Page 86 - SAMENA Trends - December 2023
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REGULATORY & POLICY UPDATES  SAMENA TRENDS

        FCC Reaffirms Decision to Reject Starlink Application for Nearly USD900m

        in Subsidies


                                                               universal  service  funding  collected  from consumers’, seeks  to
                                                               expand access to broadband networks in rural areas. The agency
                                                               qualified  Starlink  at  the  short  form  stage,  but  at  the  long  form
                                                               stage, the FCC determined that Starlink failed to demonstrate that
                                                               it could deliver the promised service. In the initial auction results
                                                               announced on 7 December 2020 Space Exploration Technologies
                                                               Corp. (Starlink) was the winning bidder of USD885.51 million worth
                                                               of funding. In a statement dated 12 December FCC chairwoman
                                                               Jessica Rosenworcel commented: ‘The FCC is tasked with ensuring
                                                               consumers everywhere have access to high-speed broadband that
                                                               is reliable and affordable. The agency also has a responsibility to
                                                               be a good steward of limited public funds meant to expand access
                                                               to rural  broadband,  not  fund  applicants  that  fail  to meet  basic
                                                               program requirements. The FCC followed a careful legal, technical
                                                               and policy review to determine  that  this  applicant  had failed  to
        The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has reaffirmed   meet its burden to be entitled to nearly USD900 million in universal
        the  Wireline  Bureau’s  prior  decision  to  reject  the  long-form   service funds for almost a decade.’ In total, the RDOF program has
        application  of Starlink  to  receive  public  support  through the   authorized  more  than  USD6  billion  in  funding  to  bring  primarily
        Rural Digital Opportunity Fund program, based on the applicant’s   fiber-optic gigabit broadband services to 3.458 million locations in
        failure to meet the requirements. The program, which uses ‘scarce   49 states and the Northern Mariana Islands.




        Italian Government Wants to Be Part of Sparkle Deal


        The Italian government is looking at ways to gain control of Sparkle,
        the undersea cable division of Telecom Italia (TIM), which is seen
        as a strategic national asset. A report from Bloomberg says the
        Rome administration is looking to become an investor in Sparkle
        alongside  Optics  Bidco, a bidding  vehicle  led  by US  investment
        fund Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co (KKR). Government planning is
        still at preliminary stage, the report cites a source as saying, and
        a final decision has not been taken. Sparkle is valued at around
        EUR700 million (USD755 million). TIM’s board recently approved
        an offer from Optics Bidco for its fixed line business NetCo, but
        a separate non-binding bid for Sparkle was rejected. The KKR-led
        consortium then requested more time to consider its bid, with a
        revised offer for Sparkle now expected by end-January.




        CTI Towers Acquires 525 Cell Sites from Conterra


                                                               CTI Towers, which claims to be one of the largest private tower
                                                               companies in the US, has agreed to acquire 525 towers located
                                                               in Louisiana, Texas, North Carolina, South Carolina and California
                                                               from Conterra Ultra Broadband Holdings. Via this acquisition, CTI
                                                               Towers now has a portfolio of more than 1,800 towers spanning 48
                                                               US states. CTI was acquired by alternative asset manager Palistar
                                                               in 2020 and currently leases space on its towers to the likes of
                                                               AT&T, DISH, T-Mobile US and Verizon Wireless.



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