spectrum

FCC is Busy!

February 7, 2012

The FCC is really busy!

The FCC is still working on Inter-Carrier Compensation. It ordered Rural Call Completion.

It approved TWC's $3B bid for Insight. "Time Warner Cable last August agreed to buy Insight for $3 billion in cash. The nation's No.

Posted in CLEC, FCC, broadband, cableco, compliance, politics, spectrum

Verizon Puts the Move on Video

February 6, 2012

After Verizon's CFO sais that FiOS was a poor economic decision for the company, I would think video would not be on the VZ radar. The FiOS TV service is so expensive to deliver that Frontier raised rates over 70% when it took over former VZ FiOS territory -- and then decided to switch all the TV over to DBS.

Comcast buying NBCU was a little different, but cablecos have owned channels before, especially sports channels (MSG, YES, BayNews9).

Maybe the TV-cord-cutting crowd is scaring the cablecos, despite the rhetoric to The Street. Content is expensive to license and to deliver. And getting more expensive all the time.

Posted in cableco, cellular, duopoly, satellite, spectrum, telco, video, wireless, wireline

It's a Mobile Monday

January 30, 2012

It's a mobile Monday as I get set to pack up to head to ITEXPO East 2012 in Miami Beach.

Yahoo was being Yahoo! this morning as it announced - in the same breath - that it has launched a "Mobile First" mindset, then shut down 10 mobile apps. Granted, some of them were not doing well (like Yahoo itself), but it's schizophrenic to do it on the same day.

Patent house Klausner Technologies sues MetroPCS for Visual Voicemail Infringement. That's always fun - and profitable for the patent house. Hopefully, in this case, it doesn't mess up the consumers' experiences.

AT&T is now supporting DISH Network at the FCC on its deployment and usage of spectrum in the 2 GHz range that it acquired from bankruptcy court via TerreStar Networks and DBSD North America.

Posted in FCC, apps, cellular, politics, spectrum, wimax, wireless

Woes: AT&T, Spectrum, Yahoo, RIM

January 17, 2012

How badly does AT&T need spectrum now that the T-Mobile deal is dead? According to analysts (who are likely just trying to get press and pump up some stocks so they can make short term gains), AT&T has to make a move soon. T-Mobile does too.

I find this interesting because AT&T and T-Mobile are sitting on spectrum that they have not deployed. If you needed it that bad, you would use what you have - at least for now.

Let's look at Clearwire as a 4G wholesaler. Clearwire has a ton of spectrum - not all of it deployed obviously, because they need money badly to operate what they have deployed and to build out the rest of their nationwide network. T-Mobile could partner with Clearwire for 4G.

T-Mobile could also outsource their 4G network to someone like Nokia Siemens (NSN).

There is also Lightsquared.

Posted in cableco, cellular, spectrum, wimax, wireless

The Lightsquared Predicament

January 9, 2012

Lightsquared is facing numerous obstacles on its way to launching a nationwide (*cough*cough*) 4G network with its spectrum.

One obstacle: MONEY! Sprint gave them until next month to start or lose the Sprint investment (which Sprint needs to continue to fund Clearwire).

2nd obstacle: GPS! Studies show that the spectrum - which abuts the GPS spectrum - interferes with GPS about 70% of the time.

3rd obstacle: Congress. A new Defense bill in Congress will make it harder for Lightsquared to use the spectrum. The bill requires the FCC to wait until all issues with interference are cleared up. That could take a while - if ever, since no one checks power output on radio transmissions.

Posted in FCC, cellular, spectrum, wireless

4G is in Trouble

December 20, 2011

AT&T had to give up the acquisition of T-Mobile.

LightSquared is almost out of money, says Reuters.

Clearwire needs money - not only to build out the two 4G networks it has promised to Sprint (WIMAX and LTE), but to continue operating.

VZW has been quietly buying up all the AWS and other spectrum it can get, which - if it gets through the DOJ and the FCC - would be devastating to everyone but VZW. If the cablecos actually start bundling VZW with their triple-play, as Forbes is betting, Clearwire - and subsequently Sprint - could be in trouble.

The top 4 cablecos account for most of the consumer broadband and a huge swash of the US. Partnering with VZW - which seems so weird to me - means that

Sprint has MVNO deals with Cbeyond, TelePacific and XO.

Posted in cableco, cellular, spectrum, wimax, wireless

What is Wrong with AT&T

December 19, 2011

In recent weeks, AT&T has been hit with a blizzard of bad news.

It's 3Q2011 earnings were off estimates. It's merger with T-Mobile is looking less and less likely with the FCC report, its own smoking gun and the DOJ trial. It received horrible ratings for customer service - again. It was caught up in the CarrierIQ rootkit mess.

The only good news was that it was able to buy the Qualcomm spectrum.

Posted in cellular, ethernet, mergers, spectrum, telco, wireless

LightSquare, GPS, ADTRAN and West

December 12, 2011

ADTRAN "announced today that it plans to acquire, through an asset sale and purchase agreement, the Nokia Siemens Networks fixed line Broadband Access business (BBA), and associated professional services and network management solutions. The planned acquisition would include the Broadband Access intellectual properties, technologies and the established customer base." This gets ADTRAN some revenue and a foot into International customers.

IN other acquisition news, HyberCube is being bought by West Corp.

"West Corporation, a leading provider of technology-driven, voice and data solutions, today announced that it has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire HyperCube LLC, a premier provider of tandem switching services to telecommunications providers. .... Founded in 2005 and backed from its inception by Kamine Credit Corporation, Annex Capital and Chambers Street Investors, HyperCube has rapidly grown to become a leading provider of toll-free origination services in the United States.

Posted in broadband, cellular, mergers, spectrum, wireline

Sprint Deals With Clearwire

December 5, 2011

The best details of the Sprint-Clearwire deal is at Marketwatch, but Tammy Wolf at TMC did a good job, too. Clearwire gets "up to $1.6 billion over the next four years in payments for WiMAX services, possible pre-payments for LTE services and potential equity investments" from Sprint. "Sprint will pay Clearwire a total of $926 million, approximately two-thirds of which will be paid in 2012, for unlimited 4G WiMAX retail services during 2012 and 2013, subject to certain conditions." So Clearwire is stuck with WiMAX until like 2015 while also building an LTE network. The speculation begins: is $1.6B enough for Clearwire? Who will buy the bundle (Sprint-Clearwire)? The Senate wants to know more about Lightsquared.

Posted in cellular, politics, spectrum, wimax, wireless

Well That Was Unsatisfying

December 2, 2011

Tuesday night was kind of the last straw. While watching CinemaNow through my LG Blu-Ray player, the movie - 30 Minutes or Less - must have stopped to buffer 10 times and actually stopped 3 times - in 90 minutes!

I called my ISP, BHN of Tampa Bay, which is always interesting. First, they remotely re-boot the modem. Then you call back if that didn't fix anything.

Posted in ISP, Internet, bandwidth, broadband, cableco, spectrum, wireless

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