MLB teamed with T-Mobile on a 5G-enabled event for a “bird’s-eye view," they said Monday. T-Mobile wireless 5G BatterCams mounted on players and coaches' caps will let customers feel what it’s like to be in the batter’s box, they said. An immersive view will be provided by 360-degree 5G cameras. The livestream will air before Tuesday's Game 1 of the World Series. The livestream will air before game one of the World Series on MLB.TV, MLB.com, Twitch, @MLB on Twitter, the Official MLB Facebook page, MLB VR on Oculus and T-Mobile’s Beyond the Bases page, they said.

T-Mobile is working to build up its 600 MHz portfolio, seeking regulatory approval for a lease with TStar, “a 600 MHz spectrum holder we previously identified as a potential target for T-Mobile,” LightShed’s Walter Piecyk told investors Thursday. “5G deployments on low-band spectrum provide T-Mobile subscribers with the broad ‘dedicated 5G coverage’ that its management team has been promoting,” the analyst wrote: “Unfortunately, T-Mobile’s low-band spectrum is not deep enough to deliver 5G speeds that are materially different than LTE, especially when they also plan to dedicate a portion to LTE.” This is T-Mobile’s third lease of 600 MHz spectrum, following leases from Dish Network and Columbia Capital, he said. It adds about 300 million MHz-POPs to the 2.3 billion MHz-POPs of 600 MHz spectrum T-Mobile previously leased, he said. At an estimated cost of $1.50 per MHz/POP, Piecyk said the annual cost to T-Mobile is about $300 million.

The Trump administration emphasized a “market-based approach” to ensure U.S. dominance in developing emerging technologies, in a national strategy released Thursday. The National Security Council identified 20 critical technologies, including telecom, semiconductors, autonomous vehicles, artificial intelligence and quantum computing. The market-based approach is preferable to “state-directed models” that “produce waste and disincentivize innovation,” the strategy said. It helps “protect ourselves from unfair competition,” including from China and Russia. Those countries and other “strategic competitors … have adopted deliberate whole-of-government” critical and emerging tech “efforts and are making large and strategic investments to take the lead,” the strategy said. “America’s lead in certain C&ET sectors is declining. The [U.S.] will take meaningful action to reverse this trend.” The strategy includes a focus on improving the U.S. workforce for some emerging tech and increasing the pool of investors to ensure improved R&D. It calls for preventing foreign adversaries like China from unfairly benefiting from U.S. innovation, including by beefing up international intellectual property theft norms and expanding restrictions on exports of some tech to those countries.

There’s not enough differentiation among carriers’ iPhone 12 trade-in offers to make them consumers' main motivator in choosing a service, New Street Research analyst Jonathan Chaplin wrote investors Thursday, saying service price and perceptions of network difference will be bigger drivers. T-Mobile and AT&T offer the best deal with the trade-in of an iPhone 11 Pro; AT&T wins with a trade-in of the 11 or X; and T-Mobile and Verizon win with the trade-in of the iPhone 7, he said. Chaplin sees the most common trade-ins as iPhone 8, X and 11. All carriers claim “nationwide 5G” on lower frequencies, but speeds on these frequencies are only “slightly better than 4G,” said the analyst. T-Mobile has a slight advantage, claiming 260 million population 5G coverage vs. AT&T and Verizon at about 200 million. New Street believes the “real 5G” will happen on spectrum frequencies at 2.5 GHz and higher: “We expect speeds of 300-400 Mbps on 2.5 GHz and higher on millimeter wave.” T-Mobile has a “powerful advantage,” with 25 million covered today, growing to 100 million by year-end. Verizon and AT&T haven’t disclosed their population coverage on higher frequencies; Chaplin suggested it’s fewer than 10 million, possibly fewer than 5 million. “Whatever the coverage gap is today, it will only widen until Verizon and AT&T are able to deploy the C-Band in a couple of years.”

Apple’s iPhone 12 launch likely isn't the beginning of a “supercycle” for 5G, which is “still far away from real relevance,” MoffettNathanson’s Craig Moffett wrote investors Wednesday. Any bump in iPhone sales will likely be due to pent-up demand for upgrades and replacements in the lengthening handset replacement cycle, but that will “burn off fairly quickly,” said the analyst: “New and better cameras are great, but the real 5G cycle is at least a year or two away.” Verizon is the “big winner” of Apple’s decision to go all-in on millimeter-wave for its quartet of 5G iPhone 12 models, launched Tuesday (see 2010130043), said Moffett. Apple supports both of Verizon’s main millimeter-wave bands, 28 GHz and 39 GHz, he noted. The surprise cameo from Verizon CEO Hans Vestberg at the virtual launch event could mean Apple sees millimeter-wave as a “differentiator,” said the analyst. “But Apple’s support for mmWave may reflect the uncomfortable reality that 5G in any spectrum band other than mmWave is basically just LTE with a new name,” Moffett said. T-Mobile and AT&T already offer nationwide 5G in low frequencies to attain coverage, “but the small block widths for the spectrum mean that the user experience is not really any better than 4G." AT&T’s iPhone trade-in offer -- a free 5G iPhone for trade-in of an iPhone 8 or later, is a “preemptive race to the bottom,” he said, saying that what he sees as a net subsidy above $600 “strikes us as rather steep.” Verizon’s trade-in deal -- the $799 iPhone 12 for $15 per month and the $699 iPhone 12 mini for $12 per month with trade-in and 24-month contract -- “seems positively pedestrian by comparison.” The iPhone 12 rollout will accelerate a new round of 5G “map wars” as carriers try to “maximize perception for the breadth and depth of the new technology platform,” Citi's Michael Rollins wrote investors Wednesday: The “switcher pool and churn” will pick up in Q4, favoring “insurgents over incumbents.”

The FCC and U.S. Agency for International Development signed a memorandum of understanding Wednesday agreeing to work together to promote “secure and open 5G networks in the developing world.” As the U.S. and the world “move ahead with next-generation, 5G wireless services, we must ensure these networks are both open and secure,” said FCC Chairman Ajit Pai. They will “promote open, interoperable, reliable, and secure Internet and digital infrastructure and advance interagency coordination on network security in developing countries.”

Wide availability of 5G smartphones will drive fifth-generation adoption to 2.3 billion users by 2024, projected Credit Suisse Monday. The launch of the first 5G iPhone “is set to be a key catalyst for 5G uptake,” especially in the U.S., it said. Apple jumped into the 5G era Tuesday, introducing four 5G iPhones (see 2010130043). “While applications are potentially exciting, there is no 5G ‘killer app’ for mass market consumers as yet, in the way that streaming media was for 4G uptake.” Most 5G launches so far focused on high-volume data bundles and handsets, rather than apps, limiting expected revenue growth through 2024, the analysts said.

Countering repeated SpaceX arguments against allowing 5G in the 12 GHz band (see 2008070028), RS Access said in an RM-11768 posting Friday that inaction in the band would stunt 5G deployment for "years to come." It said SpaceX wrongly indicates satellite/terrestrial sharing can't work in the band, though radio engineering organizations say otherwise. SpaceX didn't comment. Criticizing overenthusiasm for 5G, TechFreedom said a request for spectrum for 5G shouldn't make the FCC "genuflect and pull that spectrum from any other use." The agency "must not 'eat the seed corn' of satellite spectrum to feed the hungry 5G beast," it said. Dell CEO Michael Dell, in a call with Commissioner Geoffrey Starks, urged the FCC to keep identifying spectrum for 5G deployment, including the 12 GHz band, per an ex parte posting.

The open radio access network market is “rapidly expanding” and expected to near $41 billion in global revenue by 2026, reported ABI Research Thursday. The ORAN opportunity “invites various stakeholders to bring their best in class technologies and hardware/software components to contribute to building a flexible, secure, agile, and multi-vendor interoperable network solution,” said ABI. Trade wars and the COVID-19 pandemic brought “tremendous restrictions” to the telecom supply chain and disrupted the “evolution of new technologies,” it said. These conditions will “accelerate” ORAN’s development and deployment, it said.

Verizon’s proposed buy of TracFone from America Movil would be a boon to the low-priced carrier's “generally value-conscious set of customers,” giving them more devices to choose from and opportunities to roam on international networks, Verizon said in a still-undocketed filing seeking authorization from the FCC. Verizon unveiled the nearly $7 billion deal last month (see 2009140010). It asks for “streamlined processing” and quick action by the FCC. “The transaction will provide TracFone customers with access to a wider variety of Verizon-compatible devices (including smartphones, tablets, and wearables),” Verizon said. The carrier “will bring its world-class vision for 5G and other technological advances to TracFone’s customers more rapidly, as well as new services such as home internet solutions,” the filing said. Verizon will make international roaming “anticipated to cover more than 100 countries around the world, more broadly available to TracFone customers,” who today have limited options, the document said. The deal is good for consumers overall, “promoting competition” in the wireless prepaid market and accelerating Verizon’s pursuit of those customers, Verizon argues. Verizon is already the “underlying facilities-based carrier for TracFone,” serving almost 64%, or 13.3 million, of TracFone’s customers, the filing said. Verizon has a “small prepaid presence” but not an “established flanker brand that it can use to attract value customers,” it said. AT&T, T-Mobile and Dish Network have prepaid brands, Verizon notes. Prepaid competition won’t be harmed since most TracFone customers are already on its network, Verizon said. It noted TracFone customer rolls have had recent declines. “Verizon intends to use TracFone’s existing distribution points, and to develop thousands of additional distribution points -- some of which will expand distribution exclusively for TracFone brands -- in a variety of geographic areas,” it said.