Click here for the online version. This e-mail was created for [email protected] Subscribe • Advertise Monday, September 14, 2020 Volume 8 | Issue 178 Pai Wants Answers About Wireless Industry Efforts to Update WEA Geo-targeting Wireless Emergency Alerts are now more geographically targeted and the FCC expects that to improve over time as more updated smartphones reach the market. Since last December, in response to FCC rules changes, participating wireless providers are required to deliver alerts to the entire area targeted by emergency management officials with no more than a one-tenth of a mile overshoot. If that’s not technically feasible, wireless providers must continue to deliver alerts to their best approximation of the target area, the agency standard since 2017. That’s a big change from when the WEA system began in 2012 and alerts were sent on a county-wide basis. All new “WEA-capable” mobile devices offered for sale after last December must support this enhanced geo- targeting. FCC rules also require wireless providers to support enhanced geo-targeting on WEA-capable mobile devices that were released before last December and can be upgraded. Continue Reading Bankrupt Brazilian Carrier Announces Asset Sales Brazilian telecom carrier Oi SA, operating under bankruptcy court supervision, announced a reorganization plan to sell certain assets last Tuesday, reported ET Telecom. It plans to sell various assets, including Oi’s wireless telephone business, data center operations, and additional infrastructure. According to ET Telecom, Oi is in talks with TIM Participacoes, Telefonica Brasil, and Claro SA (owned by American Movil) to acquire its business. The three parties made a joint bid of $3.08 billion for the company and its assets. AT&T Takes a Wide Stance on Broadband Mapping In an op ed piece in Politico titled "A Game Plan to...Finally...Connect Every American to Broadband," AT&T CEO John Stankey said his company’s first order of business is "to identify where broadband is unavailable with geographic precision." According to ARS Technica, that same day, AT&T told the FCC it should not require additional details to verify the accuracy of propagation models used by ISPs to generate coverage maps. Ten times since 2011, AT&T has taken the position that ISPs shouldn’t have to report street addresses or broadband speeds. Likewise, the carrier said the FCC shouldn’t collect data on broadband prices, service quality, or customer satisfaction. Market analysts took note that Stankey’s opinion piece in Politico belies years of filings in which the telecom giant fought the Commission’s attempts to require submission of more accurate and detailed broadband data mapping. “Now is the time for us to work together to ensure all American families have access to critical connectivity and the resources needed to meet the urgent challenges of today and tomorrow,” said Stankey. “If policymakers fail to act, today's ‘homework gap’ will not only exacerbate the proverbial ‘generation gap,’ but we will have failed to bridge it.” Continue Reading Cable Industry Plans to Connect K-12 Students to Broadband NCTA – the Internet & Television Association is working with the nonprofit EducationSuperHighway (ESH) on an initiative to help close the homework gap. They say the K-12 Bridge to Broadband initiative will scale solutions that are helping public school districts and states identify and potentially connect students in low-income families, enabling more students to participate in remote or hybrid learning. The NCTA and ESH unveiled a framework of core principles that will support the initiative from cable internet service providers for working with school districts or states to better locate unconnected, but serviceable, student households and to offer sponsored service arrangements that can potentially connect students in this school year. ESH estimates that 9.7 million students — half of whom live in low-income households — don’t have a reliable high-speed connection necessary to complete their coursework at home during the pandemic. The project builds on recent successful school district partnerships in Chicago, Atlanta, Philadelphia, Las Vegas, Des Moines and other cities. Continue Reading Station Tower OK’d Over Homeowner Concerns in South Bend Some South Bend, IN residents were vocal in their opposition to a proposed broadcast tower before the structure was approved. Mid-West Family Broadcasting asked for permission to erect a 189-foot tower near the intersection of Monroe and Carroll streets; the build is part of a plan to move four stations — WNSN-FM, WZOC-FM, WQLQ-FM and WSBT AM/FM — to the area, reports the South Bend Tribune. The owner has to move the stations because the lease expired. He plans to renovate an existing building at the location. A city resident told the Tribune it didn’t surprise him that the Board of Zoning Appeals voted last Tuesday to recommend the Common Council approve a special use permit for construction of a wireless communication tower near his home. Continue Reading September 11, 2020 at Close American Tower Corporation Declares Quarterly Distribution American Tower Corporation (NYSE: AMT) last week said its board of directors has declared its quarterly cash distribution of $1.14 per share on shares of the company’s common stock. The distribution is payable on October 16, 2020, to the stockholders of record at the close of business on September 28, 2020. Massachusetts Shack Town Abutters Team Up Against Verizon Tower In Pittsfield's "Shack Town" neighborhood, residents continued to protest a Verizon Wireless tower during a virtual council meeting last Tuesday, calling for improvements to the permitting process. According to WAMC AM/FM, the tower has already sparked organized protests and lawsuits as residents believe they were “failed by the city of Pittsfield” regarding the project. The 150-foot Verizon tower was granted a special use permit in 2017 by the city’s zoning board of appeals. According to residents, the city did not inform abutters of the tower project, and they also questioned why the tower was allowed to exceed the 35-foot height limit. Continue Reading Rural Broadband – 8 Actions to Ensure Fiber Deployment Success About 22.3% of rural Americans do not have access to fixed high-speed broadband and are marooned by the digital divide. To help close this gap, the U.S. is prioritizing rural broadband, enabled by fiber, to connect rural citizens and foster much-needed innovation across rural services, businesses, and industries such as healthcare, education, and agriculture. Rural electric cooperatives (co-ops) may be the linchpin of closing the digital divide because they can deploy fiber successfully despite a very challenging business model. This eBook discusses the rural digital divide, how broadband transforms rural communities, and why co-ops are ideal leaders of fiber deployment. Finally, as experts in advanced communications infrastructure, Black & Veatch outlines eight actions that co-ops can take to remove hurdles, accelerate schedules, garner public interest and acceptance, and minimize costs of fiber deployment. Download the e-book here. EdgeConneX Brings Private Cloud Connectivity Solutions to Phoenix EdgeConneX®, a specialist in Edge Data Centers, streamlined the path for customers in Arizona to connect to Microsoft cloud services by offering the Microsoft Azure ExpressRoute service in its Phoenix Edge Data Center® (EDC). Azure ExpressRoute allows users to create private connections between their IT deployments and Microsoft’s global data centers. EdgeConneX serves the Phoenix metropolitan area from the EDC, located near the Arizona State University Campus in Tempe, less than 20 minutes from downtown Phoenix. The EDC location was designed to provide a secure co- location facility for customers in order to deliver content and applications to local-market end-users - with the lowest possible latency. Continue Reading SAC Wireless Showcases Its Training Program SAC Wireless, a Nokia company, doesn't take safety lightly. In fact, one of its core values is being "100% safe." SAC's latest video showcases its 15,000 square foot training facility in Chicago. "When new employees join us, we invest about two to three weeks of their time strictly learning the aspects of safety that are critical to keeping them safe on job sites," explains Cris Challender, Director, Training. According to SAC, the center provides hands-on training with the newest, state-of-the-art equipment to prepare tower technicians for on-site work. Get a closer look by watching the video here. Georgia Smart Water Meters Don’t Necessarily Mean Job Loss for Meter Readers The City of Valdosta (GA) will begin swapping out old residential and business water meters for Diehl ultrasonic technology meters designed to automate readings. Diehl Metering products are Automated Meter Reading (AMR) Ready – they receive the radio signal from the pulse emitter and provide the software to read and analyze the readings. According to Ryan Henshaw, Vanguard Utility Services Project Manager, residents will have access to an online customer portal for tracking household water use in real-time, set conservation goals, and program personalized alerts in the event of leaks, possible pipe-freezing and vacation notifications. WCTV reported the city paid $9.5 million for this utility overhaul with Special Purpose Local Options Sales Tax, or SPLOST, funds. City spokesperson Ashlyn Johnson said switching out the meters only takes about 15 to 30 minutes. Continue Reading Webinar: Deploying & Verifying a Future-Proof PON September 17 @ 2:00 pm - 3:00 pm EST Work from home during the COVID pandemic has demonstrated the value of ubiquitous high-speed broadband connections to homes. The US government is making $20B in RDOF funds available to bridge the digital divide. Tier 2/3 service providers and utilities are expected to utilize these funds to deploy broadband services to rural and underserved areas, often utilizing FTTH PON.