Determining whether fixed wireless access is capacity-limited is “perhaps the most critical question hanging over the mobile and broadband sector in the US,” New Street’s Jonathan Chaplin said in a Monday note to investors. “If capacity is limited at 10-20%, then 80-90% of the broadband market remains a duopoly, with pricing power and high returns on invested capital, and assets will ultimately trade at higher multiples,” Chaplin wrote: If capacity isn’t limited “the broadband market is as competitive as wireless with no pricing power, and broadband assets deserve to trade at the 6-7x that they are trading at today. Cable subscriber growth won’t recover anytime soon, and some investments in fiber that are predicated on high and rising ARPU may prove to be a bust.”

AT&T said Monday Scott Agnew will replace the retiring Jim Bugel as president-FirstNet. Bugel retires Sept. 1. Agnew “will lead all areas of the FirstNet program, bringing with him over 25 years of experience in the telecommunications industry,” the carrier said. Agnew has been a longtime member of the FirstNet team, AT&T said, responsible for the integration of mission-critical push-to-talk with land mobile radio systems and leading efforts on coverage expansion solutions. Bugel “truly understood the importance of communications with public safety and helped to ensure that all first responders -- including telecommunicators -- were mission ready,” APCO CEO Mel Maier wrote in an email. More than 28,500 public safety agencies and organizations nationwide now use FirstNet, AT&T noted.

The FCC confirmed the Sept. 9 deadline for comments on a recent Wireless Bureau notice concerning the future of the 37 GHz band (see 2408090034) in a notice for Tuesday’s Federal Register. The goal is “informing the forthcoming report mandated by the National Spectrum Strategy (NSS) Implementation Plan,” the notice said: “The NSS identified the Lower 37 GHz band for in-depth study to determine how a co-equal, shared-use framework which allows Federal and non-federal operations should be implemented.” The final report, with findings, is set for completion in November.

Representatives of CTIA and the major carriers urged the FCC to address an issue the agency raised on pole attachments in 2019, providing clarity that wireless providers have access to utility light poles (see 1911200033). CTIA met with Wireline Bureau staff, along with representatives of AT&T, T-Mobile and Verizon. "Commission actions over the past several years to clarify the rights and responsibilities under the Communications Act, including for the Section 224 pole attachment framework, have helped enhance transparency and efficiencies in the siting process,” a filing posted Friday in docket 17-84 said. CTIA urged the commission to “seek ways to streamline infrastructure deployment and clarify the rights and obligations of pole owners and attachers, in order to reduce or eliminate deployment barriers that remain.”

Spectrum for the Future (SFTF) encouraged the NTIA to focus on sharing as it examines the future of 6G, as the agency took comment as part of the national spectrum strategy (see 2408220043). “NTIA needs to approach the 6G ecosystem by looking beyond a single standard with a single deployment strategy,” SFTF said: “The reality of spectrum use and availability today, as well as in the future, compels spectrum policy to broaden its focus and embrace other coexistence standards and spectrum frameworks, like spectrum sharing.” Research shows that Wi-Fi handles 79% of AT&T’s mobile traffic, 77% of T-Mobile’s and 78% of Verizon’s. Like earlier generations, “6G networks will form only one part of a resilient and competitive wireless ecosystem.”

Prepaid competition is heating up between Verizon and T-Mobile. On Thursday, T-Mobile’s Mint Mobile announced AT&T and Verizon customers can switch to the low-cost carrier “and get service for the rest of the family for free.” Switchers buy one line, starting at $15/month, and get up to four additional lines for free for three months. “At Mint, our mission is to right the wrongs of AT&T and Verizon … who have collectively raised prices 11 times in just the last year,” said Aron North, Mint chief marketing officer. Verizon’s Visible made a counteroffer on Friday, saying T-Mobile customers could receive a five-year rate guarantee at $15 per month, per line. “While Mint is promoting this short-term deal that won’t last, we want to give people looking for a better deal ongoing savings, service and value with no hidden fees, period,” said Nancy Clark, president of Verizon Value.

Pushback against SpaceX's request for relaxed out-of-band power flux density limits for its supplemental coverage from space service (see 2408130008) is all about trying to use the regulatory process to block competition, SpaceX and T-Mobile said Friday in docket 23-135. SpaceX said "a familiar cast of wannabe competitors [is advocating] needlessly restrictive technical limits [lacking] support in physics or sound engineering practice." AT&T and Verizon are advocating unnecessarily low power levels for SpaceX/T-Mobile "while giving their own partner AST a free pass," it added. The Dish/EchoStar petition, SpaceX said, is trying to get proprietary information "to aid its own failing ambitions." Meanwhile, Omnispace uses its petition "to prop up a decade-old spectrum play that it fears will lose financial value if American consumers can enjoy ubiquitous mobile connectivity using the PCS G Block downlink." T-Mobile said the other wireless operators' assertions ignore SCS operational realities and rely on faulty engineering analyses, while Omnispace and Dish/EchoStar "miss the point."

Filings continue at the FCC on the hotly contested issue of whether the FCC should grant the FirstNet Authority and AT&T effective control of the 4.9 GHz band (see 2408160027). The proposal for such from the Public Safety Spectrum Alliance (PSSA) generated filings from both sides. Giving FirstNet control “would strip today’s 4.9 GHz public safety licensees’ right to expand their systems by forcing incumbent licensees to surrender the spectrum they are not using,” Amesville, Ohio, Mayor Gary Goosman wrote in a filing posted Friday in docket 07-100. “It would permit AT&T to use the band for commercial purposes, which runs counter to the mission of this public safety band,” Goosman said. The Virginia Fire Chiefs Association disagreed. “The FirstNet Authority has proven it can effectively manage the public safety spectrum, as evidenced by the successful nationwide deployment of Band 14,” it said.

Noting its launch operations are continuing, Dish Wireless asked the FCC to keep confidential information submitted to it as part of the broadband data collection process. In particular, Dish sought confidential treatment for the mobile propagation modeling and mobile link budget information it submitted, and mobile voice and data subscription numbers. Dish “recognizes that the current rules do not allow for confidential treatment of ‘provider-specific mobile deployment data,’” a filing posted Thursday in docket 19-195 said. But “disclosing the entirety of the data that DISH is required to submit in these two proceedings would have the perverse effect of harming a nascent 5G competitor, which would undermine the Commission’s ultimate goal of increasing broadband availability and competition,” Dish said.

The Wireless Innovation Forum announced the formation of the Highly Dynamic Spectrum Sharing Task Group. The organization will examine how sharing based on the citizens radio service band model can have applications in other bands. Google’s Andrew Clegg will head the project; he also is WInnForum’s chief technology officer. The group is expected to release a report or recommendation by February 2025, a Wednesday news release said. The release mentions the lower 3 GHz band, a top target of carriers for full-power licensed use (see 2405060051). “The purpose of this project is to start with the best practices identified in CBRS spectrum sharing, and then attempt to simplify and optimize these practices for future applications, including the 3.1 GHz band” Clegg said: “Future spectrum sharing will inevitably face a greater number of incumbent systems and a need for more rapid dynamic reconfiguration, and WInnForum is up to the challenge of adapting what we’ve done in CBRS. It’s the best place to start, given the sharing expertise we’ve developed over nearly ten years.” CommScope, Federated Wireless, Nokia, Sony, the Wireless ISP Association “and others to be announced” are backing the project.