American Tower Corp. filed a lawsuit last Friday against Air Advantage LLC of Frankenmuth, Michigan for not paying rent on 28 towers the company owns. Air Advantage, an internet provider for both wireless and fiber-based internet, executed the agreements between 2011 and 2013 that all used the same standard contract form and language that allowed a late payment fee to …
Former FCC adviser and fiber CEO gets five years for $270 million investor scam
Geoffrey S. Berman, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, announced that Elizabeth Ann Pierce, the former chief executive officer of Quintillion, a telecommunications company in Alaska, and the former head of the FCC’s Broadband Deployment Advisory Committee (BDAC), was sentenced last week in Manhattan federal court to 60 months in prison for defrauding investors in New …
Crown Castle Fiber says ComEd is pole dancing around regs with obscene pricing
Crown Castle Fiber has accused Illinois utility Commonwealth Edison (ComEd) of breaking FCC rules by charging excessive pole attachment fees and denying the company access to hundreds of poles. In its complaints filed with the FCC, Crown Castle alleges that ComEd refuses to recognize that wireless attachments are subject to FCC rules, and as a result, the utility has charged …
Favorable ruling upholds CommScope digital DAS patents leads Fast-Forward Friday articles
Article Media Favorable ruling upholds CommScope digital DAS patents Business Wire T-Mobile prepares for a Boost auction if Dish Network talks fail CNBC Nokia seeks rule change for 5G backhaul Fierce Wireless Mobile data use nearly doubles, CTIA annual survey shows CTIA Plaintiffs in FirstNet privacy lawsuit appealoppose AT&T brief Mission Critical LMR will continue alongside LTE Radio Resource 5G …
T-Mobile tried tower siting twice in Wichita, now it will be tried in court
T-Mobile and APC Towers have filed a lawsuit against City of Wichita over a denied conditional use application to construct an 80-foot wireless communication facility near 18th and Woodland. T-Mobile says it suffers from a significant gap in its ability to provide service in the North Riverside neighborhood, driven primarily by inadequate network capacity to serve consumer demand. The carrier …
Dems don’t want T-Mobile/Sprint merger, 10 States Attorney Generals state in lawsuit
Late last month Moffett Nathanson Research analysts set the odds of the T-Mobile/Sprint merger going through at 50/50. Today, it’s likely that the smart money is on the $26.5 billion mega deal failing after a lawsuit was filed in Federal District Court in Manhattan by a group of state attorneys general seeking to block the marriage of the third and …
Sprint’s 5G ‘E’ lawsuit against AT&T settled, ending what was considered a PR ploy
According to a court document obtained by Wireless Estimator, Sprint’s lawsuit against AT&T for deceptively marketing its upgraded 4G service as “5G Evolution,” has been settled. U.S. District Court Judge Vernon Broderick for the Southern District of New York said that both parties informed him during a status conference yesterday that they had reached a settlement. They’re required by tomorrow …
Tin foil hat testing and junk science being used to possibly remove 35 towers from Utah schools
Motivated by Sprint caving in to demands in California to remove a school cell tower, a South Jordan, Utah resident protesting the existence of two towers at the Jordan Ridge Elementary School has prompted a school board member to ask the community whether all 35 towers at school sites should be removed. Armed with recent inaccurate testing at an elementary school …
AT&T seeks to kayo Sprint’s ‘fake’ 5G Evolution lawsuit since consumers don’t understand 5G standards
AT&T has asked a New York federal court to dismiss a false advertising lawsuit filed by Sprint on Feb. 7, 2019 that alleges AT&T is deceptively marketing its upgraded 4G service as “5G Evolution,” arguing that Sprint can’t prove that their 5G Evolution ads make an express claim and “by attaching ‘Evolution’ to the term ‘5G’ the ads invoke the …
Free Press: FCC broadband gains overstated leads Fast Forward Friday news
Article Media Free Press: FCC broadband gains overstated B+C Huawei sues U.S. as ‘last resort’ to fight government ban UPI Was a cell tower illegally built in an Atlanta neighborhood AJC South Korea delays commercial 5G service over phone and carrier issues VB AT&T expects to hit second FirstNet buildout Milestone by year-end Missiona Critical Interoperability debate dominates carrier-selection panel …
ExteNet sues Crown and NY DOT over shot clock violation, wants Crown’s contract revoked
In a be careful what you wish for reality incident, a subsidiary of Crown Castle is being sued for violating an FCC’s shot clock deadline as set forth by Congress in the Telecommunications Act of 1996, an action that carriers, Crown Castle and other vertical realtors petitioned the FCC to adopt. ExteNet Systems, Inc. filed its complaint on Monday against …
FCC given green light to start enforcing its new small cell regs on Monday
At the eleventh hour, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit yesterday denied a motion to stay the enforcement of the FCC’s September 27, 2018 Declaratory Ruling and Third Report and Order led by FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr. The new federal siting rules for small cells became effective Jan. 14, 2019, according to the order. A group of cities led by …
Broadband provider is suing the DOJ and FCC for foreclosure action from prison and wants $50+ million for slander
The FCC on Thursday reaffirmed its earlier decision that Hawaii-based Sandwich Isles Communications (SIC) knowingly defrauded the Universal Service Fund (USF) of more than $27 million for reimbursements it was not entitled to receive. In its order for reconsideration, the FCC said between 2002 and 2015, the USF provided nearly $250 million of funds to SIC to provide service to …
Motorola wins bid to send Hytera’s monopoly lawsuit to its backyard
Motorola Solutions Inc. (MSI) has won its bid to transfer from New Jersey to Illinois a federal antitrust lawsuit by Hytera Communications Corp. alleging the company of unlawfully monopolizing the land- mobile-radio market, with a U.S. District Court New Jersey judge finding that the claims would be better-served being tried in the Prairie State. MSI had asked the court to …
Mayor and FCC commish could be rumbling if Ninth Circuit gets broadband rule petition
The City of San Jose, Calif. joined by cities and municipalities within the state as well as in Washington state, Nevada, Oregon and Arizona, have filed a petition in the Tenth Circuit to move their petition to review court case over the FCC’s September ruling to deregulate small cell deployment, from Denver to San Francisco’s Ninth Circuit known for interpreting …
T-Mobile asking for ruling as to the legality of an additional insured certificate
In a Nov. 9, 2018 filing, the Ninth Circuit has asked Washington state’s Supreme Court to consider whether an insurer must cover a carrier’s costs in a lawsuit alleging its subcontractor’s rooftop antenna installation caused damage to an apartment building in the Bronx, N.Y., stating that Washington state law is uncertain on a critical issue in the case. The Ninth …
Concrete seen as a culprit in Corning’s Mercedes-Benz Stadium DAS design failure in IBM lawsuit
Successfully teaming with Corning Optical Communications Wireless, Inc. to build a strong fiber-based WiFi and DAS network for Texas A&M’s Kyle Field in 2015, IBM again partnered with Corning to provide a DAS and WiFi system in the new 71,000-seat Atlanta Falcons Mercedes-Benz Stadium that opened Aug. 26, 2017. But the short-lived relationship began to unravel following the inking of a …
Sinclair/Tribune deal given life support after court nixes ownership rule petition
In a two-page decision, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit has refused to overturn the FCC’s restoration of the UHF discount on the grounds that the parties challenging it did not have standing to bring the petition. However, its impact may not be beneficial to the Sinclair/Tribune acquisition which might already be doomed. The UHF discount means …
Indian Tribes team up to halt 5G ‘desecration’ expected from FCC’s exemptions
American Indian tribes are pressing the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals to halt a March 22, 2018 order from the FCC exempting small-cell 5G network structures from certain regulatory reviews, arguing that the order would allow for the “desecration of historic sites just because it cannot supervise effectively.” In consolidated complaints, the United Keetoowah Band of Cherokee Indians in Oklahoma, …
Appeals court rejects ‘wrong license’ ruling, reviving subcontractor’s $18.1 million lawsuit
License only becomes a concern in a ploy to not pay for millions of dollars of work, plaintiff says UPDATE: October 26, 2018 – MP Nexlevel of California, Inc., and defendant and counter and cross-claimant CVIN, LLC, dba Vast Networks, filed a stipulation to dismiss the entire action with prejudice. In light of the stipulation, and the previous dismissal of claims against …
