Yet again, a significant wireless network outage has caught users unaware.  See https://www.nytimes.com/2024/02/22/business/att-outage.html; https://www.cnn.com/2024/02/22/tech/att-cell-service-outage/index.html. There’s an inverse relationship between one’s growing reliance on wireless networks and their reduced reliability compared to less elegant wireline technologies the carriers want to abandon.             Our near exclusive reliance on wireless cellphone servic ..read more

A Brief Primer on Anti-satellite Warfare Tactics Satellites make it possible for governments to provide essential services, such as national defense, navigation, and weather forecasting.  Private ventures use satellites to offer highly desired services that include video program distribution, telecommunications, and Internet access. The Russian launch of a satellite, with nuclear power and the likely ability to disable satellites, underscores how satellites are quite vulnerable to both natural and manmade ruin. See https://www.nytimes.com/2024/02/14/us/politics/intelligence-russia-nuclear ..read more

             In the February 13th edition of the Wall Street Journal, Professor Thomas W. Hazlett offers a breathless endorsement of market concentration with the TMobile acquisition of Sprint his go to example.  See https://www.wsj.com/articles/t-mobile-proves-that-mergers-can-benefit-consumers-8fab2890.  Apparently, mergers and acquisitions benefit consumers, because they enhance competition and generate all sorts of positive outcomes that could not possibly have occurred, but for the reduction in the number of industry players.     ..read more

Sooner rather than later, landline telephone service will completely transition to wireless and Internet-based calling, commonly referred to as Voice Over the Internet Protocol ("VoIP").  While the FCC, for over a decade, has precluded a “flash cut” service termination, I expect the timeline for copper wire service retirements to shorten. Last year, the FCC removed a federal statutory obligation for landline, copper service where “Plain Old Telephone Service” alternative service exists. See https://docs.fcc.gov/public/attachments/FCC-19-72A1_Rcd.pdf.     Recently, AT&T ..read more

             Just when one reasonably could assume that no federal appellate court could possibly do the right thing in a merger review, pigs fly!  Judge William G. Young of the District Court in Massachusetts did not buy the conventional wisdom that all mergers “promote competition.” He rejected the proposed JetBlue’s $3.8 billion acquisition of Spirit Airlines. https://www.nytimes.com/2024/01/16/business/jetblue-spirit-airlines-ruling-merger.html; https://www.law360.com/articles/1786317/attachments/0.             &nbs ..read more

 Wireless carrier deception and outright violations of FCC rules and regulation should not come as a surprise.  No wonder consumers hold AT&T, Comcast, Verizon, and TMobile in low esteem. They accrue billions in profits thanks to lax antitrust enforcement, FCC reticence to sanction carrier deceptions, and an apparent inability to require wireless carriers to comply with longstanding rules, including truth in billing, the right of consumers to activate used wireless handsets, and market assessments that ignore inconvenient truths about the lack of effective competition.   My ..read more

     I am pleased to offer my thoughts on universal service funding reform: Remedies for Universal Service Funding Compassion Fatigue,  39 Santa Clara High Tech. L.J. 395 (2023); available at: https://digitalcommons.law.scu.edu/chtlj/vol39/iss4/2/.       Here’s the Abstract:       Nearly every nation in the world has a government mandated program aiming to make telecommunications service more widely available and affordable. Universal service funding subsidies have garnered popular support largely based on the shared view that so ..read more

            Despite vowing to eschew involvement in the latest Network Neutrality drama, I cannot sit back and let stand the resumption of the distorted gospel preached by the anti-network neutrality crowd.  This group has legitimate criticisms, many of which I have tried, via hundreds of law review pages—to analyze, and even endorse, in specific instances.               For example, see Freedom to Discriminate: Assessing the Lawfulness and Utility of Biased Broadband Networks, 20 VANDERBILT JOU ..read more

             Changes in the rates for Netflix and other video content show a major nudge (make that push) toward a cheaper advertiser-supported option.  Just now, Netflix has raised its ad-free plans to $11.99-22.99 monthly, but kept its newly offered ad-supported plan at $6.99. https://www.cbsnews.com/news/netflix-price-increase-2023/.  Apparently, the company can accrue higher revenues and profits by combining monthly subscriber payments with advertising revenues.  I expect the number of advertising minutes to creep up incrementally, but who ..read more

             The activist, results-driven Supreme Court appears ready to limit severely the ability of the Federal Communications Commission and other independent regulatory agencies to interpret ambiguous statutory language and answer essential questions about statutory meaning, even when vastly changing markets and technologies makes such work essential.  Lacking humility and common sense, the Court appears hellbent to outlaw statutory interpretation like what kinds of services fit within the following ambiguous words Congress crafted, circa 1996 ..read more