SAN FRANCISCO - Verizon will spend $1.9 billion to speed up its deployment of superfast 5G telecom service as a top bidder for US bandwidth that balances range and data speed.
The Federal Communications Commission on Wednesday released results of bidding for leases to use portions off the 3550-3650 MHz bandwidth.
Dish Network -- bidding as Wetterhorn Wireless -- was in second place with a winning offer of $913 million, according to the FCC.
The remainder of the top five bids were cable companies Comcast, Spectrum and Cox, the agency said.
The US last month announced that 100 megahertz of "contiguous, coast-to-coast mid-band spectrum" long reserved for the military would also be auctioned off to telecommunications firms for use in ultra-speedy 5G networks.
The bandwidth in the range from 3450 and 3550 megahertz was identified for use in 5G networks and can be made available without impairing military or national security capabilities, according to senior administration officials.
The addition will increase to 535 megahertz the amount of mid-band spectrum available for 5G networks in the US, which is behind other countries such as China and South Korea when it comes to deploying the potentially transformative technology.
First generation mobile networks enabled wireless phone calls, and the second generation added texting.
Third-generation mobile networks could handle more data, such as sending pictures and using basic apps, while the current 4G networks can carry bigger loads such as streaming video.
5G networks are touted as promising an exponential leap in the amount and speed of wireless data, enabling advances in self-driving vehicles, virtual reality, connected health and more as sensors and servers communicate instantly.
Mid-bandwidth made available by the FCC strikes a balance between how far signals reach and how fast data travels, with low-bandwidth sacrificing speed for distance and high-bandwidth quick but short-ranged.
Prior to winning in this auction, Verizon had focused on service at the high-frequency end of the spectrum.
Agence France-Presse
WASHINGTON - The Trump administration is divided over the deployment of a new 5G cellular network, with the Pentagon, NASA and others at odds with other government agencies.
The 5-member Federal Communications Commission (FCC) voted in late April to approve the deployment of a 5G cellular network by Ligado Networks.
Opponents of the plan argue that it would use spectrum that could potentially disrupt frequencies used for commercial and military Global Positioning System (GPS) signals.
The FCC decision has received the backing of Attorney General Bill Barr and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.
But Pentagon chief Mark Esper, NASA, the Commerce Department, Department of Homeland Security and major airlines have voiced their opposition.
On Wednesday, top Pentagon officials pleaded their case before a Senate committee.
"There are too many unknowns, and the risks are too great to allow the proposed Ligado system to proceed in light of the operational impact to GPS," said Dana Deasy, the top advisor to the defense secretary for information technology.
Senator Jim Inhofe, a Republican from Oklahoma who chairs the Senate Armed Services Committee, also voiced his opposition to the project by Ligado, a Virginia company formerly known as LightSquared.
"I do not think it is a good idea to place at risk the GPS signals that enable our national and economic security for the benefit of one company and its investors," Inhofe said.
"After extensive testing and analysis, experts at almost every federal agency tell us that Ligado's plan will interfere with GPS systems," he said. "Interfering with GPS will hurt the entire American economy."
Inhofe said he had raised the question with President Donald Trump and that the FCC decision had been made "without cluing the president in on any of this."
Deasy said the Pentagon would lodge an appeal in a bid to have the FCC reverse its decision.
Agence France-Presse
WASHINGTON - Huawei Technologies Co Ltd and ZTE Corp on Monday both asked the US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) not to finalize its designation of the China tech giants as risks to US national security.
In November, the FCC voted 5-0 to initially designate Huawei and ZTE as national security risks in a move that would bar their US rural carrier customers from tapping an $8.5 billion government fund to purchase equipment.
Huawei said in a nearly 200-page filing with the FCC the action was "designed to implement a campaign by certain government officials, including members of Congress, to single out Huawei for burdensome and stigmatizing restrictions, put it out of business in the United States, and impugn its reputation here and around the world." It called the effort "unlawful and misguided."
ZTE asked the FCC Monday in a filing to "take additional time to assess ZTE’s enhancements in the area of US export control and economic sanctions compliance and security controls in ZTE products."
ZTE added it has "spent hundreds of millions of dollars to implement a compliance program relating to US export control compliance regulations."
The commission left the final determination to the FCC's Public Safety and Homeland Security Bureau, which could determine not to finalize the risk designation.
Such a move would run counter to the Trump administration's stance to date, after its blacklisting of Huawei in May sharply restricted the export of US high-tech components to the company.
The administration has also tried with limited success to persuade its allies to bar Huawei, saying its equipment could potentially be used by Beijing for spying.
Huawei has repeatedly denied those allegations, and scored a big win last week when the UK announced it was giving Huawei a role in its new generation of telecoms infrastructure.
In its November vote, the FCC proposed requiring that US carriers remove and replace equipment from both Huawei and ZTE, also China-based, from existing networks.
The companies' ties to the Chinese government and military apparatus, and laws requiring their assistance in intelligence activities, are why they pose a security risk, the FCC said.
source: news.abs-cbn.com
SAN FRANCISCO -- A dozen telecom firms and state attorneys general from across the US agreed Thursday to a set of principles aimed at curbing illegal "robocalls."
Infuriating and often deceptive "robocalls" by the billions prompted US regulators to recently adopt new rules allowing carriers to implement tools to block calls with suspicious origins.
Principles crafted as voluntarily industry practices included wielding technology to block automated, mass-delivered calls from con artists or dodgy marketers.
"Robocalls are a scourge - at best, annoying, at worst, scamming people out of their hard-earned money," said North Carolina attorney general Josh Stein.
"By signing on to these principles, industry leaders are taking new steps to keep your phone from ringing with an unwanted call."
Telecommunications firms signing on to the eight principles agree to help states track down criminals behind frauds employing robocalls, according to Stein.
Under the principles, telecoms will use technology in their networks to figure out if calls are coming from legitimate sources and will monitor for robocall traffic.
The coalition of companies included AT&T, Comcast, Sprint, T-Mobile and Verizon, according to Stein's office.
"Few things can bring together policy leaders across the political spectrum like the fight against unwanted robocalls," Federal Communications Commission chairman Ajit Pai said in a statement.
"These principles align with the FCC’s own anti-robocalling and spoofing efforts."
Telecom technology has made it easy to create programs to make internet calls automatically to thousands, delivering spam messages and disguising numbers to make it seem as if the calls are from local residences or legitimate businesses.
According to mobile app maker Truecaller, fraud from robocalls cost Americans some $10.5 billion between April 2018 and April 2019.
YouMail, a firm which makes software designed to block unwanted calls, said Americans received a total of 48 billion robocalls in 2018.
The calls can be used to extract fraudulent payments, or obtain personal information for identity theft or other scams.
"Robocalls are so common because they are easy to make, very cheap, and they work," Alex Quilici, chief executive of YouMail, told AFP in a recent interview.
The epidemic of robocalls could have economic impact beyond those of the spam victims, by dissuading people from responding to legitimate or important calls.
The principles announced Thursday offer a comprehensive set of best practices to fight illegal and unwanted robocalls, said Columbia University computer science professor and former FCC chief technology officer Henning Schulzrinne.
"I hope that all parts of the telecommunication industry, both large and small, will commit to rapidly implementing these principles," he added.
source: news.abs-cbn.com
WASHINGTON - The lobby group for some of the most powerful US tech firms said Friday it would join the legal challenge to the planned rollback of "net neutrality" rules requiring internet service providers to treat all online traffic equally.
The Internet Association -- a group which includes Google, Facebook, Amazon and Microsoft, among others -- announced it would support legal efforts to block the rollback voted last month by the Federal Communications Commission.
The association gave no specifics but suggested it would seek to intervene in lawsuits expected by several attorneys general, including from Washington and New York states.
Internet Association president Michael Beckerman said the FCC action voted December 14 "defies the will of a bipartisan majority of Americans and fails to preserve a free and open internet."
He said the association "intends to act as an intervenor in judicial action against this order and, along with our member companies, will continue our push to restore strong, enforceable net neutrality protections through a legislative solution."
Last month's vote capped a heated partisan debate and is just the latest twist in a battle over more than a decade on rules governing internet service providers.
FCC chairman Ajit Pai, who pushed the latest effort, has argued that the neutrality rule enacted in 2015 served to stifle investment and innovation in a fast-evolving sector.
But net neutrality backers have argued that clear rules are needed to prevent internet service providers from blocking or throttling services or websites for competitive reasons, and that the rollback would increase the power of a few dominant providers to control what users see online.
Lawsuits could not be filed until the FCC's order was published, which occurred this week. Some lawmakers have also begun efforts to invalidate the FCC's action.
The battle over net neutrality has raged for over a decade in the FCC and the courts, with both sides contending they represent "internet freedom."
The 2015 net neutrality rules were backed by then-president Barack Obama and endorsed by a 3-2 Democratic majority at the time. But the election of President Donald Trump reversed the FCC party majority and it quickly reversed course.
source: news.abs-cbn.com
Google's parent company is set to launch balloons into the Caribbean skies in an attempt to restore telephone networks in hurricane-ravaged Puerto Rico.
Alphabet Inc., which controls Google, obtained authorization from the US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to deploy the devices -- developed from 2013 as part of a project known as "Loon."
It aims to temporarily re-establish Puerto Rico's cellular network -- where 83 per cent of cell sites were still out of service Friday, according to FCC figures.
"More than two weeks after Hurricane Maria struck, millions of Puerto Ricans are still without access to much-needed communications services," FCC chairman Ajit Pai said in a statement.
"That's why we need to take innovative approaches to help restore connectivity on the island," he added, urging wireless carriers to "cooperate with Project Loon to maximize this effort's chances of success."
Loon, part of a series of futuristic projects out of Alphabet's "X" laboratory, was originally created to provide internet coverage in under-developed rural areas.
A similar project using drones was closed down in 2016.
The balloons are sent 20 kilometers above the Earth's surface, where they can remain autonomously for over 100 days. They are made from a polyethylene canvas the size of a tennis court.
Initially designed to drift, the balloons are now equipped with navigation systems, powered by solar panels, which keep them in a specific area.
source: news.abs-cbn.com
