T-Mobile continued the 5G drumroll Monday, lighting up its low-band 600 MHz network and announcing preorders for two phones due in stores Friday. Metro by T-Mobile will launch the first U.S.-wide prepaid 5G Friday, it said. It spans 200 million-plus people, 5,000 towns and 1 million square miles, covering “more people in more places” than rivals, said the carrier. It pitched the $900 and $1,300 5G phones to early adopters. In a promotion, line switchers can get the $900 OnePlus 7T Pro 5G McLaren for free with a trade-in of select smartphones and a 24-month contract. Buyers of the Samsung Galaxy 10 Plus 5G ($1,299) can get up to $1,300 off via 24 or 26 monthly bill credits or any Samsung Galaxy S10 or Note10 of equal or lesser value when they add a line. The phones are ready to use Sprint’s 2.5 GHz 5G spectrum "when available if the merger closes,” it said. T-Mobile CEO John Legere said (see 1902270030) the combination of its low-band and millimeter-wave spectrum and Sprint’s mid-band spectrum would create “the highest capacity network in U.S. history -- a whopping 400 MHz+ total spectrum for customers nationwide on average.” A map shows consumers 5G coverage, "down to their neighborhoods."

Jobs remain an issue in T-Mobile's buying Sprint, stakeholders agreed. They differ on whether the deal would lead to more employment or hurt unionization. At the Capitol Forum Thursday and in Q&A with us, those for and against the deal expanded on existing policy positions. Topics included rollout of attorneys general backing the transaction after reaching pacts for the combined company to locate jobs in their states.

Integration plans between T-Mobile and Sprint are further along than expected, since the deal has taken longer than expected to complete, said T-Mobile CEO John Legere on a Q3 call Monday. “The silver lining is that we have had more time to prepare for the coming integration,” Legere said: “We have detailed integration plans and we are preparing to start deploying Sprint’s 2.5 GHz spectrum soon after closing” on buying that smaller company. He said with the state attorneys general court case to be heard in December, 19 state governments have now endorsed the deal.

T-Mobile Chief Technology Officer Neville Ray briefed FCC Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel on the company’s progress in deploying in the 600 MHz band, said a filing in docket 12-268. Clearing of the 600 MHz band is proceeding on, or ahead of, the schedule the Commission established,” T-Mobile said, posted Thursday. Other T-Mobile executives discussed the C band with Office of Engineering and Technology Chief Julius Knapp and Wireless Bureau Chief Donald Stockdale. “We urged the Commission to make a minimum of 300 megahertz of C-band spectrum available for mobile broadband and provide certainty regarding the amount and timing of the spectrum that will be made available," the company said.

Commissioners are expected to approve, with no dissents and few questions, an order and Further NPRM Friday on the 800 MHz rebanding, FCC and industry officials said. The order is loosely tied to T-Mobile’s proposed buy of Sprint (see 1910020030) but didn’t generate controversy. No parties reported meetings at the FCC on the item in docket 02-55.

The FCC sees 6 GHz as critical to the future of Wi-Fi and unlicensed, said Chairman Ajit Pai at the Mobile World Congress in Los Angeles Tuesday. The band will provide “huge 160 MHz channels that could be used for unlicensed innovation, the likes of which we only conceive now,” said Pai, interviewed by CTIA President Meredith Baker. The FCC is looking for “an accommodation” for public safety, business and other users of the band, he said.

FCC Chairman Ajit Pai is expected to propose a private auction of the C band, along the lines of what was proposed by the C-Band Alliance, for a vote at the Dec. 12 commissioners’ meeting, said industry officials. The order would provide some 300 MHz for 5G through private auction in 2020's first half. The FCC would likely allow no combinatorial bidding and sell all the spectrum in one auction, or possibly two, as long as there's certainty on timing of the second, the officials said. The proposal also calls for partial economic area licenses, as sought by CBA.

Wilson Electronics urged FCC Wireless Bureau staff to adopt criteria that would allow use of consumer signal boosters (CSBs) in spectrum being opened for 5G. “CSBs can play a significant role in the rollout of new 5G networks” and should be permitted in the 600 MHz and 2.5 GHz bands “which will assist carriers in densifying their early 5G networks,” Wilson said, posted Tuesday in docket 10-4. Wilson said high-frequency bands “present propagation challenges that can be overcome with the use of CSBs.” It said the FCC should act to eliminate the personal-use exemption for small businesses, as it has for residences (see 1806190052). “Affordable CSBs provide the best solution for improved in-building cellular connectivity for most small businesses" in the U.S., the booster maker said.

What 5G will mean for smaller, rural carriers remains unclear. At the Competitive Carriers Association conference last week in Providence, Rhode Island, attendees told us there are more questions than answers. A recurring theme was members will concentrate for now on 4G LTE, which has a long runway ahead.

With rival estimates of cost and feasibility of fiber distribution to replace satellite C-band use before the FCC, experts told us there are issues about how fast such fiber could go up and about ongoing expenses. Being switched to fiber could force many small cable operators out of business, some fear.