The FCC Tuesday paused the unofficial 180-day shot clock on its review of T-Mobile buying Sprint. The FCC cited a “substantially revised" and more complex network engineering model T-Mobile submitted Sept. 5 and a business model T-Mobile executives described on Aug. 29 but didn't disclose until Sept. 5. T-Mobile has also promised additional economic modeling it has yet to file, said a letter from Wireless Bureau Chief Donald Stockdale and David Lawrence, director of the task force reviewing the deal. "The clock will remain stopped until the Applicants have completed the record on which they intend to rely and a reasonable period of time has passed for staff and third-party review." The two companies released a joint statement. "We appreciate that the FCC is taking the time necessary to fully understand the merits," the companies said. "The additional review time is common to FCC merger reviews and we recently supplied a large amount of data to the FCC that they want sufficient time to assess. We are confident that this transaction is pro-competitive, good for the country and good for American consumers, and we look forward to continuing to work with the FCC as they evaluate our plans." The Wireless Bureau meanwhile asked for data from Verizon, as part of the agency’s ongoing analysis of the deal. The bureau said in a Monday letter in Tuesday's Daily Digest and docket 18-197 it may seek other information. AT&T officials said they were called in by the FCC to discuss the company’s “5G deployment plans” relative to the deal. The bureau also requested data from AT&T and from U.S. Cellular (see here and here). Also Tuesday, T-Mobile said it signed a multiyear, $3.5 billion contract with Ericsson to support the carrier's nationwide deployment of 5G. “Ericsson will provide T-Mobile with the latest 5G New Radio hardware and software compliant with 3GPP standards,” T-Mobile said. “The contract also encompasses Ericsson’s digital services solutions, including dynamic orchestration, business support systems (BSS) and Ericsson Cloud Core, enabling T-Mobile to rapidly launch innovative and groundbreaking 5G experiences.”
The FCC Tuesday paused the unofficial 180-day shot clock on its review of T-Mobile buying Sprint. The FCC cited a “substantially revised" and more complex network engineering model T-Mobile submitted Sept. 5 and a business model T-Mobile executives described on Aug. 29 but didn't disclose until Sept. 5. T-Mobile has also promised additional economic modeling it has yet to file, said a letter from Wireless Bureau Chief Donald Stockdale and David Lawrence, director of the task force reviewing the deal. "The clock will remain stopped until the Applicants have completed the record on which they intend to rely and a reasonable period of time has passed for staff and third-party review." The two companies released a joint statement. "We appreciate that the FCC is taking the time necessary to fully understand the merits," the companies said. "The additional review time is common to FCC merger reviews and we recently supplied a large amount of data to the FCC that they want sufficient time to assess. We are confident that this transaction is pro-competitive, good for the country and good for American consumers, and we look forward to continuing to work with the FCC as they evaluate our plans." The Wireless Bureau meanwhile asked for data from Verizon, as part of the agency’s ongoing analysis of the deal. The bureau said in a Monday letter in Tuesday's Daily Digest and docket 18-197 it may seek other information. AT&T officials said they were called in by the FCC to discuss the company’s “5G deployment plans” relative to the deal. The bureau also requested data from AT&T and from U.S. Cellular (see here and here). Also Tuesday, T-Mobile said it signed a multiyear, $3.5 billion contract with Ericsson to support the carrier's nationwide deployment of 5G. “Ericsson will provide T-Mobile with the latest 5G New Radio hardware and software compliant with 3GPP standards,” T-Mobile said. “The contract also encompasses Ericsson’s digital services solutions, including dynamic orchestration, business support systems (BSS) and Ericsson Cloud Core, enabling T-Mobile to rapidly launch innovative and groundbreaking 5G experiences.”
The FCC Tuesday paused the unofficial 180-day shot clock on its review of T-Mobile buying Sprint. The FCC cited a “substantially revised" and more complex network engineering model T-Mobile submitted Sept. 5 and a business model T-Mobile executives described on Aug. 29 but didn't disclose until Sept. 5. T-Mobile has also promised additional economic modeling it has yet to file, said a letter from Wireless Bureau Chief Donald Stockdale and David Lawrence, director of the task force reviewing the deal. "The clock will remain stopped until the Applicants have completed the record on which they intend to rely and a reasonable period of time has passed for staff and third-party review." The two companies released a joint statement. "We appreciate that the FCC is taking the time necessary to fully understand the merits," the companies said. "The additional review time is common to FCC merger reviews and we recently supplied a large amount of data to the FCC that they want sufficient time to assess. We are confident that this transaction is pro-competitive, good for the country and good for American consumers, and we look forward to continuing to work with the FCC as they evaluate our plans." The Wireless Bureau meanwhile asked for data from Verizon, as part of the agency’s ongoing analysis of the deal. The bureau said in a Monday letter in Tuesday's Daily Digest and docket 18-197 it may seek other information. AT&T officials said they were called in by the FCC to discuss the company’s “5G deployment plans” relative to the deal. The bureau also requested data from AT&T and from U.S. Cellular (see here and here). Also Tuesday, T-Mobile said it signed a multiyear, $3.5 billion contract with Ericsson to support the carrier's nationwide deployment of 5G. “Ericsson will provide T-Mobile with the latest 5G New Radio hardware and software compliant with 3GPP standards,” T-Mobile said. “The contract also encompasses Ericsson’s digital services solutions, including dynamic orchestration, business support systems (BSS) and Ericsson Cloud Core, enabling T-Mobile to rapidly launch innovative and groundbreaking 5G experiences.”
Dish Network-designated entities Northstar Wireless and SNR Wireless are asking an appellate court to hold in abeyance their appeal seeking a review of the FCC's July order (see 1807130003) reaffirming FCC Wireless Bureau procedures for the DEs to comply with the court's 2017 remand. In a consent motion (in Pacer, docket 18-1209) for abeyance filed Thursday with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, the two said the FCC is "proceeding with additional actions" that could give rise to more proceedings before the court related to the issues of the case and a consolidated case. They asked the cases be held in abeyance until those issues can be consolidated with the pending cases. The D.C. Circuit last year upheld FCC denial of AWS-3 auction bidding credits to the DEs but gave them a chance to negotiate a solution to Dish's de facto control (see 1708290012).
Dish Network-designated entities Northstar Wireless and SNR Wireless are asking an appellate court to hold in abeyance their appeal seeking a review of the FCC's July order (see 1807130003) reaffirming FCC Wireless Bureau procedures for the DEs to comply with the court's 2017 remand. In a consent motion (in Pacer, docket 18-1209) for abeyance filed Thursday with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, the two said the FCC is "proceeding with additional actions" that could give rise to more proceedings before the court related to the issues of the case and a consolidated case. They asked the cases be held in abeyance until those issues can be consolidated with the pending cases. The D.C. Circuit last year upheld FCC denial of AWS-3 auction bidding credits to the DEs but gave them a chance to negotiate a solution to Dish's de facto control (see 1708290012).
SAN DIEGO -- Smart home company Brilliant Home Technology announced availability Thursday of its home automation technology, which controls lights, thermostats, locks, doorbells and Sonos speakers over Wi-Fi from a smart light switch. Brilliant received CTA’s TechHome Mark of Excellence award for product of the year, announced at CES.
AT&T fired back at Lincoln, Nebraska, which told the FCC last week (see 1808310049) the carrier was off base in claiming (see 1808130041) high fees delayed investments there in wireless infrastructure. “Lincoln’s ex parte is factually inaccurate and purposefully misleading. In our Aug. 6th ex parte, we clearly state that ‘AT&T has paused its deployment plans,’” a spokesperson emailed. “We are not making deployment a priority in Nebraska and are instead focusing on cities like Des Moines because of favorable, and reasonable, small cell policies that benefit consumers. ... Lincoln’s decision to charge $1,995 per small cell attachment is driving away investment and depriving its residents of next generation technologies.” Monday, the city didn’t comment.
With FCC Chairman Ajit Pai expected to circulate the next round of wireless infrastructure rule modifications Wednesday for the Sept. 26 commissioners’ meeting (see 1808220051), CTIA and Nokia said last week changes are critical. “Although some states and municipalities have taken actions to create a more favorable environment for deployment, many delays continue,” CTIA said in docket 17-79. “Despite the shot clocks the Commission adopted that were intended to streamline action, providers report that they have had to wait many months and sometimes years for action by a locality on a siting request.” Some "localities have imposed ‘pre-application’ requirements that must be satisfied before the locality will accept individual site applications,” the group said. Nokia officials met with Mike O’Rielly and Jessica Rosenworcel, and aides to the other commissioners, on the importance of spectrum and infrastructure to 5G. “Of particular concern to Nokia are the recent tariffs imposed on trade with China, which specifically target a wide range of components that are critical to 5G," Nokia said. “Unless exemptions are provided for these products, these latest duties threaten to raise the cost of 5G infrastructure in the U.S. by hundreds of millions of dollars. This is an important context that further emphasizes the need for the Commission to lower barriers to deployment where it can.” Lincoln, Nebraska, disputed AT&T claims (see 1808130041) it's “high fees have delayed its residents the benefits of AT&T’s small cell deployments.” AT&T didn’t, as it claims, pause a deployment of small cells there, the city said. “A review of our records fails to reveal any permit applications filed by AT&T for such as deployment,” the city said. “That means that AT&T either deployed without permission and unknown to the city, or AT&T provided misleading statements to the Commission.” Lincoln said, contrary to the carrier's claims, recurring attachment fees it imposes aren't a barrier: “Lincoln has researched our rates, submitted them to national companies for evaluation, and as a result has signed small cell agreements with three different companies.” Lincoln said its rates are “right in the middle” of fees assessed across the U.S. for small-cell attachments. AT&T didn't comment.
BOSTON -- Sonos is making application programming interfaces available to third-party developers, the company said in a facility tour with us last week. “Times are changing and things are evolving,” said Benjamin Rappoport, hardware product manager. Layered on top of quality sound is smart home technology and the “new paradigm of ask and listen” made possible by voice engines including Alexa and Google Assistant, he said. Sonos maintains it’s still on track to deliver Google Assistant voice control by year-end.
BOSTON -- Sonos made a public overture to custom integrators this spring when it joined the Azione Unlimited buying group (see 1805150036), and it disclosed last week at a media day event what it described as a broader commitment to the installer channel covering product, infrastructure and technology. Custom dealers who take much of the credit for Sonos' early success have long complained of being invisible to the multiroom audio company.