The interaction between government agencies and the telecom industry continues to feature new developments that may have far-reaching repercussions. To understand the direction the sector is moving, it’s important to regularly peek behind the curtain and see where telecom stands in the eyes of the government. Here’s what’s happened with U.S. telecom policy in recent days:
Sprint, T-Mobile US ‘plans’ hits bump in the road
A business agreement that would send ripples throughout the telecom industry may not be the done deal that observers once took it to be. It has been widely reported that Sprint was interested in acquiring T-Mobile US and its various assets. Now, officials from the companies may be having second thoughts about the deal, according to Reuters. A merger between Sprint and T-Mobile US would condense the resources of the No. 3 and No. 4 mobile service providers in the United States, respectively. A major point of concern is the potential for the Department of Justice and the Federal Communications Commission to prevent such a deal from being completed.
“Heightened expectations for a Sprint/T-Mobile merger as we exited the year have deflated significantly due to unusually tough talk from the anti-trust division of the DoJ and press reports regarding the FCC’s stance,” Roe Equity Research Research analyst Kevin Roe said, according to the source.
IBM tapped for DARPA project
The latest reported agreement reached between IBM and the Defense Advanced Research Research Projects Agency may present an unparalleled scope of ambition. Business Insider’s Julie Bort reported that DARPA recently presented the tech giant with a $3.5 million contract to develop a network that can be removed at a moment’s notice. Dubbed “vanishing programmable resources,” the technology would allow military leaders to essentially vaporize network components whenever deemed necessary. Although the source did not surmise the applications for VARP, it would appear to be advantageous in the event that enemy combatants got their hands on sophisticated American hardware. DARPA has already developed technology based on similar concepts, including electronic devices that disintegrate in water.
Microsoft attempts to ease cloud concerns
Last year’s revelation regarding the NSA’s surveillance practices resulted in widespread fallout spanning across the globe. Many countries’ leaders urged their industries to extricate themselves from agreements they held with American cloud providers and instead seek out the services of domestic parties. The extent to which this scandal has affected the U.S. cloud market has yet to be fully determined, but many organizations have rushed to mitigate any damage and assuage data security fears. According to EWeek, Microsoft is the latest company to try and address these concerns head on after recently announcing its global cloud operating system network. Extending into approximately 90 unique markets, the network is expected to serve more than three million customers across the globe. Given the sensitive nature of their information, government agencies may be especially hesitant to move resources to the cloud, particularly American-operated ones. Microsoft’s leadership hopes that they can successfully sway government users to trust the organization’s cloud platform.
