Network management

The 5G hype of the mid-2010s is downright embarrassing to think back on. 5G was predicted to unlock an instant revenue gusher for telephone companies, while consumers' lives would be transformed by high-speed, low-latency connections that enabled self-driving cars, the metaverse and remote-control surgery. Of course, the reality has been different. Consumers don't care about 5G. They don't even know if their phones are 5G-enabled.

T-Mobile is asking the Federal Communications Commission for permission to expand its SpaceX satellite messaging service to more phones. The reason the request is necessary? Paperwork. According to T-Mobile, the issue centers on obscure FCC waivers and authorizations for SCS services as well as for standard smartphones.

Another day, another embarrassing analyst flub.

Apple is clashing with Elon Musk in its push to eliminate cellphone dead spots with satellite technology. Apple is investing heavily in satellite-based communications that keep users connected in places where traditional wireless signals aren’t available. Musk’s SpaceX, meanwhile, has launched more than 550 satellites that provide cellphone connectivity via its Starlink service. To build capacity, the companies are competing for valuable spectrum rights—airwaves to carry their signals—which are in limited supply.

It’s a question that has baffled many minds for years. The mismatch between the U.S. population growth rate and U.S. wireless carriers’ ability to add oodles of new phone customers every quarter has mystified some Wall Street analysts for eons. “Investors have been puzzling over the industry’s ‘excess growth’ for years now,” wrote Craig Moffett of MoffettNathanson Research. “Wireless is, after all, a fully saturated industry in the U.S.

Future G networks will require more dynamic, agile support for the management of radio spectrum on a fine-grained basis. The radio access network (RAN) technologies necessary to enable Dynamic Spectrum Access (DSA) have progressed significantly over the past 20 years, but the challenges of realizing the potential for DSA requires the co-evolution of technologies, business models, and regulatory policy. This paper presents a multidisciplinary research effort to develop the building blocks needed to advance DSA.

Verizon and T-Mobile are at it again, and this time, it’s more about what’s above their terrestrial networks than what’s on the ground. To be sure, these two have been at each other’s throats for years, primarily because Verizon made a reputation for itself as the carrier with the “best network” and T-Mobile, long known as a network laggard, set its sights on upending that.

T-Mobile demonstrations using a commercial Samsung Galaxy S25 and a non-commercial mobile test device achieved a 6.3 Gbps “record-breaking” downlink speed in a recent trial. The Galaxy S25 test featured Qualcomm’s Snapdragon X80 5G Modem-RF System running text software on T-Mobile’s 5G network. It reached a download speed of 4.3 Gbps in real-world conditions. The second test featured Qualcomm’s X85 5G Modem-RF on a mobile test device.

There is an interesting trend of internet service providers selling broadband products that are not always guaranteed to be at the same speed and quality as other customers. I've especially noticed this practice in recent years from big fixed wireless providers that sell home broadband using cellular spectrum. AT&T, T-Mobile, and Verizon have all reserved the right to throttle customers any time that the network gets too busy. It’s easy to understand why cellular companies would throttle home broadband customer first—they are protecting their cellular customers.

Comcast has pushed ahead with a new mobile offering aimed at customers who take one of the operator's higher-end home broadband speed tiers. Comcast combined that announcement with a wave of free speed upgrades—including faster upstream speeds—across its prepaid and postpaid home broadband services. On the mobile end, Comcast is now offering new and existing home broadband customers an unlimited line of Xfinity mobile for a year when they subscribe to broadband speeds of 400 Mbit/s or faster.