telecompetitor

T-Mobile and Nokia have agreed to a $3.5 billion deal to accelerate deployment of a nationwide 5G network. Under terms of today’s announcement, T-Mobile gains access to Nokia’s complete end-to-end 5G technology, software and services portfolio. Additionally, Nokia will help construct T-Mobile’s nationwide 5G network with 600 MHz and 28 GHz millimeter wave 5G capabilities, which are compliant with the new 3GPP 5G New Radio (NR) standards.

Computer giant Microsoft has teamed up with RTO Wireless to provide broadband access to more than a quarter million people in rural New York state and Maine. It is the latest project in the company's Airband Initiative to connect rural areas to broadband partnerships with Internet service providers, and energy companies and others. The goal is to close the rural digital divide by July 4, 2022, including by making use of unlicensed spectrum in the so-called TV white spaces between TV channels.

The Federal Communications Commission has released an additional $36 million annually for 175 small rural carriers that opted to transition to receive broadband Universal Service support based on the alternative Connect America cost model (A-CAM). In exchange, the A-CAM carriers have committed to more aggressive broadband deployment goals – although those goals are not as aggressive as those originally established for the A-CAM portion of the high-cost Universal Service program back in 2016.

Broadband fixed wireless economics are considerably better than those for fiber-to-the-home, said Claude Aiken, president and CEO of the Wireless Internet Service Providers Association (WISPA) in written testimony presented to the House  Subcommittee on Communications and Technology. Aiken urged subcommittee members to support spectrum policy favorable to WISPs. He argued that by spurring investment in broadband fixed wireless, a WISP-friendly spectrum policy could help minimize the need for government subsidies to support broadband buildout.

The cost to deploy fiber to unserved US rural areas is about $61 billion, said Jim Stegeman, president of CostQuest Associates, an economic consultancy that specializes in telecommunication. CostQuest created the cost model used to determine broadband deployment costs for the Connect America Fund (CAF) subsidy program. The $61 billion estimated cost to deploy fiber to unserved U.S. rural areas is based on deploying GPON fiber-to-the-premises technology and does not include ongoing operational costs. Stegeman is the co-author, along with Steve G.