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Telecom Industry News
| CWA in the News CWA, On the Strike Line: Remembering Gerry Horgan, 8/8 Live 5 News, AT&T workers hold informational picket amid ongoing contract negotiations, 8/6 The Guardian, US chip factory workers say it’s a ‘struggle to survive’ on their wages as industry booms, 8/5 Fierce Telecom, CWA: Broadband workers’ safety and wages have gone down, 7/29 WirelessLight Reading, Starry sets sights on profitability, 8/8 NTIA, More than 225 Applications Totaling Nearly $3 Billion Submitted for the Wireless Innovation Fund, 8/1 Fierce Wireless, WISPs are loving NTIA’s new spectrum rules for BEAD, 7/31 Fierce Wireless, Op-Ed: Lawsuit over T-Mobile’s pricing? No surprise., 7/29 Wireline Broadband Communities, SiFi Networks, T-Mobile Fiber celebrate broadband expansions, 8/8 Fierce Telecom, Real money starts to flow in U.S. fiber deployments, 8/7 Data Center Dynamics, Lumen Technologies says it’s made $5bn in sales thanks to AI, could make another $7bn, 8/6 Bloomberg Law, Lumen Leaders Misrepresented Fiber Segment Expansion, Suit Says, 8/6 Lightwave, Frontier sees broadband deployment savings potential in self-installs, 8/6 Wall Street Journal, T-Mobile Has a New Side Gig: Fiber Internet, 7/31 Other Corporate Developments Light Reading, EchoStar sheds more subs as possible bankruptcy looms, 8/9 Fierce Telecom, BEAD is ‘unlikely’ to bring broadband that will last, 8/9 Bloomberg, Searchlight’s $3 Billion Telecom Deal Hit With Court Challenge, 8/7 RCR Wireless, Verizon to use AI, ML to prevent fiber damage from excavations, 8/7 Fierce Telecom, SpaceX’s Gwynne Shotwell says Starlink is very interested in BEAD, 8/6 Wall Street Journal, Google’s Antitrust Loss Set to Reshape Search and Mobile Industries, 8/6 Ars Technica, Low-income homes drop Internet service after Congress kills discount program, 7/29 CWA in the News On the Strike Line: Remembering Gerry Horgan CWA, 8/8/2024 One longstanding tradition at CWA is wearing red on Thursdays. We do this not just to show our solidarity with one another but in honor of a very special man, CWA Local 1103 Chief Steward E. Gerald “Gerry” Horgan.True to his nature, Gerry was a leader, fighting injustice and working for his union siblings. When the union went on strike in 1989 against the NYNEX Corporation, Gerry was on the picket line, encouraging others, running messages, and doing everything to make their strike a success. The corporation, however, hired scab workers to replace the strikers. Gerry was struck and killed by a scab worker who drove through the picket line.Please click here to watch a video about that day and the impact of his loss. [Link to full article] AT&T workers hold informational picket amid ongoing contract negotiations AT&T workers represented by the Communication Workers of America Local 3704 held an information picket line Monday. By Bella Carpentier, 8/6/2024 Live 5 News AT&T workers represented by the Communication Workers of America Local 3704 held an information picket line Monday to raise awareness for ongoing contract negotiations in Atlanta.Negotiations between CWA District 3 and AT&T started on June 25. This process affects workers across nine southeast states, including South Carolina, who are covered by the BellSouth Telecommunications contract.That contract expired on Aug. 3. [Link to full article] US chip factory workers say it’s a ‘struggle to survive’ on their wages as industry booms Companies stand to gain billions in federal funds and tax breaks as employees suffer in poor working conditions By Michael Sainato, 8/5/2024 The Guardian As chip manufacturers grapple for billions of dollars in federal funds and tax breaks designed to boost the US semiconductor industry, they face growing calls from inside their factories to improve working conditions and pay.Workers and labour unions are urging key companies in the sector to “do the right thing” and prioritize the wellbeing of employees over the wealth of their shareholders.Dozens of employees at Analog Devices Inc (ADI), a chipmaker in Oregon, demanding living wages, paid shutdowns and safe working conditions as it vies for a slice of the $39bn in federal funds provided by the Chips and Science Act, signed by Joe Biden in 2022. [Link to full article] CWA: Broadband workers’ safety and wages have gone down By Masha Abarinova, 7/29/2024 Fierce Telecom· Broadband jobs are “less safe than they used to be,” said CWA’s Ceilidh Gao· CWA’s new “report card” graded broadband projects on how well they incorporated transparency, equity and labor standards· Projects that offered union representation, local employment opportunities and prevailing wages scored higher in CWA’s books We hear a lot of talk from the broadband industry about how there’s a labor shortage. But there’s not so much a labor shortage as there is “a shortage of good jobs,” according to Ceilidh Gao, senior research associate at Communication Workers of America (CWA).Wages “have gone down in recent decades” and the jobs are “less safe than they used to be,” she told Fierce. ISPs also often subcontract work to companies that didn’t receive public broadband funding, hindering the accountability of work conditions.“ Oftentimes these companies…are not incentivized to do safe work,” Gao said. “They’re being paid by the project, they may be rushed. And when a state or locality discovers problems with the poles, with installation, this company is often long gone.” [Link to full article] Wireless Starry sets sights on profitability Starry, the fixed wireless specialist that emerged from bankruptcy about a year ago, is poised to turn profitable in early 2025 and get back to ‘growth mode,’ says CEO Alex Moulle-Berteaux. By Jeff Baumgartner, 8/8/2024 Light Reading Nearly a year after Starry emerged from bankruptcy as a private company, the fixed wireless access (FWA) specialist is just months away from achieving profitability, says CEO Alex Moulle-Berteaux.Amid a restructuring process that significantly cut operational and capital costs, Starry set a plan last year to turn that corner within a period of 12 to 18 months. “We’re on track and within a few months now of reaching that point,” Moulle-Berteaux said this week in an interview. Starry is in position to turn that financial corner sometime in early 2025, he said. [Link to full article] More than 225 Applications Totaling Nearly $3 Billion Submitted for the Wireless Innovation Fund NTIA, 8/1/2024 The Department of Commerce’s National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) announced today that it received 227 applications requesting more than $2.94 billion in funding to support wireless equipment innovation. The second Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO) in the Public Wireless Supply Chain Innovation Fund will make up to $420 million available to invest in projects that will drive commercialization and innovation in open radio units. Radio units, which sit at the top of cell phone towers to transmit and receive signals, are the largest and most costly part of the carrier network. “Making open radio units more widely available will build momentum toward greater adoption of open and interoperable networks,” said Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Communications and Information and NTIA Administrator Alan Davidson. “The interest in this round of funding will lead to a stronger wireless supply chain for the U.S. and our allies.” [Link to full article] WISPs are loving NTIA’s new spectrum rules for BEAD By Masha Abarinova and Linda Hardesty , 7/31/2024 Fierce Wireless· WISPA hopes the NTIA’s upcoming guidance will encourage states to be more welcoming toward fixed wireless access (FWA) BEAD projects· The fewer WISPs apply for BEAD, the less likely states are to allow any FWA in their high-cost thresholds· But if a location can’t be served with fiber, FBA would prefer licensed FWA It’s not just for fiber, folks. NTIA wants to give fixed wireless access (FWA) companies a bigger seat at the federal broadband funding table. At the Fiber Connect show in Nashville, NTIA Chief Alan Davidson said the agency plans to release further guidance in the coming weeks on the use of alternate technologies for the $42.5 billion Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) program. That guidance, he said, will allow the use of unlicensed spectrum in some cases.Why is this a big deal? Well, the NTIA has already determined that fixed wireless access broadband, using licensed spectrum, is eligible for BEAD grants in high-cost areas. So, for instance, companies using the Citizen Broadband Radio Service (CBRS) band’s General Authorized Access (GAA) tier can already bid, said WISPA Communications Director Mike Wendy. [Link to full article] Op-Ed: Lawsuit over T-Mobile’s pricing? No surprise. By Monica Alleven, 7/29/2024 Fierce Wireless· Back in 2017, T-Mobile said it was “giving you—and only you—the power to change the price you pay”· That didn’t actually seem to be the case since T-Mobile announced in May 2024 that it was raising rates on plans that customers thought were guaranteed for life· Angry customers filed a litany of complaints with T-Mobile and the FCC and now some of them are pursuing a class action lawsuit Chances looked pretty good earlier this year that a class action suit would be filed after T-Mobile said the “price lock guarantee” that many customers thought they had signed up for wasn’t actually a lifetime guarantee.Indeed, four named plaintiffs earlier this month filed a complaint in U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey seeking class action status. They said T-Mobile in 2017 promised that customers who signed up for certain plans were promised those rates for life and T-Mobile broke that promise in May 2024 when it “unilaterally did away with these legacy phone plans” and switched the plaintiffs to more expensive plans without their consent. [Link to full article] Wireline SiFi Networks, T-Mobile Fiber celebrate broadband expansions SiFi Networks and T-Mobile Fiber are celebrating broadband expansions into five cities across four states. By Brad Randall, 8/8/2024 Broadband Communities T-Mobile Fiber, in partnership with SiFi Networks, has increased their broadband service offerings into cities in California, Wisconsin, Illinois and Michigan. In a recent announcement, released by SiFi Networks this week, the California cities of Palmdale and Oceanside were named as part of the expansion effort. Other cities to be named included Farmington, Michigan, Kenosha, Wisconsin, and Rockford, Illinois. [Link to full article] Real money starts to flow in U.S. fiber deployments By Linda Hardesty, 8/7/2024 Fierce Telecom· Everyone has been waiting for billions to flow into the fiber ecosystem from BEAD· Middle-mile networks are seeing the first of the major green stuff and trickling it down to vendors· A deal between the Alabama Fiber Network and Arista is the latest example Money is beginning to really flow into the U.S. fiber ecosystem, but the dollars are coming from a somewhat unexpected source – middle-mile and long-haul fiber projects. Case in point: Today the Alabama Fiber Network (AFN) struck a deal with Arista Networks to secure routing and switching equipment for its 6,600-mile open-access, middle-mile network.Arista’s bread and butter is mainly providing routers and switches for data centers. But Mark Foss, SVP of Global Operations and Marketing for Arista, told Fierce Network, “Data center switching is our core market, but Ethernet is a ubiquitous technology that spans many different markets and applications. This particular application is ‘middle mile,’ which is a service-provider application that utilizes Arista 7280s in a regional packet/optical network.”AFN also just recently announced that it selected Ciena as its optical networking vendor for the middle-mile project. [Link to full article] Lumen Technologies says it’s made $5bn in sales thanks to AI, could make another $7bn Company recently signed a deal with Microsoft By Sebastian Moss, 8/6/2024 Data Center Dynamics US telecoms company Lumen has secured $5 billion in new business, which it said was primarily due to AI sales.The company’s share price jumped more than 70 percent on the news, with the company adding that it was in active discussions with customers to secure another $7bn in sales.Lumen will more than double its intercity network miles over the next five years, the company said.”The AI economy is changing business operations, and companies are recognizing they need powerful network infrastructure to manage the unprecedented data flows today and the demand in the future,” said Kate Johnson, president and CEO, Lumen Technologies. [Link to full article] Lumen Leaders Misrepresented Fiber Segment Expansion, Suit Says By Martina Barash, 8/6/2024 Bloomberg Law Lumen Technologies Inc. executives and directors overstated the telecom company’s expansion of its fiber-optic network to medium and small businesses and residential customers, an investor says in a suit on behalf of the company. Lumen was harmed because it overcompensated the board members and executives, overpaid by about $750 million when repurchasing shares when the stock price was inflated, and will need to spend money on class litigation and internal investigations and reforms, Arthur Slack says. He filed his derivative suit Monday in the US District Court for the Western District of Louisiana. Slack asked the board to commence a suit on behalf of the company, but it hasn’t done so despite saying it appointed a committee to look into the matter, according to the complaint. That constitutes “an improper and wrongful refusal” of the demand, paving the way for the derivative suit, he says. [Link to full article] Frontier sees broadband deployment savings potential in self-installs By Sean Buckley, 8/6/2024 Lightwave The provider sees an opportunity to reduce fiber installation costs as it added 90,000 new fiber broadband subscribers in the second quarter. Frontier wants to change how customers activate fiber-based broadband service. Instead of waiting for the technician to show up, the telco recently introduced a self-installation option that allows customers to set up high-speed fiber internet at their convenience. When Frontier acquires a new customer, it must install an optical network terminal (ONT) and set them up to access the network. As the base of installed fiber customers grows, when people move out of an existing connected home and somebody else moves in, the self-install process becomes easy for a consumer.Speaking to investors during Frontier’s second-quarter earnings call, Scott Beasley, the company’s CFO, said it benefits the telco by enabling it to reduce truck rolls and connection costs. [Link to full article] T-Mobile Has a New Side Gig: Fiber Internet Wireless provider is creeping into fiber-optic connections; it has a long way to catch up to AT&T and Verizon By Drew FitzGerald, 7/31/2024 Wall Street Journal The second-biggest cellphone carrier by subscribers has pieced together at least five partnerships with fiber-optic internet providers that could serve millions of customers in the coming years. Those deals, added to the roughly five million homes and businesses already linked to its 5G broadband service over the air, put the Bellevue, Wash., company on the cusp of becoming a major home internet provider in its own right.T-Mobile US, which was pieced together through several wireless company mergers, hasn’t had to build out a fiber network as its biggest rivals have and now is playing catch-up on the ground. AT&T and Verizon are spending billions of dollars to grow their existing fiber-optic networks and add to the millions of broadband clients they already serve, mostly in regions covered by their historical landline-telephone infrastructure. Cable-TV providers, meanwhile, are adding wireless phone services. [Link to full article] Other Corporate Developments EchoStar sheds more subs as possible bankruptcy looms Mobile, pay-TV and broadband sub losses continued at EchoStar/Dish in Q2 2024. The company is conserving cash, but analysts say the company could go bankrupt – possibly by late 2024 – unless it can raise more cash. By Jeff Baumgartner, 8/9/2024 Light Reading EchoStar’s story remained relatively unchanged in the second quarter of 2024, as the company lost more mobile, pay-tv and broadband subs in the face of a cash crunch that’s pushing the company toward the brink of bankruptcy. Analysts are painting a bleak picture for EchoStar (which combined with Dish Network last year seeking synergies and cash to fuel its 5G network buildout) unless the company can raise more cash – and soon. However, a cash-raising scenario is complicated by a bondholder lawsuit over the aforementioned merger. “We’ve made our view clear. We see EchoStar’s odds of success as a wireless operator to be vanishingly small,” Moffett Nathanson analyst Craig Moffett said in a research note (registration required) issued today following the release of EchoStar’s Q2 results. “We believe EchoStar is instead highly likely to go bankrupt, quite possibly by the end of the year.” [Link to full article] BEAD is ‘unlikely’ to bring broadband that will last By Masha Abarinova, 8/9/2024 Fierce Telecom· BEAD money will likely short of connecting all U.S. citizens to fiber broadband· It’s also not enough to provide speeds beyond 100/20 Mbps, said Connect Humanity’s Brian Vo· The federal government has already poured lots of money toward tackling the digital divide, and we haven’t got there yet BEAD money may be enough to connect most folks to 100/20 Mbps, but those speeds likely won’t cut it by the end of the decade, said Connect Humanity’s Brian Vo.We’ve heard from the White House that the Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment (BEAD) program will help connect everyone in the country to reliable and affordable high-speed internet by 2030. The task is nothing if not ambitious, but the big question is whether the allotted $42.5 billion can get us there.If this is a once-in-a-generation funding opportunity to connect people with “technologies that will last a generation, then unlikely,” argued Brian Vo, chief investment officer at non-profit Connect Humanity. [Link to full article] Searchlight’s $3 Billion Telecom Deal Hit With Court Challenge By Mike Leonard, 8/7/2024 Bloomberg Consolidated Communications Holdings Inc. board members engineered an underpriced $3.1 billion buyout by Searchlight Capital Partners LP while hiding conflicts of interest and an illegal stockholder agreement, according to a lawsuit challenging the transaction. An investor sued the telecommunications business and its directors, saying they duped shareholders into the take-private sale at a price reflecting one-third of outside value estimates and less than 80% of the board’s own target. Although Consolidted’s shares soared after news of the transaction in October, two significant stockholders have come out against the deal, which would cede control of the business just as it’s set to profit from costly long-term investments in fiber, the suit says. [Link to full article] Verizon to use AI, ML to prevent fiber damage from excavations By Catherine Sbeglia Nin, 8/7/2024 RCR Wireless Verizon will use AI to sort through more than the ten million dig requests made annually to identify high-risk excavations Verizon is utilizing advanced artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) techniques to prevent damage to its fiber infrastructure caused by accidental cuts during construction and excavations. The carrier explained that proprietary AI technology will sort through more than the ten million dig requests made annually to identify high-risk excavations by factoring in the location’s historical and current activity, as well as the past performance of the excavator on-site. “We are using artificial intelligence and machine learning to be proactive, rather than reactive, keeping our customers connected and preventing accidents that result in costly repairs,” said Julie Slattery, SVP of core engineering and operations at Verizon, adding that calling 811 (the national call-before-you-dig phone number in the U.S.) prior to beginning any project that requires digging is the “easiest” way to reduce the chance of damaging underground fiber. [Link to full article] SpaceX’s Gwynne Shotwell says Starlink is very interested in BEAD By Linda Hardesty, 8/6/2024 Fierce Telecom· SpaceX President Gwynne Shotwell captivated the audience at today’s Mountain Connect conference· She said SpaceX’s Starlink is very interested in participating in BEAD· But Starlink has some concerns about the BEAD program rules At today’s Mountain Connect conference, one of Elon Musk’s top lieutenants — Gwynne Shotwell, president and COO of SpaceX — regaled the audience with exciting stories about rocket launches, and she also touted SpaceX’s Starlink broadband service as a great way to close the digital divide in hard-to-reach rural locations. Shotwell also revealed SpaceX was working with the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) on some “structural elements” to determine if SpaceX will bid for Broadband Equity Access and Deployment (BEAD) projects. Despite Musk’s recent bashing of BEAD, Shotwell said SpaceX is “very interested in participating” in BEAD. And she thinks satellite is going to be a necessary technology to reach the most far-flung places. [Link to full article] Google’s Antitrust Loss Set to Reshape Search and Mobile Industries End of paid search engine placement would affect companies including Microsoft, Apple and Samsung By Miles Kruppa, 8/6/2024 Wall Street Journal Google’s loss in a historic U.S. antitrust trial is reverberating across Silicon Valley, where the ruling is likely to affect not just the search giant but also its largest collaborators and competitors. Google parent Alphabet’s deals to get its search engine in front of users by paying to be the default on browsers and mobile phones have been declared illegal by a federal judge. If Google doesn’t successfully appeal Monday’s ruling, the landscape will change for a search industry long dominated by one company and for partners that have shared in its plentiful advertising sales. [Link to full article] Low-income homes drop Internet service after Congress kills discount program Charter CEO says “customers’ ability to pay” a concern after $30 discounts end. By JON BRODKIN, 7/29/2024 Ars Technica The death of the US government’s Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP) is starting to result in disconnection of Internet service for Americans with low incomes. On Friday, Charter Communications reported a net loss of 154,000 Internet subscribers that it said was mostly driven by customers canceling after losing the federal discount. About 100,000 of those subscribers were reportedly getting the discount, which in some cases made Internet service free to the consumer. The $30 monthly broadband discounts provided by the ACP ended in May after Congress failed to allocate more funding. The Biden administration requested $6 billion to fund the ACP through December 2024, but Republicans called the program “wasteful.”Republican lawmakers’ main complaint was that most of the ACP money went to households that already had broadband before the subsidy was created. FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel warned that killing the discounts would reduce Internet access, saying an FCC survey found that 77 percent of participating households would change their plan or drop Internet service entirely once the discounts expired. [Link to full article] cwa-union.org Text CWAACTION to 49484 to Join Our Rapid Response Text List You will receive CWA news & info. Recurring messages. Message & data rates may apply. Terms & Conditions: cwa.org/sms-terms. Privacy Policy: cwa.org/privacy. Communications Workers of America, AFL-CIO, CLC. |
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