Farzad: SawyerMerritt Says AT&T, Verizon and T-Mobile Are Jointly Lobbying the FCC as SpaceX Nears Its Own Cellular Network + His Call That Self-Driving and Humanoids Face "the Same Anti-Competitive Effort"

SawyerMerritt posted late Friday morning that AT&T, Verizon and T-Mobile are jointly lobbying the FCC as SpaceX gets closer to its own cellular network. Farzad's read: self-driving and humanoids will face the same anti-competitive effort. Earlier he posted a new video, and late that evening he RTd a SpaceX teaser from DavidCarbutt_.

"Self-driving will have the same anti-competitive effort"

SawyerMerritt, Oct 23 at 11:49am CT: AT&T, Verizon, and T-Mobile are jointly lobbying the FCC to preserve existing rules as @SpaceX moves closer to launching its own independent cellular network that would compete directly with the three major U.S. carriers.

The live post goes on: on Oct 20th, reps from all three major U.S. wireless carriers met with FCC officials to push back against proposed changes that would give satellite companies more freedom to offer cellular service. The carriers asked the FCC to block satellite companies from certain 5G frequencies the carriers already use, keep rules that make satellite companies get carrier permission before using licensed spectrum, let carriers keep control of those agreements including the ability to end them, and reconsider interference limits. SawyerMerritt says the carriers look worried that SpaceX's Starlink Mobile network will be a major competitor, and that Starlink Mobile would be the first to deploy both satellite and terrestrial spectrum. The FCC is the Federal Communications Commission, the US agency that regulates wireless carriers and the airwaves they use.

Farzad quoted it at 12:34pm CT: This is just the beginning. Then: "Self-driving will have the same anti-competitive effort." And: "As well as humanoids." That means humanoid robots.

SawyerMerritt's post describes lobbying to preserve existing rules. "Anti-competitive" is Farzad's word for it. His prediction that self-driving and humanoid robots will get the same treatment is his own projection, and his post doesn't say who he expects to be behind it.

Check SawyerMerritt here. Farzad's quote here.

More from the feed

At 9:34pm CT on Friday, Farzad RTd a Thursday 5:10pm CT post from DavidCarbutt_: The unthinkable is about to happen to SpaceX. That line and a link are the only text in this pull. It doesn't say what the unthinkable is, and Farzad didn't add a comment. SpaceX's Q3 is covered in our full breakdown of the SpaceX earnings call.

Check DavidCarbutt_ here. Farzad's RT here.

Check No One Sees the Engineering Bet Behind Elon's Plan, Friday at 10:10am CT, here.