Howard Buskirk

Allocating the 6 GHz band for unlicensed use can help cut overall energy use relative to using carrier networks, argues a new study by WIK, released by the Wi-Fi Alliance Monday. European nations are considering whether to follow the U.S. lead and allocate the full 6 GHz band for Wi-Fi, and a key decision on the spectrum is expected at the World Radiocommunication Conference, which starts Nov. 20 in Dubai.

T-Mobile would be interested in any spectrum Dish Network offers for sale, CEO Mike Sievert said during a Q2 earnings call Thursday (see 2307270064): “You know we've never met spectrum we didn't like.” One thing that distinguishes T-Mobile is “when we get our hands on spectrum, we put it to work right away,” he said. “You see that in how we're deploying so ambitiously the 2.5 GHz” acquired as part of the Sprint buy, he said. “We're always on the hunt for other ways to add capacity to our network because it allows us to do amazing things like not only continue to take share and grow and meet ever rising needs of customers on their smartphones” but also expand fixed wireless access, Sievert said. T-Mobile remains on track to have as many as 8 million home internet customers by 2025, using excess spectrum capacity, he said. T-Mobile agrees to provide fixed-wireless only in areas with extra capacity, which currently means it’s available to about 50 million U.S. homes, Sievert said. Ulf Ewaldsson, president-technology, said T-Mobile remains well situated on spectrum. “We have lots of room to move ahead,” he said: “We have today 255 MHz of spectrum that is dedicated to 5G on our mid-band, and you have to remember that our low-band is all dedicated to 5G.” Other carriers are sharing spectrum between LTE and 5G, “and we're not -- we're dedicating spectrum,” Ewaldsson said. T-Mobile is deploying high-band, but in markets with “extraordinary” capacity needs, including Manhattan and Los Angeles, he said. Callie Field, president of T-Mobile Business Group, said the provider is expanding its business portfolio, adding a major global asset management firm and a “leading global bank” as new accounts in Q2. Some multiunit national retailers are replacing their wireline connections with 5G from T-Mobile, and hospitals and schools have also been seeking alternatives for campus-wide connections, she said. “The structural unattractiveness of the wireless industry has weighed on T-Mobile’s shares just as it has on AT&T’s and Verizon’s,” MoffettNathanson’s Craig Moffett told investors: “The only remedy will be for T-Mobile to, well, just keep putting up the numbers and buying back stock. They did both in Q2. Eventually, reticent buyers will have no choice. It’s just that it may still take some time. As ever, we’re still believers in the T-Mobile story.”

The wireless industry would likely welcome a sale of returned and unsold spectrum licenses, especially Dish Network’s surrendered AWS-3 licenses if the agency holds a remnants auction, as proposed by FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel last week, industry experts told us.

T-Mobile added 760,000 net postpaid customers in Q2, besting AT&T and Verizon, it reported Thursday. That’s up from 538,000 in Q1. T-Mobile also picked up a net 509,000 customers for its home internet service, which it said is “more than AT&T, Verizon, Comcast and Charter combined.” Postpaid churn hit a record low for the carrier of 0.77%. Service revenue of $15.7 billion was up 3% year-over-year and net income was $2.2 billion, compared with a net loss of $108 million last year. T-Mobile raised its guidance for the year in several areas and is now projecting 5.6 million-5.9 million postpaid net customer additions, compared with prior guidance of 5.3 million-5.7 million. T-Mobile said 285 million POPs are covered by T-Mobile’s Ultra Capacity 5G network, which uses its 2.5 GHz spectrum. Consumers are starting to “take notice” of T-Mobile’s 5G network “as we’re winning prime network seekers in the top 100 markets,” CEO Mike Sievert said on a call with analysts. In small markets, T-Mobile is capturing 30% of customers who switch networks, he said. Sievert said T-Mobile’s integration of Sprint is now “substantially complete, with both the billing migration and retail rationalization done ahead of a year-end target. The deadline has passed for Dish Network to exercise an option it got as part of a complicated arrangement on T-Mobile’s buy of Sprint to acquire the company’s 800 MHz spectrum for $3.4 billion (see 2304280049), Sievert said. Dish asked for additional time from the DOJ to consider what it would do “and we did not object to that,” he said. Dish has until Aug. 11 before T-Mobile will terminate the offer, Sievert said: “But, in fact, we’re in discussions with Dish about whether or not there might be a win-win that’s different from their initial privilege … But that deadline is coming.”

Commenters raised concerns on an April petition by the Shortwave Modernization Coalition (SMC) asking the FCC to launch a rulemaking to amend its eligibility and technical rules for industrial/business pool licensees to authorize licensed use of frequencies above 2 MHz and below 25 MHz for fixed, long-distance, non-voice communications (see 2305010053). Through experimental use of 2-25 MHz band frequencies “SMC members have developed and refined technologies to, among other things, enhance spectrum sharing in the band without materially increasing the risk of harmful interference to other authorized … users,” SMC said.

AT&T is working with the EPA to address questions about its legacy lead-sheathed telecom cable (see 2307210004) but questions the health risk to the public, CEO John Stankey said Wednesday as the company reported Q2 results. In April, AT&T’s stock price fell more than 10% after free cash flow (FCF) was below analyst expectations. AT&T reported FCF of $4.2 billion, up $1 billion in the first-half of 2023 compared with last year, and projected full-year FCF of $16 billion or better. AT&T’s stock price rose less than 1% Wednesday, closing at $14.90.

The FCC remains focused on the lower 3 GHz band for commercial use and will consider an auction of spectrum remaining, or returned, from past auctions when its auction authority is restored, FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel said Tuesday at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. The U.S. must lead the world on 5G, which is critical to the U.S. economy and to export democratic values “to the rest of the world,” she said. Rosenworcel spoke with Clete Johnson, CSIS senior fellow.

Verizon added 384,000 fixed wireless access customers in Q2, with 8,000 net postpaid phone adds, as the carrier Tuesday became the first of the big three wireless providers to report. Despite questions about legacy lead-sheathed telecom cables used by Verizon (see 2307210004), the company maintained its full-year earnings and revenue guidance. Officials said it's too early to estimate the cost of lead remediation. AT&T reports Wednesday.

Wireless carriers disagree with public safety over some FCC proposals for revised requirements for wireless emergency alerts, based on comments to the FCC. The Further NPRM, approved 4-0 in April, proposes to require participating providers to ensure mobile devices can translate alerts into the 13 most commonly spoken languages in the U.S. aside from English, to send thumbnail-sized images in WEA messages, and other changes (see 2304200040). Comments were due Friday in docket 15-94.

The U.S. shouldn’t look to the citizens broadband radio service band as a model for future sharing if only because it’s based on old technology and doesn’t reflect advances in sharing technology, said Peter Rysavy of Rysavy Research at an American Enterprise Institute 5G forum Thursday. Other experts said the U.S. will be hobbled on spectrum until Congress reauthorizes FCC spectrum auction authority.