Wi-Fi 6, now about 2 years old, should start getting wide adoption among ISPs starting by year's end, with it becoming relatively commonplace in households toward Q2, said Patrick Moreno, Zyxel Communications product marketing manager, during a webinar Thursday. He said many providers remain "in the discovery phase" about Wi-Fi 6. He said the latest generation of Wi-Fi has speeds 30% to 40% faster than Wi-Fi 5 and increased capacity for more connected devices, plus lower latency for time-sensitive applications. He said Wi-Fi 6 routers will be backward compatible for Wi-Fi 4 and 5. A variation -- Wi-Fi 6E, which came out earlier this year -- adds the 6 GHz band, which will help alleviate congestion in the crowded 2.4 GHz band and the starting-to-crowd 5 GHz band, Moreno said. He said 6E gateways and extenders are in development.
Thursday's launch of 36 OneWeb satellites brings its in-orbit constellation count to 358, more than halfway to the 648 full broadband constellation, OneWeb said, saying it had signal acquisition from all 36. OneWeb said with the launch it's now starting service demos at its London headquarters and U.S. locations including Germantown, Maryland.
Altice violated its Keep Americans Connected pledge when it shut off service to small businesses over supposed nonpayment of monthly service charges in the first half of 2020, a Bronx, New York, barbershop owner said in a suit seeking class-action status (in Pacer, docket 21-cv-05540) Wednesday in U.S. District Court in Central Islip, New York. It said Altice charging a $180 “illegal 'ransom' fee” to restart service was a violation of New York consumer protection law. Altice emailed Thursday that throughout the COVID-19 pandemic it “has been committed to providing support and relief to our customers, including providing free broadband services to students, suspending disconnections for households and businesses during the height of the pandemic as part of the 'Keep Americans Connected Pledge,' ... While we have not yet received the complaint, we will respond appropriately upon receipt.”
The Telecommunications Association of Maine challenged criteria and assumptions used by a state agency to support defining broadband as 100 Mbps symmetrical. The ConnectMaine Authority held a Zoom virtual hearing Monday and seeks comment by Oct. 14 on changes to state broadband rules, including also defining unserved as an area lacking 50/10 Mbps. Maine previously used 25/3 Mbps for unserved and for broadband. Zoom requires 4 Mbps symmetrical for a meeting of about 50 people, so if everyone in a five-person family was doing that simultaneously it would require 20/20 Mbps, said TAM Executive Director Ben Sanborn. “How do we get to that 100/100 from that point?” he asked: TAM wants “a little more transparency as to how you got there, as opposed to [you] just kind of picked a number, because that is arbitrary and capricious.” The authority adopted the definition in June, said ConnectMaine Director Peggy Schaffer. Sanborn replied, “Yes, without rationale.”
Rakuten Mobile Americas offers an affordable way for carriers to replace Chinese gear in their networks, General Manager Azita Arvani said in a call with FCC Wireless Bureau staff. “American wireless carriers can deploy a cloud-native network running on the Rakuten Communications Platform as part of the rip and replace program at lower cost, higher security, and more quickly than traditional wireless appliances,” said a filing posted Tuesday in docket 21-63.
Oakland legislation to require ISP choice in multiple tenant environments cleared the city council’s Community and Economic Development Committee 4-0. The MTE proposal to restrict landlords from forcing tenants to use a certain ISP is modeled after a 2016 San Francisco law, not including a part on sharing in-use wiring that the FCC preempted under then-Chairman Ajit Pai (see 1907100020). San Francisco’s law has worked well for five years, said sponsor Councilmember Noel Gallo at Tuesday's livestreamed hearing. It will help “to equalize the playing field for people who need access to affordable Wi-Fi,” said Councilmember Carroll Fife. Competitive ISPs can expand into Oakland only “if they can get a toehold in the denser areas of the city that are more economical to service,” said Media Alliance Executive Director Tracy Rosenberg. Landlords are following San Francisco’s law without the city attorney taking enforcement actions, she said. Fife asked if Rosenberg expected Oakland landlords to object. The Media Alliance official said she contacted the local rental association about a week and half ago but hadn’t heard back. Nobody representing landlords testified. The proposal next goes to the Rules Committee for scheduling. The FCC is collecting comments on MTE broadband access (see 2109070047).
Noting underwhelming back-to-school broadband adds, Altice will likely end up with 15,000 to 20,000 net broadband losses in Q3 and broadband subscriber numbers that are flat to slightly up for the year, CEO Dexter Goei said virtually Thursday at the Goldman Sachs Communacopia Conference. He said a new product set and pricing launched early this month should move the company "back to normalized trends and positive net adds" in Q4. Goei said Altice would upgrade 1.5 million homes to fiber by year-end in its footprint where it competes with Verizon. It's also weighing whether to accelerate the timetable for upgrading an additional 1.5 million homes to fiber in that overlap area, and whether other parts of Altice's network should be upgraded. He said the resignation of Chief Operating Officer Hakim Boubazine (see 2109080083) came as operating trends "have been underwhelming the last year or so." Goei's decision to assume Boubazine's duties was designed to bring issues to his attention more quickly, he said. The stock closed down 13% to $22.06.
AT&T has had “some disruption” in its fiber supply chain but “believes this has been addressed,” CEO John Stankey said in a Wednesday shareholder update. The carrier “remains comfortable with its long-term guidance to reach 30 million locations by the end of 2025.” Stankey said Tuesday at a Goldman Sachs conference that the disruptions were “partly labor-driven because of COVID, individuals getting sick, not being able to run enough shifts and carry through, and partly some raw material issues.”
OneWeb and Hughes signed a distribution agreement for enterprise services in the U.S. and a pact for distribution of services to businesses, government, telcos and ISPs across India, Hughes said Thursday. It said it and OneWeb plan to broaden distribution globally, with Hughes offering OneWeb's connectivity. Hughes President Pradman Kaul said OneWeb will help it meet India's "tremendous backhaul and broadband demand." Hughes said the two tested real-time seamless switching between OneWeb's low earth orbit constellation and Hughes' Jupiter 2 geostationary satellite in August. Hughes is an investor in OneWeb (see 2101150070).
Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan (R) tagged $100 million for a state broadband program, the governor’s office said Friday. That adds to $300 million in federal American Rescue Plan funding that state lawmakers agreed to spend on connectivity in a March budget deal.