Benton Institute for Broadband & Society - Wireless Telecommunications

Author:

John Horrigan

Send date:

Tue, 02/22/2022

Daily Digest:

Daily Digest 2/18/2022

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Not Available

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Tue, 02/22/2022

Coverage Type:

Lifeline/Low-Income Consumers

Competition/Antitrust

Universal Broadband

Research

Universal Service Fund

https://www.benton.org/blog/action-needed-now-preserve-essential-lifeline-during…

Action Needed Now to Preserve an Essential Lifeline During the Pandemic

benton — Tue, 26 Oct 2021 11:42:56 +0000

Universal service is the principle that all Americans should have access to essential communications services, like phones and broadband. You may not have heard much about it, but a universal service crisis is right around the corner. Due to Federal Communications Commission inaction, nearly 800,000 people could lose phone service on December 1. On that day, changes in the FCC’s Lifeline program, which provides a modest monthly discount for communications services, mean that voice-only services like a home landline telephone and/or a cellphone will no longer be eligible for the discount. The changes could mean people losing service at a time they need it most. As the December 1 deadline approaches, the FCC should quickly act, first, to ensure low-income people do not lose their essential telephone service during the COVID-19 pandemic. And the FCC should come to grips with the reality that Lifeline’s $9.25/month subsidy is too small to connect low-income households with robust broadband service. With the rollout of the Emergency Broadband Benefit, and the possibility, on passage of the infrastructure bill, of a permanent American Connectivity Plan, the FCC should think about low-income subsidies for communications services holistically to allow low-income households to be connected as most middle- and upper-income people do: with both a wireline broadband subscription and a cellular data plan.

[John Horrigan is a Benton Senior Fellow and a national expert on technology adoption, digital inclusion, and evaluating the outcomes and impacts of programs designed to promote communications technology adoption and use. Horrigan is leading Benton’s research on the FCC’s Lifeline program.]

Benton Content:

Benton Original Content

Teaser:

The FCC should quickly act, first, to ensure low-income people do not lose their essential telephone service during the COVID-19 pandemic

Source:

Author:

John Horrigan

Send date:

Tue, 10/26/2021

Daily Digest:

Daily Digest 10/25/2021

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Publish Date:

Tue, 10/26/2021

Coverage Type:

Analysis

Agenda

Upcoming policy issue

Universal Broadband

Coronavirus and Connectivity

Headlines Specific Topic:

The Last Broadband Gifts From the 116th Congress

benton — Fri, 15 Jan 2021 13:05:11 +0000

With great drama, the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2021 became law on December 27, 2021. The $2.3 trillion COVID relief and government spending bill extended unemployment benefits and ensured the government can keep running. The $900 billion COVID relief provision includes over $7 billion to help improve connectivity in the U.S. Here's a rundown of the support for broadband in the new law including discounted broadband service for low-income people, funding to make telecommunications networks more secure, grants for deploying new broadband networks in rural and Tribal areas, connecting minority communities, supporting telehealth, improving broadband maps, better coordination of federal broadband efforts, and more spectrum for 5G services.

Benton Content:

Benton Original Content

https://www.benton.org/blog/last-broadband-gifts-116th-congress

Teaser:

Broadband provisions in the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2021

Source:

Cybersecurity and Cyberwarfare

Author:

Kevin Taglang

Send date:

Fri, 01/15/2021

Daily Digest:

Daily Digest 1/14/2021

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Not Available

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Publish Date:

Fri, 01/15/2021

Coverage Type:

Analysis

Coronavirus and Connectivity

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:

Coronavirus and Connectivity

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:

Benton Foundation

Verizon to Buy TracFone in Deal Valued at Up to $7 Billion

benton — Mon, 14 Sep 2020 15:24:14 +0000

Verizon agreed to buy TracFone, a provider of wireless prepaid services, in a deal worth up to $7 billion in cash and stock, further consolidating the US cellular market. TracFone, a unit of Mexico’s América Móvil SAB, has about 21 million prepaid customers in the US under its namesake brand as well as StraightTalk and Net10. The company doesn’t run its own physical network in the US and instead rides on other cellphone carriers’ systems for a fee and then resells service under its own brands. The move plunges Verizon deep into the prepaid market, a sector it has largely avoided by catering to more lucrative customers who pay for wireless service after it is rendered. Customers on prepaid plans tend to switch providers more often, which operators consider a risk. Verizon is the biggest US provider with about 120 million connections, but it has been competing in a mature market that is now dominated by three providers. TracFone, backed by Mexican billionaire Carlos Slim Helu, grew into the biggest US cellphone reseller by catering to frugal customers through Walmart stores and other independent dealers. Its StraightTalk service offers data plans for as little as $34 a month. TracFone offers service for as little as $15 a month with limits on internet data as well as the number of texts and phone calls.

The deal is subject to approval from antitrust and telecom regulators. Federal competition enforcers have traditionally viewed virtual-network operators like TracFone as resellers of wholesale network capacity owned by companies like Verizon that own the cell-tower equipment and lines that carry their traffic, so the deal is unlikely to attract as much scrutiny as T-Mobile’s Sprint takeover did when it was announced in 2018. Verizon said it expects its transaction to close in the second half of 2021.

Benton Content:

https://www.wsj.com/articles/verizon-to-buy-wireless-reseller-tracfone-for-6-25-…

Teaser:

Move would bring about 21 million prepaid cellphone customers to the biggest U.S. wireless operator

Source:

Wall Street Journal

Author:

Drew FitzGerald

Send date:

Tue, 09/15/2020

Daily Digest:

Daily Digest 9/14/2020

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Not Available

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Publish Date:

Mon, 09/14/2020

Coverage Type:

Reporting

Ownership

Lifeline/Low-Income Consumers

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

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.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/state-broadband-2020

State of Broadband 2020

benton — Tue, 28 Jan 2020 12:53:04 +0000

In Washington, DC, today, policymakers, public interest advocates and nonprofits, researchers, and the business community are gathering for the 2020 State of the Net Conference. Hosted by the Internet Education Foundation, State of the Net explores important, emerging trends and their impact on internet policy. We took the occasion as an opportunity to ask Benton Institute experts for their take on broadband as we enter the 2020s. Here are their answers.

The State of Broadband is... Uncertain
Hard Work on Broadband Adoption Yet to Be Done
Network Neutrality Is Inevitable
Building Smart Cities With, Not For
The US Needs a Comprehensive Rural Broadband Plan

Benton Content:

Benton Original Content

Teaser:

We ask Benton Institute experts for their take on broadband as we enter the 2020s.

Source:

Author:

Kevin Taglang

Send date:

Tue, 01/28/2020

Daily Digest:

Daily Digest 1/27/2020

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Not Available

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Publish Date:

Tue, 01/28/2020

Coverage Type:

Competition/Antitrust

Infrastructure

Universal Broadband

Network Neutrality

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

Headlines Specific Topic:

Benton Foundation

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:

Benton Foundation

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

Spectrum

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

DD Publish Status:

Not Available

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Publish Date:

Fri, 07/26/2019

Coverage Type:

Press Release

Ownership

Spectrum