The Lifeline national verifier soft launches Friday in California, Oregon and Texas, but differently than it did in other states, the FCC Wireline Bureau said Wednesday in docket 11-42. The announcement was expected (see 1912120034). The NV hard launches Jan. 22 in Alabama, Arkansas, Louisiana, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, Oklahoma, South Carolina and Washington state, the bureau said separately.
If T-Mobile could turn itself around at the start of this decade, why not Sprint now, Judge Victor Marrero asked T-Mobile CEO John Legere at trial Friday at U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York. After states grilled Legere, Marrero also asked if T-Mobile would be like ’60s "flower children" who turned into corporate bankers. Legere declined to answer our questions after leaving the courtroom in lower Manhattan.
T-Mobile won't stop being the "Uncarrier" after it buys Sprint, CEO John Legere said at the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York. The combined company would join the league of top rivals by market share. After about two hours of friendly questions from the defendant side, states grilled T-Mobile on alternative ways to compete. But they only had about 30 minutes and will complete cross-examination Friday.
Sprint plans to upgrade less than half its local markets to 5G if it can't combine with T-Mobile, testified a Sprint network planner Wednesday in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York. Vice President-Network Development Jay Bluhm predicted Sprint would cease to be viable in two years, answering a question by Judge Victor Marrero. An Altice executive expressed worries about what the deal means in the long term for mobile virtual network operators.
Judge Victor Marrero queried Deutsche Telecom's head on the viability of Dish Network as a competitor, a key part of DOJ's remedy to allow T-Mobile to buy Sprint, at trial Tuesday in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York. States sought to undermine T-Mobile's argument that its purchase shouldn't be viewed as moving from four to three competitors, showing through exhibits that T-Mobile and DT executives talked about it as four-to-three. DT didn't see Dish as a serious competitor before the DOJ remedy, states said.
A Sprint executive said price increases are a “hypothetical" synergy of combining with T-Mobile, in a 2017 text exchange with then-CEO Marcelo Claure, states showed Monday in an exhibit at the first day of trial at U.S. District Court in lower Manhattan. Questioning Sprint Chief Marketing Officer Roger Sole, states painted the wireless market as highly competitive with Sprint as a player. Sole noted Sprint has higher churn than rivals and customers have fallen over the past two years.
Tech companies and advertisers made a last stand, raising concerns about the California Consumer Privacy Act before it takes effect Jan. 1. Comments were due Friday on implementing rules Attorney General Xavier Becerra (D) proposed in October and that must be finalized by July 1 when enforcement begins (see 1910100042). The AG office didn’t post the most recent comments online. Some sent theirs to us.
States that spent time and money challenging carrier coverage maps submitted for Mobility Fund Phase II are frustrated the FCC said Wednesday it will terminate it (see 1912040027). They asked in interviews last week what a $9 billion replacement for rural 5G will mean for areas that never had any wireless. Small rural carriers that challenged larger national competitors through speed tests on foot, horseback and all-terrain vehicles wonder if there's any way to recoup those funds.
Local government action on net neutrality could pick up next year after relative quiet in the two years since many municipalities protested the FCC's repeal of open-internet rules, said local advisers and others in interviews. Cities have been waiting for state policies and legal resolution. Applying restrictions to broadband public-private partnerships, as done by Tacoma, Washington, could be a model.
South Carolina's Public Service Commission gave staff another week to complete an initial assessment to show state USF funds should continue to be withheld from Frontier Communications in response to a 24-day outage in Georgetown County. At livestreamed oral argument Tuesday in Columbia, PSC members supported by voice a motion by Commissioner Tom Ervin. The nonpartisan commission last week held November’s monthly USF payment to Frontier in response to an Office of Regulatory Staff (ORS) petition seeking suspension of USF money so it can audit whether the carrier is appropriately using the support (see 1911260023). Tuesday, Ervin said his motion would shift the burden of proof to ORS: “This is a drastic remedy to take such a large source of funds away from a struggling company.” Commissioners are concerned about maintaining residential landline service and fixing outages quickly, but the telco took remedial steps and provided information, he said. ORS should work overtime to expedite its audit, and share more evidence supporting its request at a follow-up meeting Tuesday, Ervin said. Frontier attorney Chris Terreni said the commission shouldn't continue holding funds in the meantime, and Commissioner John Howard also questioned why the payment can’t be released now. Ervin responded that the company is welcome to request mandamus if it wants funds now. “Frontier has taken measures … to change the way it responds to an outage of the duration and size of what occurred in St. Luke's,” Terreni told commissioners. Its workers "tried their best" but "needed more resources and they waited too long to bring them in.” Frontier apologized to customers affected by the outage and provided three-month bill credits, the lawyer said. The carrier can’t promise there won’t be future outages, “but our response is going to be better,” he said. No evidence shows Frontier isn’t using USF money appropriately, and suspending that “is not logical or consistent with due process,” he said. Commissioner Florence Belser asked if anything in statute, PSC guidelines or precedent supports ORS’ request. ORS lawyer Chris Huber agreed the request is unusual but said the office can seek it as the fund’s administrator. Belser later asked, "If there is a problem with their response and their procedures, is that sufficient to warrant yanking USF funds?" Outages worry Commissioner Swain Whitfield. "One of the biggest concerns of the commission," he said, "is basic landline services being interrupted to the point where emergency services are compromised.”