Benton Institute for Broadband & Society - Spectrum

Coronavirus and Connectivity

Wireless Internet

Headlines Specific Topic:

Broadband for America Now

benton — Thu, 29 Oct 2020 11:17:54 +0000

In October 2019, the Benton Institute for Broadband & Society issued Broadband for America’s Future: A Vision for the 2020s. The agenda was comprehensive, constructed upon achievements in communities and insights from experts across the nation. The report outlined the key building blocks of broadband policy—deployment, competition, community anchor institutions, and digital equity (including affordability and adoption). The agenda called for everyone to be able to use High-Performance Broadband by the end of the decade. When we released the report last fall, we promised a refresh in 2020 because we knew there were issues that required additional development and more success stories that needed to be told. What we did not know was that the world would be changed permanently by COVID-19, creating health, economic, and social crises, resulting in the worst economic setback in America in decades and unveiling a connectivity crisis that spans rural and urban places, threatening to create an even more divided America. This essay offers our key recommendations by describing the likely pattern of changing broadband usage once the present crisis recedes, and by emphasizing how federal, state, tribal, and local governments should work together to implement a comprehensive broadband agenda.

Benton Content:

Benton Original Content

https://www.benton.org/publications/broadband-america-now

Teaser:

This essay offers key recommendations by describing the likely pattern of changing broadband usage once the present crisis recedes, and by emphasizing how federal, state, tribal, and local governments should work together to implement a comprehensive broadband agenda.

Source:

Benton Institute for Broadband & Society

Author:

Jonathan Sallet

Send date:

Thu, 10/29/2020

Daily Digest:

Daily Digest 10/28/2020

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Not Available

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Publish Date:

Thu, 10/29/2020

Coverage Type:

Research

Headlines Specific Topic:

Coronavirus and Connectivity

Judge Approves T-Mobile-Sprint Deal Affecting 100 Million Customers

Robbie McBeath — Tue, 11 Feb 2020 16:45:48 +0000

Private sector development:

Sprint|T-Mobile

Judge Victor Marrero of the United States District Court in Manhattan ruled in favor of T-Mobile’s takeover of Sprint in a deal that would further concentrate corporate ownership of technology, combining the nation’s third- and fourth-largest wireless carriers and creating a new telecommunications giant to take on AT&T and Verizon. The decision concluded an unusual suit filed in June by attorneys general from 13 states and the District of Columbia. The challenge was brought after regulators at the Department of Justice and Federal Communications Commission approved the deal. The states argued that the combination of T-Mobile and Sprint would reduce competition in the telecommunications industry, lead to higher cellphone bills and place a financial burden on lower-income customers. Once the merger is complete, the great majority of the nation’s wireless users would become customers of one of three major providers. T-Mobile and Sprint have said they do not plan to raise prices.

In his ruling, Judge Marrero praised T-Mobile, calling it “a maverick that has spurred the two largest players in its industry to make numerous pro-consumer changes.” He added: “The Proposed Merger would allow the merged companies to continue T-Mobile’s undeniably successful business strategy for the foreseeable future.” Judge Marrero wrote, “The court concludes that the proposed merger is not reasonably likely to substantially lessen competition in the” mobile service market, and would likely “enhance competition in the relevant markets to the benefit of all consumers.” The deal will create a new carrier with more than 100 million users. After the merger is final, the majority of Sprint customers will eventually end up having T-Mobile plans. Customers of Sprint’s prepaid brands, including Boost Mobile, Virgin Mobile and Sprint prepaid, will become Dish Network customers. The original merger terms called for T-Mobile, the larger of the two companies, to effectively buy Sprint in an all-stock transaction that was earlier valued at $26.5 billion. Because of the lawsuit, the original deadline to complete the deal has passed, and T-Mobile has pushed to renegotiate the terms. The companies expect to close the transaction by April 1. The states could still appeal the ruling, and another US district judge in Washington reportedly must approve an existing Department of Justice plan for the merger partners. An approval from the California Public Utilities Commission also remains pending.

Benton Content:

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/02/11/business/media/t-mobile-sprint-merger.html

https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2020/02/11/sprint-t-mobile-deal-wins-jud…

https://www.telecompetitor.com/t-mobile-sprint-win-court-case-merger-could-close…

https://www.multichannel.com/news/t-mobile-sprint-merger-gains-approval

https://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/2020/02/11/sprint-t-mobile-merger-prices-go-…

https://www.theverge.com/2020/2/11/21132924/tmobile-sprint-merger-approved-feder…

Teaser:

The deal would combine the nation’s third- and fourth-largest wireless carriers and create a telecommunications giant to take on AT&T and Verizon.

Source:

New York Times

Author:

Edmund Lee

Send date:

Wed, 02/12/2020

Daily Digest:

Daily Digest 2/11/2020

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Not Available

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Publish Date:

Tue, 02/11/2020

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https://www.benton.org/blog/t-mobilesprint-inching-towards-final-ok

T-Mobile/Sprint Inching Towards Final OK

benton — Fri, 08 Nov 2019 16:34:26 +0000

On November 5, the Federal Communications Commission gave its final OK, approving—with conditions—the transfer of control applications filed by T-Mobile and Sprint. T-Mobile's acquisition of Sprint was first announced April 29, 2018, touting the capacity to rapidly create a nationwide 5G network while offering lower prices, better quality, unmatched value, and greater competition. Is that where we've ended up? Although T-Mobile's acquisition of Sprint has gotten approval from both the U.S. Department of Justice and the FCC, the deal isn't done yet. Over a dozen states are challenging the deal in court. State attorneys general fear the merger would hurt competition, raise prices for cell service, result in a loss of retail jobs and lower wages for the employees who remain.

Benton Content:

Benton Original Content

Teaser:

An Engineer’s View of the Department of Justice’s T-Mobile/Sprint/DISH Strategy

benton — Tue, 20 Aug 2019 11:13:22 +0000

To address the loss of a mobile communications competitor that will result from the proposed T-Mobile/Sprint merger, the Department of Justice (DOJ) has proposed a solution that seeks to enable DISH Network to emerge as a fourth national facilities-based wireless carrier. From an engineering perspective, however, DOJ’s approach to enabling DISH’s deployment is not guaranteed to prove adequate to maintain competition comparable to that currently offered over Sprint’s network. DOJ’s preliminary announcement raises a host of unanswered technical questions and, from what we know now, DOJ’s proposed solution would require years to enable DISH to develop capacity and coverage on par with what Sprint has today—with no guarantee that the proposed solution would be successful. The approach also is overly optimistic about the execution of the DISH buildout and assumes a level of coordination and cooperation among competitors that is beyond anything previously observed in the US wireless industry. Taken together, these questions raise doubt about whether DOJ’s solution will really serve as a technically effective means to enable a fourth mobile competitor.

[Andrew Afflerbach (Ph.D., P.E.) is CTO of CTC Technology & Energy. He specializes in the planning, design, and implementation of communications infrastructure and networks.]

Benton Content:

Benton Original Content

https://www.benton.org/blog/engineer%E2%80%99s-view-department-justice%E2%80%99s…

Teaser:

From an engineering perspective, DOJ’s approach to enabling DISH’s deployment is not guaranteed to prove adequate to maintain competition

Source:

Author:

Andrew Afflerbach

Send date:

Tue, 08/20/2019

Daily Digest:

Daily Digest 8/19/2019

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Not Available

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Publish Date:

Tue, 08/20/2019

Coverage Type:

Op-Ed

Ownership

https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/justice-department-settles-t-mobile-and-sprint-th…

Justice Department Settles with T-Mobile and Sprint in Their Proposed Merger by Requiring a Package of Divestitures to Dish

benton — Fri, 26 Jul 2019 16:06:48 +0000

The Department of Justice announced that it and the Attorneys General for five states reached a settlement with T-Mobile and Sprint regarding their proposed merger. The settlement requires a substantial divestiture package in order to enable a viable facilities-based competitor to enter the market. Further, the settlement will facilitate the expeditious deployment of multiple high-quality 5G networks for the benefit of American consumers and entrepreneurs.

The Department’s Antitrust Division, along with the offices of five state Attorneys General (Plaintiff States), filed a civil antitrust lawsuit in the US District Court for the District of Columbia to block the proposed transaction. At the same time, the Department and the Plaintiff States filed a proposed settlement that, if approved by the court, would resolve the Department’s and the Plaintiff States’ competitive concerns. The participating state Attorneys General offices represent Nebraska, Kansas, Ohio, Oklahoma, and South Dakota.

Under the terms of the proposed settlement, T-Mobile and Sprint must divest Sprint’s prepaid business -- including Boost Mobile, Virgin Mobile, and Sprint prepaid -- to Dish Network, a Colorado-based satellite television provider. The proposed settlement also provides for the divestiture of certain spectrum assets to Dish. Additionally, T-Mobile and Sprint must make available to Dish at least 20,000 cell sites and hundreds of retail locations. T-Mobile must also provide Dish with robust access to the T-Mobile network for a period of seven years while Dish builds out its own 5G network. The Department and the Plaintiff States said that, without the divestiture, the proposed acquisition would eliminate competition between two of only four facilities-based suppliers of nationwide mobile wireless services. According to the complaint, T-Mobile and Sprint both operate mobile networks and offer nationwide coverage to consumers, and they are particularly close competitors to each other for the roughly 30% of retail subscribers who purchase prepaid mobile wireless service. The combination of T-Mobile and Sprint would eliminate head-to-head competition between the companies and threaten the benefits that customers have realized from that competition in the form of lower prices and better service.

Benton Content:

Teaser:

The Department of Justice announced that it and the Attorneys General for five states reached a settlement with T-Mobile and Sprint regarding their proposed merger.

Source:

Department of Justice

Send date:

Mon, 07/29/2019

Daily Digest:

Daily Digest 7/26/2019

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Not Available

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Publish Date:

Fri, 07/26/2019

Coverage Type:

Press Release

Ownership

https://www.benton.org/blog/preview-fccs-july-open-meeting-taking-e-out-ebs-and-…

Wireless Internet

A Preview of the FCC's July Open Meeting: Taking the "E" Out of EBS and TV

benton — Thu, 20 Jun 2019 17:44:25 +0000

Perhaps the biggest news of the week was the agenda for the Federal Communications Commission's July 10 Open Meeting, which FCC Chairman Ajit Pai laid out in a blog post on June 18, 2019. I'm traveling to New York this week; below is a shorter-than-usual weekly that takes a look at how Chairman Pai plans to take education out of the Educational Broadband Service -- and broadcast television.

Benton Content:

Benton Original Content

Teaser:

Federal Communications Commission's July 10 Open Meeting

Source:

Health Information Technology

Author:

Robbie McBeath

Send date:

Fri, 06/21/2019

Daily Digest:

Daily Digest 6/20/2019

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Not Available

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Publish Date:

Thu, 06/20/2019

Coverage Type:

Telehealth

Internet/Broadband

Competition/Antitrust

Universal Broadband

Auctions

https://www.benton.org/blog/without-right-spectrum-5g-all

Without the Right Spectrum, Is 5G All That?

benton — Fri, 26 Apr 2019 19:19:29 +0000

Over the past few years, news of 5G – fifth generation wireless technologies – has grabbed too many headlines to count. As carriers start to rollout services in cities around the U.S., however, we’re now reading about some of the limitations of a service that policymakers have promised would improve lives. A recent announcement by President Donald Trump commits the United States to build out 5G infrastructure on a high-band spectrum swath -- known as millimeter wave (mmWave), between 24 and 300 gigahertz -- which is “inferior in range and penetration capability to the ‘sub-6’ (below 6 gigahertz) spectrum being used for 5G by most other countries, especially China.” There’s a difference between mmWave spectrum and low and mid-band spectrum. And that difference matters a lot for 5G and the future of wireless broadband in America. We saw so this week.

Benton Content:

Benton Original Content

Teaser:

“If our leaders want the U.S. to be a 5G innovation zone, they can't be snowed by announcements of lots of short-range, millimeter-wave spectrum."

Source:

Author:

Robbie McBeath

Send date:

Mon, 04/29/2019

Daily Digest:

Daily Digest 4/26/2019

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Not Available

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Publish Date:

Fri, 04/26/2019

Coverage Type:

Analysis

https://www.benton.org/blog/let%E2%80%99s-give-schools-tool-solve-homework-gap

Wireless Internet

Let’s Give Schools a Tool to Solve the Homework Gap

benton — Wed, 20 Feb 2019 17:52:43 +0000

One of the most disturbing aspects of the digital divide is the “homework gap.” The term – first coined by FCC Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel – describes the situation faced by the estimated 12 million students that cannot complete their school assignments because they have no broadband access at home. As she notes, roughly 7 in 10 teachers assign homework that requires a broadband connection, which means that many students, especially in low-income communities, are missing out on the educational opportunities afforded to their connected peers. Fortunately, there’s a valuable slice of wireless spectrum that can help solve the homework gap. Federal Communications Commission Chairman Pai launched a proceeding in 2018 to award new wireless licenses to schools, colleges, and other educational institutions. These new licenses would operate in the 2.5 GHz band known as Educational Broadband Service (EBS). Some communities received EBS licenses over twenty years ago, but the EBS licensing regime has been almost completely frozen since then, and no EBS licenses were issued for about one-half of the United States territory, mostly in rural markets. Under Chairman Pai’s proposal, priority for these new licenses would be given to tribal entities and educational institutions, similar to the way the EBS licenses were awarded in more urban markets over twenty years ago.

[John Windhausen Jr. is the executive director of the Schools, Health & Libraries Broadband (SHLB) Coalition]

Benton Content:

Benton Original Content

Teaser:

The end goal of the EBS proceeding should be focused on permanently addressing the homework gap, closing the digital divide in rural areas, ensuring affordable broadband access for all, and accelerating 5G services at a critical time

Source:

https://www.benton.org/blog/providing-broadband-rural-america-how-educators-ebs-…

Author:

John Windhausen Jr

Send date:

Thu, 02/21/2019

Daily Digest:

Daily Digest 2/20/2019

DD Publish Status:

Not Available

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Publish Date:

Wed, 02/20/2019

Coverage Type:

Providing Broadband to Rural America: How Educators with EBS Can Make the Difference

Robbie McBeath — Mon, 28 Jan 2019 20:52:33 +0000

In 2008, Northern Michigan University (NMU) elected to tackle the lack of adequate broadband access in its community head-on. With over 8,000 notebook computers assigned to its students, NMU launched an aggressive plan to construct the nation’s first Educational Broadband Service (EBS) WiMAX network. To make it work, NMU turned to the Broadband Division of the Federal Communications Commission’s Wireless Telecommunications Bureau for assistance securing an EBS spectrum license needed for WiMAX operation. Our success captured the attention of other educators, especially those with one-to-one computing programs in the region who faced similar challenges with home broadband access. Ultimately, the NMU network will cover 21,548 miles of rugged, rural terrain, connecting previously unserved and underserved communities throughout the Upper Peninsula. Simply put, without EBS, NMU’s network could not have been built and subscribers throughout northern Michigan would likely have remained on the wrong side of the digital divide.

[Fritz J. Erickson is President of Northern Michigan University.]

Benton Content:

Benton Original Content

Teaser:

Northern Michigan University tackled adequate broadband access, constructing nation’s first Educational Broadband Service WiMAX network.

Source: