telecompetitor

Here are 10 questions about broadband we hope to find answers to in 2019:

The Senate passed the compromise farm bill, HR 2, notching a win for Democrats who opposed the House’s plan to impose tighter work requirements on food stamp recipients. The bill would raise the annual budget for Department of Agriculture broadband loans, loan guarantees and grants to $350 million from 2019 to 2023 and allows funding to go toward grants as well as loans. Other compromise farm bill broadband provisions include raising the “minimum acceptable level of broadband service for a rural area” to 25 Mbps downstream and 3 Mbps upstream – up from a previous 4/1 Mbps.

A Verizon separation plan will reduce the company’s payroll by 10,400 employees, almost 7 percent of its workforce. The plan was announced earlier in 2018 and the reductions are part of a voluntary program to reduce Verizon’s headcount as they embark on a 5G focused restructuring. Since recently taking over the CEO helm, Hans Vestberg has embarked on a restructuring of the company, with a focus on seizing the 5G opportunity and reducing Verizon’s emphasis on legacy services. 

In what they characterize as a successful test, Samsung, Qualcomm Technologies and Verizon said they have achieved a mobile 5G speed of 1.7 Gbps using a 400 MHz swath of millimeter wave spectrum in the 28 GHz band. The companies used 5G New Radio (5G NR) compliant equipment and Evolved-Universal Terrestrial Radio Access-New Radio Dual Connectivity (EN-DC), which takes advantage of 5G and LTE technology.