Across The Telecom Spectrum: 6 Moves That Made Waves In The Channel In April

Government Intervention

April saw a slew of telecom news, with the Federal Communications Commission in the middle of several high-profile announcements. Broadband privacy rules were overturned, the future of Net Neutrality was called into question, and the highly anticipated wireless spectrum auction came to an end. At the same time, carriers continued to expand their footprints as well as their portfolios.

Here are six newsworthy items that happened in the telecom industry last month that solution providers should know.

Broadband Privacy Overturned, While FCC Seeks To Repeal Net Neutrality

April saw the repeal of broadband privacy rules that had been proposed by former President Barack Obama. President Donald Trump signed a repeal of broadband privacy rules that would have limited internet service providers from sharing or selling their customers' browsing history for advertising purposes.

Later in the month, the FCC, led by chairman Ajit Pai, pledged to overturn Obama-era Net Neutrality regulations. Pai said that high-speed internet service should no longer be treated like a public utility with regulations, and has issued a draft of his proposal for a public comment period. The FCC will be taking comments for the next three months.

FCC Wireless Spectrum Auction Ends

Wireless provider T-Mobile was the largest winner in the U.S. wireless spectrum auction, with an $8 billion bid for 1,525 licenses spread throughout the country, according to the FCC. T-Mobile said in a release that it won 45 percent of the spectrum up for grabs during the low-band spectrum auction.

Among other spectrum winners were Dallas-based AT&T with two bids of $6.2 billion and $910 million, and a Comcast bid of $1.7 billion. Basking Ridge, N.J.-based Verizon did not bid in the auction.

Frontier Extends Broadband Across Six States Via Connect America

Frontier Communications has extended its broadband footprint to reach thousands of new residential customers across six states via the Connect America Fund program, an initiative put in place by the FCC under Obama.

Frontier's broadband services are now reaching 25,000 additional households in Texas, 8,800 in Indiana, 7,000 in Illinois, 8,500 in Arizona and New Mexico, and 8,000 in Minnesota.

The Connect America initiative offers subsidized broadband for households located in rural areas.

Verizon Names AOL, Yahoo Brand Name

Carrier giant Verizon announced that once the $4.48 billion Yahoo acquisition is complete, it will name its brand that will include AOL and Yahoo assets Oath.

Oath will allow the carrier to present digital content services to the market as a single entity, according to the company.

Verizon expects its Yahoo deal to close by the end of June.

CoreDial Opens West Coast Data Center

Cloud communications provider CoreDial in April opened a new data center facility in Phoenix, giving partners and end customers an additional point of presence for greater redundancy and increased quality of service, according to the Blue Bell, Pa.-based provider.

The Phoenix-based data center features fully virtualized servers, which has reduced physical infrastructure by more than 85 percent, according to CoreDial. Partners and customers can now choose between CoreDial's Phoenix and Philadelphia data center locations.

Nitel Expands Portfolio To Include Managed Broadband

Telecom service provider Nitel added a series of managed broadband services to its product portfolio. The new services give channel partners and their customers a lower-cost, high-bandwidth option to complement private internet, the company said.

The new service are being deliveredd exclusively through the channel, and partners can quote these offerings on-demand through n-Tellipro, Nitel’s proprietary automated pricing tool. Partners can pair the latest managed broadband offerings with Nitel's recently announced SD-WAN and SD-Security offerings, Nitel said.