Alarm Industry Turns to White House on AT&T 3G Shutdown

Officials told us with a 2-2 FCC, they don’t believe Republicans Brendan Carr and Nathan Simington will support FCC action. “When I warned that the Administration’s chaotic approach to C-Band -- and, in particular, its decision to cave to an eleventh-hour pressure campaign, rather than abiding by the decision-making process established by Congress -- would invite further attempts to sideline the FCC, this is the type of conduct I had in mind,” Carr emailed: “Ultimately, a rogue and dysfunctional process like this serves no one’s interest.”

AICC hopes the White House will assert itself similarly to what it did on the C band, when it worked with the aviation industry, FAA and Verizon and AT&T to forge a compromise under which the carriers agreed to delay turning on the C band around some airports to protect air safety. AICC sees similar health and safety concerns with the shuttering of AT&T’s 3G operations, a spokesperson said: One possibility would be the carrier sharing its phased-in shutdown schedule so members know which areas they need to address first.

Connect America, the largest emergency response company in the U.S., set aside almost $40 million to switch its customers from 3G to 4G starting in 2019 but is coming up short, Chief Operating Officer John Brady told us Wednesday. “I have a lot of elderly people who are going to be at great risk if we don’t get a sunset extension,” he said. “We’ve lost 15 to 18 months because of the pandemic and … the supply chain and the part shortage showed up also in sort of mid to late 2021. So we had a perfect storm that hit us.”

Brady estimates 2 million life/safety customers are at risk. AICC originally asked AT&T to delay the sunset until December, when Verizon will shutter its 3G network (see 2103300043), but could work with a phased-in shuttering if it had access to AT&T’s plan, he said. AT&T has been “very unresponsive,” he said.

“A delay would undermine the evolution to 5G, as it seeks to force us to devote scarce spectrum resources to support relatively few, obsolete 3G-only devices rather than repurposing the spectrum to enhance 5G capacity,” AT&T said in a statement: “For the last three years, careful planning and coordinated work with our customers has gone into the transition to 5G. Currently, less than 1% of our mobile data traffic runs on 3G networks. Forcing a delay would needlessly waste valuable spectrum resources and degrade network performance for millions of our customers.” AT&T said 3G alarm devices are less than 1.3% of all devices on its network.

The FCC has options, said Public Knowledge Senior Vice President Harold Feld. “One question to consider is whether the Wireless Bureau can act independently on delegated authority, thus avoiding the 2-2 deadlock,” he said: Another question is "whether the FCC is prepared to order carriers to restore 3G service if terminating the service results in serious harmful effects, as predicted by the alarm industry. … The FCC has broad authority to act in an emergency situation.” After the “drama” last month over the C band, “the last thing either carriers or the commission should want is another front page story about the wireless industry making a mess of things,” he said. “The pandemic really has put the alarm industry behind the eight ball here.”

Other experts weren't sure the Biden administration will lean on AT&T to compromise with AICC and other advocates, noting the administration is already anticipating tough questions on the C band at a Thursday House hearing (see 2202010073). The FCC and the White House didn’t comment.

“Given that it's been three years since AT&T announced its plan to retire its 3G network, one should expect it will happen as scheduled on Feb. 22,” said Seth Cooper, Free State Foundation senior fellow. “Even if the White House or FCC actually wanted a temporary delay on AT&T's transition of its remaining 3G-dedicated spectrum to 5G, the Communications Act doesn't provide any basis for such a holdup.”

For AT&T the situation illustrates the maxim “No good deed done goes unpunished,” emailed Recon Analytics’ Roger Entner. “Just like the FAA and the airline industry that was willfully waiting out a situation that they needed to address, the AICC wants to delay a shut-down they knew about for years,” he said: “These companies simply failed to execute on their one mission -- to connect their customer. … Now they want someone else to hold the bag and bail them out.”

AARP plans an 11 a.m. EST Thursday webinar on what the shutdown means for older Americans.

In an FCC filing last week in docket 21-304, Zonar Systems warned the shutdown will have negative effects for school buses and trucking. “Unless AT&T’s 3G decommissioning is pushed back a little, many school districts throughout the country will lose all visibility as to where buses are on the road and the children being transported,” Zonar said: “Any longhaul truck that is not upgraded to 4G within the next several weeks must be taken off the road within 8 days of February 22, because it will not have an active electronic logging device to comply with federal law. Put simply, trucks that currently rely on 3G legally will not be able to drive.”