Spectrum

T-Mobile is hoping to significantly improve the depth and reach of its lowband 5G network. But Dish Network is looking to block that move. A 2019 agreement among Dish, T-Mobile, and the US Department of Justice (DoJ) ultimately paved the way for T-Mobile to close its $26 billion purchase of Sprint.

Dish Wireless collaborated with Qualcomm Technologies and Samsung to successfully test simultaneous 5G 2x uplink and 4x downlink carrier aggregation (CA) using Frequency-Division Duplexing (FDD) spectrum across FDD bands n71, n70 and n66. The result, according to Dish, is that it was able to achieve 200 Mbps peak uplink speeds with just 35 MHz of 5G spectrum and 1.3 Gbps peak downlink speeds with just 75 MHz of spectrum.

Mobile communications company Ligado Networks sued the U.S. Departments of Defense and Commerce for unlawful taking of Ligado’s constitutionally protected, exclusively licensed spectrum without compensation. Backed by a multiyear misinformation and disparagement campaign against Ligado to conceal these activities, the U.S.

AT&T CEO John Stankey spoke at a Semafor event on October 10 to discuss barriers to greater adoption of broadband in the US, and the conversation ended up focusing heavily on spectrum. “You want more competition and resiliency in broadband in the United States, you need deep spectrum,” he said. “The United States is not in an enviable position right now for the next 10 years relative to some other developed nations.” He then proceeded to touch on a lot of hot buttons in the wireless industry.

Just days before Federal Communications Commission Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel announced plans to reinstate some net neutrality guidelines, the FCC also opened a proceeding into the spectrum screen. The move could reflect the fact that Rosenworcel now believes she has enough political clout to impose limits on 5G spectrum ownership via the agency's spectrum screen. After all, Democratic commissioners now outnumber Republicans after the Senate finally approved Democrat Anna Gomez as the fifth commissioner on the FCC.

LICT is best known as a rural broadband consolidator, but several months ago the company quietly added Sound Broadband to its holdings, not through an acquisition, but organically.

As part of DISH’s involvement in the T-Mobile-Sprint transaction, and in connection with DISH’s related applications for an extension of time to complete construction of its facilities for its AWS-4, Lower 700 MHz E Block, and AWS H Block licenses, DISH committed to construct a nationwide 5G broadband network.

GeoLinks has a lot going on with fixed wireless access (FWA), Rural Digital Opportunity Fund (RDOF) deployments, gig+ speed offers, and spectrum bands. The company has more licenses in the 28 GHz band than any other license holder and "that will give us the opportunity to look into other states in the future,” said COO Ryan Adams. Investments from Rock Mountain Capital and JLC Infrastructure make GeoLinks' expansion plans possible and help GeoLinks build upon their signi

Spectrum is vital to our most sensitive and important Federal missions, including military radar operations for homeland security, the training of our war fighters before they deploy overseas, and our ability to develop new and advanced military capabilities. Within this context, the Department of Defense has completed and submitted to the Department of Commerce the Emerging Mid-Band Radar Spectrum Sharing (EMBRSS) Feasibility Assessment as directed by the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act.

While the proposal I made to restore net neutrality will certainly garner the most attention, the Federal Communications Commission's October agenda features many other actions to promote digital equity and support broadband-powered innovation: