Bevin Fletcher

BT Group and low-earth orbit (LEO) satellite venture OneWeb are taking an earlier agreement to new heights. The partners signed a deal for connectivity services and expect to fire up the first live trials in early 2022. The global distribution partner agreement announced builds on a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) the partners reached in July.

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) upped the ante in what has been an ongoing scuffle between communications regulators and the wireless industry with aviation stakeholders – as the agency issued a warning over potential interference to airplane safety systems from upcoming 5G deployments in C-band frequencies.

AT&T saw notable drops in mobile traffic in major cities when Facebook and its popular Instagram, WhatsApp and Messenger apps went offline for hours during a massive global outage. In two cities, mobile traffic declines hit double digits – 11 percent in New York City and 10.6 percent in Houston – on October 4 during the six-hour period “coinciding with a disruption across several top social media platforms,” AT&T said. Mobile traffic on AT&T’s network in Arkansas and in Miami/South Florida plunged 9.9 percent each, while Chicago was down 9.2 percent during that time.

UScellular is working on a multi-year effort to eventually sunset its CDMA 3G network, as the regional carrier upgrades parts of its network with additional LTE bandwidth and capabilities. The company stated that as part of the work, some 3G data services have been shut off, including in Missouri. Since 98 percent of UScellular’s traffic in Missouri is LTE, the company doesn’t expect many customers to be affected. UScellular did not disclose how many, or which other markets have already seen high-speed 3G data turned off.

T-Mobile has made rural America a clear aim, with a push on brand recognition alongside deployments, retail stores, and initiatives like its Hometown Grant program. The company announced 25 small town winners that are part of its five-year commitment to provide $25 million in grants for community projects, alongside earlier stated plans to hire 7,500 new employees in small towns and rural areas.

The next US mid-band spectrum auction is set to start on October 5 for spectrum in the 3.45 GHz range. The deadline to resubmit incomplete applications and upfront payments was September 7, so the Federal Communications Commission should soon be releasing a final list of participating bidders. AT&T, Dish and T-Mobile all submitted applications, while Verizon was on the incomplete list as of the initial filing deadline. AT&T appears to be favored to spend the most on 3.45 GHz spectrum, followed by T-Mobile and Dish.

JMA Wireless, Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Crown Castle launched a private LTE network for Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) using Citizens Broadband Radio Service (CBRS) spectrum. Plans for the project started in mid-2020, as CMU looked to upgrade cellular connectivity to support research at its Living Edge Lab on campus.

The Federal Communications Commission released a roster of applicants for participation in the next US mid-band spectrum auction. Auction 110, set to start October 5, is offering up to 4,060 flexible-use licenses with 100-megahertz in the 3.45-3.55 GHz range across the contiguous US. No bidder can win more than 40-megahertz of spectrum. According to the FCC's application list, 26 applications are completed and 16 remain incomplete, for a total of 42 potential bidders.

Around 27 percent of Verizon’s consumer base is on premium unlimited plans, and with strong uptake in the second quarter there is a lot of room to continue moving customers into higher-priced tiers and growing revenue per account. CFO Matt Ellis said more than 60 percent of new accounts in Q2 opted for premium unlimited plans. Verizon laid out plans in March 2021 for consistent increases in wireless ARPA, alongside related growth in service revenues. At the end of June, Verizon had 121.3 million total wireless retail connections, including prepaid and business customers.

The massive infrastructure bill making its way through the US legislature includes a section on spectrum auctions, including pre-auction funding for the Department of Defense (DoD) to research sharing and commercial use in the 3.1-3.45 GHz band. The section says once the bill is enacted, $50 million from the Spectrum Relocation Fund would be transferred to the DoD for research, planning and other activities for efficient spectrum use for the purpose of making the band available, including reallocating spectrum for shared federal and non-federal licensed users and conducting an auction. Shar