Broadcasters Go Private With 5G
Broadcasters are now making active use of 5G in everyday production operations, usually alongside LTE in contribution feeds sent with bonded cellular systems. But the most exciting production applications to date for 5G have actually used private 5G networks that broadcasters have set up themselves for big-event coverage.
Cellphone carriers facing roughly $200 million in fines for sharing their customers’ locations are for now shielded from paying by the FCC’s partisan deadlock, according to people familiar with the matter. A partisan divide leaves the regulator short of the votes required to require T-Mobile, AT&T and Verizon to pay fines.
The National Advertising Division (NAD) of BBB National Programs, the ad self-regulatory review body, has advised Comcast to modify or drop comparative wireless savings claims it makes in an ad for its Xfinity Mobile service. Comcast says it will comply with that and other NAD recommendations, which are to drop or modify its “Unlimited data for $30/line” claim in the ad and modify the ad to make sure consumers don’t think Infinity is less expensive than T-Mobile “regardless of how many mobile lines are purchased” or, specifically, that it is cheaper when four mobile lines are purchased. T-Mobile had challenged the ad claims.
T-Mobile’s premium unlimited wireless customers already get year free of Apple TV Plus to go with a free Netflix standard plan.
T-Mobile will partner with Elon Musk’s SpaceX and use the company’s Starlink satellites to provide mobile networks for cellphone users in remote areas, both companies announced at an event on Thursday.
Acquiring a majority stake in T-Mobile U.S. is a priority for Deutsche Telekom’s chief executive Timotheus Hoettgas, he said on Thursday after the telecoms operator published its second-quarter results.
Exclusives
Dish Network on Tuesday announced a new $3.3 billion agreement with T-Mobile that lowers the prices Dish must pay to put its customers onto T-Mobile’s 5G network. The financial analysts at New Street Research speculated that the agreement represents a “modest negative” for AT&T, which inked its own $5 billion network-access deal with Dish last year. According to the analysts, Dish now has less incentive to move its Boost Mobile customer traffic onto AT&T’s network.
Deutsche Telekom said it has bought additional shares in T-Mobile US from Softbank for $2.4 billion, bringing CEO Tim Hoettges closer to his goal of securing direct control over the U.S. telecoms operator. The purchase raises Deutsche Telekom’s stake in T-Mobile US to 48.4%, within touching distance of a majority stake, from below 47%, the German company said on Wednesday.
T-Mobile is dropping out of CES 2022 because of COVID-19 concerns, the company said Tuesday, with CEO Mike Sievert no longer scheduled to deliver a keynote presentation either in person or virtually. Meta and Twitter came to the same decision, it was announced Tuesday. CES is set to take place during the first week of January, in Las Vegas.
The MLB at Field of Dreams Game broadcast on Aug. 12, produced by Fox Sports, in collaboration with MLB, paid homage to the renowned classic movie from Universal Pictures while relaying the […]
Already in bankruptcy, video tech firm warns the California Employment Development Department that it could soon lay off all 86 of its employees.
T-Mobile is throwing in the towel on its ambitious “uncarrier” move to shake up cable TV: The wireless provider is shutting down TVision about six month after launching it. YouTube TV is becoming T-Mobile’s preferred live TV solution, with the three TVision packages it introduced last fall “winding down” on April 29. In addition, T-Mobile is teaming up with over-the-top pay TV provider Philo to offer a $10 base-level video service.
The Uncarrier’s new pay TV service matches up against these specific incumbents well in terms price and channel selection, and executives have noticed
Discovery CEO David Zaslav said that it is currently in a dispute over how Discovery’s channels are being offered on T-Mobile’s new TVision pay TV service. Sources familiar with the situation said ViacomCBS has similar concerns.
With its TVision service, T-Mobile says it’s aiming to offer a simpler and and cheaper service for people dissatisfied with cable. It will cost $10 a month with live news, entertainment and sports channels. But it’s entering a crowded field. And most similar streaming services have found it difficult to sustain low prices over time.
Applications show the TMobile device could be based on the same dongle as Dish’s AirTV Mini.
As the wireless business heads into the perilously capex-intensive 5G future, though, it’s actually the so-called New T-Mobile, fresh off its $30 billion purchase of Sprint, that might have the inside track to the video business.
Certain T-Mobile customers will get a free yearlong subscription to Quibi, the companies said Thursday, in a move that should boost early users of the ambitious streaming service debuting April 6 in a crowded streaming market. Under the deal, T-Mobile customers who have two or more voice lines with T-Mobile will get a free yearlong subscription to Quibi’s ad-supported tier, which normally will cost $4.99 each month (the ad-free version is $7.99). Interested T-Mobile customers can sign up between April 2 and July 7 to get the offering added to their plan for no additional cost for the first year.
The FCC has issued the text of its decision approving the merger of T-Mobile and Sprint. That came in the form of a Memorandum Opinion and Order, Declaratory Ruling, and Order of Proposed Modification. The FCC modified some build-out requirements on Dish spectrum as part of the spin-off of the merged company’s Boost Mobile prepaid operations to the satellite operator.
The FCC today voted along party lines to approve the $26 billion merger between T-Mobile and Sprint, meaning the deal has received the full blessing of the U.S. government. But the merger is still facing a significant obstacle as more than a dozen state attorneys general forge ahead in their lawsuit to block the deal.
FCC Chairman Ajit Pai on Wednesday circulated a draft order that would grant approval to the $26 billion tie-up of T-Mobile Us Inc. and Sprint Corp.
Dish says it will combine $5 billion in assets being spun off from the Sprint-T-Mobile merger with its own vast reserves of wireless spectrum to compete head-on with AT&T, Verizon and Sprint-T-Mobile. “We’ve been here before,” said Dish CEO Charlie Ergen. “When we entered pay-TV with the launch of our first satellite in 1995, we faced entrenched cable monopolies, and our direct competitor was owned by one of the largest industrial corporations in the world.”
Sprint and T-Mobile combined would approach the size of Verizon and AT&T. The companies have argued that bulking up will mean a better next-generation “5G” wireless network than they could make on their own.
The cable operator submitted a proposal to the Justice Department to buy certain assets being spun off by the merger of the two wireless companies, but never heard back from the agency, three sources familiar with the matter said. Instead, Justice opted for a plan to sell the assets to Dish. Justice is expected to greenlight the merger.
As part of the agreement settling DOJ’s antitrust concerns, the merging companies would spin off assets to Dish that would facilitate its entry into the wireless market as a new No. 4. The arrangement provides for Dish to acquire prepaid subscribers and wireless licenses from the merger partners, the Wall Street Journal says citing unnamed sources. Dish would also get a multiyear agreement to use the wireless companies’ network while it builds its own infrastructure.
If the Department of Justice is going to allow T-Mobile to merge with Sprint, it’s going to need more concessions from Deutsche Telekom. The German telecommunications company that will control a combined T-Mobile/Sprint is in talks with both Dish Network and the DOJ on the parameters of a divestiture and spectrum-hosting agreement that will prop up Dish as a new U.S. wireless competitor. Deutsche Telekom, Dish and the DOJ are close to an agreement, and a deal could be finalized by next week, according to people familiar with the matter.
Dish Network Corp. is in talks to pay at least $6 billion for assets that T-Mobile US Inc. and Sprint Corp. are unloading to win regulatory approval for their merger, according to people familiar with the matter. Dish could announce a deal as soon as this week, said the people, who asked to not be identified because the matter isn’t public. The deal hasn’t been finalized and talks could still fall through, they added.
Former Democratic FCC commissioner Mignon Clyburn is advising T-Mobile and Sprint on their proposed $26 billion merger as the two companies seek regulatory approval from her former agency. She said that she sees the work as a continuation of her efforts in government to expand internet access to hard-to-reach and overlooked communities.
KXAS Getting Repack Help From T-Mobile
T-Mobile and the Dallas NBC O&O announced an agreement to accelerate the repacking of the station’s 600 MHz spectrum in North Texas and surrounding areas. KXAS will move to its new frequency in late May, more than a year earlier than the FCC deadline of June 21, 2019. The agreement allows KXAS to move to its new frequency and maximize its coverage area earlier than anticipated.
T-Mobile, the nation’s No. 3 wireless carrier, said today that it bought startup Layer3 TV to help it roll out a nationwide TV service next year. The service will target people who aren’t interested in traditional cable and satellite TV packages. T-Mobile didn’t disclose how much it paid for Layer3, which is available in five U.S. cities.
T-Mobile, which last month used the six-second format to promote its hurricane relief efforts during Fox’s coverage of the World Series, said results suggest that the short-form spots boosted viewer engagement metrics such as brand recall, likability and message recall.
T-Mobile To Help WWOR With Repack Move
WWOR New York will repack in early 2018, more than a year sooner than the originally proposed FCC deadline of August 2019, and will do it for much less.
The Sinclair subsidiary says that the carrier’s suggestion that broadcasters want an FCC mandate requiring cellphone makers to put ATSC 3.0 tuners in their phones is a “red herring.” “Nothing mandates that T-Mobile incorporate Next Gen TV capabilities in devices designed for T-Mobile’s customers,” it says. However, it also says, contrary to T-Mobile’s claims, tuners could be installed in phones.
Given the “detrimental effects” of including ATSC 3.0 chips and antennas in cellphones, the wireless carrier argues in a 10-page “white paper” that the FCC should not mandate that device makers install them. “The decision as to whether to include ATSC 3.0 in a device must be left to the market to decide.”
T-Mobile says it is offering to pay moving costs for low-power stations “that operate on a secondary basis and are unable to obtain a permanent channel in time to accommodate T-Mobile’s rapid deployment of broadband service in the 600 MHz band.”
