Wireless Telecommunications

Big Tech companies are continuing to try and head off any Federal Communications Commission effort to establish what they said would be 'one-size-fits-all" standards for 5G receivers that would work against the FCC's goals of an innovative 5G environment. The FCC in April 2022 opened an inquiry into setting wireless receiver standards, one of several routes the FCC could take, alone or in tandem, to protect signals in increasingly crowded spectrum bands, a roadmap laid out by FCC chair Jessica Rosenworcel.

Verizon flexed its promotional muscle, dropping the cost of its entry-level Fios and fixed wireless Home Internet plans to $25 per month and offering a four-year price lock for fiber customers on its faster 1-gigabit and 2-gigabit tiers. Verizon indicated it is looking to steal subscribers from cable competitors with the promotion, explicitly calling on customers to “ditch cable and switch” to one of its Home Internet services.

The future of the state’s high-speed internet and wireless connectivity was recently at the center of discussions between industry, community and university leaders at Ohio State University. President Kristina Johnson joined Lt Gov Jon Husted, director of the Governor’s Office of Workforce Transformation (OWT), to open the first meeting of the Ohio Broadband & 5G Sector Partnership.

The House Energy and Commerce Committee Communications Subcommittee gave a big thumbs up to extending the Federal Communications Commission's ability to raise tens of billions of dollars through the treasury with spectrum auctions, not to mention freeing up spectrum in the process for Wi-Fi. The subcommittee voted unanimously to favorably report the Extending America’s Spectrum Auction Leadership Act of 2022, which would extend the FCC's spectrum auction authority, which otherwise would expire September 30 of this year, to March 21, 2024. Also favorably reported were:

Since it acquired the 2.5 GHz assets from Sprint, T-Mobile has been going gangbusters on 5G, to the point that it now covers 225 million points of presence (PoPs) and is well on its way to reach 260 million by the end of 2022. By the end of 2023, it expects to reach a population of 300 million with the “Ultra Capacity” 5G that relies on 2.5 GHz. In the short term, completing the integration with Sprint is job number. 1. “This is a big, big year for us from an integration perspective,” with network decommissioning.

Federal Communications Commission Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel shared with her colleagues new draft rules to improve the reliability and resiliency of wireless networks during emergencies. If adopted by a vote of the full FCC, the rules would help reduce wireless phone outages for the public and support faster service restoration after hurricanes, wildfires, and other disasters. In September 2021, the FCC adopted a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking to improve communications during disasters.

AT&T achieved symmetrical speeds of 20 Gbps in its production network in a trial of 25G technology from Nokia. Eddy Barker, AT&T AVP of Mobility and Access Architecture, said the test highlights the future-proof nature of the fiber network it is deploying and is the latest step toward the likely commercial deployment of the technology in a 2024 timeframe. The operator has been working on 25G for some time.

The highly competitive nature of the US mobile wireless business continues as Verizon announced that it is deploying 5G in the CBRS spectrum band and T-Mobile said it achieved speeds above 3 Gbps on a production network using 5G carrier aggregation. Verizon said it worked with Ericsson to complete a 5G data session using CBRS General Authorized Access (GAA) spectrum, which is mid-band spectrum that is essentially available on an unlicensed basis.

Dish Network, the satellite TV giant and fledgling mobile carrier, is poised to miss its June 14 deadline to offer 5G wireless service to at least 20 percent of the US population. Dish acquired wireless spectrum for years, but very little of a wireless network materialized. Then in 2020, Dish entered the mobile market by acquiring some of Sprint's mobile licenses, which Sprint was shedding as part of its merger with T-Mobile. The complex transaction suddenly made Dish the country's fourth-biggest carrier and led to the creation of Dish Wireless service.

As Dish Network prepares to show how it’s meeting its June 14th requirement of offering 5G to 20 percent of the US population, the satellite TV operator is battling new allegations from SpaceX over the 12 GHz band. Dish and SpaceX have been at odds over the 12 GHz band for over a year now. The conflict between the two ratcheted up recently when SpaceX accused Dish of meddling in its attempt to help people in Ukraine.