GHz band (see 2303210039). Only the National Wireless Communications Council (NWCC), which represents a diverse group of 6 GHz incumbents, filed reply comments in opposition.