Competition between wireless carriers is likely to increase in the second half of 2018, Macquarie Research’s Amy Yong told investors Thursday. “AT&T will likely leverage its new assets to offer better bundles, while T-Mobile/Sprint could offer promos to showcase their consumer-friendly nature,” Yong said. Verizon, which will soon have a new CEO in Hans Vestberg, will likely take “a fresh approach” to competition, she said. Yong predicted T-Mobile will continue to make investments in its networks as it waits for regulators on the Sprint deal. “T-Mobile is balancing standalone network investments while trying not to compromise deal synergies,” she said.” We expect it will continue its 5G efforts in its 600 MHz footprint, which should fit nicely with Sprint’s 2.5 GHz spectrum efforts.”

Bidirectional sharing of commercial spectrum for federal users to have access to commercial spectrum has emerged as a Trump administration focus. Proposals remain controversial for carriers.

The 3.7-4.2 GHz band will play a role in deployment of 5G, speakers agreed Friday at a New America event, but they jousted over whether the C-band could be cleared in only some geographic areas and complained about lack of clarity and technical details on the two main plans for terrestrial access to the band. Top priority must be preventing harm to incumbent users, and there needs to be far more detail about the Broadband Access Coalition (BAC) and Intelsat/SES/Intel proposals before an evaluation can start, said American Cable Association (ACA) Senior Vice President-Government Affairs Ross Lieberman.

TV stations headed toward repacking would be smart to employ a "belt and suspenders" approach of doing as many things as possible to get viewers up to speed ahead of time, said FCC Incentive Auction Task Force Chair Jean Kiddoo Friday. Stations will have to think about, for example, having staffed phone banks to field calls from people struggling with re-scanning digital antennas, she told us. Requirements for notifications, which have to start at least 30 days before a transition, aren't very prescriptive because broadcasters generally recognize it's in their own interests to do as much as possible, she said.

Commissioners were in lockstep Thursday as they approved a high-band Further NPRM, though there was a party-line rift over the pre-auction limit of 1250 MHz of millimeter-wave spectrum that any party can buy at auction. The agency is sending "confusing signals" to industry given those limits and yet not committing to a time frame for making available more spectrum, said sole Democratic Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel, who dissented in part. Her support of the pre-auction limits was unclear (see 1805250058). The FCC said there was no substantive changes from the draft, but the approved item wasn't released Thursday. Commissioners also Thursday approved a telecom discontinuance streamlining order and six other items (see 1806070021).

Sharing the C band now used by satellite operators and by broadcast and other programmers sending content using it could be tricky, many stakeholders agree. Where they differ is on whether it should be repurposed or shared or mainly left as-is. True to predictions and comments posted through Thursday, even newer filings reveal differences between carriers on one hand and current users on the other (see 1805310058), a docket 18-122 review shows. A couple dozen filings were posted Friday, from tech companies, carriers, equipment makers, cable and content interests plus other industries.

T-Mobile appears to be spending more than expected to build out its 600 MHz incentive auction licenses, Oppenheimer said in a Wednesday research note. “We spoke with [T-Mobile] management, who appeared to be focused on building out its 600 MHz spectrum for increased coverage/capacity, the correct route in our opinion, but this will require more capex and we increase our estimates,” Oppenheimer said. The analyst raised its capital expenditure estimates by $200 million for T-Mobile’s Q2 to $1.55 billion.

With less than two weeks before the June 7 commissioners’ meeting, how the votes will shape up on the high-band Further NPRM (see 1805160051) remains unclear. The draft NPRM proposes to eliminate the pre-auction limit of 1250 MHz on the amount of millimeter-wave spectrum in the 28 GHz, 37 GHz and 39 GHz bands that any party can buy at auction. FCC Democrats historically favored aggregation limits, usually opposed by Republicans. FCC Democrat Jessica Rosenworcel is still studying the draft and has reached no conclusions, industry and FCC officials said Friday. The item is one of 12 on one of the biggest agendas in a long time for an FCC open meeting.

Broadcasters need to move as quickly as possible to transition to ATSC 3.0 or they're in danger of losing their spectrum and market share to other industries, said FCC Commissioner Mike O'Rielly and Spectrum Consortium President John Hane in separate speeches Thursday to the ATSC Next Gen TV Conference. Through 3.0, broadcasters need to maximize the use of their existing spectrum, or it will be given to another industry, Hane said. Under the current technology, broadcasters provide a valuable service but take up too much spectrum to provide it, leading regulators to periodically pursue “progressive reclamation” of it as with the incentive auction, Hane said.

CHARLOTTE -- The FCC will vote in July on a proposal for using C-band spectrum, the 500 MHz of spectrum between 3.7 and 4.2 GHz, Chairman Ajit Pai told the Wireless Infrastructure Association Wednesday. Pai urged aggressive action to win the global 5G race but said he wants to find balance between industry and local government interests. Dish Network plans to spend at least $10 billion on 5G, technology that Chairman Charles Ergen predicted would add “a lot more” than $500 billion to the economy. Chasing a 5G network for IoT, “Dish is back to being a startup business,” Ergen said. The company is spending $500 million to $1 billion in the first phase of its plans, and tower executives voiced eagerness to assist.