Fierce

The upcoming Auction 108 of 2.5 GHz spectrum is likely not going to raise a ton of money. But at least it will clean up the spectrum band, closing the many gaps where the spectrum is lying fallow and not being used at all. The auction will begin on July 29, 2022. While some auctions, such as the C-band auction held in 2021, aim to make billions of dollars to fill federal coffers, not all auctions are strictly focused on profit.

There’s no doubt that the open radio access network (RAN) movement has taken the wireless industry by storm. Interest is at an all-time high, but is there a risk the whole thing will blow up due to industry sniping? After all, some players would like to see the big incumbent vendors get out of the way, making room for the new and, presumably, improved set of players.

Clearwave Fiber, a joint venture formed by operator Cable One and a handful of partners in January 2022, is looking to make a big impact in small towns, targeting fiber rollouts to half a million rural locations by 2027. It is mostly aiming for organic growth but also has its eye out for strategic acquisitions and in fact already struck a deal to buy a small Kansas-based fiber provider, CEO Byron Cantrall said.

The Federal Communications Commission announced that July 29, 2022, will be the start of bidding in Auction 108 for 2.5 GHz licenses. This auction will be for “white-spaces” of the 2.5 GHz band where no one owns the spectrum. T-Mobile is particularly interested in Auction 108 because it already owns or leases much of the 2.5 GHz spectrum across the United States, and it wants to fill in the gaps in its coverage. The auction will offer about 8,000 new county-based overlay licenses.

The Broadband Forum wrapped Phase II of its wireless-wireline convergence (WWC) effort, unveiling new specifications which will allow legacy residential wireline gateways to take advantage of certain 5G capabilities. Its latest work builds on Phase I specifications completed in 2020 and includes two key updates: multi-access support and multi-session enablement for fixed network residential gateways (FN-RGs).

Consumer advocacy group Public Knowledge took issue with the idea that AT&T’s copper retirement plan could leave customers without a wireline replacement, arguing wireless options may be insufficient to meet modern speed needs. Analyst firm New Street Research separately warned states seeking to close the digital divide might not look kindly on such a move. “The problem is not retiring copper in and of itself. The problem is retiring copper without a suitable replacement that is as good or better than the copper,” said Jenna Leventoff, Public Knowledge’s senior policy counsel.