Editor’s Note: RCR Wireless News goes all in for “Throwback Thursdays,” tapping into our archives to resuscitate the top headlines from the past. Fire up the time machine, put on those sepia-tinted shades, set the date for #TBT and enjoy the memories!
Consolidated Comms sells partnerships to Verizon
Broadband provider Consolidated Communications has worked out a deal with Verizon to buy Consolidated’s share of five wireless limited partnerships, for an aggregate sum of $490 million. The sale of the partnerships to Verizon is expected to close by the end of this year, though Consolidated noted that there are “third-party purchase rights available to other partners in the partnership” that could impact the timing of the closing. Proceeds from the sale will support Consolidated’s strategy to expand its fiber network and “pivot to a pure-play fiber company,” according to a company release. According to a presentation for investors, the five partnerships through Consolidated subsidiary Clio include Pittsburgh SMSA Limited Partnership, expected to close immediately; two entities referred to as GTE Mobilnet of South Texas Limited Partnership, and Pennsylvania RSA No. 6(I) and Pennsylvania RSA No. 6 (II). Sales of the latter partnerships are expected to close by the end of 2022. The entities did business as Verizon Wireless in their respective states. … Read more
Top five ‘metaplaces’
The metaverse is kind of a funny thing. It’s not really real just yet but given what we do know about it–a combination of connectivity, compute, graphics rendering, immersive user interfaces and a handful of attendant technologies–it’s already relatively clear what it will do once everything falls into place. This may sound familiar to those of us who started thinking (and writing) about 5G well before the standard was even set. With that, let’s take a look at some likely metaverse use cases, and use places, courtesy of Peter Linder, Ericsson’s head of 5G marketing in North America. As an aside, and to that earlier comment about pretty well knowing what 5G would be before it was actually real, this writer once upon a time hosted a panel including Linder wherein he compared 5G to golf, bowling and making cheese. He also very accurately predicted where we are today in terms of 5G being much more an enterprise than a consumer play and a technology dependent on a mix of spectrum types. Anyway…the metaverse. In a recent blog post, Linder laid out 12 metaverse use cases; here we’ll take a look at some of the key points he works through. First, how we will we use the metaverse at home? This one is relatively straightforward–more immersive media experiences like gaming. … Read more
Semtech in talks to buy Sierra Wireless
US and Canadian firms Semtech and Sierra Wireless have confirmed they are engaged in “advanced discussions” about a potential transaction, with Semtech looking to purchase Sierra Wireless at a price of $31 per share. The pair released nearly identical statements, simultaneously, following a report last night (August 1) in Bloomberg that a deal is close, possibly closing in days. Bloomberg said Sierra Wireless was valued at $1.2 billion on Monday, with a 19 percent surge following the news; Semtech was valued at $3.7 billion, down around six percent. Sierra Wireless stated: “No assurance can be given that the company will determine to continue such discussions or enter into any definitive agreement regarding any transaction or, if executed, whether any such transaction would be consummated. The company does not intend to make any further announcement regarding these matters unless and until it enters into a binding, definitive agreement with respect thereto.” … Read more
Charging Big Tech for infrastructure?
The European Commission is under increasing pressure to make tech giants pay for the buildout of telecom infrastructure in the EU, Reuters reports. A new paper signed by representatives of France, Germany, and Italy urges EU officials to bill Big Tech to help defray the considerable costs associated with European 5G telecom infrastructure buildout and better broadband access. The “fair contribution” debate in the EU has been slowly growing to a boil for months, if not years. Last November heads of Vodafone, Deutsche Telekom and 11 other European carriers called on U.S. tech giants to help pick up the tab for 5G, fiber and cable network buildouts. But this marks the first time officials from the three countries have set forth a proposal for the European Commission to consider. The European Telecom Network Operators Association (ETNO) offered a challenge to the European Commission in May to implement some sort of fair-contribution policy to defray infrastructure costs. “In the European Digital Rights and Principles the European Commission proposed a principle that all market actors benefitting from the digital transformation should make fair and proportionate contribution to the cost of infrastructure. It is part of our reflection in the context of investment,” ETNO wrote. ETNO claimed that Facebook, Microsoft, Google, Amazon, and Netflix accounted for 56% of all global data traffic in 2021. ETNO predicted a £72 billion (US$73.6 billion) economic boost out of a £20 billion (US$20.4 billion) annual investment. The letter recently delivered to the European Commission cites the same 56% figure. … Read more
India wraps up 5G auction
The 5G spectrum auction in India, approved earlier this year, has concluded and according to the country’s telecom minister Ashwini Vaishnaw, carriers purchased a total $19 billion worth of spectrum. As expected, Reliance Jio walked away with the most spectrum, having spent $11 billion. Airtel won spectrum worth $5.4 billion, while Vodafone received spectrum worth $2.4 billion. Finally, Adani purchased spectrum worth approximately $27 million. Despite being the world’s second largest wireless market, India’s 5G progress has been somewhat halting. One major reason for the slow rollout was high spectrum prices set by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI). In 2019, Rakesh Bharti Mittal, vice-chairman of Bharti Enterprises, stated that the reserve price of 5G airwaves suggested by the telecom regulator “is seven times higher than global peers.” Mittal urged the government to reexamine 5G spectrum prices, warning that the high prices are going to delay the deployment of India’s 5G networks. In May, it was revealed that the Indian government did address the issue of high spectrum costs, lowering the reserve price for mid-band 3.3-3.6 GHz by by 36%, from INR4920 million ($64.17 million) per MHz to INR3170 million ($41.31 million) per MHz. … Read more
FCC’s 2.5 GHz auction crawls along
The Federal Communications Commission’s 2.5 GHz auction has rounded up just $143 million in gross bids after nine rounds. The auction raised about $103 million in its first day, with six hours of bidding. IT has only brought that total up by about $40 million since. Two more rounds are scheduled today.There are likely a few reasons for this auction’s slow pace and low total: These are overlay licenses that are encumbered in metro areas, so the actual spectrum availability is primarily in rural locations; and because T-Mobile US has amassed significant holdings and/or access arrangements to 2.5 GHz, it is seen as the national carrier with the most interest in the band, while Verizon and AT&T concentrated most of their midband efforts (and money) on last year’s record-breaking $81 billion C-Band auction. (A recap of the two recent midband spectrum auctions is here.) Only 168 of the available licenses had no bids during the first round. Most of the licenses—4,395, to be exact—had a single bidder in the first round. A total of 3,454 licenses had multiple bidders. By Round 9, this had dropped to 162 licenses with no bids, while 5,858 licenses had a single bidder and 1,997 licenses were being actively contested by multiple bidders. Since this is an auction of county-level overlay licenses with limited utility in the major metro areas, there is a different dynamic in play than the typical auction flow, in which densely populated urban areas get bid up rapidly until bidders drop out and the major metro prices settle first, with bidding then shifting to mid-sized markets and finally to rural ones. … Read more
Check out the RCR Wireless News Archives for more stories from the past.
