The FCC’s final scheduled 5G auction, of 2.5 GHz spectrum, opened Friday at $103.5 million after one round of bidding. Two more rounds are scheduled for Monday. Industry analysts tell us T-Mobile looks likely to dominate, filling in gaps in its 2.5 GHz holdings, with some smaller carriers likely to jump in if they see the opportunity for a bargain. Verizon, AT&T and Dish Network qualified to bid but appear unlikely to make much of a play, analysts said. T-Mobile already has 159 MHz of 2.5 GHz spectrum nationwide.

Carriers worldwide will need an average of 2 GHz of mid-band and 5 GHz of high-band spectrum for 5G by 2030, GSMA said in reports released Thursday. In low bands “spectrum needs for 5G are higher than the amount of capacity that naturally exists below 1 GHz,” but “ensuring the availability of the 600 MHz band will raise rural broadband speeds by 30-50%,” GSMA said. “The speed and availability of 5G services depend on mobile network operators having access to spectrum in low, mid- and high bands to build out cost-effective networks,” the group said: “Robust licensing and timely availability of spectrum is also central to the success of 5G deployment.” GSMA called sub-1 GHz spectrum "the cornerstone of digital equality and a driver of broad and affordable connectivity."

FCC commissioners approved a notice of inquiry 4-0 Wednesday on how to facilitate access to spectrum for offshore uses and operations. FCC officials said, as expected, there were no major changes over what was circulated three weeks ago by Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel (see 2206030029). Commissioners also adopted an NPRM before the meeting that seeks comment on a statutory requirement to collect annual data on the price and subscription rates of internet offerings through the affordable connectivity program (see 2206020058). The item wasn’t published Wednesday.

Carriers large and small are feeling pressure to offer 5G to their customers, executives said at a Competitive Carriers Association conference, streamed from Tampa Tuesday. “All broadband is local,” said CCA President Steve Berry: “Broadband deployment, broadband build, is local.”

Qualcomm representatives urged action on the company’s push for sharing the 37 GHz band (see 2104280038), in meetings with staff from FCC Wireless Bureau and Office of Engineering and Technology. Qualcomm’s proposal would support: “(1) fixed point-to-point and point-to-multipoint links; (2) mobile operations; (3) private networks; (4) device to device (peer to peer) operations; and (5) mobile hotspots, and open all 600 MHz to licensed sharing by multiple licensees, each of whom would have priority rights to a given channel in the Lower 37 GHz band to provide a guaranteed Quality of Service,” said a filing posted Monday in docket 14-177. Qualcomm recommends auctioning priority license channels of 100 or 200 MHz: “Each priority license holder of a particular channel would have primary rights to that channel and secondary rights to the other Lower 37 GHz band channels.”

Nearly 50% of T-Mobile’s network traffic is now 5G, compared with 10% a year ago, President-Technology Neville Ray, told a Morgan Stanley conference Wednesday. The company’s 5G offering uses its 600 MHz and 2.5 GHz holdings. “As we go through the balance of this year, the intent is to have pretty much all of that [2.5 GHz] spectrum dedicated to the 5G game,” he said: “We've made great progress on that as we move through '20 and '21.” Ray said more than 40% of postpaid smartphones are 5G capable. About 80% of Sprint cellsites will be decommissioned by the middle of 2022, he said. “There are tens of thousands of sites that we're in a position” to take offline, he said. “We have to upgrade the sites that we’re keeping,” Ray said: “That work is already progressing well. Over the two years, we’ve spent a lot of time really understanding information and data about Sprint customer usage on the network we didn’t have access to previously. Now we’re able to, on a site-by-site basis, measure and quantify customer impact.” T-Mobile said Thursday it’s making its 5G Home Internet service available through 7,000 Metro by T-Mobile stores across the U.S. “This move makes the Un-carrier first to launch a fixed wireless home broadband service for prepaid customers, with no credit check and no annual contracts,” the carrier said. The service costs $50 monthly with "a one-time gateway purchase."

Broadband nutrition labels, proposed by the FCC last month, would help the states to ensure consumers get the connections they’re paying for, Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser told FCC Chair Jessica Rosenworcel during a Silicon Flatirons webinar Thursday. Weiser, a former White House telecom official, interviewed Rosenworcel at the start of the program.

Blame the Donald Trump administration, not the FAA, for the fight over the C band that slowed 5G deployment, former FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler blogged Friday. Wheeler noted the NTIA received a letter in December 2020, before the C-band auction, raising concerns, but the letter was never passed along to the FCC or the wireless carriers. President Joe Biden has shown the leadership needed to reach a compromise, Wheeler said. “When the prior administration’s failure to resolve the interagency dispute ended up putting at risk the wireless companies’ $81 billion [in C-band bids] and threatening the economic growth promised by 5G, President Biden and his aides stepped up,” he said: “Instead of meaningful spectrum policy management, the Trump administration produced slogans.” The CEOs of two major airlines said on earnings calls last week a resolution is in sight. “While we don't have a final resolution quite yet, I'm confident we'll get there,” said United Airlines CEO Scott Kirby: “While I wish it happened earlier, the good news is we now have everyone engaged, the FAA and [Department of Transportation] at the highest levels, the equipment aircraft manufacturers, airlines and the telecoms. And I'm confident we'll soon have a clear set of objective criteria that will allow a full rollout of 5G without significant impact to aviation.” The fight wasn’t the airline industry’s “finest hour,” said American Airlines CEO Doug Parker. “It's taken a while to get to the right spot, but I feel like we're in the right spot,” he said. “I don't think you're going to see any material disruption going forward because of this.” Neville Ray, T-Mobile president-technology, emphasized to customers that C-band delays didn't affect his company because it’s mostly using 600 MHz and 2.5 GHz. “T-Mobile’s 5G network, already covering over 1.7 million square miles and 310 million people nationwide, and our customers are not affected by this,” he said: “By the time we’re ready to put our C-band licenses to use in late 2023, we’re confident today’s concerns will have been resolved.”

The FCC Wireless Bureau gave Pine Cellular in a Tuesday order, a limited one-year waiver, to Jan. 9, 2023, to meet the tribal lands bidding credit construction requirement as it deploys service to the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma. The carrier says it's unable to meet a Jan. 9, 2022, deadline to serve 75% of the population covered by one of two 600 MHz licenses purchased using credits, the bureau said. Pine Cellular says it “needed additional time to deploy its network to serve Choctaw Nation communities because its existing network in that geographic area uses Huawei equipment for the performance of core functions,” the bureau said.

Dish Network is serious about building a 5G network, said Executive Vice President Network Development Dave Mayo at the Wireless Infrastructure conference Wednesday, streamed from Orlando. A T-Mobile veteran, Mayo said since he joined in June 2020, Dish has put in place the building blocks for a cloud-native, open radio access network. The company faces a June deadline to cover 20% of the U.S. population, 70% a year later.