Fixed wireless internet service providers represented by WISPA are telling the FCC that intention to discriminate should undergird any rules meant to prohibit digital access inequity based on race, ethnicity, income, religion, color, or national origin. It also says rules should be tech-flexible.

That came in comments on the FCC's inquiry into its legislative mandate to come up with rules that promote digital equity by eliminating discrimination in broadband deployment and access.

WISPA told the FCC it needed to avoid "creating inadvertent consequences and additional market entry barriers or barriers to growth for small providers," like punishing inadvertent inequity. "The Commission should require proof of intent to discriminate based on the six listed characteristics in the Infrastructure Act, in addition to its consideration of the totality of the circumstances," it said in comments filed Monday (May 16).

Also: AT&T: Digital Equity Needs Subsidies, Not Unfunded Mandates

WISPA said the FCC, in trying to define and identify digital discrimination, needs to take into account the significant differences among technologies used to deploy high speed broadband. The Biden Administration favors fiber but has signaled it is open to other technologies, including fixed wireless, so long as it can deliver high speeds at low cost.

The association also put in a plug for defining exclusive rooftop access agreements in multiple tenant environments (MTEs) as discrimination. ■

Synacor said it will put up $24.5 million to acquire “certain assets” of Zimbra, a major provider of open source-based email, messaging and collaboration software that counts customers such as Comcast, Vodafone, Emerson, Red Hat and H&R Block.

Synacor, which expects the deal to close within 45 days, said the deal is comprised of $17.3 million in cash and the issuing of 3 million shares, 600,000 warrants (priced at $4 per share), and paying up to $2 million in earn-outs over the next 18 months.

About 140 employees will join Synacor, expanding that total to about 400, an official said.

The deal comes soon after Synacor announced that MTS, a top telecom provider in Manitoba, tapped Synacor’s Cloud Email Platform to support the MTS Mail email service. It also comes about eight months after Synacor shored up its OTT focus via the acquisition of NimbleTV.

Synacor, which also specializes in TV Everywhere authentication systems and develops customized Web portal and metadata services also works with customers such as Mediacom Communications, BendBroadband (now part of TDS Telecom), Buckeye CableSystem, Google Fiber, CenturyLink, Cable One, Charter Communications , Suddenlink Communications, WideOpenWest, Surewest Communications, Verizon Communications, and Sling TV.

“Email has been and continues to be important to our internet service provider customers, and has been a double-digit growth business for Synacor this year, driving portal traffic and monetization,” said Synacor CEO Himesh Bhise, in a statement. “We now have an even more compelling value proposition offering Zimbra’s on-premise technology as well as Synacor’s managed service solutions and advertising products.”

Synacor said the acquisition will make it the largest provider of ISP email solutions in the U.S., noting that Zimbra serves more than 120 ISP and CSP customers around the world. Zimbra also works with more than 1,000 value-added resellers and 500-plus hosting providers.

The acquisition will also accelerate Synacor’s plans to expand its portal, video and advertising products outside the U.S., the company said.

In the wake of the deal, Synacor raised its full-year financial guidance to reflect Zimbra contributions, expecting full year 2015 revenue of $102 million to $108 million, up from $97 million to $102 million. Expected adjusted EBITDA rises to $4 million to $6 million, from $3.5 million to $5 million. 

Believing there’s room for a new broadband alternative, a wireless ISP called Vivint has lit up a wireless-based service that, it claims, delivers symmetrical speeds of 100 Mbps that runs over LMDS (Local Multipoint Distribution Service) spectrum and a special architecture that leans on so-called “hub homes.”

Following a pilot period, the cap-free, $59.99 per month service now touts more than 15,000 subscribers in cities such as San Antonio and El Paso, Texas, as well as several cities in northern  Utah. It plans to expand the service to three new markets, yet unnamed, by the end of the year, and to eight more in 2016.

In addition to the baseline broadband service, Vivint also offers VoIP for an additional $14.99 per month and cloud storage (via Space Monkey) for $9.99 per month.

“We think there’s room in the market for an alternative,” Luke Langford, Vivint’s general manager, wireless Internet, said, holding that “there’s not a lot of competition out there for ‘real’ broadband,” at least when viewed through the lens of the FCC, which recently bumped its definition of broadband to 25 Mbps downstream and 3 Mbps up. 

Vivint, a company that has historically focused on smart home technology and products, is taking a seemingly unique approach with its rollout that, it claims, overcomes some of the shortcomings encountered by other wireless ISPs.

Vivint, which is limited by line-of-sight restrictions, uses a combination of licensed LMDS spectrum (via partners such as XO Communications and Straight Path Communications) and unlicensed WiFi technology to deliver its pro-installed service.

On the licensed end, it deploys high frequency microwaves from fiber-connected cell towers that reach a couple of miles into residential areas and links up with individual “home hubs” equipped with microwave radios that capture those signals and two proprietary Vivint 5GHz WiFi access points (802.11n today, with 802.11ac on the roadmap) that serve as picocells for the surrounding neighborhood.

Langford said qualified homes that agree to serve as Vivint neighborhood hubs get a “sweet deal…free fast Internet forever.” They’re on the hook for powering the equipment, a cost that Vivint estimates to be in the range of $5 to $8 per month.

He said Vivint can deliver 100 Mbps and keep it cap-free in part because it limits the number of customers that can access each hub home to 24. If more customers sign on, Vivint will install another hub home.

“We think we’re a unique evolution of wireless technology,” Langford said.

Cable operators have also dabbled in fixed wireless technology to deliver speedy broadband services. OMGfast, a short-lived fixed wireless service from Cablevision Systems, used Multichannel Video and Data Distribution (MVDDS) spectrum (sold to Dish Network as part of a $700 million settlement tied to the failed Voom HD service) to deliver up to 50 Mbps.

Vivint also announced that wireless technology pioneer and Stanford professor Dr. Arogyaswami J. Paulraj has come on board as a technical advisor.