The vast private capital investment in fiber is focused almost exclusively on getting it into the hands of the major wireless carriers since that is seen as a safer investment, Ting CEO Elliot Noss said Wednesday. Speaking at an American Association for Public Broadband and New America conference in Washington, he said municipal broadband projects can't count on private equity financing. Municipal broadband network operators also said a big challenge is constant lobbying attacks by large for-profit incumbents.
As greater numbers of satellites are launched, the FCC is making progress trimming its backlog of satellite and earth station applications, FCC Space Bureau Chief Jay Schwarz said Tuesday as the Satellite Industry Association released its 2025 state of the satellite industry report. A record 11,539 operational satellites were in orbit as of the end of 2024, up more than 1,900 from year-end 2023, SIA said.
SpaceX could be the biggest beneficiary as the FCC takes a hard look at EchoStar's compliance with milestones attached to its 5G network buildout. FCC Chairman Brendan Carr's inquiry into EchoStar's compliance with buildout deadlines (see 2505120074) "clearly originate[s]" from SpaceX, LightShed Partners' Walt Piecyk wrote Tuesday. He said the FCC probe appears to be particularly focused on EchoStar's use of the S band -- spectrum real estate that SpaceX wants.
Money, not technology, is the biggest hurdle to satellite providing "fiber in the sky"-like connectivity, said Michael Abad-Santos, Rivada Space Networks' deputy chief commercial officer, at International Telecoms Week on Tuesday. Satellite executives also discussed spectrum needs for satellite-delivered terrestrial connectivity. George Giagtzoglou, Omnispace's vice president-strategy and marketing, said reusing terrestrial spectrum will suffice in some areas. In others, there's already dense use of terrestrial spectrum and likely none to spare for a mobile network operator (MNO) to hand off to a satellite service, he said.
AI is increasing the gap between the demand and availability of submarine cable connectivity, Telecom Italia Sparkle CEO Enrico Bagnasco said Monday. Also speaking at International Telecoms Week at National Harbor, Maryland, Chandler Vaughan, associate director of the Virginia Department of Housing and Community Development's Office of Broadband, said pole attachments, railroad crossings and federal land permitting issues remain infrastructure "project killers."
The private sector can't take all the responsibility for safeguarding against and responding to major cybersecurity events like the Salt Typhoon data hack of communications networks, House Communications and Technology Subcommittee members heard Wednesday. Putting Salt Typhoon blame solely on industry ignores the government's failure to share information with the private sector, Technology Industry Association CEO David Stehlin said during the roughly 2.5-hour hearing about protecting communications infrastructure. The session also saw communications and national security experts lay out a variety of recommendations for improving U.S. communications network security, from uniform ways to report cyber incidents to actually punishing nations that tamper with U.S. subsea cables.
Some FCC rules targeted for the deregulatory ax under the agency’s “Delete, Delete, Delete” proceeding were defended in reply comments, according to filings this week in docket 25-133, where replies were due Monday. The proceeding saw legions of initial commenters mentioning regulations from all corners of the communications regulation sphere (see 2504140063, 2504140046 and 2504140037). Replies were similarly active and far-reaching.
A U.S. District Court judge appeared to repeatedly show strong skepticism Monday toward government arguments defending the White House's executive order targeting law firm Jenner & Block. It's among multiple Big Law targets of President Donald Trump's executive orders, though it's uncertain whether those orders affect communications lawyers (see 2504170027). Jenner & Block is challenging the order (see 2504010072), with Monday's session addressing the firm's motion for a permanent injunction and DOJ's rival motion to dismiss. "Give me a break," Judge John Bates scoffed during roughly 100 minutes of oral argument as DOJ lawyer Richard Lawson was arguing that allegations of racial discrimination in Jenner's hiring were the rationale for the order to bar the firm's employees from accessing federal agencies and buildings.
Charter Communications crossed the 10 million mobile lines mark in Q1 with its Xfinity Mobile service, ending the quarter with 10.4 million, it said Friday as it announced its latest financial results. With 2.1 million mobile lines added in the past year, Charter is the nation’s fastest-growing mobile provider, CEO Chris Winfrey said in a call with analysts.
Shareholders at major communications, media and tech companies are increasingly grappling with diversity, equity and inclusion questions, as is evident from numerous DEI-related shareholder proposals on the agendas of companies' latest annual meetings. The increased shareholder activism around DEI isn't limited to tech and communications, as the 2025 proxy season is experiencing a jump in proposals seeking to roll back or limit those corporate efforts, according to the Conference Board.