Wireless Telecommunications

T-Mobile added 2.9 million phone subscribers in 2021 and forecast its midband 5G network would reach 300 million people by 2023. In three months ending December 31, T-Mobile added 844,000 postpaid customers, a subscriber category prized by carriers for long-term revenue and overall success. It also added 224,000 net customers of its high-speed internet service.

T-Mobile’s 2.5 GHz spectrum is not as locked down as most people might think it is. It turns out T-Mobile leases, but does not own, much of its 2.5 GHz spectrum. And at least one private investment firm is reaching out to the owners of the spectrum and making offers to buy it. T-Mobile is always bragging about its “layer-cake” spectrum position with a good combination of low-band, mid-band and high-band spectrum. It’s particularly prone to boast about its mid-band 2.5 GHz spectrum, which it inherited from Sprint.

A new generation of high-speed radio frequencies is allowing phone companies to grab a larger share of home internet subscriptions from cable TV operators. Of the 3.7 million new broadband customers signed up by the five biggest cable and telephone companies last year, 22 percent went to wireless connections, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. T-Mobile and Verizon grabbed 819,000 subscribers, a significant bite out of the broadband market. Their weapon, new fixed wireless connections to the home using 5G frequencies.

US safety regulators have received more than 100 pilot reports of possible interference from 5G wireless signals -- including three near Chicago O’Hare International Airport -- since the new mobile phone service began less than two weeks ago. The reports of anomalies on aircraft devices known as radar altimeters are being reviewed by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). Interference from the new 5G service has been ruled out in many of the cases, and it remains unclear whether the others indicate a safety hazard or just pilots being overly cautious.

Rural-focused service provider Nextlink announced plans to deploy fiber and fixed wireless broadband in 10 counties in east-central Illinois in cooperation with Eastern Illini Electric Cooperative (EIEC). An EIEC spokesperson said the cooperative is not contributing toward the cost of the network build, stating, “EIEC is in the process of implementing an advanced metering system. It requires an extensive communication network.

Data from Ookla's Speedtest Intelligence shows exactly how much C-band has already affected 5G performance in the week following its launch on January 19, and how that might impact Speedtest Global Index Market Analysis rankings. Ookla saw a week-over-week increase in median 5G download speed of 13 percent when looking at all operators combined.

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), Verizon, and AT&T have agreed on steps that will enable more aircraft to safely use key airports while also enabling more towers to deploy 5G service. The FAA appreciates the strong communication and collaborative approach with wireless companies, which have provided more precise data about the exact location of wireless transmitters and supported more thorough analysis of how 5G C-band signals interact with sensitive aircraft instruments.

AT&T will shut down its 3G network in February 2022, making way for 5G spectrum and services. But other operators worldwide, whose customers roam onto AT&T, still require the use of circuit-switch fallback, and that’s where Syniverse comes in. On January 25, Syniverse announced, in collaboration with AT&T, the development and deployment of a solution that preserves inbound voice roaming after AT&T phases out its 3G network on February 22, 2022.

Far faster mobile broadband speeds and new services on your 5G-enabled smartphone or a greater risk that your next flight crashes on landing? This should be a false choice in tech-savvy America.