Uncategorized Related Posts

Posted April 25, 2016

In comments filed on Friday in the FCC’s set-top box proceeding, we observe that, like an old general fighting the last war, this Commission seems to be making its stand for a technology that is rapidly being supplanted. As Tim Cook has said, and as almost everyone knows, the future of TV is apps. But…

Posted April 15, 2016 • 1 comment

The following may be attributed to an AT&T spokesperson:  “Independent regulatory agencies, by law, are supposed to make their decisions based on facts in the public record and not based on politics or pressure from the White House. Unfortunately, just as it did in the Title II proceeding, the White House is intervening in order…

Posted April 14, 2016

There has been a lot of talk lately about spectrum sharing – Spectrum Access Systems, Dynamic Spectrum Arbitrage, Environmental Sensing Capability, Shared Spectrum Access for Radar and Communications, to name just a few of the discussed approaches. The purveyors of these techniques believe that their technology will change the way spectrum is shared and will…

Posted April 12, 2016

The following may be attributed to an AT&T spokesperson, and is in response to remarks made yesterday by FCC Chairman Wheeler: “We agree that incremental investment in broadband facilities for 5G and in rural areas is essential.  But imposing regulation on special access prices and contract terms is not going to produce it.  In fact,…

Posted April 11, 2016

We’ve been watching with interest as a Further Order on the 3.5 GHz band plan is being considered by the FCC’s 8th floor. The Order proposes to preserve a Priority Access License, or PALs, scheme that has been broadly rejected by almost everyone who had advocated for the PALs approach. Given this opposition, it’s hard…

Posted March 31, 2016

The following may be attributed to an AT&T spokesperson: “Notwithstanding the controversy that occurred over the Lifeline action at today’s meeting, positive steps were taken to move Lifeline into the 21st century by beginning the transition of the program from voice to broadband. The agency also started the process of removing carriers from determining whether…

Posted March 29, 2016

BT Americas (BTA) has repeatedly beseeched the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to revoke its regulatory flexibility granted to DS1 and DS3 special access – and now argues that all U.S. Ethernet services should be similarly regulated if they are to perform as well as those in Europe. Further, BTA often asserts that the performance of…

Posted March 24, 2016

Last week, I had the privilege of participating in the Digital Economy: Chances and Challenges conference in Prague. The Czech national regulatory authority, Česky telekomunikační úrad (“CTU”), under the leadership of Chairman Jaromir Novak, organized the conference jointly with ICANN. The gathering offered me an opportunity to share AT&T’s view on innovation and regulation. Even…

Posted March 16, 2016

There’s no question that copper-based TDM services are in rapid decline.  AT&T’s access lines (copper last mile connections) are no exception – they have declined by almost 65% (more than 30 million lines, if you can believe it) since 2009. Yet, despite all the evidence pointing to the end of the copper era, the competitive…

Posted March 14, 2016

The effort to modernize the troubled Lifeline program appears to be moving in the right direction.  AT&T has long supported the need to fix the program’s glaring administrative problems while allowing Lifeline eligible consumers to use their $9.25 discount on Internet access services. Last week, the FCC’s fact sheet outlined plans for a National Eligibility…