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Subscribe • Advertise Thursday, February 13, 2020 Volume 8 | Issue 29

Show Calls it Quits After Mass Exhibitor Exodus The embattled Mobile World Conference 2020 in Barcelona couldn’t overcome the exodus of major exhibitors and attendees anymore and announced late yesterday they were canceling the show. In a statement from CEO GSMA Limited John Hoffman, concern for the health and safety of participants was the deciding factor.

“Since the first edition of Mobile World Congress in Barcelona in 2006,” Hoffman said, “the GSMA has convened the industry, governments, ministers, policymakers, operators and industry leaders across the broader ecosystem. With due regard to the safe and healthy environment in Barcelona and the host country today, the GSMA has cancelled MWC Barcelona 2020 because the global concern regarding the coronavirus outbreak, travel concern and other circumstances, make it impossible for the GSMA to hold the event,” he said. Continue Reading

CTI Towers Buys Cable One Tower Portfolio CTI Towers announced the acquisition of the entire tower portfolio of Cable One, Inc. The deal brings CTI’s tower portfolio to over 1,100 towers across the United States. The Cable One portfolio of approximately 110 towers is concentrated in the southwest and central areas of the country.

“The Cable One tower portfolio is the perfect augmentation to our existing portfolio and further expands our geographic profile to 47 of the 48 states in the continental U.S.,” said CTI CEO Tony Peduto. “We are pleased the Cable One management team recognized that CTI understands prioritizing connectivity, and over the years has developed procedures to ensure that CTI’s customers are able to deploy without any disruption to its partners’ broadband deployment.”

Cable One joins Comcast, Mediacom, Vyve Broadband, Inside Connect Cable and Sinclair Telecable as the most recent operator to transact with CTI. “Cable operators have been tremendous partners and understand broadband deployment comes in all forms,” Peduto said. “These providers are exploring their own wireless initiatives, whether it be through MVNOs, Fixed Wireless, WiFi or small cells, while offering broadband through their extensive fiber networks. As 5G services become readily available, we will be able to offer our tower and edge computing customers access to nearby fiber networks, minimizing capital deployment for delivering fiber to a tower site.”

Was DISH CEO Ergen the Key to the Court’s Pro-Merger Decision? UPDATE While there were a lot of moving parts and players in Tuesday’s court ruling against states blocking the T-Mobile-Sprint merger, the New York Post reports that DISH CEO Charlie Ergen may have had a bigger role than anyone knew. Ergen, a billionaire, may have been able to convince U.S. District Judge Victor Marrero that his satellite dish-grown company could fill the bill as the fourth major wireless carrier post-merger.

Judge Marrero acknowledged DISH in his ruling stating: “Finally, the FCC and DOJ have closely scrutinized this transaction and expended considerable energy and resources to arrange the entry of DISH as a fourth nationwide competitor. DISH’s statements at trial persuaded the Court that the new firm will take advantage of its opportunity, aggressively competing in the RMWTS Markets to the benefit of price-conscious consumers and opening for consumers to use a broad range of spectrum that had heretofore remained fallow.” (our emphasis) Continue Reading

Hargray Fiber Buys Electronet Hargray Fiber, a regional communications provider and metro-fiber builder, purchased Electronet, a fiber-based broadband communications company operating in Tallahassee, Florida. The transaction further expands Hargray's network in the southeast and positions the company to offer Electronet's customers and the broader commercial market a more robust suite of communications services.

Hargray Chairman/CEO Michael Gottdenker announced the acquisition on behalf of Hargray’s 800 employees. “Hargray's purpose is to empower people and communities to connect and thrive. We do this by envisioning and delivering customer delight – something not typically associated with most telecommunications service providers. We are particularly excited to partner with Electronet's existing team, led by Paul Watts, who combined have decades of experience and relationships in Tallahassee and who share our passion for customer delight.”

"We remain very committed to providing advanced broadband services to commercial businesses in the southeast,” said Hargray Fiber SVP Chris McCorkendale. “We plan to invest in the network and provide our full suite of communication products including enhanced data, voice, video, Hosted Unified Communications, Metro-Ethernet and multi-gigabit symmetrical circuits delivered exclusively over Hargray's 100 percent fiber-optic network."

Robocall Blocking Focus of Today’s FCC CAC Meeting The next meeting of the FCC’s Consumer Advisory Committee (CAC) will be held today, February 13, 2-3 p.m. at FCC headquarters. The Committee is expected to consider a recommendation presented by one of its working groups.

The CAC Robocall Report Working Group will present a recommendation on the gathering of data and/or sources of data relating to the availability and effectiveness of call blocking tools. These are described in paragraphs 88 to 90 of the agency’s Declaratory Ruling and Third Further Notice of Proposed Rulemaking in Advanced Methods to Target and Eliminate Unlawful Robocalls; Call Authentication Trust Anchor. This is a special meeting to consider this recommendation, and there will be no other action items on the meeting agenda.

February 12, 2020 at Close

Verizon to Hold Investor Meeting Today Verizon Communications Inc, (NYSE, Nasdaq: VZ) will hold an investor meeting today, Thursday, February 13. Presentations will be webcast and cover discussions of Verizon’s strategy, network leadership, and 5G progress.

The event begins at 8:30 a.m. Eastern Time. Access instructions and presentation materials will be available on Verizon’s Investor Relations website.

DISH to Release Q4 Earnings February 19 DISH Network Corp. (NASDAQ: DISH) will release financial results before a conference call to discuss its fourth quarter and year-end results on Wednesday, February 19. The results will be posted to the Investor Relations website.

The call will begin at noon Eastern Time. To attend the call, use the information below for dial-in access. When prompted on dial-in, use the conference ID and ask for the "DISH Network Q4 and Year-End 2019 Earnings Conference Call." Participant conference numbers: (800) 239-9838 (U.S.) and (323) 794-2551, Conference ID: 7030315 for 48 hours.

Missouri Show Me Poles and Cables And I'll Build My Own Broadband, Says Independence Demonstrating the state's “Show Me” gumption, the city of Independence, MO believes it has what it needs to build its own broadband network, reports The Examiner. In fact, Fort Collins, CO showed Mayor Eileen Weir and Chamber President Tom Lesnak what a city can do when it takes charge of its resources.

The traveling Missourians noted that Independence already has a jump on the groundwork with an existing fiber optic cable network and an excessive amount of utility poles. “It provides service to all citizens and residents,” explained Lesnak. “In Fort Collins, they had to bury everything, and it took a lot of time. We own the poles, and we have a lot of fiber in the ground already.” Weir added, "We’ve seen some places and gathered some information about cities who have implemented broadband. It’s just something to look at to see if we can do it.” Continue Reading

FCC to Vote on CBRS Auction Procedures The FCC released its draft bidding procedures for the auction of 3.5 GHz Citizens Broadband Radio Service (CBRS) licenses in the 3550-3650 MHz band. The proposed application window would open on March 26, and close on April 9.

Bidding is slated to begin on June 25. Auction 105 will assign up to seven Priority Access Licenses (PALs) in each county-based license area, for a total of 22,631 PALs nationwide. Each PAL will consist of a 10-megahertz unpaired channel. PALs are 10-year renewable licenses.

The FCC intends to vote on the rules on February 28. Auction 105 will offer the greatest number of spectrum licenses ever made available for bidding in a single auction, according to the agency. It’s intended to further the deployment of 5G wireless, the Internet of Things, and other advanced spectrum-based services.

The FDA Says Cell Phones Don’t Cause Cancer and Rat Study is Flawed This month, the FDA released a report titled “Review of Published Literature between 2008 and 2018 of Relevance to Radiofrequency Radiation and Cancer.” The findings said there’s “no consistent pattern” to link radiofrequency radiation, or RFR, to tumors or cancer.”

MIT Technology Review reported that the study reviewed 125 experiments carried out on animals and 75 on humans between 2008 and August 2019. MIT also noted overarching problems regarding both the animal and human studies.

Notably, rats don’t mimic how humans actually use their cell phones. According to MIT, animal studies often douse a rat’s entire body in radiation at levels that are far higher than what humans are typically exposed to when using cell phones. The human studies were also flawed, relying only on questionnaires from family members or observational data. Continue Reading

The Expansive View From Everest​ While Michael Mackey, President of Everest Infrastructure Partners, has plenty to look forward to in 2020, the year he just put behind him was one of solid achievement and growth for his Pittsburgh-based company. Over the past twelve months, Everest added 200 towers and ground sites to its portfolio of owned properties and closed nearly 100 tenant lease transactions, adding significant incremental value for the company.

The marquee transaction for Everest in 2019 was the acquisition of nearly 100 communications facilities purchased from Frontier Communications. These assets are heavily concentrated in Connecticut, New York and California, all of which are notoriously difficult regions to permit and build towers. Everest also acquired or developed a dozen more sites in New England and numerous others across the U.S. Today, Everest owns 400 communications facilities across 45 states. “Of course, none of this growth would have been possible without Everest’s team of skilled communications infrastructure professionals,” said Mackey. Continue Reading

QComm Reflects on Repack Process and Record QCommunications, an engineering project management and installation vendor specializing in The Spectrum Act (REPACK project), has released statistics that indicate the company is closing in on a milestone. According to Tony zumMallen, QComm president and CEO, as of February 12, 2020, 95% of its LPTV REPACK customers have been deemed eligible for reimbursement by the FCC.

“So many LPTV broadcasters are unaware or mis-informed about the application procedure required to determine their eligibility for reimbursement,” explained zumMallen. “At QComm, we not only assist with the entire REPACK process – from needs assessment to transmitter installation to coverage verification – we help broadcasters navigate the paper path and meet all the requirements for reimbursement. We’ve already helped process many millions of dollars and 95% of our LPTV clients have been deemed eligible. And one of the best parts is that our repack services are covered for reimbursement, so there is little risk to the broadcaster.” Continue Reading

Take Sitetracker's Telecom Infrastructure Survey

Sitetracker released its first Telecom Infrastructure Survey to gather actionable insights from the people making 5G and the connectivity of tomorrow a reality today.

“This is a survey for doers,” said Brett Chester, VP of Marketing at Sitetracker, “the people that get things done, and the heroes of change that push the industry forward by challenging the status quo. They climb towers, build companies, manage projects, and much more. From the field to the C-suite, they embrace operational excellence and seek continuous improvement. They’re the ones that are and will be leading the industry through this new decade and beyond. In that spirit, Sitetracker is opening the Telecom Infrastructure Survey to gather telecom’s best insights and empower these heroes of change to drive the industry forward,” Chester said. Sitetracker is calling for responses for this in-depth survey from industry experts at all levels of telecom firms, from C- Suite to field technicians. Telecom infrastructure professionals are encouraged to submit survey responses until February 23, 2020. Respondents will receive exclusive access to the full survey results, actionable insights and an unbiased view of current trends, enabling them to implement best practices and lead the industry. Take the survey here.

Meet With Our Friends at NATE UNITE 2020!

ABIS Solutions – Booth # 1025 Anritsu Company – Booth # 502 B+T Group – Booth # 921 Carolinas Wireless Association – Booth # 204 CommScope – Booth # 423 Drake Lighting, Inc. – Booth # 635 Enertech -- Booth # 1019 e-System – Booth # 908 GME Supply – Booth # 617 | 623 | 722 | 723 International Tower Lighting – Booth # 801 LBA Group, Inc – Booth # 402 Mafi Group – Booth # 823 Microwave Vision Group (MVG)– Booth # 307 National Wireless Safety Alliance (NWSA) – Booth # 609 PerfectVision – Booth # 901 Petzl America – Booth # 629 Preformed Line Products – Booth #1029 Qualtek – Booth # 428 Raycap, Inc – Booth # 311 Sitetracker, Inc – Booth # 218 Tower Engineering Professionals – Booth # 501 Tower Family Foundation – Booth # 228 Valmont – Booth # 701 Wireless Industry Network – Booth # 235 Wireless Supply, LLC – Booth # 911 Women of NATE – Booth # 232

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Managing Editor: Jim Fryer Washington Bureau Chief: Leslie Stimson Reporter: Keara M. Piekanski Contributing Analyst: John Celentano Marketing & Advertising: Megan Reed Creative & Advertising: Cara Aston Advertising: Phil Cook

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