Worldwide 5G strategies have differed widely by region, Gabriel Brown, Heavy Reading senior principal analyst, said during an Informa Tech webinar Tuesday. 5G deployments really started in 2020 with 1.9 billion subscriptions expected by the end of this year, Brown said. Mid-band deployments have been critical, allowing operators to “effectively double site capacity … very rapidly,” he said.
Existing international space rules are clearly inadequate, but less clear is what to do about that, experts said Tuesday at a Princeton University/Stimson Center space governance conference. Instead of new treaties, the U.S. focus for years has been on implementation and interpretation of existing ones -- a focus numerous countries have echoed, forestalling any push for updating the space governance regime, said Brian Weeden, Secure World Foundation (SWF) program planning director. "It was hard enough to get the U.S. and Soviet Union to agree" on the Outer Space Treaty, and it would be impossible to get new core principles agreed upon today given how many more countries are interested in space now, he said.
The Nebraska Public Service Commission adopted a multitude of telecom orders at a livestreamed meeting Tuesday. In mostly unanimous votes, commissioners adopted policies on broadband funding, state USF, dark fiber leasing rates and rip and replace. Looking ahead, Commissioner Kevin Stocker (R) asked about tightening resiliency requirements after hearing a report on October communications outages.
FCC and industry officials don’t expect a 2018 Quadrennial Review vote by the Dec. 27 deadline ordered by the D.C. Circuit (see 2309290056) and the item isn’t expected to be part of the December meeting agenda, they said in interviews this week.
Several telecom-focused congressional leaders told us they’re more seriously considering directly appropriating $3.08 billion to fully close the FCC’s Secure and Trusted Communications Networks Reimbursement Program funding shortfall amid the ongoing stall in talks on a spectrum legislative package that top lawmakers long hoped could pay for the additional funding (see 2311010001). The outlook for a spectrum legislative deal is very dim while lawmakers continue to wait for DOD to release a much-anticipated report on repurposing the 3.1-3.45 GHz band for commercial 5G use (see 2310180062). Communications policy-focused lobbyists and officials are closely following how work on FY 2024 appropriations legislation progresses in the weeks ahead for signs to indicate whether a change in tack on rip and replace takes place.
Europe won't back mobile identification in the upper part of the 6 GHz band (6425-7125 MHz) unless five conditions are met, the46-member European Conference of Postal and Telecommunications Administrations (CEPT) said in its European Common Position (ECP) for the 2023 World Radiocommunication Conference (WRC-23). Debate on the band will be intense and complicated and two other agenda items (AIs) are also likely to prove tricky, telecom consultants said. The conference runs Nov. 20-Dec.15 in Dubai.
Look to June as a major tipping point when Dish Network has sufficient scale in its 5G network and enough devices on that network to start turning a corner, company officials said Monday in a call with analysts as it announced Q3 financial results. Chairman Charlie Ergen said he was decreasingly optimistic about an 800 MHz deal with T-Mobile but hadn't written the prospects off. Liberty Latin American said it was buying Dish spectrum assets and 120,000 prepaid mobile subscribers in the Caribbean for $256 million, with Dish saying the deal frees it up to focus more on the continental U.S.
Broadband providers and allies are heavily lobbying the 10th floor regarding the pending digital discrimination order on the FCC's November agenda (see 2310240008), raising red flags and pushing for changes, per docket 22-69 filings Monday. Fans of the draft order are also calling for changes.
Officials affiliated with NATOA and other local government groups called on their supporters during a Monday webinar to lobby or otherwise communicate with House members in a bid to oppose the Commerce Committee-cleared American Broadband Deployment Act (HR-3557) ahead of what they view as chamber leaders’ impending bid to ram through passage of the measure without adequately consulting them. The measure, which House Commerce advanced in May without any Democratic support (see 2305240069), packages multiple GOP-led connectivity permitting revamp measures.
President Joe Biden told senators Tuesday that his executive order on AI goes only so far, and Congress should work with the White House to incorporate some of its provisions into legislation, Sen. Todd Young, R-Ind., told us Thursday.