California Tries to Get to Heart of T-Mobile-DISH CDMA Shutdown Dispute

 By Leslie Stimson, Inside Towers Washington Bureau Chief The California Public Utilities Commission is trying to determine whether T-Mobile lied to gain the state’s approval of the carrier’s 2020 acquisition of Sprint. That’s at the heart of a recent CPUC hearing centering on T-Mobile’s dispute with DISH over T-Mobile’s planned shutdown by year-end of its CDMA network.

Before its Sprint acquisition was okayed, T-Mobile pledged that no former Sprint customer would suffer any service degradation after the transaction, according to a transcript of the CPUC hearing. DISH would have up to three years to migrate Boost Wireless customers to the new T-Mobile 5G network. DISH would use this network during the build-out of its own facilities-based network.

“It came as a surprise to the Commission,” when T-Mobile announced in July it would shut down the CDMA network at the end of this year, said CPUC Administrative Law Judge Karl Bemesderfer. DISH told the CPUC if this happens, a “substantial” number of Boost Mobile customers will be left without wireless service. “Whatever one’s definition of service degradation may be, a complete loss of service qualifies,” said the judge. Continue Reading

FCC Warns Users to Plan Ahead for 3G Phase Out

 By J. Sharpe Smith Inside Towers Technology Editor There’s not a lot of talk about the third generation of cellular technology these days, what with 5G being all the rage. After all, 3G technology has passed two decades of use, which is pretty old for a wireless protocol. But there are still plenty of devices out there using 3G.

3G, which was launched by NTT DoCoMo in 2001, has reached the end of its life, and mobile carriers are shutting down their networks to make room for more advanced network services, such as 5G. As a result, the FCC is raising awareness among users that their devices pretty soon will not be worth the silicon from which they are made.

“Contact your mobile provider or consult your provider’s website for more information about their 3G retirement plan and whether your phone, or other connected device, may be affected,” the Commission said on its site. “It is important to plan now so that you don’t lose connectivity, including the ability to call 911.” Continue Reading

Rip & Replace Reimbursement Application Window Opens October 29

 The FCC is going to meet its self-imposed target date to begin accepting applications for the Rip & Replace reimbursement program. On Monday, the agency said the application filing window will open October 29, at 12:00 a.m. ET. Acting Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel said earlier this year that was the target date, Inside Towers reported.

The Commission established the $1.9 billion program to reimburse providers of advanced communications services with ten million or fewer customers for costs incurred to remove, replace and dispose of covered communications equipment or services from their networks that pose a national security risk. Huawei or ZTE gear or services that were purchased on or before June 30, 2020 are covered in the program. Continue Reading

U.K.’s ‘Gigaboom’ Passes 50 Percent Gigabit Broadband Coverage Mark

 By J. Sharpe Smith, Inside Towers Technology Editor They call it the “Gigaboom.” Gigabit internet service is now available to more than half of properties in the United Kingdom, the U.K. government announced last week. The milestone was achieved after broadband internet service provider Virgin Media O2 turned on its DOCSIS 3.1 network for a further 1.7 million U.K. premises. Gigabit internet coverage was just 26.9 percent a year ago and was 6 percent at the beginning of 2019. It was helped by $6.83 billion investment by the government.

“The increase has been the result of the various full fiber roll-outs we are tracking including Openreach, Swish Fibre, Netomnia, CityFibre, Hyperoptic, Community Fibre, toob, FWNetworks and others,” the U.K. government said. The achievement is a major step toward the U.K.’s goal of 85 percent gigabit coverage by the end of 2025. Continue Reading

Millimeter Wave Spectrum Boosts 5G Capacity, Speeds

 By J. Sharpe Smith, Inside Towers Technology Editor Millimeter Wave 5G users were able to consume 4.5 times more data compared with 4G, and 2.4 times more than other types of 5G using sub-6 GHz spectrum bands, according to an analysis of data traffic during the month of July issued Wednesday by Opensignal. Meanwhile, labs continue to achieve higher and higher 5G data speeds using mmWave spectrum.

“These significant increases prove the ability of mmWave 5G to boost mobile capacity and help to minimize mobile network congestion,” Francesco Rizzato, Opensignal Senior Technical Analyst, wrote.

In July 2021, the lion’s share (90.7 percent) of mobile data was consumed on 4G networks, compared with only 9.3 percent consumed on 5G networks. T-Mobile dominated the mmWave use of 5G (58.6 percent), followed by AT&T at 41.3 percent and Verizon at 18.7 percent. Continue Reading

Explosive Damages AT&T Tower in Mississippi, Suspect Under Arrest

 An AT&T tower in Mt. Olive, MS was damaged by an explosive device planted at the site, according to authorities. A Mississippi man, Victor Schexnayder, 48, of Prentiss, was arrested in connection with the incident by Jefferson Davis County deputies, according to MagnoliaStateLive. The amount of damage was not disclosed.

The device was detonated last Wednesday, causing a power outage at the site on Clem Road. According to authorities, Schexnayder had recently left the carrier as an employee.

“At this point, we do not suspect this is related in any way to an act of terrorism,” Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF) South Mississippi Resident Agent in Charge Jason Denham told MagnoliaStateLive. Denham said Schexnayder was charged with felony malicious mischief and booked into the Jefferson Davis County Jail. The ATF, the Mississippi Bureau of Investigation and the Jefferson Davis County Sheriff’s Department are pursuing federal prosecution for the alleged crime.

Security of Undersea Cables Should Not be Overlooked: Report

By J. Sharpe Smith, Inside Towers Technology Editor There are 475 submarine cables crisscrossing the world’s oceans under thousands of fathoms of water. While out of sight, these data pathways, which carry 95 percent of the world’s internet traffic, should not be out of mind. They face increasing security threats that have global implications, according to a new report from the Atlantic Council, an international economic and political think tank. 
 
“The security and resilience of undersea cables and the data and services that move across them are an often understudied and underappreciated element of modern Internet geopolitics,” the report said. “The construction of new submarine cables is a key part of the constantly changing physical topology of the internet worldwide.”

The report calls on the U.S. government to work with the private sector and with allies to protect the security and resilience of the world’s undersea cables, screening foreign cable owners for security risks and increasing the funding for the Cable Ship Security Program. Continue Reading

Infrastructure Caught in Bill Crush as Lawmakers Return to Capitol

 The infrastructure bill, U.S. debt and government funding are all at stake as lawmakers return to Washington, D.C. after weeks away. The Senate returned Monday from its August recess. The House will follow the upper chamber back to the Capitol next Monday, September 20.

Lawmakers will need to rush to meet critical deadlines in the coming weeks, according to CNBC. The speed at which Congress works will determine if the infrastructure bill is passed, whether the federal government shuts down and if the U.S. defaults on its debts.

A congressional logjam looms. Here are some of the measures at issue:

Infrastructure: House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) promised centrist Democrats she will hold a vote on the Senate-passed bipartisan measure that contains $65 billion in broadband infrastructure deployment grants by September 27. The promise is non-binding, Inside Towers reported and politics within her caucus could delay the timing. Continue Reading

DISH Seeks FCC OK for Bluewater Wireless Spectrum in Denver, Vegas

 DISH Network asked the FCC for a temporary license to use 600 MHz spectrum band licenses owned by another licensee for 5G tests in Las Vegas and Denver. The company said in an STA filing the owner of the spectrum, Bluewater Wireless II, agreed to allow DISH to use it.  
 
DISH said it needs Bluewater’s spectrum licenses in the two cities to test and validate equipment for its 5G broadband network, using open radio access network (O-RAN) technologies. It needs two non-contiguous spectrum blocks to test carrier aggregation, according to Broadband Breakfast. Continue Reading

For Some, the Tragedy on 9/11 Has a Personal Connection

 By Jim Fryer, Inside Towers Managing Editor For George Kerstetter, National Solutions Engineer for PerfectVision, this time each year has caused a lot of emotion to come through, and has for the past two decades, as the world remembers the events on 9/11/2001.
 
Kerstetter was an Operations Manager at Verizon in Upstate New York on that fateful and infamous day. One of his peers, whose office was in one of the Towers, was attempting to clear some issues with an employee's workers comp case when Kerstetter called her to check on her progress. 
 
“That’s when the woman said ‘…the fire alarm was going off’, and she would need to call him back,” Kerstetter told Inside Towers. “Minutes later someone ran into my office and said a plane hit The World Trade Center, which I had just flown over less than a week before, and remembered how majestic it looked. As we watched the day's events unfold, and eventually in horror as each tower came down it became clear to me that I had to go and be a part in whatever capacity they’d let me.” Continue Reading

CCA, Ligado Hope to Collaborate to Bring Broadband to Rural Areas

 By Leslie Stimson, Inside Towers Washington Bureau Chief Ligado President/CEO Doug Smith says his company is “focused on spectrum we can use to build private networks for companies. Our vision is to bring the power of 5G commercial networks to 5G private networks” by integrating satellite and terrestrial technology.

He spoke during a webinar Wednesday held by Broadband Breakfast for a discussion on the importance of driving competition and innovation in the wireless ecosystem. Asked how soon compatible smartphones would be ready, Smith said in the first half of next year, the company will begin to test its technology and services.

He referenced the 3GPP standard-setting body’s approval of Ligado’s technical spec to enable Ligado, formerly called LightSquared, to deploy 5G networks on L-band. It aims to service enterprise customers in the transportation, agriculture, utilities, and energy sectors. He said the company has authorization to deploy its L-band system on C-band, CBRS and 2.5 GHz. Continue Reading

Old Tech Left 911 Calls Unanswered in Louisiana After Ida

 In the years since Hurricane Katrina ravaged New Orleans, the 911 system has undergone a major overhaul. The aging telephone system was replaced. Separate centers for medical, police and fire calls were consolidated under one roof. And new call-routing technology to prevent communications from going down during a disaster was scheduled to be installed early next year.

Then Hurricane Ida hit, and the 911 call center crashed, failing its first major test, according to The Washington Post. Calls for help didn’t go through. The center was offline for 13 hours last Monday. The Orleans Parish Communication District, which runs the dispatch center, had to use Facebook to tell people that if they had an emergency, they should walk to a nearby fire station or flag down a police officer to report it.

“Our technology is antiquated,” Tyrell Morris, the district’s executive director, told The Washington Post. Continue Reading

AT&T Asks FCC to Gauge How Much Spectrum Each Telecom Gets

 By Leslie Stimson, Inside Towers Washington Bureau Chief AT&T asked the FCC to apply a screen on mid-band spectrum holdings. If adopted, the concept could have significant consequences for chief rivals T-Mobile and Verizon, notes CNBC.

That’s because those carriers have amassed significant mid-band spectrum holdings considered to be the “sweet spot” for 5G networks, according to industry experts. T-Mobile gained significant spectrum through its highly-contested acquisition of Sprint, and Verizon won more than 3,500 C-band licenses in Auction 107 in February, Inside Towers reported.

AT&T has made some spectrum gains, but “significant debt” has weighed down the company, according to the account. The carrier believes a screen would be useful so it doesn’t get locked out of prime 5G spectrum. Continue Reading