Wireless Telecommunications

The Federal Communications Commission begins its latest annual statutorily-mandated assessment of its progress in closing the digital divide. In the 2020 Broadband Deployment Report, the FCC concluded that for the third consecutive year such advanced telecommunications capabilities are being timely deployed. While the 2020 Report acknowledged there is still work to be done to fully close the digital divide, more Americans than ever before now have access to the benefits of broadband as the FCC’s policies have created a regulatory environment to stimulate broadband investment and deployment.

Milwaukee County, Wisconsin, is currently experiencing firsthand the consequences of the Federal Communications Commission’s (FCC's) 2018 preemption of local governments’ authority to regulate 5G infrastructure in their cities.

Apple kicked the popular Fortnite video game off its App Store after the gaming company released a payment system that sidestepped Apple’s. Fortnite maker Epic Games released a feature that lets users choose how they want to pay for in-app purchases — either through the App Store or Play Store, or from Epic directly, which saves up to 20 percent.  Apple takes a cut of in-app sales — usually 30 percent — in a practice that has faced significant backlash from

[Aug 12's] decision is a massive victory for US leadership in 5G, our nation’s economy, and American consumers. The court rightly affirmed the Federal Communications Commission’s efforts to ensure that infrastructure deployment critical to 5G—a key part of our 5G FAST Plan—is not impeded by exorbitant fees imposed by state and local governments, undue delays in local permitting, and unreasonable barriers to pole access.

I am pleased that the Ninth Circuit affirmed the wireless infrastructure reforms we adopted in September 2018. I thank the Federal Communications Commission staff who carefully crafted the order, and I congratulate the Office of General Counsel for their successful defense of our work. Small cells that power 5G were threatened by exorbitant fees and unnecessary delays—red tape that was tolerated when building macro towers but would have brought small cell deployment to a halt.

A federal appeals court has upheld most of the Federal Communications Commission's orders speeding the deployment of cell service buildouts by easing regulations on those 5G deployments, including pole attachments and various local reviews of buildouts. Specifically upheld were the Small Cell Order, the Moratoria Order, and the One Touch Make-Ready Order, all parts of the FCC's Accelerating Wireless Broadband Deployment by Removing Barriers to Infrastructure order. 

Los Angeles, Boston, and other cities and counties have asked a federal court to block the Federal Communications Commission from overruling their authority to stop cell tower upgrades. The local governments, in a petition for review filed before the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, argue that the FCC exceeded its statutory authority and acted arbitrarily and capriciously in violation of federal law.

A three-judge panel of the US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit threw out an antitrust verdict against Qualcomm, overturning a ruling that had threatened the chip maker’s business model. The panel reversed a 2019 ruling by District Court Judge Lucy Koh, who found that Qualcomm had abused its monopoly position in wireless chips and overcharged mobile phone makers for its patents.

The Trump administration outlined a plan to commercialize a swath of military radio frequencies for use in next-generation 5G networks, yielding to cellphone carriers that have sought the spectrum for their own use. The White House plan would arrange for the Federal Communications Commission to auction 100 megahertz of prized mid-band spectrum starting in December 2021, allowing telecom companies to bid on licenses for them.