Verizon said "one-touch, make-ready" changes would spur next-generation broadband deployment by making it "quicker and easier" to attach fiber lines and 5G infrastructure to poles. "New attachers should have the option of using pre-approved, licensed, and insured contractors to coordinate with all of the providers already attached to the pole and to do all the work to add a new attachment at one time," it blogged in an update Tuesday. "Instead of the current ungainly process, there would be one truck roll to make all of the adjustments to existing attachments and to add the new attachment. Just one disruption to traffic instead of multiple trucks."
The buildout of 5G will require lots of fiber, and work by wireline providers is essential, said Patrick Brogan, USTelecom vice president-industry analysis, in a Friday blog post, noting he addressed the topic at a 5G conference earlier in the week (see 1710250041). “Deployment of 5G networks will be an extraordinarily complex and costly endeavor,” Brogan wrote. “It involves many moving parts requiring significant coordination among network, equipment, and application providers." Fifth generation "will be more heterogeneous than previous generations. The constraints of spectrum availability and different geographies, 5G will offer network providers a diverse set of tools, from both fixed and mobile networks, to meet growing demand efficiently where it arises.” Policymakers face a complex task, he said. “They must monitor many moving parts while ensuring network, equipment, and application providers can roll out 5G as effectively and expeditiously as possible.” The U.S. led the world in 4G and “must remain a leader to reap the social and economic benefits of 5G,” he said.
With T-Mobile merger rumors swirling, Sprint reported a smaller Q2 loss than analysts expected. Executives didn’t hold an analyst call, as T-Mobile also didn’t Monday (see 1710230055). "For obvious reasons, given the noise in the media and in the market about potential strategic opportunities for Sprint, we are taking a non-traditional approach to sharing our results with you this quarter," Sprint said. The carrier reported 378,000 new wireless network connections in the quarter to give it just over 54 million at the end of September. But Sprint also said it lost $48 million in the quarter compared with a $206 million profit in the previous quarter. In the same quarter last year, Sprint reported a $142 million loss. Revenue in the recent quarter was $7.9 billion, down from $8.2 billion a year earlier. Sprint earnings are “another encouraging set of results but left investors eagerly anticipating a deal,” wrote Macquarie Capital analyst Amy Yang: “It’s imperative they fire on all cylinders, as stellar numbers give them additional operating leverage” on a deal. Sprint managed to capture 22 percent of the industry’s postpaid phone gross adds, she wrote investors. New Street Research’s Jonathan Chaplin said if a transaction is announced, consensus likely will be that it has a 50 percent chance of winning approval by regulators. One big question is what happens if the deal is rejected, wrote Craig Moffett, analyst at MoffettNathanson. “By now, almost everyone has created at least a rudimentary Sprint and T-Mobile merger model,” Moffett said. “Investors have come to their preliminary synergy estimates. They have scrutinized the HHI [Herfindahl-Hirschman market concentration index] tea leaves, and they have read and re-read all the stories about what DOJ staffers might recommend, and what new DOJ Antitrust Bureau Chief Makan Delrahim might or might not do with whatever that recommendation from his staff turns out to be.” Regulators use the HHI to assess the effect of a transaction on competition.
The FCC released the text of its NPRM, approved Tuesday by divided commissioners (see 1710240050), on whether the agency should change its rules for the priority access licenses (PALs) that will make up one of the three tiers of the 3.5 GHz shared citizens broadband radio service band. The NPRM acknowledges wide opposition to a push by CTIA and T-Mobile for the FCC to license the PALs as larger partial economic areas (PEAs). “Many commenters oppose expanding the geographic license area of PALs from census tracts to PEAs or other larger areas,” the NPRM said. “These commenters argue that PEAs -- especially in combination with other potential changes to the PAL licensing rules -- could foreclose smaller entities from participating in the PAL auction.” The NPRM seeks comment on the proposal to license the PALs as PEAs and asks other questions, including “whether a larger license area would provide additional flexibility to facilitate the deployment of a wide variety of technologies, including 5G.” Fletcher Heald wireless lawyer Mitchell Lazarus blogged that the NPRM “is a rare exception” in that nothing has changed in industry since the FCC approved the rules in 2015. The NPRM “does not point to any changed circumstances,” he wrote. Only one thing changed -- Republicans won the White House, he said. Americans “voted for an administration whose regulatory philosophy differs sharply from that of the last administration,” Lazarus wrote. “That is all it takes for Congress or the White House to change policy, but by law, an agency must provide adequate justification for any new policy. Still, so far as we can tell from the NPRM, the only change that prompts the proposed shift in these rules is the handoff to new FCC leadership.” The FCC declined to comment.
Congressional Spectrum Caucus co-Chairmen Reps. Brett Guthrie, R-Ky., and Doris Matsui, D-Calif., filed their Spectrum Auction Deposits Act (HR-4109) Wednesday. The bill would require bidders' deposits in future spectrum auctions to be placed with the Treasury Department. The legislation's language would take effect Oct. 1. FCC Chairman Ajit Pai said technicalities in the existing deposits process have been preventing the agency from holding additional auctions. The House Communications Subcommittee-cleared draft of the FCC Reauthorization Act also contains language to require auction deposits to go to Treasury (see 1710100066 and 1710110070). Commissioner Mike O'Rielly said in written testimony before a Wednesday oversight hearing that lawmakers should move the deposits fix as a separate bill to give it an easier chance of passing quickly (see 1710240065). CTIA believes HR-4109 “will help bring billions of dollars in auction revenue to the U.S. Treasury while unlocking much needed spectrum,” said Senior Vice President-Government Affairs Kelly Cole.
NTIA’s Commerce Spectrum Management Advisory Committee will meet Nov. 17, from 9 a.m. to noon. The meeting will be at the Verizon Technology and Policy Center, 1300 I St. NW, Suite 500 East, Washington. NTIA is to publish a notice in Tuesday's Federal Register.
Senate Communications Subcommittee Chairman Roger Wicker, R-Miss., and Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto, D-Nev., filed their Streamlining Permitting to Enable Efficient Deployment of Broadband Infrastructure Act (S-1988), as expected (see 1710190059). The Speed bill would aim to accelerate broadband deployments by exempting some projects in public rights-of-way (ROWs) from environmental and historic reviews under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) and the National Historic Preservation Act (NHPA). Telecom infrastructure projects in public ROWs would be exempted if previously installed telecom infrastructure in the ROW already underwent NEPA and NHPA reviews. Wireless deployments would be exempted if the project adheres to tower height and guy wire requirements. Small-cell deployments would be exempted if they aren’t being deployed higher than existing structures in the ROW and if the deployment is a replacement for an existing small cell. S-1988 would direct GAO to report how to increase the efficiency of broadband infrastructure deployments on federal land. The legislation also would direct the FCC Streamlining Federal Siting Working Group to report to Congress on its recommendations for accelerating broadband deployments across the U.S. “New advances in telehealth, online education, precision agriculture, and other internet applications demand faster, better broadband connections,” Wicker said. The bill “will go a long way in removing unnecessary and burdensome hurdles to broadband deployment,” said AT&T Executive Vice President-Federal Relations Tim McKone. A more streamlined review process “will greatly help speed the process of bringing critical mobile broadband services to areas still in-need, for the benefit of consumers and the economy,” said Competitive Carriers Association President Steve Berry. “This legislation is especially important for smaller competitive carriers with limited resources and personnel.” S-1988 will “pave the way for significant investment in next-generation 5G wireless,” said CTIA Senior Vice President-Government Affairs Kelly Cole.
Charter Communications representatives told FCC officials they view 3.5 GHz licenses “as an important part of its overall wireless strategy,” as long as rules are right. Charter reported meetings with Chairman Ajit Pai, Commissioners Mike O’Rielly and Brendan Carr and aides to the other commissioners. Commissioners are scheduled to vote Tuesday on an NPRM revising the rules, with an eye on changing the regulations for priority access licenses (PALs) (see 1710180043). Charter “reiterated the importance of setting licensing rules that ensure and encourage deployment and investment by new entrants,” said a filing posted Thursday in docket 17-258. "Its existing network infrastructure well-positions it to deploy high speed and high capacity wireless broadband quickly in the 3.5 GHz Band because it provides pervasive location, power and backhaul.” NCTA said it and members met with Rachael Bender, aide to Pai, on the 3.5 GHz band and other issues. The cable representatives “highlighted the cable industry’s interest and investment in 3.5 GHz standards development and testing,” NCTA said. “We noted cable’s support for reasonable changes to the PAL geographic area and license term that will facilitate investment by a wide variety of providers in the band.”
The California governor’s veto of small-cells legislation could disadvantage the state's economy as other states adopt similar bills, Free State Foundation's Michael Horney blogged Wednesday. The bill aimed to streamline 5G wireless deployment by pre-empting local government authority in rights of way. Some expect the veto by Gov. Jerry Brown (D) to spur a more collaborative approach (see 1710170026).
The FCC Wireless Bureau extended by 14 days, until Nov. 15, the deadline for filing replies on a mid-band spectrum notice of inquiry. The Wi-Fi Alliance, Telecommunications Industry Association, Dynamic Spectrum Alliance and Wireless ISP Association jointly asked for delay last week, citing the many comments (see 1710100065). “While it is the policy of the Commission that extensions shall not be routinely granted, based on the record before us, we are persuaded in this case that granting a 14-day extension will serve the public interest,” the bureau said in docket 17-183. Wireless industry officials told us FCC Chairman Ajit Pai is eager to move forward on the item because the agency sees mid-band spectrum as critical to 5G.