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Subscribe • Advertise Wednesday, December 16, 2020 Volume 8 | Issue 243
Iowa Mediacom Sues to Stop City’s Google Fiber Partnership West Des Moines had planned to provide ultra-high-speed Google Fiber internet throughout the city, but the effort is being halted by a lawsuit from internet provider Mediacom. The legal action states the city violated multiple state laws in its pursuit of connectivity, according to the Des Moines Register.
The arrangement with Google was applauded by city officials at the time, saying it met the goals the city set forth in their WDM 2036 strategic plan. West Des Moines would be the 19th city nationwide to receive a Google Fiber network and the first in Iowa, according to the account.
The complaint cites an Iowa law designed to bolster development of blighted areas with fiber optic cable. Mediacom said the law was misused and misinterpreted to favor Google by issuing bonds worth more than $40 million to build out the network. The company, which employs about 400 workers in West Des Moines, contends the city never opened the project for competitive bids. Continue Reading
FCC, CenturyLink Settle 2018 Outage Probe The FCC and CenturyLink settled an investigation into whether the telecom violated the Commission's rules in connection with a multi state outage in December 2018. As part of a Consent Decree, CenturyLink agreed to admit guilt and pay a $500,000 civil penalty. In exchange, the Enforcement Bureau agreed to drop the case and not pursue a hearing questioning CenturyLink’s qualifications as an FCC licensee.
The case began on the morning of December 27, 2018, when CenturyLink experienced a widespread multi state outage on one of its transport networks that lasted for almost 37 hours. The outage was caused by a combination of an equipment failure and a network configuration error, according to the agency and the carrier.
The outage affected carriers, business customers, and consumers who directly or indirectly relied on CenturyLink’s transport services, which route communications traffic from various providers to locations across the county. Continue Reading
DataBank Closes Acquisition of zColo's U.S. and U.K. Data Center Assets UPDATE DataBank announced yesterday it has closed its acquisition of zColo data center assets from Zayo Group Holdings. With this transaction, DataBank now has 60 data centers spread across 28 key markets in the U.S. and U.K. A second closing for the five data centers in France is expected in Q1 2021.
This announcement comes on the heels of DataBank's strategic investment in EdgePresence, which accelerates DataBank's edge data center strategy by adding modular facilities to augment its traditional data center portfolio.
"DataBank has now assembled a unique portfolio of data center infrastructure and network interconnect options to address customer workloads anywhere from Tier 1 markets to the far edge," comments DataBank CEO Raul Martynek. "With an open interconnect architecture and virtually unlimited geographic options, we are poised to help our customers in the U.S. migrate their workloads and adapt to the next evolution of the internet: the hyper- localization of data and compute being unleashed by 5G networks."
The transaction was funded by an investor group led by Colony Capital, Inc. (NYSE: CLNY), DataBank's controlling shareholder. In addition to leading a consortium of institutional investors to support the acquisition, Colony Capital invested $145 million from its balance sheet to maintain its 20 percent stake in DataBank.
4,700 Radios in First Responders' Stockings Morris County, New Jersey is spending $26 million to upgrade its emergency communications system and radio network, including 4,700 new radios for emergency personnel. According to the The Patch, Mendham-Chester edition, the wide, sweeping plans also include revamping 13 existing sites, and adding one new cell tower to sew up coverage gaps. Motorola has been contracted to oversee the project.
"This is the radio system used each and every day by Morris County first responders and most municipalities within the county," said Freeholder Douglas Cabana, the board's Law and Public Safety liaison. "The upgrade that will be implemented over the coming year not only brings us in line with federal requirements, but also will improve the communications capabilities among everyone relying on the network and eliminate coverage gaps that previously existed in some parts of the county." Continue Reading
Broadband Maps, “Rip & Replace” on The Edge Pressure is building for Congressional lawmakers to fund broadband internet connectivity this week before they leave Capitol Hill for the holidays. There’s a rush to lock down FCC broadband mapping and Huawei “rip-and-replace” appropriations as part of the year-end government funding bill. There’s also a fight to secure about $10 billion for broadband as part of a bicameral, bipartisan coronavirus relief measure, Politico reported.
Senator Joe Manchin (D-WV) emphasized the need for broadband funding as part of this $908 billion consensus relief effort. That would translate to:
$6.25 billion for state broadband deployment and connectivity grants; $3 billion to bolster FCC E-Rate subsidy support for students who may need WiFi hotspots or other devices to connect at home; $200 million for the Institute of Museum and Library Services to help buy and circulate such devices in low- income and rural areas; $475 million more for the FCC’s COVID-19 Telehealth Program set up earlier this year; and $100 million for a veterans’ connectivity program.
Senators divided the proposal into two pieces on Monday as they pressed colleagues to consider the rescue package.
December 15, 2020 at Close
Texas Primoris to Spend $620 Million for Future Infrastructure Holdings Primoris Services Corp., of Dallas, is slated to acquire Future Infrastructure Holdings, of Mesquite, TX, for $620 million. The Dallas Morning News reported that the acquisition would allow Primoris to buy into “growth in broadband internet and 5G deployments.”
As of September 30, 2020, Future Infrastructure reported fiscal year-end revenue of $342 million and earnings of $66 million before taxes, depreciation, and amortization. The company has 1,100 employees that maintain, repair, and install telecommunication infrastructure, reported The News. Primoris, a leader in required infrastructure services for the utility and energy industries, realized $3.1 billion in revenue last year. The company employs more than 12,000 workers, reported The News.
Primoris CEO Tom McCormick described the opportunity as “a defining moment” for the 60-year-old company. According to the company, the deal positions Primoris in “the large and growing telecommunication services market.”
Illinois AT&T Takes County to Court AT&T Mobility asserts that its right to build a tower has been violated and has taken the matter to the Illinois courts. Citing the Telecommunications Act of 1996, AT&T contends that the state's restrictions have violated that federal law, reports Law Street Media.
By refusing permission to allow construction, the Monroe County, Illinois' Board of Zoning Appeals and Board of Commissioners favored their own ordinances over the federal ruling, according to AT&T. In its complaint, AT&T stated that it is compelled to build a 155-foot monopole cell tower to address “significant service deficiencies in its personal wireless service coverage in the area.” Continue Reading
Get Updated DHS-CISA Access Letter for NATE Members NATE has an updated version of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) Access letter. The letter was designed by the DHS-CISA to intentionally be more open-ended and not have a deadline because the pandemic situation is fluid. This letter is also intended to be used not only for the COVID-19 pandemic, but also for any natural disasters a region may be experiencing, including hurricanes, fires, tornados, and floods.
NATE has been given permission to provide these letters to the association’s member companies. Many NATE members deploy, maintain and repair critical communications infrastructure. Continue Reading
Google Might “Light” The Way For Broadband In Rural India VIDEO UPDATE Google is potentially partnering with two local telcos in India to bring the internet to underserved areas. Android Police reported that the initiative, named Project Taara, will “relay internet signals through wireless optical communications links” (or light beams) to provide internet connections.
Alphabet’s X lab created the technology, which has been tested in parts of India and Africa for several years. Now, Google is reportedly partnering with India’s two biggest wireless operators, Airtel and Jio, to deploy the technology, according to Android Police, to close the knowledge gap and digital divide in remote parts of the country.
Google says its technology is suitable for irregular terrains where laying fiber cable can be a challenge. That includes much of rural India, where topography makes deployment costs prohibitive. The light beams enable linking to a connected tower up to 12.5 miles away with data speeds up to 20Gbps. The optical link uses the same principle as the usual fiber optics cable to transfer data using light signals, porting it into the wireless form, reported Android Police. One drawback is that the light beams can’t pass through physical obstacles. Continue Reading
Deutsche Telekom and Microsoft Sign New Seven-Year Deal Deutsche Telekom Group and Microsoft Corp. announced a seven-year agreement that is an expansion of their partnership. The deal combines Microsoft’s cloud and AI capabilities with Telekom’s Cloud Migration Framework and telecommunications services.
The collaboration is designed to enable customers to increase their productivity, build more agile and resilient operations and deliver new cloud offerings faster. Telekom says it plans to migrate the majority of its internal IT workloads to the public cloud by 2025.
"We have agreed on the framework for joint strategic growth with our long-term partner Microsoft. We are delighted," said Adel Al-Saleh, member of the Deutsche Telekom Board of Management and CEO of T-Systems. "This partnership will enable us to enhance services for our customers. We will also be supporting each other with digitalization and network build-out."
CommScope Announces Industry “First” 204 MHz Digital Return CommScope yesterday announced what the company is calling the industry’s first 204 MHz digital return, enabling operators to deploy a high split in their upstream band and deliver new gigabit speeds. The digital return solution consists of the CommScope DT4600N node transmitter and DR3600N headend receiver. Together, they establish an optical link that delivers consistent performance across all link distances between CommScope’s NC4000, NC2000 and OM41x0 node platforms and its CH3000 headend optics platform.
CommScope’s high-split (204MHz) digital return enables operators to evolve their networks, building on an installed base of optical nodes to fully capture the benefits of DOCSIS 3.1. By implementing a high split with digital return, operators will be able to consistently deliver higher upstream bandwidth and faster upload speeds, irrespective of link distance, according to CommScope. The company says digital return is the only practical way to achieve the high link performance required for a fully loaded 5-204MHz upstream utilizing 1024-QAM or even higher - independent of distance, up to and even beyond 100km. Continue Reading
Women of NATE Education Scholorship Announced
Women of NATE (WON) is proud to announce the establishment of the WON Education Scholarship. The scholarship was designed to encourage and inspire more women to enter the tower and communications infrastructure construction, service and maintenance industries.
Women play a prominent role as leaders and visionaries in the advancement of wireless and broadcast communications. Through the establishment of the WON initiative, the Association is proud to recognize the vital contributions of men and women in the diverse tower and communications infrastructure industry. Two separate scholarships valued up to $1,000 each may be awarded to two different applicants.
Chairwoman Andy Page Lee of Lee Antenna & Line Service, Inc. stated, “One of the goals of the Women of NATE is to help empower women to heightened greatness. We hope this scholarship opportunity will inspire applicant candidates on their journey”.
Application documents must be received in the NATE office by January 15, 2021. In addition to the one-page application form, applicants must provide an essay describing how the WON Education Scholarship will help them achieve their goals, a high school transcript, a letter of acceptance from the school they will be attending, and a letter of nomination from a current NATE member company. To find out more about the WON Education Scholarship, click here. Award recipients will be announced on February 15, 2021.
Microlab Helps Keep 5G Mid-band Deployments on Schedule
The Mid-band spectrum for 5G is one of the most valuable wireless resources available in recent years. Wireless operators are vying for this new mid-band spectrum in FCC auctions, most recently for 3.5 GHz CBRS priority access licenses and the C-band (3.7-3.98 GHz) auction.
Microlab is poised and ready with new products for CBRS and C-bands. The company is a leading component and an integrated solution partner for tackling the challenges with 5G network deployments.
Based in Parsippany, New Jersey, Microlab designs and manufactures a line of RF signal distribution and conditioning components, including splitters, directional couplers, combiner, tappers, attenuators, DC blocks, and cable assemblies.
“Microlab offers a multi-pronged approach to assist mobile network operators and network designers with 5G roll- outs. We focus on ensuring that customers maintain their deployment schedules, reduce deployment costs, and achieve optimal system performance,” says Rohan Shah, Product Manager. Continue Reading
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