Gogo expects a planned cash and stock purchase of Satcom Direct will close by year's end, it said Monday. Gogo said the addition of Satcom Direct would let it operate in business aviation and military/government mobility markets. In addition, Gogo said it was paying $375 million in cash and five million shares of Gogo stock at closing, with the deal also providing for another $225 million in payments tied to reaching certain performance thresholds over the next four years. Gogo Chairman/CEO Oakleigh Thorne said New Gogo would offer integrated geostationary orbit/low earth orbit services.
The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals should review the FCC's August order on incarcerated people's communication services because parts of the order are in violation of the Administrative Procedure Act, Securus said in a petition filed Wednesday (docket 24-60492). Securus previously filed suit in the same court over the FCC's denial of its clarification and waiver petitions on alternative payment plans (see 2409050034). The new challenge follows publication of the new rules in the Federal Register (see 2409200019).
The next meeting of the FCC’s North American Numbering Council, previously scheduled for Dec. 12, will now take place the following day, the agency said Friday. The meeting is virtual and will start at 10 a.m. EST, the FCC said.
The FCC’s latest next-generation 911 order, approved 5-0 by commissioners in July (see 2407180037), is effective Nov. 25, said a Tuesday notice in the Federal Register. The order is intended to “facilitate the NG911 transition,” the notice said.
OMB approved for three years information collection associated with an FCC order modifying the agency's rural healthcare program rules, the FCC said in a notice for Tuesday's Federal Register. Commissioners approved the associated order in December that gives certain healthcare providers the ability to request funding prior to their conditional approval and simplify urban rate calculations (see 2312130019).
FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel visited an Arizona elementary school as part of an initiative to promote recent modifications to the E-rate program, said a news release Friday. "Visiting rural Arizona made it clear that if we want our children to succeed in this digital age, then we need to ensure they can get access to the internet," Rosenworcel said. She met with parents, teachers, and school staff to discuss the benefits of the program. The agency noted that the E-rate program "takes on renewed importance following the expiration of the affordable connectivity program," which connected more than 500,000 households in Arizona before it ended. Using hot spots, the FCC is "working to close that digital divide" for schools and libraries, the agency said. Rosenworcel will spend the next few months meeting with national, state, and local school leaders to discuss the program's importance.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia scheduled oral argument on Nov. 5 at 9:30 a.m. for LTD's challenge of the FCC's denial of its Rural Digital Opportunity Fund Phase I auction long-form application, said an order Friday (docket 24-1017). The ISP was the largest winning bidder in the auction (see 2405090056).
CostQuest will offer NTCA members its broadband fabric data location "at exclusive member pricing" for the FCC's broadband maps and NTIA's broadband, equity, access and deployment program, the group announced Thursday. NTCA members will receive a "10% discount off list pricing," it said. In addition, CostQuest will provide data on network cost, competition and demographics for each broadband serviceable location (see 2211180062). NTCA and CostQuest will host a webinar for the group's members Oct. 30 at 1 p.m. EDT.
Representatives of Somos and the Ad Hoc Telecom Users Committee met with aides to all five commissioners about tweaking a draft order on using the do not originate (DNO) list in blocking unwanted and illegal robocalls. The order is set for a vote at the FCC’s Sept. 26 open meeting (see 2409050045). “Somos applauds the Commission for applying a DNO mandate for all carriers in the draft Order” and agrees the commission shouldn’t designate a particular list, said a filing posted Thursday in docket 17-59. But “a reasonable list must (not may) include” all invalid numbers where the area code or central office code begins with a 0 or 1, “all numbers in an area code that is not yet, or can never be assigned” and “all 10,000 and 1,000 blocks of numbers in area codes that are in service, but the blocks are not yet assigned,” the filing said. Somos would also include on the list “numbers for which the subscriber has requested call origination blocking.”
The industry still lacks an agreed-upon “common definition” for cloud native, Beth Cohen, Verizon advanced networking and security product strategist, said during a TelecomTV webinar Tuesday. The definition that “makes the most sense” is applications designed and optimized to work in the cloud, Cohen argued. “That can be containerized applications; it can also be virtual, machine applications.” The application should be “built and designed, from the ground up, to work in a virtual environment, whatever that virtual environment may be,” she said. “There are a number of definitions, and they’re all right.” Containerization uses software that bundles an application's code with all the files and libraries it needs to run on any infrastructure. Michele D’Agostino, director-product management at software company Wind River, said cloud native must be built on “microservices and container orchestration.” In addition, “It needs to support dynamic scaling based on demand” and “needs to have automation and resiliency in case there are failures.” Cloud native, D'Agostino said, also must include analytical tools based on AI and machine learning. Automated software updates and zero-touch deployment are “critical to scale the types of networks we have within telecom.” For Joan Triay, manager and network architect, Docomo Communications Lab, cloud native isn’t a specific technology or solution. “It’s not even about containers,” Triay said: “It’s very difficult to define” cloud native “precisely, and I doubt that we will ever achieve that.” Part of the confusion comes from using the term liberally as a marketing tool. The telecom industry shouldn’t let cloud service providers “hijack the definition” of cloud native, Cohen said. “Telco cloud is different, and we need to keep that in mind.” The top benefit of cloud native is lowering the cost of running a network, said Sidd Chenumolu, head-product management at VMware by Broadcom. “The ability for a service provider to do life-cycle management in an automated manner … is definitely a huge cost savings,” he said. With cloud native, “you can adopt the best tool sets out there.”