Most consumers need to be educated on what 5G is and what it can do for them, said Verizon Consumer Group CEO Ronan Dunne at a Fierce Wireless virtual event. It means new uses, first for business and then consumers, he said. Most of the focus Monday was on open radio access networks. Vodafone expects the first commercial deployments this year, said Santiago Tenorio, network architecture team head.
Aides to the other three commissioners have been working with the office of acting Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel Monday on possible changes to a public notice proposing rules for an October auction in the 3.45 GHz band, said FCC and industry officials. The order is expected to be approved 4-0. It could get a few tweaks from the draft, officials said. They expected discussions to continue Tuesday.
T-Mobile had the best 5G download speed among U.S. carriers, a first, in an Opensignal report. T-Mobile users had average 5G download speeds of 58.1 Mbps, ahead of AT&T at 53.8 Mbps and Verizon at 47.4 Mbps, said the report covering Sept. 16-Dec. 14. Opensignal collected 15 billion measurements from 2.2 million devices.
The New York Power Authority is exploring numerous spectrum bands as it looks to put 150,000 sensor points throughout its network online, CEO Gil Quiniones said Friday on a webinar sponsored by the U.S. Energy Association. Morgan O'Brien, executive chairman of Anterix, said utility interest in the 900 MHz band has been strong. NYPA is the nation's largest public power provider.
Verizon and AT&T, concerned about T-Mobile's 600 MHz leasing arrangements with Channel 51 and LB license companies, haven't shown any actual competitive harm that will come from it, the FCC Wireless Bureau ordered Thursday, dismissing a Verizon petition for reconsideration of its acceptance of spectrum manager lease applications. It said it also dismissed various other requests to revisit FCC spectrum holdings policies, emphasizing that its spectrum screen, used to evaluate the competitive effects of spectrum aggregation in secondary market transactions, isn't a hard cap on a company's spectrum holdings but rather a threshold for deeper competitive analysis. "The FCC has a spectrum screen to help identify instances of potential competitive harm as a provider adds spectrum," Verizon emailed. "Even in this order, the FCC still has not performed a meaningful competitive analysis, even as the leases here put T-Mobile far above the screen. Indeed, TMO already exceeded the screen in many markets before considering the leased spectrum and currently holds more low and mid-band spectrum than the next two carriers combined."
Wireless ISPs are expected to drive deployment of priority access licenses in the citizens broadband radio service band, likely being the first to deploy after the FCC finishes assigning licenses from the PAL auction that ended Aug. 25. Some larger auction bidders are starting to lay out plans. Experts and others said in interviews that auction winners will likely start to use their licenses in Q1, after the FCC finalizes channel assignments and conveys the licenses.
Dish Network will light up 5G in “some preliminary small markets” in 2021's first quarter, said Chairman Charlie Ergen on a Q3 investor call Friday. “It will be the third quarter before we have a major market up and running that the world can touch and feel a little bit,” he said. The disclosures set off a barrage of questions from analysts skeptical about Dish’s progress and its ability to meet its FCC obligations of bringing 5G to critical mass by June 2023.
T-Mobile has a buy one, get one free offer on the LG Wing 5G smartphone, arriving Nov. 6. The dual-screen phone works on 600 MHz and 2.5 GHz 5G spectrum, in addition to T-Mobile’s LTE network, said the company. It has a 6.8-inch, 2220 x 1080 main OLED display and a second 3.9-inch OLED screen, enabling two apps to run concurrently. A 64-megapixel camera headlines the triple camera array. The BOGO offer is available to new and existing customers for $41.67/month over 24 months, said the carrier.
Verizon is starting to fully deploy 5G and now covers more than 200 million people in the U.S., as broadband phone connections increased, said CEO Hans Vestberg said on a Q3 call Wednesday. it's the first of the major U.S. carriers to report. At a Competitive Carriers Association conference, T-Mobile President-Technology Neville Ray contrasted its approach to 5G with Verizon’s focus on high band.
The C-band auction and compensating satellite operators for leaving the spectrum are things the FCC could come to regret as a negative template for future spectrum auctions, said Philip Murphy, legislative director to House Communications Subcommittee Chairman Mike Doyle, D-Pa. The auction starts Dec. 8.