After years of discussions, wired/wireless convergence is happening this year, consultant John Cankar, COO of Wiverse and managing director at GravityPath, said Wednesday during a Georgetown Center for Business and Public Policy webinar. Other speakers said the outlook on spectrum auctions remains unclear. A top Verizon executive said separately that the carrier won't need more spectrum in the near future.
A notice of inquiry on the upper C-band and an NPRM on a proposed AWS-3 auction saw calls for changes from the drafts that FCC Chairman Brendan Carr circulated. However, industry officials said they expected only limited tweaks, with a vote scheduled at Thursday's open meeting.
AT&T remains hopeful that Congress will extend current tax cuts, CFO Pascal Desroches said Tuesday during a Barclays financial conference. “When the first [Donald] Trump administration passed the tax incentives in 2017, it was really successful in stimulating investment,” Desroches said: “We added jobs, both nationally and in individual states. … I am hopeful, based on all the discussions, that we will see an extension of those tax cuts."
The top officials at American Tower and SBA offered a mostly rosy outlook on investments by major wireless carriers this year in calls with analysts. American Tower released financial results Tuesday; SBA did so Monday, after the close of the financial markets.
The satellite industry is changing rapidly, with many smaller companies making investments and seeking roles, speakers said Tuesday during a Technology Policy Institute (TPI) webinar. They agreed that continued growth depends on spectrum but cautioned that regulators are struggling to keep up with change.
The Communications Workers of America and Bandwidth separately opposed AT&T’s moves to close additional parts of its legacy copper network (see 2501310046). AT&T CEO John Stankey said in January that the carrier plans to file applications at the FCC to stop selling legacy products in about 1,300 wire centers, which is roughly a quarter of the AT&T footprint (see 2501270047). AT&T started the push during the last administration and is taking a more aggressive approach at the current FCC.
FCC staff on Saturday received the same email that most federal employees did from the Office of Personnel Management, asking them to justify their work, but it was unclear Monday how or if FCC staff would respond. The FCC didn’t comment Monday. The leaders of unions that represent federal employees slammed the email. President Donald Trump said Monday he supports the effort.
The outlook is uncertain about whether President Donald Trump will attempt to fire Democratic members of the FCC, as the administration asserts its authority over “so-called independent” agencies (see 2502190073). It’s unclear whether the FCC and its Democratic members, Anna Gomez and Geoffrey Starks, are in Trump’s sights, but no one is taking anything for granted from the current administration, industry experts said. Gomez is emerging as the more outspoken critic of the regime under Chairman Brendan Carr, especially on media items (see 2502200023).
The Committee for the Assessment of Foreign Participation in the U.S. Telecommunications Services Sector, also known as Team Telecom, notified the FCC this week that it's reviewing Bell Canada's proposed acquisition of Ziply Fiber (see 2412090045). The deal is straightforward, and “there is no significant risk to the transaction being approved,” New Street's Blair Levin said Thursday. But, he added, approval may get caught up in President Donald Trump’s pursuit of tariffs.
Satellite interests, led by SpaceX, are hungry for more spectrum for direct-to-device (D2D) service and are expected to seek access to the upper C band, which the FCC will examine in a notice of inquiry set for a vote at Thursday's open meeting (see 2502060062). Elon Musk, who is playing a huge role in the new Donald Trump administration and heads SpaceX, could influence what the FCC does, industry experts note.