UPDATE: August 3, 2017 -The U.S. Senate voted today to confirm the nominations of Jessica Rosenworcel and Brendan Carr to the Federal Communications, returning the FCC to full strength with five members. Rosenworcel, a former Commissioner and Capitol Hill staffer previously joined the FCC in 2011. Her new five-year term is retroactive to July 2015 and runs through 2020. She …
FCC’s small cell agenda addressed at NYSWA forum by Chairman Pai’s advisor
Rachael Bender, FCC Chairman Ajit Pai’s legal advisor, closed out a jam-packed New York State Wireless Association day of networking and education at Pier Sixty in New York City on Thursday with a keynote speech where she said, that the FCC is committed to seizing 5G opportunities to grow the nation’s economy, create new jobs, and raise living standards for …
Houston: We’ve got a problem with Chairman Pai; MasTec takes its firings to the Supremes
The mayor of the City of Houston has taken FCC Commissioner Ajit Pai to task for statements that he made that they state are inaccurate and they want his fellow commissioners to publicly make a correction. City Mayor Sylvester Turner said that Pai’s statement that the city subjected wireless network companies to onerous reviews for purposes of meeting historic preservation …
FCC chief chides AT&T for 911 outage that could have been prevented
Ajit Pai said today that AT&T’s 911 outage in March could have been prevented if the carrier had implemented network reliability best practices. On March 8, 12,539 Americans who were AT&T customers tried to call 911. But they couldn’t reach emergency services because of a nationwide outage of AT&T’s VoLTE 911 network. When they placed that call, they heard fast …
Simon and DeBroux will chair new FCC broadband deployment working groups
FCC Chairman Ajit Pai has appointed members to serve on two Broadband Deployment Advisory Committee (BDAC) working groups. The Competitive Access to Broadband Infrastructure Working Group will be chaired by Ken Simon, Senior Vice President and General Counsel of Crown Castle, and Removing State and Local Regulatory Barriers Working Group’s chairman is Robert DeBroux, Director, Public Policy and Federal Regulatory Affairs, …
CTIA shrinks the size of a pizza box to get the FCC to deliver small cells
Last Tuesday, CTIA Regulatory Affairs executives Brian Josef and Kara Romagnino pitched Rachael Bender, FCC Chairman Ajit Pai’s Acting Legal Advisor, with their newly minted presentation on key reforms that would be beneficial for the agency to enact to ensure that America can build its 5G infrastructure. It’s likely that Bender fully understood their presentation on new opportunities and challenges …
Verizon and Corning agree to $1.05 billion fiber optic deal
Corning will sell up to 12.4 million miles of optical fiber to Verizon each year from 2018 through 2020, with a minimum purchase commitment of $1.05 billion, according to an agreement announced today. In a statement, Verizon said the deal would help it meet its rollout schedule for a fiber-optic network in Boston. The company also views fiber as critical for …
Robber who threatened to kill NYPD captain gets first taste of justice with $404K FCC fine
The FCC issued a notice of apparent liability (NAL) on Friday to a 20-year-old New York resident for operating a radio transmitter on frequencies that the Commission has licensed to the New York Police Department, fining him $404,166. And although the enforcement message was clear, collecting the fine is uncertain. Following procedure, a copy of the NAL might have been …
AT&T still mum on what caused its 14-state 911 outage
The FCC said on Thursday it will investigate why AT&T wireless subscribers in several states could not make emergency 911 calls late Wednesday that spanned at least 14 states. “Every call to 911 must go through,” said Chairman Ajit Pai in a news release. “So when I first learned of yesterday’s outage, I immediately directed FCC staff to contact AT&T …
Kansas mayor is perplexed why FCC chief singled out his city’s broadband
During a press conference yesterday, FCC Chairman Ajit Pai singled out a small Kansas community that he said had 75 residents that could possibly receive economic prosperity if they were to be provided with adequate broadband services, but City of Allen Mayor Charles Eastman said he’s not quite sure as to how that would be achieved – or if the city …
Eighteen wireless carrier CEOs urge FCC to revise Mobility Fund ll Plan
In a letter yesterday to Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai, 18 wireless carrier CEOs urged the Commission to revise its Mobility Fund II (MFII) plan to ensure sufficient, predictable support for the preservation and deployment of wireless networks. Competitive wireless carriers depend on Universal Service Funding (USF), in addition to their own capital resources, to provide comparable service to their …
Assisted by Dr. Dre, Pai frames 5G plan at 4G America’s technology symposium
FCC Commissioner Ajit Pai addressed the “Future of Mobile Broadband in the Americas LTE to 5G Network Innovation” on Thursday at 4G America’s Technology Symposium with assistance from start to end from record producer, rapper and entrepreneur Dr. Dre. “Now, I understand that some might be a bit confused. After all, this is 4G Americas, the event is about 5G, …
