The Day the Cell Towers Died Verizon customers across the U.S. lost service Wednesday, inconveniencing millions—including one grumpy columnist.

That's Joanna Stern in the WSJ highlighting telecoms firms' tendency to over-promise and under-deliver (Verizon, in this case): www.wsj.com/business/tel...

"We’ve had half a decade of 5G. Five-plus years of relentless ads promising a faster future, blazing speeds and robot surgeries performed from outer space. And yet I’ve been here too often lately, holding an expensive glass slab that can’t do the one thing phones were invented to do: make a call."

Shutdown of 3G: Owners of phones more than 10 years old warned The shutdown will affect some older phones, burglar alarms and personal alarms.

'Mobile phone owners with devices more than 10 years old may need to get a new one as 2G and 3G networks are phased out' - BBC (always exciting when mainstream news covers spectrum issues) www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Hello @bsky.app. Still just testing the water here. Never mind - here's another podcast we did recently, about a new report from our partner firm SignalTracker that compares the performance of MNOs with that of the MVNOs who piggyback on their networks www.policytracker.com/blog/do-mvno...

Industry Groups Call for Change to Spectrum Sharing Limits In a letter sent to FCC Chair Brendan Carr on Monday, the writers said lifting equivalent power-flux density (EPFD) limits on non-geostationary sats would benefit both consumers and the industry.

US: "Officials from 11 industry organizations are urging the FCC to rethink spectrum limits for LEO satellites, which were imposed more than 2 decades ago in an effort to protect sats in geostationary orbit.... and enable spectrum sharing" - payloadspace.com/industry-gro...

Raquel Renno Nunes discusses what’s at stake in global spectrum policy on @policytracker.bsky.social

As political, commercial + governance dynamics play out behind the scenes, transparency, service diversity & independent regulation matter more than ever.

creators.spotify.com/pod/profile/...

The Thai regulator NBTC has now approved the results of the country's latest spectrum auction after a brief delay. There were only two bidders – the country’s two private incumbent MNOs, True and AIS. The smaller, state-owned rival National Telecom did not bid www.policytracker.com/thai-regulat...

Investors flag concerns over 700MHz spectrum auction Major international telecom investors expressed concerns about the proposed parameters for the upcoming 700MHz spectrum auction, citing technical, commercial, and economic challenges.

"Bangladesh's leading mobile network operators urged the government to reconsider... the limited amount of spectrum being released, the disproportionately high pricing & the limited device compatibility with the 700MHz band" - www.thedailystar.net/business/new...

Today's @policytracker.bsky.social story: Trump upheaval could affect US ability to win allies at #WRC27, says industry panel convened by @techpolicyinst.bsky.social www.policytracker.com/trump-chaos-...

ICYMI: Vietnam is planning to sell off 700 MHz frequencies in its fourth auction since mid-2023. However, there is a risk of interference between proposed 4G/5G in Vietnam and analogue TV in neighbouring countries, particularly Cambodia www.policytracker.com/vietnam-set-...

I never realised people who work at @arcep.fr were called 'Arcepiennes' and 'Arcepiens'. How about those who work at @ofcom.bsky.social? Ofcomians? Ofcommers? FCCians doesn't seem right, but ComRegulars could work in Ireland @comreg.bsky.social

Musk's involvement in the new Trump administration suggests that the FCC will not be appearing on @bsky.app anytime soon, unfortunately

FCC will temporarily regain auction authority - PolicyTracker: spectrum management news, research and training Legislation recently adopted in the US will allow the regulator to auction just one specific spectrum band

Happy New Year! ICYMI - the FCC is temporarily regaining the authority to conduct spectrum auctions, but only for the AWS-3 band www.policytracker.com/fcc-will-tem...

AST SpaceMobile Announces Agreement for Long-Term Access to up to 45 MHz of Premium Lower Mid-Band Spectrum in the United States for Direct-to-Device Satellite Applications AST SpaceMobile, Inc. (“AST SpaceMobile”) (NASDAQ: ASTS), the company building the first and only space-based cellular broadband network accessible di

It seems likely that almost all of the money from AST will be going to pay Viasat. That means any return for the debtholders will depend on a successful resolution of the litigation against the US govt www.businesswire.com/news/home/20...

South Korea reached 35 million 5G subscriptions in October (62% of the total mobile phone subscription base). The table shows how many months each 5 million 5G subs took. The last 5 million took 18 months; that's half speed compared to the past.

Belgian trains ditch Wi-Fi plans and focus on improved 5G connectivity The Belgian National Railway Company (SNCB) has officially abandoned plans to equip trains with Wi-Fi, citing an exorbitant cost of €173...

Belgium: SNCB "has officially abandoned plans to equip trains with Wi-Fi, citing an exorbitant cost of €173 million. Instead, a new initiative will focus on... adjusting the coating of train windows, making it easier for passengers to access 4G & 5G networks" www.belganewsagency.eu/belgian-trai...

FT’s Lex on the Vodafone / Three merger www.ft.com/content/31b4...

Today's @policytracker.bsky.social story: Australian regulator ACMA has awarded 47 licences in the 3.8 GHz band, mainly to specialist telcos, government users and industry, with a particular focus on the mining sector www.policytracker.com/australia-as...

Today's @policytracker.bsky.social story is now available to subscribers and triallists! 👇🙂

One of the items on Brendan Carr's agenda is "a whole set of economic issues from permitting reform to spectrum to the space economy, where, frankly, we’ve got to add some rocket fuel to that process".