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Welcome Back To
The Wireless
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NO POLITICS HERE
This doesn't mean that nothing is ever published here that mentions a US political party—it just means that the editorial policy of this newsletter is to remain neutral on all political issues. We don't take sides.
A new issue of the Wireless Messaging Newsletter is posted on the web each week. A notification goes out by e-mail to subscribers on most Fridays around noon central US time. The notification message has a link to the actual newsletter on the web. That way it doesn’t fill up your incoming e-mail account. There is no charge for subscription and there are no membership restrictions. Readers are a very select group of wireless industry professionals, and include the senior managers of many of the world’s major Paging and Wireless Messaging companies. There is an even mix of operations managers, marketing people, and engineers — so I try to include items of interest to all three groups. It’s all about staying up-to-date with business trends and technology. I regularly get readers’ comments, so this newsletter has become a community forum for the Paging, and Wireless Messaging communities. You are welcome to contribute your ideas and opinions. Unless otherwise requested, all correspondence addressed to me is subject to publication in the newsletter and on my web site. I am very careful to protect the anonymity of those who request it. I spend the whole week searching the INTERNET for news that I think may be of interest to you — so you won’t have to. This newsletter is an aggregator — a service that aggregates news from other news sources. You can help our community by sharing any interesting news that you find.
Editorial Opinion pieces present only the opinions of the author. They do not necessarily reflect the views of any of advertisers or supporters. This newsletter is independent of any trade association. I don't intend to hurt anyone's feelings, but I do freely express my own opinions.
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Service Monitors and Frequency Standards for Sale
(Images are typical units, not actual photos of items offered for sale here.)
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Passive Audio Amps For Smart Phones
Buy An Amp todayOh come on they are cool.These are acoustic amplifiers for smartphones. They don't need electric power to operate and there are no moving parts. They work like a megaphone (speaking-trumpet, bullhorn, or loudhailer). Everyone that I have shown one to has said something like “Wow, I want one of those!” So I have built a few of them. Of course there are more “Hi-Fi” ways to listen to audio on your smartphone but who would want to plug an elegant smartphone into some cheap, plastic gadget? Or even use Wi-Fi or Bluetooth, which are a pain in the neck to set up, even on a smartphone. These have been made with hardwood bases and some of them are exotic hardwoods with interesting grain patterns. The horns are polished brass — made from mostly old horns that had rubber bulbs on the ends and were used in “times gone by” by taxis and even clowns in circuses. These horns have been re-purposed, reshaped, soldered, and polished. They horns are now on display and for sale at:
The two large horns — the trombone and the gramophone — are difficult to pack and ship to they are for local pickup only. The remainder can be sent to you. I have the cowboy horn and the rest are in stock at the Colorado coffee shop. Please call for pricing and availability or stop in for a demo and a great cup of espresso. P.S. Allan, Virginia and I worked together at WebLink Wireless in Dallas. |
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Measuring microns: The quest to build a better GPSBy Jeremy Kaplan November 19, 2020 6:00AM PST
GPS can guide you across town or across the country, navigating dusty backroads as easily as six-lane superhighways. But as anyone who’s accidentally driven into a lake can tell you, GPS isn’t perfect. It can’t keep you in a specific lane, for example, or dodge nearby cars, or steer you down an exit ramp. That’s why John Deere built a better system. Yes, that John Deere. You see, the GPS system most people know of was designed in the 1970s, and for what it is, it’s truly remarkable. A network of 24 satellites operating more or less continually for 27 years? Circling the globe from the frigid reaches of space — endlessly watching and politely lending a hand? For free? Wonderful. But it was designed to replace paper maps, which rarely measure down to the inch. Autonomous cars need to know not just that you’re on Highway 61 but exactly where you are (at 75 miles per hour no less). Autonomous drones and tractors for farming have fueled a rural renaissance called precision agriculture — and to work, it requires precision. To add that level of detail — and overhaul the system in general — researchers have been working to replace the existing fleet of satellites with a new iteration called GPS III. It took a step forward last week when SpaceX finally heaved a fourth satellite into its starry bed. It’s a long process: Lockheed Martin published a brief history of the effort to upgrade the GPS system in 2012, and we’re still just getting started. The whole thing is supposed to be completed in 2023, at a cost closing in on $6 billion. Can private industry do it better? To get an inside look at what might supplant GPS, we spoke to two companies leading the charge and developing alternatives. How Deere built a better GPSBefore pointing out its flaws, let’s keep in mind that GPS is a fantastic system. Indeed, it’s hard to wrap your head around the ambition and audacity of the existing satellite constellation. Imagine the challenges behind launching a precision antenna that costs a few hundred million bucks and is shaped more or less like a Mister Softee ice cream truck. To complete the deed, the military slaps it on a rocket that burns 2,700 pounds of liquid oxygen per second, hurling it into space at Mach 1 … and then gently sets it free into orbit about 13,000 miles away. Remember, the diameter of the Earth itself is just 7,900 miles. Now, picture the algorithms and computations necessary to keep it in a precise orbit, never hitting the other satellites, constantly transmitting, batteries never failing, clocks barely drifting out of sync as the months turn into years, and you’ll get the point. It’s an enormous achievement. Yet, it’s not enough.
GPS is accurate to within 3 feet, in theory, but in reality it’s more like 15 feet or so – good enough to get you to the grocery store, but hardly precise. For example, if you’ve planted two heirloom tomatoes and some cucumbers in your backyard, it’s easy to grow your tiny harvest without any sense of where you’re watering. If you’re planting hundreds of acres, tiny telemetry errors can ruin you. “The old days of working all day and maybe dad gets done and gets home to the son or daughter? That’s pretty much done,” Al Savage, StarFire Network manager at John Deere, told Digital Trends. “What farmers want is more yield. Accuracy in terms of row planting, etc., so you’re not running over your crops.” According to NASA (yes, that NASA), when a farmer crisscrosses a field pulling a seeder, plow, or other equipment behind a tractor, the rows that are created overlap by about 10 percent. This means a significant portion of the field receives double the necessary seed, fertilizer, and pesticide, and the job takes longer than necessary. Today’s tractors use digital positioning systems just like your car, but require a whole different level of accuracy. So with the help of the space agency, John Deere built a better system.
“Differential GPS is what they call it,” Savage said. To get the granular positioning data modern farmers need, Deere built a series of ground-based reference sites around the globe to collect a second set of positioning data, a vast amount of data the company transmits and warehouses in two main data centers. That information is beamed to a set of geostationary satellites run by Inmarsat (John Deere leases space on them), and then beamed back down to the company’s StarFire receivers on local tractors – a round trip that’s longer than spanning the globe but takes about as long as a single breath. “You’re talking about 12, 13,000 miles, and in some cases 20,000 miles. And this happens in five seconds, so you can imagine how quick it is and how much data is flowing,” Savage explained. The time it takes a signal to travel to Earth from the GPS satellites, combined with clocks in orbit drifting ever-so-slightly out of sync and signal noise from electrically charged particles in our atmosphere, makes existing GPS data imprecise. By meshing the satellite data with data from its terrestrial network, Deere is able to triangulate location far more accurately. “When you’re spraying, you want to be specific, precise. That allows you to save on herbicides, fungicides, pesticides, and sprays,” Savage notes. How 5G is finding a pathIf you read a technology site these days, you’ve heard the hype around 5G. There are a variety of benefits to the fast new cellular network, the foremost of which is speed. Qualcomm has demonstrated peak download speeds of around 4.5 gigabits per second and average data transmission speeds of about 1.4 gigabits per second. That’s quick enough to download a two-hour movie in about 17 seconds, versus about 6 minutes for a current 4G connection. In other words, new 5G phones will be about 1,000 times faster than the phone currently in your pocket. |
| Source: | Digital Trends |
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Paging Transmitters 150/900 MHz The RFI High Performance Paging Transmitter is designed for use in campus, city, state and country-wide paging systems. Designed for use where reliable simulcast systems where RF signal overlap coverage is critical.
Built-in custom interface for Prism-IPX ipBSC Base Controller for remote control, management and alarm reporting.
Prism-IPX Systems LLC.
11175 Cicero Dr., Alpharetta, GA 30022
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The Wireless Messaging News
The Board of Advisor members are people with whom I have developed a special rapport, and have met personally. They are not obligated to support the newsletter in any way, except with advice, and maybe an occasional letter to the editor.
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| PRISM IPX Systems |
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| Easy Solutions |
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Providing Expert Support and Service Contracts for all Glenayre Paging Systems. The GL3000 is the most prolific paging system in the world and Easy Solutions gladly welcomes you to join us in providing reliable support to the paging industry for many more decades in the future. Easy Solutions provides cost effective computer and wireless solutions at affordable prices. We can help in most any situation with your communications systems. We have many years of experience and a vast network of resources to support the industry, your system and an ever changing completive landscape.
Please see our web site for exciting solutions designed specifically for the Wireless Industry. We also maintain a diagnostic lab and provide important repair and replacement parts services for Motorola and Glenayre equipment. Call or
Easy Solutions |
GLENAYRE INFRASTRUCTUREI would like to recommend Easy Solutions for Support of all Glenayre Paging Equipment. This Texas company is owned and operated by Vaughan Bowden. I have known Vaughan for over 35 years. Without going into a long list of his experience and qualifications, let me just say that he was the V.P. of Engineering at PageNet which was—at that time—the largest paging company in the world. So Vaughan knows Paging. GTES is no longer offering support contracts. GTES was the original group from Vancouver that was setup to offer support to customers that wanted to continue with the legacy Glenayre support. Many U.S. customers chose not to use this service because of the price and the original requirement to upgrade to version 8.0 software (which required expensive hardware upgrades, etc.). Most contracts ended as of February 2018. If you are at all concerned about future support of Glenayre products, especially the “king of the hill” the GL3000 paging control terminal, I encourage you to talk to Vaughan about a service contract and please tell him about my recommendation.
Click on the image above for more info about advertising here. |
INTERNET Protocol Terminal
The IPT accepts INTERNET or serial messaging using various protocols and can easily convert them to different protocols, or send them out as paging messages. An ideal platform for hospitals, on-site paging applications, or converting legacy systems to modern protocols.
Additional/Optional Features
Prism-IPX Systems LLC.
11175 Cicero Dr., Alpharetta, GA 30022 |
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COVID-19 vaccines are almost ready to be distributed. Who gets them after health care workers? Here's a list.By Elizabeth Weise, USA TODAY When a COVID-19 vaccine becomes available, it will be in short supply and rationed by the federal government. The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine has outlined a plan for fair distribution that's being used as a framework by the Centers for Disease Control's Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, which soon will make the final decision on when certain groups of Americans will have access to vaccine. The process could start very soon. The first COVID-19 vaccine is anticipated to be authorized by the Food and Drug Administration within the next month, with distribution to start in no more than 24 hours to every state in the union. A second vaccine could be authorized two weeks later. Enough vaccine for 20 million people is expected to be available in December, with more coming in 2021. A "jumpstart group" will be first in line — people who risk their lives to care for the sick and keep society safe. That includes frontline health care workers, first responders, cleaners and ambulance drivers. There are three other priority groups before the general population. To reach everyone could take up to a year. Here's the tentative rollout plan:
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| Source: | USA TODAY |
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Paging Data Receiver PDR-4 The PDR-4 is a multi-function paging data receiver that decodes paging messages and outputs them via the serial port, USB or Ethernet connectors. Designed for use with Prism-IPX ECHO software Message Logging Software to receive messages and log the information for proof of transmission over the air, and if the data was error free.
Prism-IPX Systems LLC.
11175 Cicero Dr., Alpharetta, GA 30022 |
Wireless Network Planners
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Apple is holding back messaging progress across the entire world with iMessageSMS-based fallback flies in the face of its privacy values, tooBy Ryne Hager
Google's rollout off its RCS-based "Chat" in the Messages app is now complete, delivering on the years-long promise of a better, universal messaging standard on Android. But, it's still not the "iMessage for Android" many of us hoped it might be. And, perhaps ironically, it's Apple that's standing in the way of that. In case you've lived under a rock for the last couple of years, Google's been rolling out a new RCS messaging initiative it calls "Chat" via its Messages app. It's based on the Universal Profile RCS standard (courtesy of its Jibe acquisition back in the day), and it adds extra messaging features like read receipts, better group chats, typing indicators, higher-quality media, and more. Originally the hope was carriers could handle the rollout of new RCS-based messaging, but they botched it by refusing to implement cross-compatible standards until last year. Thankfully, Google decided to circumvent their dithering, delivering us messaging salvation in the face of their failure to cooperate for consumer interests.
As of today, Google claims that its rollout is now worldwide, making RCS messaging available to Android-using customers everywhere via its Messages app. Essentially, this is a universal solution. Customers on incompatible carriers can connect directly to Google's Jibe for RCS messaging, and those on carriers that are compatible with the Universal Profile standard can still use the same app while connecting to their carrier's servers instead. In short, whether your carrier supports it or not, you can send RCS messages courtesy of Google's app. Short of bypassing the carriers entirely, this is basically the ideal solution. Since Android has somewhere between 72% and 85% of the world's smartphone market share, this basically means Google is almost single-handedly responsible for rolling out RCS worldwide — with one very significant exception. In either case, the market balance is iOS, and Apple's iPhones don't support RCS messaging.
This further entrenches the two separate messaging bubbles. Both iMessage and RCS/Chat now support many of the same popular features, like higher quality media, message reactions, and typing indicators, and there's no reason Chat and iMessage can't be made at least partially compatible — short of Apple's failure to connect them. But that's not the only thing Apple's holding back due to its failure to implement RCS standards.
Even if we can't get iMessage on Android, Apple's failure to support RCS messaging and the Universal Profile standards isn't just holding back messaging efforts worldwide, it's also standing in the way of its own customers' privacy now that Google is committed to supporting end-to-end encryption for the standard. It's time for Apple to get off its hypocritical high horse and adopt RCS — if not for the good of messaging, then at a minimum for its own customers and the privacy values that it claims to uphold. |
| Source: | Android Police |
Brad Dye, Ron Mercer, Allan Angus, Vic Jackson, and Ira Wiesenfeld are friends and colleagues who work both together and independently, on wireline and wireless communications projects.
Click here
Note: We do not like Patent Trolls, i.e. “a person or company who enforces patent rights against accused infringers in an attempt to collect licensing fees, but does not manufacture products or supply services based upon the patents in question.” We have helped some prominent law firms defend their clients against this annoyance, and would be happy to do some more of this same kind of work. Some people use the title “consultant” when they don't have a real job. We actually do consulting work, and help others based on our many years of experience. “If you would know the road ahead, ask someone who has traveled it.” — Chinese Proverb WHAT IS 5G? 5G is the next generation of wireless networks and promises a mobile experience that's 10x to 100x faster than today's 4G networks. We say the word promise because we're in the early days of 5G. When more smartphones and networks support 5G tech, it will have far-reaching consequences for consumers, from the cars we drive (or that drive us) to the food we eat to the safety of our roads to the ways we shop to the entertainment we share with family and friends. And that doesn't include things we haven't yet imagined because we've never had the capability to unlock those new scenarios. Today, 5G may seem confusing even as it's widely hyped. We're here to help you sort fact from fiction, weed through the acronyms and jargon, and figure out when and how 5G can change the way you live. And we'll keep you from getting caught up in hyperbole — and empty promises. [ source ] |
Remote AB Switches ABX-1 switches are often used at remote transmitter sites to convert from old, outdated and unsupported controllers to the new modern Prism-IPX ipBSC base station controllers. Remotely switch to new controllers with GUI commands. ABX-1
ABX-3 switches are widely used for enabling or disabling remote equipment and switching I/O connections between redundant messaging systems. ABX-3
Common Features:
Prism-IPX Systems LLC.
11175 Cicero Dr., Alpharetta, GA 30022 |
| Leavitt Communications |
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| Inside Towers Newsletter |
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Big 3 TowerCo 3Q20 ScorecardBy John Celentano, Inside Towers Business Editor By many measures, the U.S. Big 3 tower companies – American Tower (NYSE: AMT), Crown Castle (NYSE: CCI) and SBA Communications (NASDAQ: SBAC) – are performing well after nine months into 2020 despite the pandemic. More importantly, with their carrier customers’ 5G deployments underway and a couple of major deal signings, the long-term prospects for these towercos look bright.
AMT is a leading independent tower company worldwide. At the end of 3Q20, AMT had 179,391 towers between the U.S. and 19 other countries across Latin America, Africa, Europe, and India, its largest market with 73,499 towers. AMT ranks third overall behind Chinese state-owned China Tower that has 2,015,000 towers, and Indus Towers of India with 201,121 sites. As the largest U.S. towerco, AMT has 40,602 towers in the U.S. or 23 percent of its total portfolio, that generates 56 percent of its overall site leasing or property revenues. Through nine months, its U.S. property revenues were $3.3 billion, up 7 percent from $3.1 billion year-to-year. International property revenues grew 4 percent to $2.6 billion on 77 percent of the tower base. Since the beginning of 2020, AMT has been active across its markets constructing nearly 3,000 new towers, acquiring another 848 and selling or decommissioning almost 2,200 sites. Of the new builds, 1,800 were in India and 855 in Africa with only nominal activity in the U.S. The company projects a record 5,500 new tower builds for 2020, up from 4,414 built in 2019. AMT expects 2020 global capital expenditures of $1.1 billion with one-third going to new builds. In 3Q20, AMT raised guidance for full-year property revenue to $7.9 billion, up 6 percent over 2019. The company expects to recognize straight-line revenue of over $100 million in 4Q20 from the blockbuster 15-year deal with T-Mobile on September 15. Adjusted EBITDA guidance increased to $5.1 billion, up 8 percent over 2019. AMT’s AFFO outlook is $3.7 billion, up 6 percent year-to-year. The second largest U.S. towerco, CCI has 40,128 towers, all in the U.S., along 80,000 route-miles of fiber and over 70,000 small cells. CCI believes its diversified infrastructure portfolio is well-suited to its wireless carrier customer needs as networks become denser, and macrocells and small cells alike rely on fiber connectivity. Certainly, CCI thinks its infrastructure asset mix was instrumental in landing the breakthrough multi-year, anchor tenant deal with DISH Network, announced on November 16. CCI will support DISH’s virtualized 5G network build starting in major metro markets with a mix of macrocells and small cells all connected by fiber. DISH said it expects deployments to commence in 2H21. Through 3Q20, CCI reported total site rental revenues of nearly $4.0 billion, up 5 percent from the comparable 2019 level. Towers accounted for $2.6 billion or two-thirds of CCI’s site leasing revenues while fiber/small cells made up the $1.4 billion balance. In 3Q20, CCI offered full-year 2021 guidance with site rental revenues growing 4 percent to $5.5 billion up from $5.3 billion in 2020. Adjusted EBITDA is projected up 5 percent to $3.6 billion while AFFO is expected to jump 12 percent to $2.9 billion from $2.6 billion in 2020. Year-to-date capex was $1.2 billion, down 20 percent year-to-year mainly due to a slower uptake of tower activity expected after the T-Mobile-Sprint merger earlier in the year. Fiber construction, which accounts for nearly 75 percent of total capex, is down as CCI strives to co-locate more small cells on its existing fiber facilities. Full-year 2020 capex is expected to be $1.5 billion. SBAC is a smaller pure-play U.S. towerco with 32,724 towers at the end of 3Q20. Of these, 16,495 are in the U.S. and 16,229 in international markets including Latin America, Canada, and South Africa. Over 80 percent of its site leasing revenues are from the U.S. market even though its tower portfolio is split nearly 50/50 between the U.S. and international markets. Year to date site leasing revenues were $1.2 billion in the U.S and $0.3 billion from offshore markets. SBAC’s U.S. site leasing revenues are highly concentrated with T-Mobile, AT&T, and Verizon accounting for 91 percent of the total. T-Mobile alone accounted for $466 million or 40 percent of domestic site leasing revenues through 3Q20. SBAC’s full-year 2020 guidance projects site leasing revenues of $1.9 billion, up 5 percent from 2019, adjusted EBITDA up by 10 percent to $1.5 billion and AFFO increasing by 26 percent to $1.1 billion. SBAC expects a full-year 2020 capex of $360 million. Each towerco expects demand for its communications real estate to remain high. These companies enjoy predictable site leasing revenue growth of 4-5 percent a year under long-term master lease agreements. Their combined annual site leasing revenues are about $15 billion with aggregate new construction and maintenance capex around $2.5 billion a year. By John Celentano, Inside Towers Business Editor |
| Source: | Inside Towers newsletter | Courtesy of the editor of Inside Towers Jim Fryer. Inside Towers is a daily newsletter by subscription. |
| BloostonLaw Newsletter |
RDOF Auction Budget Clears – Competitive Rounds to ContinueOn November 18, the FCC’s Auction 904 (Rural Digital Opportunity Fund Phase I) reached the clearing round after 13 rounds of bidding. Approximately half of the census block groups were assigned, while the other half will continue for further rounds of bidding among competitors. BloostonLaw Contacts: Ben Dickens. HeadlinesFCC Waives Rules Updating Lifeline Minimum Service Standard for Mobile BroadbandOn November 16, the FCC issued an Order granting in part the petition of the National Lifeline Association (NaLA), seeking a waiver of the FCC’s rules updating the Lifeline program’s minimum service standard for mobile broadband usage, which otherwise would take effect on December 1, 2020. Specifically, the FCC waived the rule to the extent it would establish a minimum service standard greater than 4.5 GB/month, beginning on December 1, 2020, finding that a 50% increase—equal to the 50% increase permitted by the FCC’s partial waiver of the rule last year—balances the program’s goals of accessibility and affordability. However, the FCC denied NaLA’s request to halt the phase-down of the support amount for Lifeline service that does not meet the broadband minimum standard, which will decrease from $7.25/month to $5.25/month on December 1, 2020. As we reported in a previous edition of the BloostonLaw Telecom Update, in 2016 the FCC established a gradual, stair-step increase in the minimum service standards to give Lifeline providers time to adjust to the new standards. The mobile broadband usage minimum service standard was initially set at 500 MB/month in December 2016, doubled first to 1 GB/month in December 2017 and again to 2 GB/month in December 2018. Last, year, when faced with a more than four-fold increase, the FCC continued this gradual approach by instead implementing a more limited 50% increase to 3 GB/month. Now, absent FCC action, Lifeline subscribers and providers faced a dramatic increase in the mobile broadband usage standard from 3 GB to 11.75 GB—a nearly four-fold increase. BloostonLaw Contacts: Ben Dickens, Gerry Duffy, Mary Sisak, and Sal Taillefer. FCC Further Extends Lifeline Waivers for COVID-19On November 16, the FCC issued an Order extending, on its own motion, its prior waivers of the Lifeline program rules governing documentation requirements for subscribers residing in rural areas on Tribal lands, recertification, reverification, general de-enrollment, subscriber usage, and income documentation through February 28, 2021. The FCC indicated it will continue to monitor the situation to determine whether any additional extension is warranted. As we reported in previous editions of the BloostonLaw Telecom Update, the waivers subject to this extension are:
The FCC emphasized, however, that although it extended the limited waivers described above, service providers remain otherwise subject to audits and investigations to determine compliance with Lifeline program rules and requirements. The FCC will require USAC to recover funds that it discovers were not used properly through its normal processes and, in the event improper activity resulting from the extension of the waivers is discovered, the FCC will subject the offending party “to all available penalties at our disposal, and will direct USAC to recover funds, assess retroactive fees and/or interest, or both.” BloostonLaw Contact: Gerry Duffy, Mary Sisak, and Sal Taillefer. 57 Applicants Qualified to Bid in Auction 107On November 12, the FCC issued a Public Notice announcing that a total of 57 applicants were deemed qualified to participate in the auction, and 17 were deemed non-qualified. All qualified bidders have been registered automatically for the auction, and registration materials will be sent by overnight delivery only to the contact person at the contact person’s address identified in the qualified bidder’s FCC Form 175. Upon receipt, each qualified bidder should possess the following:
A qualified bidder must have the above-referenced registration materials to participate in the mock auction and to bid in the clock phase of Auction 107. Any qualified bidder listed in Attachment A of this Public Notice that has not received the registration mailing by 12:00 noon Eastern Time (ET) on Tuesday, November 24, 2020, should contact the FCC as soon as possible. The Public Notice also established the following schedule: Bidding Tutorial Available (via Internet)........................ No later than November 13, 2020 Mock Auction............................................................ December 3, 2020 Bidding Begins in Auction 107..................................... December 8, 2020 The FCC’s prohibited communications rule took effect based on FCC Form 175 filings as of the short-form application filing deadline, which for Auction 107 was Tuesday, September 22, 2020, at 6:00 p.m. ET, and ends at the post-auction down payment deadline for Auction 107, which will be announced in a future public notice. This prohibition applies to all applicants regardless of whether such applicants have become qualified bidders or actually bid in Auction 107. This rule states that “all applicants are prohibited from cooperating or collaborating with respect to, communicating with or disclosing, to each other or any nationwide provider [of communications services] that is not an applicant, or, if the applicant is a nationwide provider, any non-nationwide provider that is not an applicant, in any manner the substance of their own, or each other’s, or any other applicants’ bids or bidding strategies (including post-auction market structure), or discussing or negotiating settlement agreements, until after the down payment deadline[.]” BloostonLaw Contacts: John Prendergast. All Eligible Price Cap Carriers Elect Seventh Year of CAF Phase II Model-Based SupportOn November 16, the FCC issued a Public Notice announcing that all eligible price cap carriers that currently receive Connect America Phase II support based on the Connect America Cost Model (CAM) elected to receive an additional, seventh year of such support. A full list of electing price cap carriers can be found here. In exchange for receiving this seventh year of support from January 2021 through December 2021, these carriers are “required to continue providing broadband with performance characteristics that remain reasonably comparable to the performance characteristics of terrestrial fixed broadband service in urban America.” BloostonLaw Contacts: Ben Dickens, Gerry Duffy, and Mary Sisak. Law and RegulationChanges in Online Public Inspection File RequirementsThe FCC has recently eliminated a rule that required cable operators to maintain in their online public inspection files: (a) records regarding the nature and extent of their attributable interests in video programming services; and (b) information regarding their carriage of vertically integrated programming services on cable systems in which they have an attributable interest. These rule changes will directly affect only client cable system operators that have significant ownership interests in video program suppliers. The American Cable Association (ACA) argued for limited retention of the attributable interest record requirement because it is potentially useful in the preparation and prosecution of program access complaints against satellite cable program vendors in which cable operators have attributable interests. However, the FCC rejected ACA’s argument for retention, on the ground that such ownership information was available in Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filings and industry sources. BloostonLaw Contacts: Gerry Duffy. FCC Proposes $3,000 Fines for Failure to Timely File License Renewal ApplicationsOn November 12, the FCC issued two Notices of Apparent Liability for Forfeiture to separate entities for failing to timely file a license renewal application for their broadcast stations. Specifically, the NALs were issued to the Louisiana State Penitentiary (Licensee), for renewal of license for KLSP(FM), Angola, Louisiana, and Dry Prong Educational Broadcasting Foundation, Inc. (Licensee), for renewal of license for KVDP(FM), Dry Prong, Louisiana. In both cases, the FCC found that the Licensees failed to file a timely renewal application for the Stations and failed to provide any explanation for the untimely filing. However, the Licensees did file the Application prior to the expiration of the Station’s license. The FCC found that the Licensees’ apparent violations did not present “serious violations” warranting designation for evidentiary hearing, and found no evidence of violations that, when considered together, constituted a pattern of abuse. Accordingly, the FCC did grant the untimely renewal applications despite proposing fines. BloostonLaw Contacts: Richard Rubino. IndustryPresident-Elect Biden Announces FCC Review TeamOn November 17, President-elect Joe Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris announced the agency review teams that will be responsible for ensuring a smooth transfer of power at, among other agencies, the FCC. John Williams, of the U.S. House of Representatives, Committee on the Judiciary, will be leading the FCC transition team. With him will be former Commissioner Mignon Clyburn, Edward “Smitty” Smith of DLA Piper, LLP, and Paul de Sa, former Chief FCC Office of Strategic Planning and Policy Analysis. According to the announcement, all four are participating on a voluntary basis. FCC Releases Form 477 Data on Broadband Deployment as of December 2019 On November 12, the FCC issued a Public Notice announcing the release of updated data on fixed broadband deployment, and mobile voice and broadband deployment as of December 31, 2019. These data were collected through FCC Form 477 and are available on the FCC’s website. Fixed Deployment Data are available for download at https://www.fcc.gov/general/broadband-deployment-data-fcc-form-477 and can be viewed on the National Broadband Map at https://broadbandmap.fcc.gov. Mobile Deployment Data are available at https://www.fcc.gov/mobile-deployment-form-477-data. According to a Press Release, the data indicate that the number of Americans living in areas without access to terrestrial fixed broadband with speeds of at least 25/3 Mbps fell to 14.5 million, a 46% decrease from the end of 2016. Services at higher speeds saw even more significant deployment, with the number of Americans living in areas without broadband speeds of at least 250/25 Mbps falling by 77% since the end of 2016. During that three-year period, the number of rural Americans living in areas with 250/25 Mbps broadband service increased by 268%. “My top priority since becoming FCC Chairman has been closing the digital divide, and I’m proud that this new deployment data show that we are delivering on that promise for the American people,” said Chairman Pai. “In just three years, the number of American consumers living in areas without access to fixed broadband has been almost cut in half. We’ve taken aggressive steps to achieve this progress, modernizing regulations, freeing up new licensed and unlicensed spectrum, and making it easier and cheaper for competitive providers to deploy fiber through our ‘one-touch make ready’ policy. And we have kicked off the first phase of the $20.4 billion Rural Digital Opportunity Fund auction, which could bring broadband to as many as 10.25 million unserved Americans across rural America. Bottom line: We will continue our work until all Americans have access to digital opportunity.” FCC Announces All of U.S. Virgin Islands to have Access to High-Speed BroadbandOn November 16, the FCC announced that funding through the Connect USVI Fund Stage 2 Competitive Process will bring 1 gigabit per second fixed broadband service to all locations in the U.S. Virgin Islands. Specifically, the winning applicant, Broadband VI, is eligible for $84.5 million over 10 years to provide the highest performance tier of 1 Gbps service to 46,039 locations after a competitive process that weighted price, network performance, including speed, latency, and usage allowance, and network resiliency and redundancy. As we reported in a previous edition of the BloostonLaw Telecom Update, all of Puerto Rico would also have access to fixed voice and broadband service with speeds of at least 100 Mbps as a result of Stage 2 of Uniendo a Puerto Rico Fund, with nearly one-third of locations to have access to fixed broadband at speeds of at least 1 Gbps. In the Connect USVI Fund, Broadband VI committed to offering 1 Gbps service to all eligible locations in the U.S. Virgin Islands. “Today’s announcement is a big win for residents of the U.S. Virgin Islands,” said FCC Chairman Ajit Pai. “This funding will ensure that fast, resilient broadband networks reach all homes and businesses in the U.S. Virgin Islands. Our action today, coming on the heels of the successful conclusion of the Uniendo a Puerto Rico Fund’s Stage 2 Competitive Process, is another milestone in our ongoing work to close the digital divide and bring the benefits of a high-speed broadband connection to all Americans. I congratulate our staff for their hard work administering the competitive process for both the Connect USVI Fund and Uniendo a Puerto Rico Fund in a fair and rigorous manner.” DeadlinesJANUARY 15: Form 855 HAC Compliance Certification. The next Hearing Aid Compatibility regulatory compliance certification, certifying compliance with the FCC’s HAC handset minimums as well as enhanced record retention and website posting requirements for the 2020 calendar year, will be due January 15, 2021, for all CMRS service providers that had operations during any portion of 2020. Companies that sold their wireless licenses during 2019 and that didn’t otherwise provide mobile wireless service (e.g., via resale) during the 2020 calendar year won’t have any obligation to file a HAC compliance certification for the 2020 calendar year. Under current FCC rules, Tier III service providers are required to offer at least 50% or ten (10) handsets that are rated M3- or better, and at least 33% or ten (10) handsets that are rated T3- or better. Beginning April 3, 2020, at least 66% of a Tier III provider’s handset must meet ratings of M3- or better and T3- or better. BloostonLaw has prepared a 2020 HAC Regulatory Compliance Template to facilitate our clients’ compliance with the revised HAC rules. Contact Cary Mitchell if you would like to obtain a copy of the HAC Regulatory Compliance Template. BloostonLaw Contact: Cary Mitchell. JANUARY 31: FCC FORM 555, ANNUAL TELECOMMUNICATIONS CARRIER CERTIFICATION FORM. All Lifeline Program service providers are required to file the FCC Form 555, except where the National Verifier, state Lifeline administrator, or other entity is responsible. Since January 31 falls on a weekend or holiday this year, Form 555 may be filed by February 1. The FCC Form 555 must be submitted to the Universal Service Administrative Company (USAC) electronically via USAC’s E-File (One Portal). Carriers must also file a copy of their FCC Form 555 in the FCC's Electronic Comment Filing System, Docket 14-171, and with their state regulatory commission. The form reports the results of the annual recertification process and non-usage de-enrollments. Recertification results are reported month-by-month based on the subscribers’ anniversary date. BloostonLaw Contacts: Ben Dickens and John Prendergast Calendar At-a-GlanceNovember December January
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