The Bulk Broadband Alliance last week urged the FCC to abandon a proposal regulating bulk broadband billing arrangements in multi-dwelling units (MDU). The group cited a July letter from the American Economic Liberties Project asking that the commission let residents opt out of bulk billing agreements between properties and ISPs (see 2408010064). However, the alliance said Friday in docket 17-142 that bulk billing brings "increased competition, reduced provider costs, and enhanced consumer bargaining power." Moreover, an opt-out requirement would bring higher prices because providers "would no longer submit the low bids they currently offer when competing for these contracts," the alliance said, adding that implementing the requirement would have "difficult administrative challenges." It also said the FCC lacked statutory authority to regulate bulk billing arrangements.

Fixed satellite service earth station licensees qualified for protection from citizens broadband radio service have until Dec. 2 to renew their licenses so that their registration is valid in 2025, according to an FCC Wireless Bureau public notice Friday. Incomplete registrations as of Jan. 1 may be deactivated or deleted, and the earth station site won't merit protection by spectrum access system administrators, it said.

T-Mobile’s Q3 2024 was the company’s “best Q3 in a decade,” said CEO Mike Sievert on an earnings call Wednesday. The company recorded the highest number of new postpaid phone subscribers for Q3 in 10 years, and also showed the lowest Q3 postpaid phone churn in T-Mobile’s history, executives said on the call. The company reported $16.7 billion in total service revenue in Q3, a 5% increase over the same quarter in 2023. CFO Peter Osvaldik said the carrier expects a “trough” in 2025 from the loss of the affordable connectivity program and Tracfone's transition to Verizon. However, he also said Q4 sales will likely top Q3's due to “holiday seasonality.” Asked about T-Mobile’s plans for supplemental coverage from space, Sievert said the company tested the service through a grant of special temporary authority during the recent hurricanes in Florida and North Carolina. The tech will be “off to the races soon,” Sievert said. Executives said the company had “optionality” for its 800 MHz spectrum. T-Mobile sought to auction off that spectrum earlier this year but didn’t receive qualifying bids. The spectrum isn’t currently part of its financial predictions or spectrum plan, Sievert said. DOJ gave T-Mobile’s proposed purchases of Lumos and Metronet the nod, but it awaits FCC approval, said General Counsel Mark Nelson. T-Mobile’s purchase of U.S. Cellular isn’t as far along, but Nelson said all three deals are expected to close in 2025.

Glendon Capital Management, which has close to a 10% stake in Frontier Communications, said Wednesday it's opposed to Verizon's $20 billion takeover offer of Frontier announced last month (see 2409050010). "We recognize the strategic merits of combining with a U.S. wireless carrier as the telecommunications industry continues to converge, but we believe a sale at this price does not adequately capture Frontier’s progress and momentum," Glendon said in a letter to Verizon's board.

More than a dozen states told the U.S. Supreme Court that they were "right to be worried" about the FCC's Universal Service Fund's contribution mechanism in an amicus curiae filed Wednesday (No. 24-254). The states -- West Virginia, Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, Indiana, Kansas, Louisiana, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas and Virginia -- agreed with the en banc 5th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals' decision that the fund’s "problematic blend of standardless decision-making and missing executive oversight violates Article I of the Constitution" (see 2410010024). The Schools, Health & Libraries Broadband Coalition, NTCA, USTelecom, Benton Institute for Broadband & Society, National Digital Inclusion Alliance and MediaJustice also wrote SCOTUS in a separate letter maintaining their interest in the outcome of the case as intervenors. The groups said they have interests that are "distinct from those of the government."

Verizon in its Q3 earnings presentation Tuesday expanded its goals for fixed wireless subscribers and broadband offerings. “Our ambitious targets for fixed wireless access, combined with our fiber expansion including the planned Frontier acquisition, will bring unmatched broadband coverage to millions more homes and businesses nationwide,” said CEO Hans Vestburg in a release. Verizon’s total consolidated operating revenue in Q3 was $33.3 billion, “essentially flat compared to third-quarter 2023,” said an earnings release. Verizon said revenue growth was offset by declines in wireless equipment revenue in 2024. Vestburg said the company increased fixed wireless subscribers by nearly 57% as compared with Q3 2023, achieving 4.2 million subs 15 months earlier than expected. The company expects by 2028 to reach 8 million to 9 million fixed wireless subscribers and provide coverage to 90 million households. Verizon President-Global Networks and Technology Joe Russo said Tuesday that the expanded goals were not dependent on broadband, equity, access and deployment BEAD program funding. BEAD availability “won’t rock the boat,” added Vestburg. After its proposed acquisition of Frontier, Verizon will bring in an additional 9 million to 10 million fiber passings, and is aiming at reaching more than 30 million passings by 2028, Russo said. “Frontier’s consumer fiber network can be immediately and seamlessly integrated upon closing directly into Verizon’s award-winning Fios network,” the release said. Vestburg said Tuesday that he doesn’t anticipate M&A beyond the Frontier acquisition, and doesn’t expect big industry shakeups requiring large capital expenditures -- such as spectrum auctions -- anytime soon. “I don’t have visibility on anything like that at the moment."

Broadband providers invested $94.7 billion in communications infrastructure in 2023, said USTelecom in a new report Friday. The capital expenditures were largely "expansion of fiber deployments, integration of fiber and mobile networks, increased rural broadband construction, and network capacity additions to keep pace with advances in artificial intelligence and other applications," the report said. "This level of investment demonstrates how fiercely broadband companies are competing for customers," said USTelecom President-CEO Jonathan Spalter. He added it's "critical policymakers" are "constructive partners" to "finish the job of connecting communities and showing greater discipline by resisting carbon-dated regulatory models that hinder our continued progress."

SpaceX's claims that EchoStar's Dish Network's proposed terrestrial fixed wireless service can't coexist with Starlink operations in the lower 12 GHz band (see 2409040035) are "a textbook example of how to manipulate a technical analysis to reach a predetermined conclusion," EchoStar said Friday in docket 20-443. A SpaceX study randomly places fixed 5G base stations, ignoring that their location is the key to sharing, and its analysis "was designed to fail," EchoStar said. The SpaceX analysis assumes fixed 5G systems must operate constantly at full power, when they actually can dynamically adjust their power output. EchoStar also submitted a study simulating a denser distribution of Starlink terminals than SpaceX's analysis, but with EchoStar fixed 5G base stations deliberately placed to minimize interference. It said the results show coexistence without interference is "widely feasible." Consultancy RKF Engineering conducted EchoStar's study.

The FCC added five state attorneys general to the commission’s privacy and data protection task force Monday. Massachusetts' Andrea Campbell (D), Maine's Aaron Frey (D), Vermont's Charity Clark (D), Delaware's Kathy Jennings (D) and Indiana's Todd Rokita (R) joined AGs from five other states and the District of Columbia on the task force, enabling collaboration among the AGs and FCC Enforcement Bureau on privacy and cybersecurity investigations, the FCC said. “Success on this front requires strong partnerships between federal enforcement officials and state leaders,” said FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel.

The FCC's over-the-air reception devices (OTARDs) rule clearly requires a regular human presence at an antenna's location, and the agency had plenty of evidence that Indian Peak Properties failed to argue its antenna fell within the rule's scope, the commission told the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Friday. Indian Peak is appealing an FCC order denying Indian Peak's petitions for declaratory ruling seeking a federal preemption under the OTARDs rule of a decision by Rancho Palos Verdes, California, to revoke, under local ordinances, the company’s conditional use permit for the deployment of rooftop antennas on a local property (see 2405060035). In a docket 24-1108 respondent brief, the FCC said Friday that using the service provided by the antenna requires a human presence. It "does not mean it can put an antenna on an empty building and claim the Rule’s protection from valid zoning laws," the FCC said. The commission said that while Indian Peak argues the FCC should have put the company's petitions on public notice, initiating a proceeding, not doing so didn't deprive Indian Peak of the antennas' use, as it was the city, using California courts and their due process, that resulted in Indian Peak removing its antennas.