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Former FCC Chair Pai joins private equity firm Searchlight as its TMT rainmaker

In Featured News by Wireless Estimator

Searchlight Capital Partners, L.P. (Searchlight), a leading global private investment firm, announced the appointment of Ajit Pai, former Chairman of the Federal Communications Commission as its 13th partner and a prospective board member of a number of Searchlight’s existing investments in the technology, media, and telecommunications (TMT) sectors. Searchlight’s U.S.-based TMT investment companies include Consolidated Communications, Global Eagle, Hemisphere Media …

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FCC knows the check won’t be in the mail after fining Tele Circuit $4.1M for cramming and slamming

In Featured News by Wireless Estimator

The Federal Communications Commission has fined Norcross, GA-based Tele Circuit Network Corporation $4,145,000 for switching consumers from their preferred carrier to Tele Circuit without permission and adding unauthorized charges to consumers’ bills. Their actions specifically harmed elderly and infirm consumers who, in some cases, were left without telephone service for extended periods while the company refused to reinstate service until …

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Dish enlists Amazon to help build its 5G network, to launch in Las Vegas

In Featured News by Wireless Estimator

Amazon Web Services, Inc. (AWS) has announced that DISH Network Corporation (DISH)  selected AWS as its preferred cloud provider and will construct its 5G network on AWS, part of a strategic collaboration agreement under which both companies will work to transform how organizations and customers, including AWS and Amazon, order and consume 5G services or create their own private 5G networks. DISH is deploying …

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Terra Towers’ lawsuit against Torrecom alleges Peppertree and Goldman conspiracy

In Featured News by Wireless Estimator

Majority shareholders of the telecommunications infrastructure firm Continental Towers LATAM Holdings Limited have filed a lawsuit against the Weston, FL-based company Torrecom Partners, LLC. The complaint alleges a conspiracy in coordination with Continental’s minority shareholders, Goldman Sachs and Peppertree Capital Management, to depress the company’s value and force a merger that would enable Continental’s minority shareholders to squeeze its majority …

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FBI shelling out $5,000 reward for info about sabotage of Texas communications towers

In Featured News by Wireless Estimator

The Dallas Division of the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Wichita Falls Police Department are asking for the public’s assistance in identifying the individual(s) responsible for the damage caused to two communications towers in Wichita Falls, Texas. The FBI is offering a reward of up to $5,000 for information leading to the identification, arrest and conviction of the individual …

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Long Island town believes it has the right to deny applications for nodes with ugly antennas

In Featured News by Wireless Estimator

The Town of Hempstead in Long Island, NY, last week aggressively replied to a summary judgment bid from Crown Castle that accused Hempstead of unfairly blocking the towerco from building 48 DAS nodes. In their response, Hempstead said that on January 18, 2017, Crown Castle submitted applications for the first 14 of 48 DAS nodes in the town’s right-of-way. The …

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T-Mobile disses Dish’s 3G CDMA ‘misinformation campaign’ regarding its 9 million Boost customers

In Featured News by Wireless Estimator

T-Mobile USA Inc. is sparring  with Dish Network Corp. over Dish’s claim that it’s trying to “prematurely” kick Boost Mobile subscribers off Sprint’s 3G CDMA Network. In an FCC filing Sunday to Acting Chairman Jessica Rosenworcel, T-Mobile said that the real problem is that Dish hasn’t done adequate preparation to transition existing customers to the newer T-Mobile networks under a …

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Everything old is new again. Tesla’s 1901 wireless power is fine tuned and being suggested for 5G IoT

In Featured News by Wireless Estimator

A research team from Georgia Institute of Technology has announced that they have developed a 3D-printed rectifying antenna the size of a playing card that can harvest electromagnetic energy from 5G signals and use it to power devices, saving billions of batteries in the process. Millimeter-wave energy harvesting has been possible for some time, says the team’s authors, Aline Eid, …

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Verizon signs C-band deals with Crown Castle and SBA Communications

In Featured News by Wireless Estimator

Verizon inked deals with Crown Castle and SBA Communications, two vertical realtors already hosting Verizon infrastructure equipment, to speed deployment of C-band equipment in preparation for the launch of 5G Ultra Wideband and fixed wireless broadband service on this newly acquired spectrum. Verizon secured an average of 161 MHz of C-band spectrum nationwide in the recent FCC auction, which will allow Verizon to …

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Pittsburgh is ‘illegally’ pocketing $580 on street light small cell fees says AT&T in a lawsuit

In Featured News by Wireless Estimator

AT&T is suing the City of Pittsburgh for allegedly failing to meet the FCC’s shot clock requirements and for asking excessive fees for new cell structures in the city’s rights-of-way. The carrier states that the fees and delays for installing small-cell network equipment along city roadways have prevented AT&T from providing service to the area and violates the federal Telecommunications …

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With over 100 towers installed, VIKOR removes many remote learning challenges for Navajos

In Featured News by Wireless Estimator

With school districts relying on remote learning to minimize the spread of COVID-19, broadband internet is an essential component of student success. Add canyons, mountainous terrain, and uninhabited wilderness to the equation, and connecting students to online learning resources becomes seemingly impossible. This is the exact issue the San Juan School District, located on and near the Navajo Nation in …

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Two-year answer to bridging digital divide is cooperation says C Spire’s summit experts

In Featured News by Wireless Estimator

A two-year research effort led by Mississippi-based C Spire to identify ways to bridge the rural broadband “digital divide” has concluded that the key to resolving the vexing access problem is to pursue cooperative technology, financial and partnership efforts as an industry. Findings of the research team, which also included collaborations with Airspan, Facebook, Microsoft, Nokia, Siklu and Telesat, were presented in …

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Early vertical realtor David Grain pulls together $3.75 billion in investment funding

In Featured News by Wireless Estimator

Washington, D.C.-based Grain Management, a leading private investment firm focused on broadband technology and the global communications sector, announced today that it has closed on $3.75 billion in funding the past year, exceeding its targets for purchase of spectrum and other investments. Grain participated in the Federal Communications Commission’s Auction 107 (“C-Band Auction”), the largest auction of mid-band 5G spectrum …

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Contractors say rip and replace funding is profitable, but will be shaved at their level

In Featured News by Wireless Estimator

The Federal Communications Commission has released a new report with an in-depth look at the costs for telecoms to rip and replace eligible Huawei and ZTE equipment, which will aid in the development of a new reimbursement program and its administration. The agency commissioned consulting firm Widelity to “produce a report detailing the anticipated steps in removing, replacing, and disposing …

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American Tower shocks industry analysts with its planned acquisition of China Tower for $17.4 billion

In Featured News by Wireless Estimator

Boston-based American Tower Corp. (ATC) is close to inking an agreement to buy China Tower Corp. Ltd. for $17.4 billion, a huge deal that will see ATC acquiring China Tower’s  2.2 million towers, expanding ATC’s 186,000 worldwide towers by 1,100 percent, according to a Forbes report today. The well-kept secret took the industry by surprise, and analysts are still trying …

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From monopoles to barber poles, NWSA adds a new certification to buoy lack of broadband funding

In Featured News by Wireless Estimator

President Joe Biden unveiled a $2 trillion plan yesterday to rebuild the nation’s aging infrastructure dubbed the American Jobs Plan, with $100 billion earmarked to build universal high-speed broadband infrastructure. However, the White House did not say how they plan to move the package through congress, nor provide a timeline on when they want it passed. Earlier this month, 30 …

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Welder falls 95-feet and dies while working on a U.S. Cellular retrofit project in Kansas

In Featured News by Wireless Estimator

A 45-year-old welder fell to his death while working on a tower modification in Le Roy, Kansas on Sunday, according to individuals knowledgeable of the accident. A spokesperson of Blackhawk Tower Communications of Sun Prairie, Wisconsin confirmed that Shane Jenson of Orfordville, Wisconsin was welding a modification on a U.S. Cellular site at about the 95-foot level when his safety …

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Ransomware attack shuts down Sierra Wireless

In Featured News by Wireless Estimator

Sierra Wireless, a leading IoT solutions provider, today announced that it discovered it was the subject of a ransomware attack on its internal IT systems on March 20, 2021. Once the company learned of the attack, its IT and operations teams immediately implemented measures to counter the attack in accordance with established cybersecurity procedures and policies that were developed in …

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Lack of training kills a high school day laborer climber and his employer claims it was his own fault

In Featured News by Wireless Estimator

Lakaram Karanjeet was working part-time for Rise & Rise Wireless, Inc. while he was in high school. He died on June 28, 2019 when he fell from this New Jersey 150-foot monopole.  An investigation by Wireless Estimator into a lawsuit brought against multiple defendants exposes a wireless construction contractor that had no safety programs in place, few owned assets and …