AT&T CEO John Stankey stressed the importance of fiber to 5G and said parts of how the carrier does business will change long term due to the pandemic, at a Goldman Sachs virtual conference Tuesday. “When you have a great 5G network, you’re deploying a lot of fiber.” Stankey said the wireless industry is very competitive now, and has been for years. AT&T is holding up under the stress of the pandemic, he said. “The new normal for AT&T probably isn’t dramatically different than the new normal for everybody else,” he said. “COVID was kind of a shot of adrenaline,” he said: “It just accelerated things that were happening.” AT&T is becoming more of a virtual company, Stankey said. “We need people to be able to come in and collaborate and work and build relationships,” but “large parts of our business, they can be far more virtual than they were before,” he said.

U.S. 5G awareness is up to mass scale, but fewer than one in five consumers understand differences among 5G network band types, reported NPD Monday. It canvassed 5,100 adult cellphone users last month, finding 90% were aware of 5G network deployments; only18% understood differences between mid-band and millimeter-wave. Awareness of the different network options was higher among Android users (45%) than iOS subscribers (40%). Two-thirds are interested in buying 5G smartphones, with purchase intent higher among iPhone users (40%) than Android owners (33%). “The current premature state of 5G networks in terms of speed and coverage will continue to be a barrier in the mass adoption of 5G smartphones,” said NPD.

T-Mobile and Ericsson jointly demoed 16-layer multi-user multi-input multi-output (MU-MIMO) technology, with throughput of more than 5.6 Gbps. The test used 2.5 GHz spectrum. “At scale, this technology means T-Mobile could connect massively more devices to the same cell infrastructure and still deliver blazing fast speeds to all of them without compromising performance,” T-Mobile said Thursday.

Emerging markets will have surprising parity long term with the rest of the world in 5G adoption, despite their limited 4G penetration, reported ABI Research Thursday. It’s forecasting developing countries will have a faster than expected 5G subscriber adoption with a 26% compound annual growth rate in subscriptions through 2030, versus 28% global CAGR. “Broader use cases” will speed adoption in emerging markets, as will wide availability of open radio access network technologies, said ABI. “As the COVID-19 pandemic impacts the social fabric and economic activities of our countries, emerging markets are constantly reminded of the importance of a connected world. 5G will address the issue of supply chain resiliency and provide new business models in enterprises.”

More than 105 5G networks are deployed worldwide, said 5G Americas Thursday, based on a report by Rysavy Research. The report predicted “billions” of IoT devices will be deployed over the next decade. “Operators are transitioning to standalone architecture, lowering network latencies, improving coverage, addressing industrial IoT, and simplifying operations,” the report said. Beamforming and massive multiple-input and multiple-output "are enabling use of spectrum above 6 GHz, as well as improving performance in lower bands.”

FCC Chairman Ajit Pai pressured the wireless industry to step up work on geotargeting for wireless emergency alerts, in letters sent Thursday. Commissioners approved an order 5-0 in 2018 (see 1801300027) imposing a Nov. 30, 2019, deadline for carriers to more accurately “geo-target” wireless emergency alerts. Pai asked ATIS to task its Wireless Technologies Systems Committee “with producing best practices that refine … discretionary parameters to further improve enhanced WEA geo-targeting.” The best practices should include the recommended frequency for retransmitting WEAs, the recommended number of location checks devices should perform when determining whether to display an alert, the recommended time devices should wait to get a fix on their location during each check and “the recommended processes to ensure that WEA-capable mobile devices display WEAs received during active voice or data sessions when the device is located within the targeted geographic area,” Pai said. He asked for a document by Q2. A letter to CTIA asked for annual updates, beginning in July, on industry’s “estimates of current and projected market penetration rates of mobile devices that support enhanced WEA geo-targeting." Pai noted CTIA recently informed commission staff that some 18% of active smartphones now support enhanced WEA geotargeting. Pai sought a commitment by Oct. 1. A letter to Qualcomm noted “the availability of enhanced WEA geo-targeting is dependent upon the capabilities of the mobile device’s chipset, many of which are produced by Qualcomm.” Pai asked for a commitment by Oct. 1 that “all Qualcomm-enabled 5G devices currently sold, and to be sold, in the United States will support enhanced WEA geo-targeting -- as Qualcomm has communicated previously to FCC staff.” Public Safety Bureau Chief Lisa Fowlkes blogged that geotargeting is an important enhancement to WEAs, launched in 2012. “We expect the improvement to become more widely available over time, as consumers purchase new smartphones,” she said.

CommScope and Google are working together to launch Orion Wifi, which targets carrier offload. “Carrier Wi-Fi offload in public venues can be frustrating for consumers and even more so for venue managers and owners as they negotiate rates and try to solve roaming,” said Pramod Badjate, senior vice president-CommScope’s Ruckus Tuesday.

Walter Ji, president of Huawei Europe’s consumer business group, spent the bulk of his 45-minute prerecorded IFA 2020 news conference speech Thursday trumpeting his company’s stature as a good corporate citizen. Independent studies show Huawei supports 223,000 jobs on the continent, said Ji. Huawei will expand its retail presence in Europe, “creating more jobs and economic growth at a critical time,” he said. It will open eight “flagship stores” by year-end across Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the U.K. The flagship stores were “designed by Europeans for Europeans,” he said. The expanded “retail footprint will employ hundreds more people,” he said. “We are proud of what we are doing in Europe, and we are committed to doing more.” Ji made no mention in his talk of the U.K.’s July decision banning Huawei from its 5G network (see 2007140023).

LG’s 5G Velvet smartphone will be available on T-Mobile Sept. 10, said the carrier Thursday. The Velvet will operate on the carrier’s 600 MHz and 2.5-GHz 5G bands, along with LTE. For a limited time, customers can get the $588 phone for half off, with 24 monthly bill credits, if they trade in an eligible device or add a line. T-Mobile's version of the Velvet has a MediaTek chipset.

Sasha Javid is BitPath’s chief operating officer (see 2008260055).