An April 28 power outage in Portugal and Spain led to a widespread internet disruption in parts of Morocco, showing the interconnectedness of modern networks, Ookla industry analyst Luke Kehoe said during the company's webinar Wednesday. Morocco saw no similar power outage, but its fixed and mobile networks went down nonetheless, Kehoe noted.
Too many areas in the middle of the U.S. lack the critical infrastructure they need, such as designated interexchange points (IXPs), said Tonya Witherspoon, a consultant who led digital transformation initiatives at Wichita State University (WSU). During a Broadband Breakfast webinar Wednesday, she said most of the nation’s IXPs are on the East and West Coasts or in more populous states like Texas. Policymakers so far have paid too little attention to the dearth of U.S. IXPs, other speakers agreed.
The Consumer Technology Association and other groups are urging the FCC not to approve rules that could overcomplicate the approval of wireless devices by test facilities. The FCC is considering new rules for telecommunications certification bodies (TCBs) in response to a May Further NPRM that was part of the agency’s focus on “bad labs” (see 2505220056). Commenters warn that overly prescriptive rules could harm U.S. competitiveness.
Industry groups pressed the FCC to avoid imposing new rules designed to close a “gap” in the commission’s Stir/Shaken authentication rules, making it harder for scammers to hide their identities. Some said the wrong rules could slow the IP transition. Commissioners in April approved an NPRM (see 2504280038) addressing the issue. Reply comments were due Friday in docket 17-97.
The FCC NPRM looking at potential changes to the commission’s enforcement of the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) and the National Historic Preservation Act (NHPA) has numerous changes between it and the draft Chairman Brendan Carr circulated. Industry officials expect the FCC to move quickly since NEPA reform has been a top focus of the Donald Trump administration, they said Friday.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit upheld the FCC’s $80 million data breach forfeiture in a unanimous opinion handed down Friday (see 2508150014). T-Mobile was also fined $12.2 million for violations by Sprint, which it later acquired. Judges appeared skeptical of T-Mobile's arguments when the case was heard in March (see 2503240048). T-Mobile is reviewing the decision, a spokesperson said Friday.
Industry will likely turn to the FCC to address a 6th U.S. Circuit Appeals Court decision on Wednesday upholding the agency’s 2024 data breach notification rules (see 2508130068). When the rules were approved, now Chairman Brendan Carr and former Republican Commissioner Nathan Simington dissented (see 2312220054).
The Canadian broadband market is similar to the U.S., with most people having internet service that’s at least 100 Mbps for downloads and 20 Mbps for uploads, experts said during a Broadband Breakfast webinar Wednesday. However, speakers noted that, as in the U.S., Canada still faces a digital divide. Similar to the $42.45 billion BEAD program, Canada is making about $4.4 billion available for broadband under its current fund, they said. The smaller fund reflects, in part, that the population of Canada is 41.3 million, versus 340.1 million in the U.S.
Bill Baker, CEO of Texas-based ISP Nextlink, and Gary Bolton, CEO of the Fiber Broadband Association (FBA), said Wednesday that satellite broadband isn’t a true substitute for fiber or fixed wireless access. Speaking at an FBA webinar, both questioned the move of some states to embrace low earth orbit (LEO) proposals from SpaceX's Starlink and Amazon's Kuiper as part of a restructured BEAD program (see 2507290070).
UScellular parent TDS is “excited” to start a “new chapter” in the company’s history with the sale of spectrum and other wireless assets to T-Mobile for $4.3 billion (see 2508010012), CEO Walter Carlson told analysts Monday. TDS expects the sale of other licenses to AT&T to close this year, while a deal with Verizon should close in 2026, Carlson added.