Wireless Telecommunications

Dish Network, the satellite TV giant and fledgling mobile carrier, is poised to miss its June 14 deadline to offer 5G wireless service to at least 20 percent of the US population. Dish acquired wireless spectrum for years, but very little of a wireless network materialized. Then in 2020, Dish entered the mobile market by acquiring some of Sprint's mobile licenses, which Sprint was shedding as part of its merger with T-Mobile. The complex transaction suddenly made Dish the country's fourth-biggest carrier and led to the creation of Dish Wireless service.

As Dish Network prepares to show how it’s meeting its June 14th requirement of offering 5G to 20 percent of the US population, the satellite TV operator is battling new allegations from SpaceX over the 12 GHz band. Dish and SpaceX have been at odds over the 12 GHz band for over a year now. The conflict between the two ratcheted up recently when SpaceX accused Dish of meddling in its attempt to help people in Ukraine.

The Federal Communications Commission voted to begin gathering information on the possible current and future needs, uses, and impacts of offshore wireless spectrum use. With wind turbine projects, cruise ships, oceanography, and other offshore projects possibly benefiting from increased spectrum access and updated spectrum management guidelines, this Notice of Inquiry seeks public comment on how best to address these needs. The FCC seeks input on the possible future demand and use cases for offshore spectrum.

The Federal Communications Commission launched an examination into the state of technology that can more precisely route wireless 911 calls to the proper 911 call center, which could result in faster response times during emergencies. Wireless 911 calls are typically routed to 911 call centers based on the location of the cell tower that handles the call. But in some cases—for example, if a 911 call is made near a county or a city border—the nearest cell tower may be in a neighboring jurisdiction.

Ookla's first quarter 2022 results for the United States show that there is room for improvement on C-band usage in the country. Median 5G performance for Verizon reached 107.25 Mbps in first quarter 2022, fuelled by its C-band deployment, but T-Mobile maintains the upper hand in the performance stakes, recording 191.12 Mbps. Furthermore, Verizon looking to capitalize on C-band advantage. While still early days for C-band in the US, Verizon will hope that its improved 5G performance will feed through into growth in postpaid net phone additions, following a decline in first quarter 2022.

The race to build 6G is on—or, at least, the race to start selling the idea to Washington.

Dell is working with Dish to create a private 5G wireless network, and needs 12 GHz spectrum – the radio frequency used to carry wireless information for services like TV and radio broadcasting, mobile phones and Wi-Fi to communications systems – in order to launch the network. But there are a few problems Dell and Dish have to figure out first. The Federal Communications Commission will have to decide whether to hand that limited resource over to Dell and Dish to create their network.

UScellular announced that it will roll out 5G service using mid-band spectrum by the end of 2023. The company previously rolled out 5G service in some areas using millimeter wave spectrum, which supports the highest speeds but over relatively short distances, and in low-band spectrum, which provides excellent coverage but relatively low speeds. Mid-band spectrum is widely considered to provide the optimum mixture of coverage and speed for 5G.

Verizon currently cites a speed of 300 Mbps for its 5G fixed wireless offering. That speed could increase beginning as early as 2023 when the company gains access to additional spectrum that it won in the 2021 C-band auction, said Matt Ellis, Verizon executive vice president and chief financial officer. The company was the biggest winner in 2021’s C-band auction.

Fixed wireless access (FWA) broadband could add more than 10 million subscribers in the next five years, driven by programs geared toward rural markets, according to Wells Fargo telecom and media analysts Eric Luebchow and Steven Cahall. The analysts predict that total broadband subscriber additions will accelerate to 4.5-to-5 million annually in 2023 and 2024, fueled mainly by FWA and fiber overbuilds. Over the next five years, Luebchow and Cahall predict FWA will rise from 7.1 million total subscribers at the end of 2021 to 17.6 million in 2027.