BROWSING: Policy

NTIA releases implementation plan for National Spectrum Strategy

The National Telecommunications and Information Administration has released the implementation plan for the Biden administration's National Spectrum Strategy, which aims to kick off working groups on three candidate bands this month and have technical work to be completed by the end of next year....

Republicans introduce spectrum pipeline bill that favors high-power, licensed use

New bill requires at least 1,250 megahertz of spectrum between 1.3-13.2 GHz be auctioned for full-power, licensed commercial use It has been slightly more than a year since the auction authority of the Federal Communications Commission was allowed to lapse, and a new, Republican-backed bill...

FCC approves seven AFCs for 6 GHz

Setting the stage for standard-power use of the unlicensed 6 GHz band, the Federal Communications Commission has officially approved seven applicants for automated frequency coordination (AFC) systems. Systems from Qualcomm, Broadcom, Comsearch, Federated Wireless, Sony, Wi-Fi Alliance and the Wireless Broadband Alliance were all approved...

Biden admin announces $1.5B to support chip manufacturing

Projects in Vermont and New York include factory refurbishment The Biden administration has announced $1.5 billion in potential funding to support multiple semiconductor manufacturing projects in New York and Vermont. The Department of Commerce and GlobalFoundries have signed a non-binding agreement of terms for the...

NTIA awards $42 million to a consortium of carriers, vendors and labs for Open RAN

"The best way to assess integration across the industry is to go big," writes AT&T's VP of RAN Technology AT&T and Verizon are heading up a federally funded, $42.3 million project focused on Open RAN interoperability, network performance and security, as well as new...

NTIA Spectrum Policy Symposium: Spectrum, collaboration and the global tech race

The U.S. is in global race for leadership in wireless technologies, and the implementation of the country's new National Spectrum Strategy will impact the direction of spectrum policy for decades. That strategy and its implementation is the focus of the National Telecommunications and Information...

FCC, FTC tout robocall enforcement

The Federal Trade Commission and the Federal Communications Commission said that a an ongoing joint effort to undermine and reduce spam and scam robocalls is bearing fruit. The two agencies have been jointly focusing on robocall enforcement; the FTC calls its program "Operation Point...

‘Each year without an auction … digs the US deeper into a hole’: CTIA presses for FCC auction authority, speedy execution on spectrum plans

'NTIA has less than two years to get the U.S. back on track," telecom industry group's CEO writes The United States' leadership in spectrum policy, 5G and reaping the economic benefits of the most advanced mobile networks are in jeopardy and have to get back...

Congress seeks to continue broadband service subsidies

ACP Extension Act would continue monthly broadband service subsidies for more than 20 million households In the wake of the Federal Communications Commission announcing wind-down procedures for the Affordable Connectivity Program, a bipartisan group of Senators and House members have put forward legislation that would...

FCC warns that ACP faces wind-down without more funding

As Congress works to hash out a federal budget, the Federal Communications Commission is warning that the Affordable Connectivity Program, which provides monthly subsidies to help American families pay for broadband services, will have to end unless it receives an additional influx of funding. Federal...

CHIPS funding to expand facilities in Colorado, Oregon

The Biden administration announced an agreement with semiconductor producer Microchip Technologies to expand its domestic production capacity of legacy chips, supported with $162 million in financial incentives funded through the CHIPS and Science Act. This is the second agreement announced as part of the...

WRC wrap-up: Spectrum harmonization, and eyes to the skies

GSMA hails "groundbreaking spectrum decisions" from WRC-23 The World Radiocommunications Conference of 2023 (WRC-23) has wrapped up its weekslong meeting in Dubai, emerging with a global consensus on harmonization of spectrum bands for mobile services as well as regulations for high-altitude platform stations and spectrum...

Congress passes bill that would get T-Mo its 2.5 GHz licenses

Bill is headed to President Joe Biden's desk Congress has passed a bill that would enable T-Mobile US and other winners in the most recent auction of 2.5 GHz licenses to take ownership of spectrum licenses that were acquired during a 2022 auction but have...

‘There are no easy spectrum allocation choices’: White House spectrum strategy identifies a pipeline of five candidate bands

National spectrum strategy identifies five bands totaling nearly 2,800 megahertz, with emphasis on the midband The Biden administration has proposed a long-awaited spectrum pipeline of five candidate bands for near-term study and development, totaling 2,786 megahertz with an emphasis on midband spectrum and bolstering technology...

‘We all have to be careful’: GenAI is fueling voice and text-based scams

Artificial intelligence is being explored to improve customer service with smarter chatbots, dispatch network technicians more efficiently and automate simple, highly manual network operations tasks. It's also being co-opted by bad actors to fuel smarter robocall and text scams, according to Transaction Network Services....

The FCC wants to increase minimum broadband speeds to 100/20 Mbps

How fast should internet access be, to be considered "broadband"? The Federal Communications Commission wants to increase the minimum required speed for broadband, which it currently considers to be at least 25 Mbps upstream and 3 Mbps downstream, to 100/20 Mbps. That minimum broadband speed...

T-Mobile US faces antitrust lawsuit over Sprint merger

T-Mobile’s legal team reportedly called the class action suit 'unprecedented and speculative' T-Mobile US has been hit with an antitrust lawsuit related to its 2020 acquisition of Sprint after a U.S. judge ruled in favor of a class action filed by AT&T and Verizon subscribers...

Biden admin asks for full funding for rip-and-replace

Another $3.1 billion would fully fund eligible carrier requests The Biden administration has asked Congress for an additional $3.1 billion to fully fund small-and-medium-sized network operators' efforts to remove and replace network gear and services from banned Chinese vendors. The Secure and Trusted Communications Networks...

FCC okays E-Rate funds to equip school busses with Wi-Fi

Federal E-Rate funds can be used to outfit school busses with Wi-Fi access points, the Federal Communications Commission has declared. The declaratory ruling was supported by the Commission's three Democrats, and opposed by its two Republicans. Commissioners Brendan Carr and Nathan Simington argued both that...

The EU has a gigabit society goal. Not so fast, says Ookla.

The economics of access and adoption, plus the need for Wi-Fi equipment upgrades, are barriers to achieving universal gigabit service The European Union has laid out ambitious connectivity goals for member states, including universal access to 100 Mbps service by 2025 and gigabit-speed coverage of...

To fund or fall behind: Government, tech, subsidies and 6G

Chips, Open RAN, 6G ... governments around the world are pouring investment into tech, hoping to gain a strategic and economic advantage. The US government wants to offer relatively modest funding and maintain a market-driven approach—but it knows it can't afford to fall behind. WASHINGTON,...

AT&T, RWA object to Starlink’s direct-to-cellular testing plans

AT&T and the Rural Wireless Association are taking issue with SpaceX's plans to launch and test a new satellite with cellular capabilities, part of Starlink's collaboration with T-Mobile US to leverage T-Mo's midband spectrum for satellite-based direct-to-cellular communications, including emergency SMS. The carrier and the...

Ligado sues US government over spectrum rights

Ligado claims that DoD has previously undisclosed systems running in its spectrum and has sued for compensation Ligado Networks has filed suit against the U.S. government, including the Department of Defense, the Department of Commerce and the National Telecommunications and Information Administration, claiming that DoD...

FCC sets deadline for broadband consumer labeling

New consumer broadband labeling must be in place next year The Federal Communications Commission has laid out the deadlines for broadband service providers to put in place new consumer labeling that, much like nutrition labeling, is meant to give consumers a thorough and standardized view...