Only seven business days after it began, the FCC’s 24 GHz spectrum auction “blow past the $1 billion mark Friday (March 22).” The FCC is auctioning the spectrum “to free up more bandwidth for 5G wireless broadband, to help close the rural digital divide, and to make wireless a stronger competitor to wired broadband. New York and L.A. continue to lead, with bids on licenses there of $28,080,000 and $21,606,000, respectively, with Chicago in distant third with $10,436,000.”
Wireless carriers, lawmakers divided on small cell tower bills
Dueling bills on how local governments can control the placement of small wireless facilities—as telecommunication companies prepare to build a 5G network nationwide—had those gathered in Annapolis, MD, to testify on Tuesday switching between offense and defense as the Senate Fina...
Midwest states showing progress in rural connectivity
According to a report from the American Broadband Initiative, a federal initiative aimed at improving accessibility of internet connections, more than 92 percent of the U.S. population had access to fixed land-based broadband in 2016. However, of the 8 percent remaining, 80 percen...
The real 5G winners: Tower companies
CNN Business listed Crown Castle as one of the "big winners" in 5G expansion. CEO Jay Brown’s commentary from last month’s earning’s call was included, with Brown stating "what I find really intriguing about 5G and some of the emerging technologies is that they h...
Statewide broadband bill passes out of committee
A bipartisan bill that would support the expansion of broadband service in Washington State, introduced in January by Gov. Jay Inslee, passed out of the House Capital Budget Committee last Tuesday in a unanimous vote. Governor Inslee’s office wrote that federal data "grossly...
The Wall Street Journal
Western countries are building more barriers to Huawei Technologies Co. equipment in their 5G network rollouts. But that won’t change an underlying truth about the next-generation communications networks: Technology developed in China will be at the center. Huawei has put fo...
Georgia Senate passes small-cell wireless broadband bill
Georgia unanimously passed a bill Monday aimed at making it easier for telecommunications companies to extend small-cell wireless broadband along public rights of way. Meanwhile, separate bills allowing Georgia's electric membership corporations to enter the broadband business, ai...