The solution to increasingly congested Wi-Fi networks in dense urban areas lies primarily in middle-band spectrum, particularly in the 5.9 GHz band and potentially the 6 GHz band, said Wi-Fi Alliance CEO Ed Figueroa Wednesday. Having 80 MHz and 160 MHz channels is paramount, but that kind of channelization is tough to find in low bands, while high-frequency bands carry propagation limitations, he said at a Microsoft/New America’s Wireless Future Project panel.

The FCC needs to provide relief for low-power TV stations in danger of getting bumped from their spectrum long before the post-incentive auction displacement window intended to find them a new home takes place, said the LPTV Spectrum Rights Coalition in a letter Tuesday to the Incentive Auction Task Force and Media Bureau staff. Without some sort of action, “whole communities could go dark,” said coalition Executive Director Mike Gravino in an interview. Unless the FCC provides some accommodation for what Gravino calls “phase zero” stations, a court battle that would slow the repacking effort is likely, he said.

ORLANDO -- The FCC may have to consider tinkering with the 39-month time frame for broadcasters to clear the 600 MHz band so carriers can start to use the spectrum they bought in the TV incentive auction, Commissioner Mike O’Rielly told the Wireless Infrastructure Association. O’Rielly said the outlook is improving for a new, lighter-handed regulation, but change comes hard in Washington.

American Tower faces both challenges and opportunities, a Macquarie Capital analyst wrote investors Monday after meeting with Chief Financial Officer Tom Bartlett. "Though its expansive international presence is clearly a standout, the domestic tailwinds are now just as great,” Amy Yong emailed. “Areas of upside include FirstNet, 600 MHz spectrum deployment, and an expanding wireless industry that could include” Dish Network-Amazon, cable and IoT, Macquarie said. A Sprint/T-Mobile could prove positive long-term for the tower company, Macquarie said: "Management noted that previous mergers have actually resulted in 20-25 percent greater activity” from the new company. On FirstNet, AT&T’s infrastructure investments likely will come mostly next year, but could start later this year, after AT&T won the contract to build the network, the firm wrote.

The FCC approved for filing the long-form applications of a first round of 600 MHz licenses bought by companies in the TV incentive auction. The notice moves licensees another step closer to being able to begin operations in the band, as the post-incentive auction transition gets underway. The FCC said other applications will be addressed in later notices. The licenses include many purchased by T-Mobile, Dish Network through ParkerB.com, Comcast through CC Wireless Investment, and AT&T. Other parties can file petitions to deny the grant of the licenses, but must do so by May 30, the public notice said. The Incentive Auction Task Force and the Wireless Bureau released the notice. Meanwhile, stations that will be changing channels during repacking but aren’t eligible for reimbursement will need to file progress reports the same as stations that can be reimbursed, said the FCC Media Bureau and IATF in a PN. Nonreimbursable stations include band changing stations, stations that “accept a waiver of the Commission’s service rules to allow them to make flexible use of their reassigned spectrum to provide services other than broadcast television services in lieu of receiving reimbursement” and a small number of Class A's, the PN said. Requiring all broadcasters changing channels to file will give the FCC and the wireless and broadcast industries a more complete picture of the progress of the post-incentive auction transition, it said. The filing “will permit the Commission, broadcasters, and other interested parties to get a snapshot of progress at regular intervals and critical periods within each transition phase,” the PN said. IATF released a user guide for the commission registration system (Cores) incentive auction financial module. Full-power stations, Class A broadcasters and MVPDs that “anticipate receiving incentive and/or reimbursement payment(s) following the incentive auction” must “use the Financial Module to submit bank account information electronically,” the PN said. The user guide is available on the auction website.

Broadcasters are paying a huge price for supposed demand for low-band spectrum that never materialized in the TV incentive auction, said Preston Padden, who advised broadcasters in the auction, at a Duke Law School conference Friday. Padden said the auction was inefficient on several levels, with 42 MHz of “pristine” 600 MHz going unsold.

TV broadcasters want the FCC to handle ATSC 3.0 with a “light regulatory touch.” MVPDs, wireless entities, consumer groups and NPR urged the agency to protect retransmission negotiations, unlicensed spectrum, radio and the post-incentive auction repacking from the transition to the new television standard, in comments filed Tuesday in docket 16-142 (see 1705090053). The FCC should “expeditiously adopt only those minimal regulations necessary to permit broadcasters to voluntarily implement ATSC 3.0 transmissions,” said Nexstar. The transition to the new standard “threatens to compound disruption in the industry and to the public,” said NCTA.

Verizon is looking for more high-frequency spectrum for 5G in the secondary market, CEO Lowell McAdam said as the carrier met analysts. McAdam said Verizon doesn’t need additional low-band spectrum for 5G. The FCC has said it will hold two millimeter-wave auctions, McAdam said. “We’re obviously working closely with [the FCC] to accelerate” the time frame, he said Monday evening. “The activity that we’re spurred over the last couple of years has gotten the FCC to see there’s a lot of investment pent up to be made here.”

T-Mobile will launch the first “REAL, NATIONWIDE, MOBILE 5G network” in the U.S., said Chief Technology Officer Neville Ray in a Tuesday blog post. "We are going to dedicate part of the new 600 MHz spectrum we just won to LTE and then part to 5G nationwide. This means T-Mobile is the first company to commit to building a nationwide 5G network. And yes that’s real 5G, not fake 5G! And that’s nationwide Mobile 5G, not Fixed 5G!” T-Mobile has 200 MHz of spectrum in the 28/39 GHz bands covering almost 100 million people in major metropolitan areas “and an impressive volume of mid-band spectrum to deploy 5G in as well,” Ray wrote. “This positions T-Mobile to deliver a 5G network that offers BOTH breadth and depth nationwide.” CEO John Legere also commented in a video blog: “5G will be amazing, and we can’t even imagine all the cool stuff it will bring, just like with our earlier network innovations. That’s why truly mobile 5G has to be nationwide.”

While pricing is generally driving down MVPD subscriber numbers, Charter Communications has room to boost subscribership largely by taking market share from direct broadcast satellite, CEO Tom Rutledge said in an analyst call Tuesday. He said MVPD subscriber losses trend won't change anytime soon, but it also isn't accelerating. Charter said in a news release the number of residential video customers dropped by 100,000 in Q1, largely due to churn from legacy Time Warner Cable customers, ending the quarter with 16.7 million customers. During the quarter, it said it added 428,000 residential internet customers, putting its subscriber base at 21.8 million, and 37,000 residential voice customers, giving it 10.4 million. Wells Fargo analyst Marci Ryvicker wrote investors that the subscriber numbers from churn off of lower-value products are apparently hiding customers shifting to higher-end packages. She said despite Charter assertions that streaming bundles shouldn't pose a competitive threat, "we'll believe it when we see it." MoffettNathanson analyst Craig Moffett wrote that the subscriber numbers confirm that cord-cutting is accelerating across MVPDs. Rutledge said Charter has now launched new pricing and service packages across all its legacy TWC and Bright House Networks territories -- with Charter having bought the two in 2016 -- except for Hawaii, with the pricing and packages launching there soon. He said minimum broadband speeds are 60 Mbps or 100 Mbps across Charter's footprint, depending on the market, and that Charter is about to restart its all-digital conversion across TWC and BHN markets that aren't all digital yet, with the work to last through early 2019. Rutledge said Charter is testing "5G-like services" on various spectrum bands in a variety of different markets. Asked about Charter not pursing 600 MHz incentive auction spectrum, unlike Comcast, Rutledge said Charter's mobile virtual network operator agreement with Verizon is sufficient for a planned wireless offering launch in 2018, and Charter doesn't see any need now for that spectrum, though "opportunities will be available to get it." Pointing to Charter integrating Netflix into its user interface, Rutledge said the company is in similar talks with YouTube.