Ericsson Monday announced that it has agreed to acquire a controlling stake in Apcera, a U.S.-based enterprise services company and creator of a platform as-a-service (PaaS) called Continuum which works across cloud, on premise and hybrid environments. The companies did not offer financial details on the transaction. Ericsson said the acquistion of Apcera’s PaaS will…
Confirmed: Sprint Won’t Participate in AWS Auction
Sprint has confirmed that it will pass on the upcoming AWS auctions. In an emailed statement, the carrier wrote: “Sprint has decided not to participate in the FCC’s AWS-3 auction but will continue to evaluate the opportunities presented by the upcoming 600 MHz incentive auction.” Originally reported by Bloomberg, Sprint said that it’s more interested…
FCC Streamlines Tower Regulations
The FCC on Friday announced that it has adopted a report and order to streamline and eliminate outdated provisions of the Part 17 rules governing the construction, marking and lighting of antenna structures. The Commission said that the order adopted today puts the FAA in charge of overseeing rules regarding the marking and lighting of…
Wheeler to Verizon: Throttling Is Not Network Management
FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler is concerned about Verizon’s plans to throttle customers who use too much data. In a letter to Verizon CEO Dan Mead, the Chairman voiced his objections to plans Verizon announced last week to begin throttling LTE customers on unlimited plans that use an exorbitant amount of data. Verizon said the change…
Obama Applauds Passage of Unlocking Bill
The House of Representatives on Friday approved a bill that will make it legal for consumers to unlock their phones and take them to another carrier. The measure was already passed by the Senate earlier this month, and President Obama applauded the bill, saying he would sign it into law immediately. In a statement, Obama…
Internet Companies Lobby FCC for True Open Internet
A group of over two dozen of the largest Internet companies, including eBay, Netflix and Facebook, are urging the FCC to refrain from Net Neutrality policies that would create so-called slow lanes and fast lanes. The companies also argued that the Commission treat fixed and wireless broadband providers in the same manner. Speaking as…
Senate Judiciary Committee Approves Unlocking Bill
The U.S. Senate Judiciary committee on Thursday unanimously approved revised bipartisan legislation geared toward making it easier for consumers to unlock their cell phones and take them with to a new carrier. Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Senator Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.), Ranking Member Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) and their cosponsors last year brought out the Unlocking Consumer…
Verizon Received 150K Information Requests in 1H of 2014
Over the first half of 2014, Verizon received approximately 150,000 requests for customer information from federal, state and local law enforcement in the United States. In Verizon’s transparency report covering the timeframe from January 1 to June 31, Verizon said the information was only released in the event of a valid law enforcement demand or…
FCC Preps Webinars to Educate Broadcasters on Incentive Auction
The FCC is continuing its push to keep broadcasters informed about just exactly how the upcoming incentive auctions will work. According to a blog posted by FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler, the FCC is prepping a series of webinars to educate broadcasters on the auction. Calling the auctions a “once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for broadcasters,” Wheeler recognized that spectrum…
Congressmen Urge FCC to Streamline Infrastructure Deployments
Congressmen Fred Upton (R-MI), and Greg Walden (R-OR) Thursday sent a letter FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler asking the commission to streamline the approval process for wireless infrastructure deployments. The letter asks Wheeler for clarification of Section 6409(a) of the Middle Class Tax Relief and Job Creation Act of 2012, which aims to speed the approval…
Small Cells in Spotlight at PCIA
The wireless industry has been talking about small cells for quite some time with minimal action, but it appears the time for small cell outdoor networks has arrived. Ronald Mudry, CEO of Tower Cloud, which is in the process of moving into the small cell backhaul space, will be discussing the emergence of small cells…
Annual PCIA Conference Highlights Growing Network Investment
AT&T and Verizon may have declared their LTE networks “nationwide” but Jonathan Adelstein, CEO of The Wireless Infrastructure Association (PCIA), says there’s more work to be done. “The idea that they’re tailing off is overstated,” Adelstein said. “They say that they’ve built out these networks, and you look at a map, it’s not about coverage…
Senate Dems Back Spectrum Aggregation Limits
A group of Senate Democrats have sent a letter to the FCC stating that they support the Commission’s plans to put aside a certain number of low-band spectrum licenses for smaller carriers. The letter was signed by senators Al Franken (D-MN), Edward Markey (D-MA), Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), Cory Booker (D-NJ), Angus King (D-ME), and Maria…
FCC Approves T-Mobile’s 700 MHz A Block Deal with Verizon
The FCC today gave its blessing to T-Mobile’s acquistion of a swatch of 700 MHz A Block spectrum from Verizon. In an emailed statement, T-Mobile Vice President of Federal Regulatory Affairs Kathleen Ham thanked the FCC for approving the deal. “T-Mobile is pleased by the FCC’s prompt approval of our acquisition of 700 MHz A-Block…
Wheeler to Broadcasters: Incentive Auctions Won’t Come Again
FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler Monday urged a gathering of broadcasters to embrace the changing content ecosystem and asked them to view the upcoming incentive auctions as an opportunity. Speaking at the National Association of Broadcasters’ (NAB) annual conference, Wheeler directly refuted the idea that the government was conspiring against broadcasters to give wireless players like…
FCC AWS-3 Plans Get Mixed Reaction
The FCC today issued an official report and order that sets rules for the upcoming auction of 65 MHz of spectrum in the AWS-3 band, specifically in the 1695-1710 MHz, 1755-1780 MHz, and 2155-2180 MHz bands. The report and order establishes a band plan that makes spectrum available in a mix of spectrum block and…
CTIA, Broadcasters Prove Viability of Spectrum Sharing
The Wireless Association today released a report on its efforts to test spectrum channel sharing with a pair of Los Angeles television stations. CTIA claims to have proved the viablity of channel sharing through its experiment with Los Angeles television stations KLCS and KJLA. In a statement, CTIA said that channel sharing is “feasible, and is…
CCA Expo: Broadcasters Require Trust in Incentive Auctions
Rick Kaplan, executive vice president of strategic planning for the National Association of Broadcasters, said he’s worried that broadcasters still need assurances from the FCC around how the upcoming incentive auctions will work. “One challenge is you want to be able to trust what you hear from the Commission,” Kaplan said, during a panel at…
Defense Department Outlines Spectrum Strategy
The Department of Defense (DoD) Thursday unveiled a spectrum plan that it says will aim to seek a balance between the need for consumer spectrum and the need for spectrum upon which to run the military’s various communications systems. DoD Chief Information Officer, Teri Takai said in a statement that the “balanced decisions about relocating from…
Sprint Details Spectrum Weighting Proposal, Maintains Caveats for 2.5 GHz
Sprint today laid out details on how it suggests the FCC address reforms to its spectrum screen. The carrier suggested the FCC weigh spectrum on two factors, including any given frequency’s propagation characteristics, as well the cost to a carrier to deploy on that spectrum in a given area (i.e. rural, suburban, dense metropolitan). Sprint provided…
FCC Approves TDD Deployment in Upper 700 MHz A Block
The FCC has approved deployment of Time Division Duplex (TDD) equipment in the upper 700 MHz A Block. Access Spectrum, which holds wireless spectrum licenses in the Upper 700 MHz A Block covering two-thirds of the United States, said in a statement that the decision confirms that TDD equipment, which uses a single frequency for…
EU Approves Google’s Acquisition of Motorola Mobility
The European Commission today approved Google’s $12.5 billion acquisition of Motorola Mobility. In a statement, the commission said it approved the transaction mainly because it would not significantly change the market around mobile device operating systems or the patents related to those devices. Joaquín Almunia, commission vice president in charge of competition policy, said in…
MMA Streamlines Guidelines for Mobile Ads
The Mobile Marketing Association (MMA) is attempting to make it easier to sell and make ads for mobile devices with today’s release of a new 2.0 version of its MMA Universal Mobile Ad Package. “We’ve taken 60-plus ad unit sizes and streamlined them down to just six,” said MMA Global CEO Greg Stuart, in a…
Report: Apple Called on ETSI to Define Patent Standards
Apple back in November asked the European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI) to clarify its rules regarding standards-essential patents under Fair, Reasonable and Non-Discriminatory (FRAND) terms, according to a report filed by The Wall Street Journal today. Apple decried the industry’s lack of adherence to FRAND terms in the “cellular arena,” according to a copy of…
Apple Granted Temporary Suspension of German Injunction
A German court has granted Apple a suspension of an injunction of some of its products in that country, according to a report filed by the BBC. Motorola Mobility won the injunction back in December but chose not to enforce the ruling until just last Friday. As a result of the enforcement, Apple pulled its…