The 5G opportunity could create up to 300,000 green jobs by 2030, justifying “accelerated deployment” of such networks and use cases, plus “enhanced investments in 5G technology leadership and a robust global semiconductor ecosystem,” reported Qualcomm Monday. Widespread commercial deployment could enable reduction of 374 million metric tons of U.S. greenhouse gas emissions -- equivalent to removing 81 million passenger vehicles from U.S. roads for a year, it said. Qualcomm estimates 5G can help halve U.S. pesticide use through the deployment of drones “for remote sensing and spray application.” The chipmaker is working with partners “across many industries to leverage 5G to reduce carbon footprints and conserve resources,” said CEO Cristiano Amon.

Users of T-Mobile’s network in the U.S., and STC’s in Kuwait, spent the largest percentage of time connected to 5G, at 35.7 and 33.6, respectively, Opensignal said Monday. Taiwan’s FarEasTone had the fastest 5G downloads, 447.8 Mbps, as East Asian providers dominated that category, the report said.

The FCC said 33 companies qualified to bid in the 3.45 GHz auction, which starts Oct. 5. Nine applications were deemed incomplete. Verizon is now qualified. AT&T, T-Mobile, Dish Network and UScellular are among the heavy hitters that had already qualified. Cable operators and big tech companies will sit out the auction of mid-band spectrum for 5G (see 2108180047). Among the potential bidders that didn’t qualify are Bluegrass Network, Frontier Communications, 3D Built, 5G Alliance Utah, 5Global 3535, Resound Networks, Ring Strategy Partners and W.A.T.C.H. TV. Fifty-seven qualified bidders were in the C-band auction, which was dominated by major carriers.

The August T-Mobile data breach (see 2108180062) will likely cut postpaid phone net adds for the carrier by 350,000 in Q3, with some lingering effects into Q4, New Street’s Jonathan Chaplin told investors Thursday. New Street still expects T-Mobile to add 3.3 million postpaid phones for the year. “We currently don’t expect the hack to impact long-term adds or financials,” Chaplin said: “We still expect T-Mobile share gains to accelerate as their product advantage becomes apparent.”

Q2 was the sixth straight quarter of double-digit year-over-year revenue growth in the smartphone apps processor market, reported Strategy Analytics Thursday. SA estimates the market grew 18% in Q2 to $7 billion. Qualcomm had the top revenue share with 36%, followed by MediaTek (29%) and Apple (21%), and Samsung and Unisoc rounded out the top five. Qualcomm's revenue growth outpaced its unit-shipments growth, “driven by a high mix of 5G,” said analyst Sravan Kundojjala. Amid the global semiconductor shortages, Qualcomm shifted its focus to “premium and high tier” processors “to make the best use of available capacity,” he said.

T-Mobile urged the FCC to set a date for the 2.5 GHz auction to start and begin and finalize a proceeding on auction procedures, in a filing posted Thursday in docket 18-120. The band “is critical to help provide 5G services to Americans,” the carrier said: “Yet, it has been over two years since the Commission adopted new rules governing the 2.5 GHz band and nearly eight months since the Commission proposed procedures to auction the spectrum.” The FCC should reject calls by AT&T for a single-round, sealed-bid auction with pay-as-bid pricing, T-Mobile said: That approach “would favor speculators and not service providers -- service providers that compete with AT&T.” T-Mobile favors a more traditional simultaneous multiple round (SMR) auction. The 2.5 GHz auction will offer more than 8,300 “unique licenses,” which “will be ‘overlaid’ on existing spectrum licenses, the characteristics of many of them -- even in the same geographic area -- may vary significantly,” the carrier said. “An SMR auction is essential in these circumstances because it allows for price discovery, which enables participants to effectively determine the value of a license based on the specific spectrum made available and the geographic area covered.” The auction is expected to start next year, after the conclusion of the 3.45 GHz auction, which starts next month (see 2106070054). AT&T didn't comment.

T-Mobile Senior Vice President-Government Affairs Kathleen Ham slammed AT&T Tuesday during a Media Institute webinar after the rival asked the FCC to adopt a spectrum screen for 2.5 GHz-6 GHz (see 2109010069). AT&T fired back. “What an about face,” Ham said: “For AT&T now to be endorsing a screen is really a complete 180” degrees. AT&T fought “very hard and very mightily” against low-band aggregation limits sought by T-Mobile, she said. “Competition is indeed working.” AT&T “is feeling the heat, they’re realizing that T-Mobile is the leader in 5G right now and we’re pushing them,” she said. AT&T wants regulation to “help them out, to basically protect them from competition,” she said. A screen is “supposed to be pro-competitive, not anticompetitive,” Ham said. T-Mobile will have more to say in filings, she said. “Mid-band spectrum plays a critical role in the buildout of 5G networks,” an AT&T spokesperson emailed. “Its value should be reflected in a separate screen -- as is low-band and high-band spectrum -- when determining whether a proposed transaction would harm the competitive landscape. Our proposed screen would not prevent any carrier from acquiring more spectrum as needed to meet demand. Rather, it would level the playing field.” T-Mobile “doesn’t sit on a megahertz, we build it out,” Ham said. T-Mobile wants the FCC to enforce buildout requirements, recognizing that every band is different, she said. T-Mobile led the industry in clearing AWS spectrum of government users “because we had to” and needed the spectrum for 3G, she said. T-Mobile hopes for a 2.5 GHz auction in Q1 or Q2, she said. “It’s time for the remaining spectrum to be auctioned.” Other 3 GHz spectrum is the most likely to be examined next for auction “and then other bands to be determined,” she said. Ham said there are “very positive signals” that Congress will approve federal infrastructure legislation. T-Mobile likes the commitment to “affordability,” she said: “We’re very active participants in the current emergency broadband benefit program, which is really continued as part of that legislation.” She added to T-Mobile’s Washington, D.C., office, but staffers have been unable to gather in one location since the start of this pandemic. “We’ve had some great webcasts and we do get together online on a regular basis,” Ham said: “That’s been a challenge.” T-Mobile is requiring all employees be vaccinated by Oct. 25, which should mean more in-person work, she said. T-Mobile is offering in-home broadband in markets where it has excess capacity on top of its mobile network, Ham said. “We’re finding, particularly in rural areas and smaller towns … there’s a real hunger for this,” she said: Plans are to expand the program to 7 million-8 million customers by 2025.

Open radio access networks “should be industry led, but ... there is a role for governments to play,” said Jaisha Wray, NTIA associate administrator-international affairs. Government “recognizes that many network operators in the United States, and really across the world, are facing limited options,” she told the virtual OpenRAN Forum Tuesday: The limits “can reduce supply chain resilience and contribute to higher prices for operators and consumers in the long run,” she said. The biggest motivation for carriers opting for ORAN is wanting more choices of gear suppliers, said Stefan Pongratz, Dell’Oro vice president. “They want to have a broader selection from the get-go." U.S. government efforts against Huawei are working and the Chinese company had a 3%-4% drop between last year and today in global market share, he said. Globally, providers spend as much as $40 billion a year on RAN equipment, he said. Dell’Oro estimates 80% of operators are investing in ORAN or considering doing so, he said: “It’s a broad-based movement. It’s strong right now.” NTIA, which held 5G listening sessions (see 2102250056), is continuing its focus on open networks, noted Wray. ORAN is ready to be deployed and the performance is “at par” with legacy systems, said Stefano Cantarelli, Mavenir executive vice president. “We have had several implementations where we have seen all of the requirements of operators being met.” More radio units are coming to market, he said. Analog Devices first became involved with ORAN three years ago and knew then that development would take time, said Joseph Barry, vice president of the company’s Wireless Communications Business Unit. “It’s essentially on track in terms of deployment at scale” though this pandemic slowed things down by “one or two quarters,” he said: “We’re seeing a lot of good progress in the near term but also a lot to be done in the next one to two years in terms of its ultimate large-scale deployment.” Work remains on power savings, beam forming and digital functionalities needed for massive multiple-input and multiple-output radios, he said.

Verizon’s network is returning to normal, 18 months into the COVID-19 pandemic, Consumer Group CEO Ronan Dunne told a virtual Bank of America conference Monday. “We’re definitely seeing a return to normal levels of activity we can measure,” he said: “Many of the cities in the U.S. are now at or above the level of network activity back pre-pandemic.” Retail stores are also getting rising activity, he said. Dunne said smartphone adds are partially responsible for U.S. postpaid phone net gains of 8 million in the past year, compared with 4.6 million the previous year. Younger and older people saw more need to be connected during these times, he said. Part of the growth is tied to new businesses and migration from prepaid to postpaid phones, he said. Verizon is seeing “very strong trends” of people adding cellular-enabled tablets, watches and other connected devices, he said. People also are spending more in general, he said: “There’s real growth out there.” More than 20% of the handsets on Verizon’s network now are 5G, the “vast majority” of them “C-band capable,” he said.

U.S. interest remains high in using 5G networks for enterprise IoT applications, but deployment questions and uncertainties abound, reported the Information Services Group Thursday. Many companies rolling out IoT remain concerned about cybersecurity, “and they’re turning to service providers to help them protect the data flowing over IoT systems,” said ISG. There’s “rampant” hype about 5G, “and not all spectrum types are available in a particular country or on a particular mobile network,” said analyst Ron Exler. “Enterprises need to work with their network and IoT providers to manage the selection of replacement technologies in advance of shuttering events, preferably in conjunction with 5G deployment.”