BROWSING: Policy

Mavenir supports Triangle Communications’ rip-and-replace efforts

Mavenir replaced the Chinese-provided components on Triangle's network with its own open infrastructure Mavenir said today that is has turned on a fully cloud-native converged packet core, Open Radio Access Network (Open RAN) and O-RAN compliant Radio Units (O-RUs) for Triangle Communications. Triangle Communications is...

‘All eyes were on Germany; now they’re now on the US’ – a picture of private 5G at large

Note, this is a revised version of the intro/outro statements at Private Networks European Forum earlier this month, presented then as a way to invite conversation about the state of ‘things’ in Europe, and re-presented now as a think-piece for the same. It considers...

French regulator Arcep awards 13 private 5G licences in 3.8-4.0 GHz band

French regulator Arcep has awarded three new trial spectrum licences for enterprises to deploy private 5G networks in the 3.8-4.0 GHz band, taking its total roster of enterprise trialists in France to 13. The band is being liberated for French enterprises, in line with...

One in five US households don’t have broadband. Most say they don’t want it.

NTIA survey finds 60% of unconnected households report that they have no need/interest in using the internet at home Over the past several decades, the U.S. Census Bureau or other agencies have been asking Americans about their use of computers and the internet. Broadband access...

‘Human glue’ and ‘humility to learn’ – 10 lessons in private 5G (#1-3, on people)

This is a fairly straight writeup of a summary report / blog from UK5G, the government-backed innovation network dedicated to industrial 5G in the UK, from a couple of weeks back, about findings from the UK’s grand £200 million trials and testbeds (5GTT) scheme...

Operators upended by hard graft of private 5G – a classic IoT tale, stuck on repeat

A new summary report / blog from UK5G, the government-backed innovation network dedicated to industrial 5G in the UK, makes for good reading. It concludes, ultimately, that industrial 5G is the same as industrial IoT – that it is a discipline that is massive...

European telcos brace for power outages: ‘They don’t understand the consequences’

Europe battles skyrocketing energy costs as the Russia-Ukraine conflict continues European service providers are preparing for the worst as power cuts threaten to down networks in the coming months. Telecom leaders, particularly in France and Italy, have been asking their respective governments to consider helping...

What does the future of spectrum look like?

'There are not a lot of easy bands left' says NTIA senior advisor With both mmWave and midband 5G auctions concluded and development and/or deployment underway for existing spectrum releases, one of the biggest spectrum question now is: What’s next? Conversations on spectrum policy are shifting...

Middle-mile funding applications top $5.5 billion

The federal government plans to spend $1 billion to expand so-called "middle-mile" connections between networks, as part of a $65 billion effort to build out broadband infrastructure and connect all Americans. In response, more than 235 applicants for funding asked for more than $5.5 billion...

Bogdan-Martin elected to lead ITU

First woman to lead ITU pledges to work toward "meaningful connectivity" The International Telecommunications Union has elected Doreen Bogdan-Martin as secretary-general, the first woman to lead the organization in its 157-year history. Bogdan-Martin currently serves as director of the ITU's Telecommunication Development Bureau, a position...

10 spectrum policy ideas: Aspen Institute

Amid renewed conversations around the re-authorization of the Federal Communications Commission's auction authority for spectrum and what a new spectrum pipeline might look like, the Aspen Institute brought together government and private-sector stakeholders to work on a framework and action plan for a national...

More Starlink users mean slower speeds: Ookla

"Some speeds have shown signs of slowing down from their initial launches," Ookla says of Starlink service Starlink's commercial success is causing network slowdowns, benchmarking company Ookla concludes in new analysis, as new customers result in a heavier network load and slower speeds for the...

Ofcom launches probe into cloud market competition

AWS, Microsoft and Google combined generate about 81% of revenues in the U.K. public cloud infrastructure services market British media regulator Ofcom has initiated an investigation into whether Amazon, Microsoft and Google’s cloud computing dominance is a threat to market competition. In a statement that acknowledged...

Ligado cancels trial network plans

Ligado Networks has cancelled plans to begin a 5G trial network that would have operated in northern Virginia and was expected to begin operations shortly. Ligado had planned to begin operations in airwaves at 1526–1536 MHz by September 30, according to a status update...

Federal spectrum policy: Getting beyond ‘Go Fish’

Spectrum reallocation is only getting more complicated, as the airwaves get more crowded. There are certainly recent examples—the C-Band deployment delays and the ongoing dispute over Ligado's spectrum use potentially impacting Department of Defense operations—where better and earlier collaboration between federal agencies might have...

FCC focuses on the ‘second space age’

There are three areas of focus for the FCC's space efforts As space-based communications become ever more important and begin to converge with terrestrial wireless, the Federal Communications Commission is focusing on bolstering its staffing and updating regulations in order to support U.S. technology leadership...

Steve Berry to retire from CCA leadership

Tim Donovan, Lucy Hodas will take new CCA leadership positions in January 2023 The Competitive Carriers Association is seeing a shift in leadership: Longtime President and CEO Steve Berry is retiring from his role, with deputies Tim Donovan and Lucy Hodas stepping into new leadership...

Starlink appeals RDOF denial

FCC had denied Starlink nearly $900 million in government funds Starlink is appealing the Federal Communications Commission's decision to deny the company nearly $900 million in funding that it won through the Rural Digital Opportunity Fund to connect unserved areas across the United States. In...

Europe on fire – an €8.5bn problem with a €900k solution (the case for IoT in wildfires)

Some of the most interesting IoT use cases on the conference circuit in the past months have been about wildfire monitoring. Through the heat of summer, as parts of Europe burned, smart people from clever companies took to the stage at various events to...

FCC awards additional $81 million in emergency education funding

The FCC education funding will support more than 300 schools, 25 libraries and two consortia Roughly 170,000 students across the U.S. will benefit from the more than $81 million in emergency connectivity funding announced this week by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). The funding,...

Regulators heighten scrutiny of use, sale of mobile location data

Congress is considering landmark data privacy legislation Federal agencies are putting both carriers and data brokers on notice that they are looking more closely at companies' use and sale of consumer data—particularly location data from mobile devices. Such data is often "anonymized" and meant to...

Samsung headlines five private 5G gigs in South Korea as part of Industry 4.0 ramp-up

South Korean tech firm Samsung has announced a tranche of new private 5G deployments in its home country, including with three public sector agencies and two private sector hospitals. All the deployments utilise the newly-liberated 4.7 GHz and 28 GHz bands in South Korea,...

FCC to investigate carriers’ use of subscriber location data

Consumers can now file privacy-related concerns or complaints with the FCC The Federal Communications Commission is launching a new investigation into how mobile network operators use subscribers' geolocation data. Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel also sent a letter to the top 15 largest mobile network operators and...

NTIA set to award $500m in Tribal broadband funding

Meanwhile, the FCC continues to disburse Emergency Connectivity funds for schools and libraries The dispersal of federal broadband funds for Tribal areas is picking up steam, with the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) announcing hundreds of millions of dollars in awards as part of...