Network management

Charter Communications is "not standing still" as it explores new ways to compete with fixed wireless access (FWA), says CEO Chris Winfrey. But Charter's top executive also stressed that the cable industry still needs to do more to demonstrate how it matches up on price, reliability and performance. He said the relatively low price of FWA services is often combined with a bundle that includes a high-priced mobile service.

5G users report higher performance satisfaction than 4G users, but face issues in high-traffic locations, meaning that 4 in 10 users are no longer willing to accept best-effort 5G performance. Further, 35 percent of surveyed 5G users show a growing appetite for elevated connectivity beyond standard 5G performance, signaling a strong willingness to adopt and pay extra for differentiated connectivity. So, what can differentiated connectivity do for them?

Given the slowdown in spending on the part of big wireless carriers as the 5G era shifts into low gear, why does UScellular think it can make a viable business selling space on its towers? After all, a booming tower business implies carriers will spend more on their networks, not less.

In what is bad news for many other internet service providers (ISPs), both T-Mobile and Verizon have plans to continue their aggressive growth of FWA cellular broadband.

The arrival of on-device artificial intelligence could radically reshape the app/app-store model that has ruled the tech industry in the smartphone era. Traditionally, Apple and Google have dominated the mobile era by controlling the two major smartphone ecosystems and their associated app stores.

The growth in mobile data traffic makes our world better informed, more fulfilled, and of course, better connected. It means consumers are taking advantage of the powerful service our networks are delivering. But it also means those networks are being tested like never before. As we know, this network strain will only continue as IoT devices, intelligent infrastructure, and AI-enabled applications proliferate.

In an interesting lawsuit, VoIP-Pal, a patent holding company brought suit against AT&T, T-Mobile, Verizon, and Deutsche Telekom for now allow customers an option to use WiFi calling and WiFi texting. Of course, anybody with a smartphone can make a WiFi call across their phone’s data connection, and the lawsuit is really a complaint that the cellular companies are forcing customers to pay for a traditional voice and texting plan when customers only want to buy a bare broadband connection.

Starlink has added a $100 “congestion charge” to certain new subscribers of their Residential Services. The one-time fee applies to new service plans within areas of “network congestion.” The Support section of the Starlink website provides details of the new charge. “In areas with network congestion, there is an additional one-time charge to purchase Starlink Residential services.

Critics may have proclaimed 5G a flop, but T-Mobile certainly doesn't see it that way. The operator's President of Technology Ulf Ewaldsson said that the 5G story isn’t so bad after all. Ewaldsson is one of the relatively rare individuals with a good 5G story to tell. He recounted how 10 years ago, T-Mobile was dead last in the race for network superiority and its network was full of coverage holes. T-Mobile had a 3G network when everybody else had moved onto 4G LTE. Then the wave hit. “5G for us became a wave that we could ride all the way out,” he said.

Verizon and Frontier Communications announced they have entered into a definitive agreement for Verizon to acquire Frontier in an all-cash transaction valued at $20 billion. This strategic acquisition of the largest pure-play fiber internet provider in the U.S. will significantly expand Verizon's fiber footprint across the nation, accelerating the company’s delivery of premium mobility and broadband services to current and new customers.